By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
EDGEWOOD
Edgewood Mayor John Link opened a public hearing during the regular council meeting Monday night in accordance with the law for the Municipal Aid Road Fund. No one was there for the issue, so the hearing was closed. Link said they expect to get a sum of $161,708.
The first reading of an ordinance setting the budget was read. The second reading should be at the next meeting.
June 9, is the first summer concert series, with Doghouse playing at 7 p.m. at Presidents’ Park.
FORT MITCHELL
Two ordinances were read at the regular Fort Mitchell council meeting. The first amends Chapter 34 to comply with state statutory changes and opinions, and the second to update parking violation penalties. Both passed unanimously.
The first reading of an ordinance was held which defines and accepts qualified manufactured housing. An ordinance had a first reading which amended the previous budget, and yet another ordinance introduced the new budget for 2026/2027.
A municipal order passed which deals with the treatment of uncollected sewer assessments, which totals $24,000. Another municipal order passed which formally adopts the city’s mission and vision statements. Mayor Greg Pohlgeers attributed this order to council member Jerry Deatherage and told him it was a good idea.
FLORENCE
Florence Mayor Julie Aubuchon administered the oath of office to police officer Alex Klei, who comes to the city after three years as a police officer in Alexandria.
Director of Boone County Planning and Zoning Kevin Costello attended the Florence council meeting to ask for an increase in the money the city contributes to the planning and zoning. Currently they receive $452,487, and they would like another $22,316.
Since Costello is preparing to retire, Mayor Aubuchon read a proclamation praising him for all of his contributions, and reserving June 2 as Kevin Costello day in the city. Costello said he recalled being in the city with business when there were 12 members of council, and they were smoking in the building. A long time ago.
The principal of Florence Elementary, Ryan Burch, came to the meeting to give an update on the school, since Mayor Aubuchon recently visited the school.
Director of Community Development Todd Morgan gave a report on three Planning and Zoning issues up before council. All three carry Boone County Planning Commission’s recommendations with conditions.
The first is a recommendation for a change in concept development plan in a commercial Services/Planned Development/Parkway Corridor Study for a 2.3 acre area located at 7544 Burlington Pike. The business was called The Bark Patio, and the owner of the proposed business is Bluegrass Backyard Recreations LLC.
The second is also a change in concept Development plan in a Commercial Services/planned Development/Parkway Corridor Study for 7.5 acre area identified as an outlot for the Drury hotel. The request is to transfer a piece of one outlot to another outlot.
The third is a change in concept development plan in a Commercial two/Planned Development district for a 3.9 acre area located along the south side of Cavalry Drive between Richmond road and Wetherington Boulevard. The owners would like to build a Planet Fitness on the site. Legislation for these three issues should be at the next meeting.
ERLANGER
Louis Schlosser, the Beechwood student who won the scholarship from the city of Erlanger last year, came back to the city after his first year in Harvard, and announced the winner of this year’s $2,500 scholarship. Maxwell Robbins, from Covington Catholic, was the recipient of the 2026 scholarship. He plans to go to the University of Cincinnati next year to study computer science and mathematics. This is the 23rd scholarship given by the city of Erlanger.
Former Council member Corine Pitts read a statement again telling everyone why she did not think the mayor’s salary should be raised to the amount they want to raise it but only to $17,000 since the mayor has a lot of administrative positions who offer quite a bit of support to the mayor.
Bill Woodside came to the meeting to again ask for help for the street creep conditions on Oxford Court which is damaging his home. There was a Geo Tech who came out and assessed the situation, and gave a report to the mayor and council, but when he asked which council member had read the report, none raised their hand, possibly because they had not received the report. Woodside read part of the report, going over his 3-minute limit, but finishing it by asking when he was going to be reimbursed for the $38,000 he had to spend for an expansion joint.
Georgette Nordloh also lives on the street, and she read from the 2020 edition of PDS’s street and sidewalk regulations about how cities should take care of their streets, pointing out that none of the requisites had been done to Oxford Court.
“I am happy to hear that Eons Park will be part of Erlanger eventually, but I hope it won’t be at the cost of residents,” she said. “I hope the city will consider their responsibilities over the dreams of the future.”
During old business, Councilmember Jennifer Jasper-Lucas chided the administration for telling her that all of her questions about the city needed to be addressed solely to the mayor or the city administrator and not to the staff.
She read aloud the questions she had been trying to get answers to, and they were all to do with the workings of the city. This included a question about why there was not a specific contract between the city and those responsible for building Eons Park so that costs could be kept transparent. It also included one about the spending on the city’s parks, and in addition to the cost of new park equipment, she wanted to know how much the city was spending on the installation of the equipment. The last one was a reiteration of the street creep on Oxford Court which was initially brought up last November, and what the city was doing about that issue.
The amount of Municipal Aid Road funding for the city is $375,964.49, and the city will be spending $2.5 million in total on the streets in the city. Some of the streets on the list for repair are McAlpin, Linwood, Graves, Home Street, Clay, Crescent and Sycamore Street.
FORT WRIGHT
Claire Flick, a resident of Elder Court, came to the Ft. Wright Council meeting to ask what can be done about two houses, one next to her and another across from the first house. Apparently they are both occupied by renters, and at least one is owned by the renter’s father, according to Flick. The gutters on both houses are sagging, and the grass isn’t cut. Flick said she speaks for all the neighbors, because they don’t want to live close to houses that look like no one takes care of them.
Mayor Dave Hatter said that he told Public Works Director Jeff Bethell about one of those houses that he passed one day and thought it looked very bad. One house still has Christmas lights up.
Flick asked the mayor and council what they would do if they were in this situation.
CAO Jill Cain Bailey said there isn’t a good way to go about the problem, since problem properties get a notice to fix their property, and then after some days they get a citation, and a fine, but if they fix one thing, the whole process has to start all over again.
Hatter agreed that if they fix something the problem goes away. But sometimes the person is just not a good neighbor, and they are not concerned with making their house look decent. If it gets to a certain point they can foreclose on the property, but that takes a long time.
Flick said there are several young guys living on the property, but none of them will cut the grass. She also said that Elder is not a long street and they have at least four cars parked on the street.
She also asked council about the trees by the civic club. She said one large branch fell during a storm and damaged the top of her car. She was told by a tree specialist that several of the trees are dead and therefore a threat to anyone walking under them. CAO Bailey said they have a contractor that regularly checks the trees in the city, although she said sometimes they can miss some.
Bethell said sometimes the bad trees are on private property and sometimes on state property, but both said they will look into the problem.
Flick said she had another complaint, and that is the Brooks Flooring sign. She wanted to know if anyone was going to take that sign down, since the business hasn’t been there for years.
CAO Bailey said the city cannot regulate the content of signs. Flick said it looks trashy and the grass needs to be cut.
Hatter said many times if a property takes down a sign, even if they are not the business advertised on the sign, they cannot put it up again, so having a sign basically holds the place for a business.
However, he promised to look into all three problems.
The first reading of an ordinance listing the amendments to last year’s budget was read and voted on even though it was the first reading. The ordinance introducing the new $6 million budget for the city was read and also voted on.
An ordinance was read which deals with the personnel classification.
Bids had been opened for the building of the new salt storage facility and the contract was awarded to Rector Excavating for the lowest bid of $167,279.25, significantly lower than the architect’s expected price.