By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
FT. MITCHELL
Ft. Michell Mayor Greg Pohlgeers announced that Walmart is going to start drone deliveries in August at their regular council meeting. Apparently there was a story in the Cincinnati Business Courier that Walmart planned to launch drone deliveries in the Greater Cincinnati area sometime this summer. The story was picked up by local news channels, but most just said they plan to start delivery services this summer in the Greater Cincinnati area.
However, the city of Ft. Wright, where Walmart is located, has an official moratorium on the drone deliveries until October. The city is working on submitting a text amendment to Kenton County Planning and Development Services concerning the drone delivery services. Walmart has not submitted any development plans for the delivery services.
“In my opinion, I don’t think there is a lot we can do to regulate drones,” Pohlgeers said.
Council passed the second reading of an ordinance which aligns their manufactured housing rules to match that of the state of Kentucky.
Another second reading passed which amended the budget for 2025-2026, and then council passed the adoption of the new budget for 2026-2027.
The first reading of an ordinance amending the payroll scale for two years until the end of 2028 was held.
Council approved a Resolution which has an interlocal agreement with the city of Lakeside Park for fire protection and EMS services.
A municipal order passed with appointed Paige Foss to the Kenton County Joint Code Enforcement board.
Mayor Pohlgeers said he would like to discuss the subject of scooters and e-bikes more, and they will, but in the meantime Carmel, Indiana, and Fischers, Indiana, both passed legislation for e-bikes and scooters, and he said he would send copies of those pieces of legislation to council so they can see what other cities are doing to solve the problem.
He also explained to council that several Northern Kentucky cities are requesting a 10 cent reduction of the gas tax for their city, but he has not done that because it will reduce the amount of municipal road aid that the city receives for repairs for the roads.
BOONE COUNTY
Two people who have been attending the Boone County Fiscal Court meetings, as well as the Kenton County Fiscal Court meetings, for months, came again on Tuesday evening to once again protest that some federal prisoners are housed in the county jail. They say the jails are overcrowded and some of the prisoners are held without charge.
Judge Executive Gary Moore preceded the comments by saying that he had received complaints about the length of time he was allowing people to make their statements, not holding people to three minutes. So he was going to time the statements for 3 minutes and turn off the microphone at 3 minutes.
Brian Mauer and Michael Staverman each kept their statements to 3 minutes. Then former Jailer John Schickel got up to refute the statements about the jail. He said there are sometimes people held without charge because that is the nature of jail. He said it is completely constitutional. The jail is inspected frequently by a lot of people, and the Boone County jail is one of the best in the country.
Once the citizen comment was over, Judge Moore read a statement from Jailer Jason Maydak. He commented beforehand that Kentucky is different in that jailers are elected by the people. The statement said that the jail has been partnering with the federal government for 40 years to house federal prisoners whenever the jail has space. He said the jail is subject to several inspections, and it meets and exceeds standards. Furthermore, the jail is not permitted to make a profit from the federal prisoners or any other prisoner. Jail housing is calculated on a per day basis, and the jail is reimbursed for that exact cost. Maydak said he has personally met with every person who has requested a meeting with him, from private citizens to the media and he will continue to do so. He said that Mauer and Staverman have not asked for meetings, nor have they responded when Maydak reached out to them.
Commissioner Chet Hand read a statement saying the two people have consistently been told that the jail is not under the purview of the Fiscal Court, but they persist in bringing these items up. He noted that the complainants have not tried to talk to Maydak. He said all the reports say that the jail is adequate, it is clean and sufficient.
Hand said that it is difficult to find out the exact ask of the two people, but he thought there were three issues that he could determine. The first has to do with policy according to the jail, and he said they are sufficient and he does not want to change them. The second is making any strategic changes at the jail, and he said he does not want them to change. The third is making any budget adjustments at the jail, and he does not want to make budget changes either.
“Regarding things that are not related to the Fiscal Court, I am in no way interested, today, tomorrow or any time, in continuing to debate how federal immigration policies are unrelated to us at this Fiscal Court, based on the things we have to handle here within the Boone County Fiscal Court,” Hand stated. “I believe our policies are adequate, I believe our inspections are clean and sufficient, I believe our budget is adequate, and I think that before we take any extreme measures to make any adjustments I think it is important that these folks that have concerns address them directly with the jailer. They have not taken advantage of talking to him and I think that is a great first step for them, if they are looking for resolution.”
Clifton Miller spoke about the UTV issue, which was also brought up by the commissioners and scheduled to discuss at a future meeting.
Jill Charles talked about the fact that traffic studies,as related to future growth projects, are not coming up with accurate information, leading to false results that form a basis for more housing projects.
Judge Moore said that there will be a short meeting on June 30 at 8:30 am to finish business for the fiscal year.
CAMPBELL COUNTY
Campbell County Police Chief Craig Sorrell and County Judge Executive Steve Pendery presented an Outstanding Achievement Award to Samuel Broomall. Broomall is an EMT as well as a police officer, and on April 26 he responded to a call of a stabbing and shooting. Upon arrival Broomall administered first aid in the form of a tourniquet and stabilized the patient until the Rescue Squad could get to the site.
Commissioners passed the second reading of the new budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
They also passed a resolution dealing with the pay rates in the county.
Some equipment was declared surplus by the county, and will be sold, except for the Motorola radios that the county stopped using. Those radios will be donated to Owsley County to be used by their police department.
Commissioners voted on a new online reporting system from Tracer Fire LLC, that will cost the court $22,750, a lower cost than the previous system that they had. The cost was listed in the budget.
Commissioners also voted to solicit bids to purchase 5 Dell Servers at an estimated cost of $117,872.70, but because of the volatility of the market, it was recommended that they buy the servers as soon as possible before the price goes up.
The county will accept the bid from Morton Salt to purchase road salt at $127 per ton at the Reverse Auction. This represents a 10 percent increase.
Commissioners voted to accept the bid of Humphrey Concrete for $658.917 to repair Mallard Drive and Labrador Lane.
Judge Pendery announced that there will be a special meeting of the commission on June 30 at 11 a.m. He also said the July 1st meeting will be canceled.