By Ryan Clark
NKyTribune reporter
Queen City Bike President Joe Humpert wanted to keep things cheery Tuesday night.
“I’m here to basically strike a conciliatory and celebratory tone for what Mayor (Joseph U.) Meyer reminded all of us is effectively a unanimous approval of the adoption of a bike plan between Covington and Newport, supported by Tri-State Trails,” he said.
Commissioners, meeting at their regularly scheduled legislative meeting Tuesday night, were minutes away from approving an agreement with Tri-State Trails that will work with Covington and Newport staff to “develop a Bicycle Transportation Plan” which will include:
Data collection and review
field investigation
inventory and mapping
safety and needs analysis
project evaluation and prioritization
a public involvement process
budget development
identification of funding sources
The cost will be covered by a third party.
Part of the difficulty of creating a bike path in the city, officials noted, is that Covington is an older city with some challenges for developers.
“Covington would love to have an improved bicycle network,” City Manager Ken Smith said in a release. “At the same time, the unflinching reality is that this is a 200-year-old city with narrow streets that cut through the heart of neighborhoods and business districts. We look forward to working with Tri-State Trails to see how together we can overcome the many challenges related to geography, parking and other issues.”
“In our city and in Newport we have practical problems,” Mayor Meyer said Tuesday. “How do we put protected bicycle lanes on without removing parking? It’s a real problem because those who want the parking removed don’t live in the neighborhood and the people who live in the neighborhood who don’t have driveways don’t have parking lots … It’s just a huge conflict that’s an issue. That’s why we need to study. That’s what we hope the study will help us all find a way to resolve.”
Architect approved for City Hall
Commissioners approved Brandstetter Carroll, Inc., and the Elevar Design Group, as architects and design for the new City Hall.
The companies, which have extensive experience, including 40 city halls, more than 100 fire/EMS/police stations, and 47 courthouses, including the Kenton County administration building, the Delhi Township Town Center, the Campbell County administration building, the Newport City Hall and recently, the Kenton County jail.
The design phase is to last through July 2023 with completion of construction in March 2025.
City officials made sure to note that the request was not to approve the contract, but to approve the negotiation of the contract. An actual contract will be brought back to the Commission in the future.
Finance Review
Commissioners approved Chicago-based Baker Tilly firm’s plan for 55 high-priority recommendations for change in the city’s Finance Department, including major upgrades on everything from creating standard operating procedures for employees, to providing more training on in-house software.
“I am only asking the Commission to adopt the plan,” Finance Director Steve Webb said last week. “Adoption of the plan does not authorize any incremental expenditures related to the plan. Any new positions, contracts or other engagements relating to the plan would continue to come before this Commission individually in the same manner as they would in any other circumstance.”
BusinessFlare LLC
Commissioners approved the city hire BusinessFlare LLC for $60,500 (from the Economic Development Fund) to “develop marketing strategies, messaging and appraisal oversight associated with the development parcels being created in the Covington Central Riverfront redevelopment area.”
Goebel Park Design
Commissioners approved design and engineering improvements for Goebel Park.
The city will use $40,000 in America Rescue Plan Act funding for community engagement, survey work, design and engineering services, as well as assistance with contractor management. The plan is to complete design and engineering by July 2023.
Architectural Board Appeal
In a surprise addition Tuesday night, Commissioners heard a proposed order authorizing the commencement of an appeal from a decision of the Board of Architectural Review and Development regarding property located at 1116 Russell St.
City Attorney David Davidson noted that the owner of the property is called SKLO Acquisitions LLC, and the owner wanted to put a kennel containing more than 100 dogs at the location, which is technically not allowed in the traditional urban mixed-use zone. The request was denied by the zoning administrator.
However, an appeal to the Board of Architectural Review and Development was approved, as an argument was made that the kennel would be a “service-oriented use,” which was legal under current law. The review board voted 4-3 to overturn the decision.
Tuesday, the Commission considered whether to further appeal that decision to the county Circuit Court.
“The way that the applicant argued it, there is a use out there called ‘service-oriented uses,’ and an example of a service-oriented use — the word kennel is used,” Davidson said. “We took the position that there’s a very specific provision in the code that says kennels are only permitted in certain zones — they took the position that because this word kennel was used as an example of what could be used in a service-oriented use, that they should be permitted anywhere service-oriented uses are permitted.
“That suggests that you could probably put a kennel in half of Covington.”
The appeal had to be made within 30 days of Jan. 18.
Commissioner Nolan Nicaise wanted to make sure he had things straight.
“So, essentially, what we’re saying is that there is an error in the code that the city adopted in 2020 by listing kennel as an example of such use, so then we are appealing the decision — but in acknowledgement that there was an error or a mis-guidance or there was a word included that we didn’t intend to include — is that what’s happening here?” he asked.
“I suppose that’s a fair way of looking at it,” Davidson said.
In the end, the order to appeal was approved 4-1 with Nicaise dissenting.
Occupational License Fee
After meetings with local mayors, county officials and economic developers in the last week, the Mayor updated the Commission on his talks about the rising occupational license fee in Kenton County.
“The county did not make a very good case about the reasons that they implemented this tax increase,” the Mayor said. “They did finally acknowledge for the first time that the value of the increase exceeded $10 million … they still have not disclosed what they actually intend to use the money for.”
The Mayor previously said the city’s 2.45 percent occupational license fee had always been regarded as a hinderance to economic development. With the fiscal court’s decision, the rate will now be 3.36 percent.
“(Tri-county Economic Development) leadership at least agreed to look into this competitiveness issue,” he said. “The general question is how in the world are people going to make it when our governments are piling all of these extra expenses on people who can barely make ends meet?”
The Mayor said this is a topic they will continue to investigate and update.
Retirement
Commissioners approved the retirement of Eric Deardorf, fire department
Reappointment
Commissioners approved the reappointment of Bradie Bowen, Housing Authority of Covington .
New Hires
Commissioners approved the hiring of Alicia Chappel, Recreation Program Coordinator
Executive Session
After discussion, Mayor Meyer announced the intent to enter into an Executive Session “for the purposes of collective bargaining.” The Commission voted 4-1 for the session, with Commissioner Nicaise dissenting.
Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled Covington Commission meeting will be a caucus meeting held at 6 p.m., Feb. 6, at the City Building at 20 W. Pike St. in Covington. The meetings can be followed live on Fioptics channel 815, Spectrum channel 203, the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky (TBNK) website, the TBNK Facebook page @TBNKonline, and the TBNK Roku channels.