By Patricia Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
FLORENCE
Florence Y’All’s owner David DelBello and Julie Kirkpatrick, President and CEO of MeetNky came to the Florence Council this week to announce that the Y’All’s will be hosting the Frontier League’s All Star game on July 14, 2026.
“We’ve had the team six years last week,” DelBello said. “You guys have been great, all of you, for supporting us. I especially want to thank you, Mayor Julie, and former mayor Diane, you two and your leadership certainly have led us to this point where we have one of the best facilities in the league. We’re bringing here a national event, with people from Canada all the way down south to Mississippi, but more than that, we are going to make it an event that’s for the community. We’re going to make it a five-day event with a lot of things leading up to it, and a couple days of baseball, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
“On behalf of our entire tourism team that represents this region I would like to thank Mayor Aubuchon, vice Mayor Whalen the esteemed city council and everyone who lives, works and plays in Florence for this amazing event that is coming to this community,” said Kirkpatrick. “It will showcase the best in baseball, and the tagline is the ‘Pro’s come to Flo’. We are so excited to make big things happen in Florence.”
She said this will coincide with the nation’s 250th birthday.
Frontier League Commissioner Steve Tahsler said they are really excited to bring the game to Florence. He said the league has grown dramatically, having teams in Canada, and the Florence stadium has made a lot of improvements, so they feel that Florence can showcase the league the best.
Council discussed the issue of establishing a Disability Signage program. They decided to go forward with the Signage program, and it will mean one sign that people have to apply for, and a doctor will have to sign off for the sign. This is an ordinance, so the law won’t go into effect until after the second reading of the ordinance.
Council member Diane Whalen asked if council could revisit the idea of insurance premium tax. She reminded council that she had introduced the issue at the budget retreat.
Whalen said the city had an 8 percent tax, and the city did reduce it to 5 percent, but then the insurance companies charge a 2 percent fee.
“The insurance rate continues to accelerate, and the assessment of your house continues to accelerate,” said Whalen. “I would request that rather than wait on this, because there is a deadline after the first of the year, I would like council to make a determination on this to give our residents some relief.”
Mayor Aubuchon said they are planning to report tax hearings in August, so she agreed that it would be a good time to discuss the insurance tax.
EDGEWOOD
Mark Grubbs, a resident of Crescent Springs, came to the regular Edgewood council meeting Monday night to ask if there were any rules in the city that he might have missed in creating a group home for sober living in the city. He said he just bought the house at 29 Edgewood road, and he plans to have 10 to 12 women living in a sober living type setting. He has already been to planning and zoning, and said it is allowable as long as they don’t have counselors or paid staff in the house.
“As far as is it prohibited, the answer is no, it is not,” said attorney Frank Wichmann. “As far as I’m concerned, at this point you are allowed to operate in that type of setting.”
CAO Brian Dehner advised him to introduce himself to the neighbors so they have a person they can contact. He also said if they have complaints it would probably be under the nuisance law.
There are other sober living houses in the city.
Council passed a motion to add a few upgrades to the fire department’s list of job descriptions, adding paramedics as a sole job.
They also entered some vehicles as surplus, and CAO Dehner explained that with their contract with Enterprise, they want to work around the release of vehicles so they will always have enough vehicles available.
BOONE COUNTY
Boone County commissioners passed a resolution this week which accepted a bid from Crane Worldwide for a piece of property off Aero Parkway for $780,000. Commissioner Chet Hand asked if the company knows they cannot do anything that would increase traffic on Zigzag road. County Administrator Matthew Webster said that it is a condition in the contract, and if the company wanted to do anything that involves Zigzag Road they would have to come back to the court. Commissioner Hand said his approval is conditional on the traffic on Zigzag not being affected by the purchase, because he was in the area and saw what the problem of tractor trailers on the road can do. The purchase was approved.
Another resolution passed which awarded the bid for the Emergency Contractor to SEI Safety Upfitters for 20 Ford Interceptor Explorers for the Sheriff’s department at a cost of $5770 per unit.
A resolution approved a right of way acquisition for a roundabout project on Camp Ernst road at Longbranch road.
Another resolution passed that approved a change order in the amount of $296,700 for soil abatement and stabilization at the new Park building site.
KENTON COUNTY
The Kenton County Fiscal Court meeting had a dual purpose – to take care of the regular business of a meeting, and to have a public hearing, where Judge Executive Kris Knochelmann first let the crowd of residents listen to three experts who talked about job growth, zoning, and infrastructure for the site readiness initiative, and then he allowed the residents to talk.
Lee Crume, from BeNKY, talked about the jobs, Sharmili Reddy, from PDS, shared information about zoning, and Spencer Stork, county engineer from Kenton County, talked about infrastructure.
Crume talked about a county in Ohio that had one company that provided 900 jobs and was there for many years. But the company eventually left and the county had to figure out what to do with the loss of 900 jobs. He also said that they have to ensure the prosperity and opportunity for all the residents of the county.He said the big companies in Northern Kentucky came here because they were offered advantages for their success.
The county started encouraging businesses in 1987 and has helped over 800 projects come to NKY, which led to $10 billion in investment and nearly 80,000 jobs.Crume said right now there are less than 9 percent readily available sites for companies to move into.
Sharmili Reddy told the audience that zoning is a more immediate action. It is what applies to the land now. She explained that focus area one is generally south of Maher road, north of Walton Nicholson, from the county line to Banklick. Part of it is residential, and part of it is industrial. Focus area two is slightly different. It is still largely zoned agricultural. She said the loud and clear message that they hear is ‘keep the area rural,’ and she believes it is. Almost 900 acres in area one has been zoned ECP since 2006. ECP is a zone, manufacturing is a use, she explained.
Manufacturing will need some warehousing to support it. She talked about the ECP zone, which is Eco Commerce Park, and it is industrial. If PDS receives an application for something that fits the definition of that zone, they have a very good chance of having it approved. In zone two, if someone comes with a plan for that area, the owners can tell them ‘go pound sand’ or they can work with them to change the zoning before they can submit the application. Reddy said if an owner doesn’t want to sell their land, the zoning regulations cannot force the owner to sell.
Spencer Stork is also the director of public works in the county. He explained that most of his comments concerned focus area 1. He talked about water needs, and sanitation, as well as improved gas mains and improved communication networks. There are a lot of two lane roads that cannot support tractor trailer traffic, he said. Projects of this magnitude in this area will take quite a while, as in Ky 536, which has been in the plans for over two decades. He told the audience that they have to plan ahead to make sure the roads are safe for everyone. Stork said he has worked for the state in the past, and he knows that using eminent domain is a last resort for the state.
Then the residents had a chance to speak.
Wanda Shanks asked the court to be honest; she said this is not about site readiness, it is about paving over farmland. She said once the farmland is gone, it is gone. She said this is about bringing in revenue for the county. “You say you are planning for the future, but whose future is that?” she asked.
Several other residents took their turn to get up and talk about how upset they are with the site readiness initiative program. They brought up that even though the speakers talked about how they have planned for this for years, most of the residents weren’t aware of the plans. They talked about how betrayed they felt with their leaders, and the main message was that they do not want industrial, they want the area to stay rural.
“This meeting was not the Q-and-A that was repeatedly requested,” said Heather Grotehaus. “This was a performance where presenters spoke to what subjects the court wanted to spin. The commissioners will once again have the last word, and they will not be limited to two minutes and they will not risk being questioned on the record by voters. I am confident not a single person who came here tonight in opposition of the SRI project was swayed in the tiniest bit by the song and dance given by unelected officials whose career objectives are to sell out rural Kenton County.”
She claimed that people were purposefully kept in the dark and said that the SRI project should be scrapped.
“I stayed at the meeting last year in Piner for a whole extra hour, listening to what they say is coming, and I thought, we don’t want any of this!” said Molly Miller. “So please stop the SRI and let Kenton County and focus area one and focus area two be the way they have always been.”
Commissioner Jon Draud said he understands that the people want to keep their farmland, but he understands that there has to be a delicate balance, too. He said he thinks this isn’t going to be dealt with for at least 8 to 10 years.