By Ryan Clark
NKyTribune reporter
Commissioner Ron Washington may have said it best.
“We voted today on the industrial revenue bond,” he said, “which is a good thing for Latonia.”
At their regularly scheduled legislative meeting Tuesday night, he and other city Commissioners approved a bond proposal and development agreement for an industrial building to be built behind the Latonia Commerce Center.
The Mayor was asked to execute an economic development agreement, a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) and associated industrial revenue bond (IRB) documents with Latonia Bulk, LLC, providing a 15-year IRB for the property at 135 W. 38th St.
“The land has sat vacant for many years and only generates a small amount of property tax in the amount of $15,000/year (all entities) and no payroll tax,” city documents say. “The development team purchased the property in June 2021 with the intention to build a new 146,000 sq. ft. commercial industrial space. The development team is planning to build four separate leasable units ranging between 9,000-20,000 square feet unless they get a signed lease from a tenant who needs a bigger space.”
When presenting to the Commission last week, Tom West, the city’s Economic Development Director, said the building also includes 100-plus on-site parking spaces. And while there are currently no signed LOIs/leases, which makes the number of possible jobs unknown, there is the potential of at least 110 new jobs averaging $50,000/year if the developer reaches the payroll benchmark of $5.5 million.
“You all are very well aware we don’t have a lot of industrial land that hasn’t already been developed,” West said then. “What we wanted to do was to try to develop an incentive with (the builder) that would encourage him to attract businesses to this site once he built it that would actually have jobs in it for people.”
“In Kentucky we can’t do tax abatement but we can do this, where we trade off the property tax for the payroll tax,” West explained. “The way this works is that the percentage of the property tax he would normally pay goes down as the payroll he generates on that site goes up.”
Commissioner Washington gave kudos to the city officials for making Latonia a priority.
“Once again, the board of Commission — I believe — is trying to focus our attention on Latonia by a new warehouse being built,” he said. “Building this warehouse … we will be employing people right in the area that have access to this, so we are planning on many jobs going there.”
And with jobs come other business, restaurants, etc.
“So, I want to commend the Board of Commissioners for doing this,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing for our city.”
Opioid Settlement second phase
In July 2021, the Attorney General of Kentucky entered into a multi-state settlement involving
three of the nation’s biggest opioid distributors and a major manufacturer which secured $478
million in funding to be distributed at the state and local levels for opioid abatement, city
documents say.
The City of Covington opted into that settlement in November of 2021. Since then, the Attorney General has entered into an additional five settlements with Teva, Allergan, CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart totaling about $364 million dollars to be used for the same purpose.
Commissioners approved an order to authorize Mayor Joseph U. Meyer to enter into the proposed national opioid settlements with Teva, Allergan, CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart.
Short-term rentals
Commissioner Tim Downing mentioned that a public hearing will be held to collect opinions related to the city’s regulation of short-term rentals from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 12, at The Carnegie, 1028 Scott Blvd.
Anyone interested in speaking at the hearing will need to sign up after arriving. Speakers will be
limited to three minutes. Emails can also be sent in to the city to be read, and the hearing will be televised on the TBNK website.
The hearing will be held before the Covington Board of Commissioners, and a second public hearing will likely be held in the future.
Two weeks ago, Commissioners approved the city’s much-talked about amendment on short- term rentals, which includes a one-year prohibition on any operator of a short-term rental without a license from applying for a license for one year.
“Please come and talk about what is important to you,” Downing urged.
New hires
Commissioners approved the new hires of:
• Samantha Meredith, Police Officer
• Joseph Richer, Police Officer
• Daniel Dixon, Laborer 1, General Maintenance Division
• Scott Hahn, Laborer 1, General Maintenance Division
Reappointments
Commissioners approved the reappointments of:
• Mike Dempsey, Devou Park Advisory Committee
• Mike Lenihan, Occupational License Board of Appeals
Resignations
Commissioners approved the resignations of:
• Police Officer VI Specialist Jacob Noe
• Fore Recruit Ryan Reder
Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled Covington Commission meeting will be a caucus meeting held at 6 p.m., April 18, 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.