the public comment at the beginning of each meeting for issues that are on our agenda. And I have been given a list of of our citizens who are with us today who have signed up to speak. So somewhere here, folks. Artie, you did give it to Mr. Green. Thank you, sir. Thanks. We've got a list here of folks who have signed up to speak. And first is Mr. Ken Kurtz. Now, is Ken here? Ken? All right, Ken. As you're coming up, let me, if you will, let me come on. Yes, sir. Mr. Kurtz, let me explain our procedure for those who may not be familiar with it. You are given three minutes to speak and I have the unpopular role of being the timekeeper. So I'll sort of give you a nod, like this, when you're reaching that limit. And then if that doesn't work, I'll have to speak out. So forgive me. We ask you if you'll give your name and address so that we can record it. And if you want wish to yield your time to someone else, you may do that. Your three minutes. So that means someone could then have more than three minutes. All right? That's Mr. Ken. Mr. Ken Kurtz. My name is Ken Kurtz. I live at 255 Irvin Road. I've lived in the Chevy Chase Ashland area for 35 years. I am three blocks from the Chevy Chase redesign intersection, which is on your agenda today. I speak in favor of the redesign item with one caveat I'll get to in just a minute. In the 35 years I've lived in that area, I've approached many past council people in the area. And only recently, when Council Lady Feigl took over, has the ball started moving in this particular area. She brought together a number of disparate neighborhood groups and individuals who had a vested interest in seeing some improvement in the Euclid intersection, even if they didn't agree in all of the things that needed to be done. We had a number of neighborhood meetings. Maps were unrolled, planning documents shown to us, very good discussion back and forth of traffic and safety items of that monstrous intersection. And if you have not visited there, I hope that you will sometime, and I hope you'll come back if we do adopt this because I think you'll see some improvement. The main thing, this is my one caveat, the main thing the area needs are designated left turn lanes to allow people coming on Euclid, a guaranteed lane to turn downtown, people on Fontaine, a guaranteed lane to turn towards Lansdowne. That is not included in the plan. I wish it were. But the rest of it is such a major improvement, or at least a hoped for improvement in that area, that I urge you to adopt it. It has, I think, a fair chance of success to improve not only traffic flow through that intersection, but also safety. And those are the two major aspects that I am concerned with. The planning people did say to me, and one reason I'm here today, that if it didn't work, they would at least sometime in the future be willing to revisit the idea of the designated left turn lanes. Hope it won't come to that. Hope this will really work. I think there's more than a fair chance that it will. I ask your earnest consideration. I call your approval of the Chevy Chase redesign. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Kurtz. You beat the clock quite succinctly. Next on our list is Mr. John Woodall and then Elizabeth Nehra. Mr. Vice Mayor, ladies and gentlemen of the Council, I will be brief today. I want to speak on the Ecton Park issue. There's a lot of folks here that have done a whole lot of legwork over the course of the last several months to put all this together, and I want to thank them for that. And they'll have a lot more detailed comments about the proposal. I just want to comment on this from the standpoint of a dad, and a dad that's had, that's got three boys. I'll probably be at Ecton Park for the next, I don't know, 13 years, is what it seems like. I guess that's about right. But we've played in, depending on what side of the town we've lived on, we've played at South Lexington, we've played at Southeastern, and when we move back over to where I grew up, we're now at Ecton Park, which is a fantastic park. But the first thing that I thought about this place when I walked in was what a great, great place this is going to be for my kids. I knew that a lot of the kids that were already there, I knew a lot of the coaches. But the one thing that struck me about Ecton is it's not a very efficient use of the space. All you have to do is kind of stand there and look at it for a little while, and you can immediately realize that there's a lot more that could be done with it. And then when you start to participate in the league, I've got a six-year-old and an eight-year-old and a 22-month-old. My six-year-old's in T-ball, was in T-ball last year. All the other parks, South Lexington, Southeastern, they practice right there on the grounds. We can do that, too, if you want to squirrel away in the grass with ruts and everything else like that and try to hit your ball between the trees. Part of this proposal you'll see adds a T-ball feel for those kids. And it's much needed. Like I said, this is a great place to play, but it could be much better. I know that there are, just from what I've heard, people that are against the proposal, but I'll submit to you that this has been a park for over 50 years, and it started as a baseball park, and that's what it's always been. A lot of people, I think, would be very happy if there were no longer baseball played at this park. Well, all I can tell you is I've got, I know I've got three kids, and I'll speak for the rest of these folks. I intend to fight tooth and nail before that happens, before they send us to another park. This is what this park was intended for. It's what it was designed for. And what you're going to hear today is all we want to do is make it better. And we're not asking for a dime from the council or the city to do it. We're going to spend our own time, and we're going to spend our own sweat equity to do that. And I want to cover one other point here, just because I'm afraid it's going to come up from one of the objectors, but somebody might mention some dirt that was taken to the ball field and a lot of work that's gone on there lately. Well, I've got to tell you, fess up, that's my fault. I didn't realize I was walking into a bee's nest. I try to keep my politics away from my kids. Okay? And I saw a need at this field that I thought needed to be addressed. We've had heavy rains this spring, so we've had a lot of runoff. And I saw my kids on my teams and my own sons in danger of getting hurt. And it frankly made me mad. So I spent my own time, and my brother sent me some top soil from Woodall Construction, and we tried to, we haven't had time to spread it all out to fix all the problems. Okay, John, thanks. That's where I am. I appreciate your consideration. Give us your address real quickly, please. Vice Mayor, 3131-21 Warrenwood, Wyand, W-Y-N-D. Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay. Ms. Nara, and if you'll give us your name and address, please. My name's Elizabeth Nara, and I live at 945 Turkey Foot Road, which is directly across from and one house over from the entrance to Acton Park. So I'm here to talk about Acton Park, obviously, and the plans for it. We've lived there for five years. We chose that home because it's proximity to Acton Park. At the time we moved in, we had one son. We now have three boys, ages five, three, and one. And like John, we'll probably be participating in baseball over there in some form or fashion for the next 13 years, I hope. Both my brothers played there. I played tee ball there, and I hope my boys get the same opportunity. But we support, obviously, the expansion. My five-year-old has to practice tee ball three miles past me in a war out at Richmond Road, and we live about 500 feet from the tee ball field that we intended for him to play on. So we're aware of the spillover of the Acton Park traffic and the parking on Turkey Foot when we purchased our home, but felt it was something we could deal with for 10 to 12 weeks out of the year. It's really only an issue, the noise, the traffic, for 10 to 12 weeks, from mid-April to the end of June is when it's crowded. The rest of the time, Acton Park is a ghost town. My kids are over there almost every afternoon that it's a nice day. And we knew it when we moved in. It's been that way. It's always had spillover on Turkey Foot. The biggest problem is that there's a gauntlet of cars on both sides of the street. So what I would hope to see happen is the expansion of the current Acton Park parking lot as much as possible while still maintaining the green space for the concerts, the play area, adding the additional tee ball field. It should be ADA compliant. We should have new concession stands. And painting one side of Turkey Foot yellow just to make it safer for the kids and safer for traffic and for an ambulance to be able to get through or a fire truck to be able to get through. But I think everybody in the neighborhood, while it's not ideal to have cars parked in front of your house, it's part of the charm and the luxury of being able to walk to such a great park that offers so many things for the entire neighborhood. So we hope to have another field and let all the kids practice. If they have another field also, they'll be able to get more games done in a shorter period of time, which means they won't be playing until 9 o'clock and the games won't have to start early, early in the morning. They'll be able to practice and have their games and get them finished. And we won't have this big a traffic issue on Tuesday nights because there won't be baseball games and concerts. There will be no baseball games during the concerts. So that would alleviate a lot of the spillover in the traffic as well. So thanks for your time. Thank you, Ms. Nara. Next on our list is Mr. Brian Wood and then Carrie Cavanaugh and Laura Cavanaugh. If you're going to be presenting and you want to yield, then it'd be better to yield to do yours during the presentation. Yeah, I would say so. No specific rules on that. But Carrie Cavanaugh and Laura Cavanaugh. I'm Carrie Cavanaugh. I live at 624 Galaxy, as does my wife. And she's already offered me her three minutes if I need them, but I'll actually try to be fairly quick and succinct too. I think you're all going to hear today a whole bunch of back and forth elements about Acton Park and I think you'll find there's some contention in almost every sentence that's said and I'm sure what I say will be contentious to people too. I am obviously the first speaker who's opposed to this. And part of it is I don't think you need to go far from this building to see what happens in Lexington when we ignore long-term planning and a group comes up and says they don't need any money from the city, they have a great vision, they can make it all better, and if you just stand out of the way, they're going to do their thing. And I think the dilemma we see at Acton Park is it's replicating in a sense what's happened at Centerpoint. The city county long-term plan for parks and recreation says the county already has enough baseball fields. It also calls for moving baseball farther out into larger parks that can accommodate multiple fields and that can accommodate sufficient public parking. Acton Park is one of the smaller city parks. It's already bursting at the seams, as you've heard, with traffic from two ball fields, but the idea of putting a third ball field in there would simply exacerbate that. And I think exacerbate it to a degree that is not fully appreciated by a lot of Little League parents. It is true when they are there and their kids are playing, there aren't enough fields for all the kids they have that want to play there. But those children are also coming from all over the county. It's also true, and we live there, that kids who don't play basketball, children that aren't boys from age 5 to 12, are almost knocked out of that park for these eight weeks, because they play in the fields, they play in the batting cages, they play on the practice pitching mounds, and they're spillover into most of the park. It is not a park that's very good for going in and sitting in or having a picnic or walking a dog or throwing a frisbee if everywhere you look there are hard balls flying. The other thing, and I don't think they feel this much at all, is when they leave, the ball fields remain. So year-long there are now two ball fields in Acton Park, and that's fine. We don't impose ball fields. We bought a house at Acton Park because it had ball fields. We thought that's nice. But they're there. They are not used by people in the community, because in the winter it's a ball field. It's not a place you have a picnic. People don't think I'll go sit on home base and walk the dog. I'll go to first base and throw a frisbee. Those areas are just removed. And what they're seeking is a third area of the park that would also be removed. Their plan to add a third ball field would take away the entire southwest corner of the park. The plan that they have distributed cuts down all the trees that are in that area. It's about two dozen trees. Trees around the batting cages that are currently there. Trees along the street bed that are the home to hawks and herons and owls. It also moves the batting cage right next to the small children's play area. Now there's about seven feet away, but I was there yesterday. There are kids that are two years old in that play area. I would not be comfortable having my child in a play area with hard balls flying around. Two years old. I was at the tennis courts yesterday talking to tennis players. They're concerned because to put the tee ball field into the park, there's not enough space. They have to move the other ball field closer to the tennis courts and baseballs already land in the tennis courts when people are playing there. If that ball field is closer, more balls will fall in there. Baseballs fall already in the yards of the neighbors surrounding the park. If another field is built and that ball is moved, more of those balls will fall. I think it causes a safety problem. It causes an environmental problem in removing trees and exacerbating drainage. And Mr. Woodall is right. That field where they want to build a tee ball field isn't flat. It needs tons of dirt to make it flat. And that dirt runs into the drainage system that has flash floods in that corner of Lexington. It's not a very stable area to be doing a lot of that kind of work. But he also ignores the fact he did mention people who were riled, and they were, because his dump trucks came every hour on the hour on Memorial Day weekend. So if you wanted to enjoy the park on Memorial Day, and I will say there wasn't little league baseball on Memorial Day, they were dumping piles of dirt in it because the protection is it was their park. I don't think it's the way to treat a neighborhood park. I think they're right. Parking is a huge problem. It would be wonderful to see that addressed. I don't think there's anybody in the neighborhood who opposes improving the restrooms there. At the same time, we've been told if they didn't get approval for the third field, they would do nothing. And I think that is a very hard situation for neighbors to look at how do you compromise on this. Because the only compromise is to give up much of the last remaining open green space in the park. And if you do that, it really is not a neighborhood park anymore. I fear what it really becomes is a county baseball complex. And I love county baseball complexes, but if you look at Fayette County, most of them aren't crammed into 11-acre parks. Maybe if you remove the tennis courts and remove the half court for basketball, you could accommodate that. But I think if you surveyed the neighborhood, you'd find greater interest in making that half court a full court for basketball. This is Lexington, for instance. And putting in something like disc golf or things that would appeal to children of other ages. And let me just leave it at that. I hope we're able to find a way that some of those improvements can be made, but I worry that the price they're saying to start, and I do realize it's their vision, is simply too high. Thank you, Mr. Cavanaugh. As chair, I'd like to make a comment. We often find ourselves in this chamber with situations which have passion and emotion on both sides. We give the citizens, we offer the citizens as appropriate a chance to speak. It is not appropriate for comments while someone is speaking from the audience. All right. Next on the list is Paige Ray. And then after Paige Ray is Jack Edmiston. Thank you. Ms. Ray. And your address, please. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I'm anxious to hear what the Little League plan is myself. The drawings we have seen, we've been told, are conceptual in design. So our reactions have been to the conceptual designs that have changed more than one time since we've been involved in this process. We came to the process late. We learned about this entire operation two nights before what we later found out was the third meeting of the Little League parents with some council members. Drawings had been made, meetings had been held. We knew nothing about any of it. And as recently as this week, as we went door to door with a one pager that we've handed to neighbors, we found out that they knew nothing about it either. They heard rumors, but nothing had been given to them in specific plan. So we look forward to hearing and seeing what Mr. Wood has to offer later today. We love Acton Park. We want to do good things for our children. We are in agreement with, I think, both sides of the issue on those facts. The name of our one pager was we already have eight pounds of sugar in a five pound bag at Acton Park. It is crowded. The traffic that currently exists with just two ball fields is outrageous. It is dangerous. The parking laws are not enforced. People park in front of fire hydrants on a regular basis. As we left one Saturday morning to go to our son's house early in the day at 1030, already there were three people parked in the clearly marked parking zone, two people parked next to a hydrant, and two people already parked up above the curb in the grass between the no parking curb and the sidewalk. So it isn't a problem that happens when the park is overcrowded, it's a problem that happens when people come to the park. There was no crowd at 1030 on Saturday morning. We agree that ADA compliance is important. We want to help bring those positive changes to the park. But from what we have heard and the diagrams we have seen, a third baseball field is unrealistic. It is not practical. It adds traffic, children, parents to an already difficult situation. There are many other things about the park that we have heard about, don't know for sure, that we have questions about. So thank you for the opportunity to be here to listen. Sign us up as opposed to what we know at this time. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Wright. Mr. Edmiston. Jack Edmiston, 949 Turkey Foot Road, Mr. Vice Mayor. My main objection is the traffic naturally. I've talked with traffic engineering about it, and it seems like everyone on the 900 block is willing to sign a petition requesting that the parking be removed on the park side of the street. And this would be similar to what you have at Veterans Park out there by the Little League, and it seems to work on that location. And as far as I'm concerned, if we could do something like that, that would really go a long way to help that traffic, because if you've been through there, you have to find a gap before, you know, you can proceed. So if you could take it off, say, from Romney Road down to Galaxy and Yellow, stop it, and put it as a toll zone, it's going to open that up to where your traffic can move. You've got a, that leg of Turkey Foot actually serves as a collector road from Tates Creek Road over to Romney and to Cooper and then on over to Shenway and by the way on into Henry Clay Boulevard. So you probably get a hundred times the traffic on that one leg that you do in the rest of the streets in the subdivision. So that's our main thrust. And the traffic engineer, I've talked it over with Brad Frazier, and he's agreeing to do that. So I would hope that that at least comes out in this meeting and we can get that worked out. The other thing is there's a proposal for a walk-in trail, which I think we would be opposed to, because that would encourage additional traffic to come over there. And also there's a conflict with that storm sewer, that box-covered storm sewer that runs, drains all of Chevy Chase. There's a four-by-eight box covered, comes and runs around the outfield of the main baseball field and there are gabion baskets, wire gabion baskets that protect the outfield from washing away. This proposed walk-in path would have to go on top of that and you've got a series of pine trees that would have to be removed or you'll be putting them on top of that gabion basket. But the drainage right in there is real tight. And the other thing is you don't want to put something like that and hide it in amongst those trees, because I tell you, there's a lot of activity that goes on over at that park after everybody else has gone home. And anything you put over there, you better put it out in daylight and where the police can see it, because they've had some parties over there in the past, I'll tell you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Gauntz, Chad Gauntz, and then, all right, thank you, Mr. Gauntz. Mr. Mesta, Eddie Mesta, is Mr. Mesta here? Yeah, there you go. And David Henry. And I'm here today in support of the Acton Park improvements. My son, Trey, has been in the league for three years. As a matter of fact, in about two hours, I'll be coaching his game at the park. So I'll try to be as quick as I can so I can make it in time. Over the past couple of months, I've been donating my time to help prepare this conceptual plan that many of you all have in front of you as well, and my role here today is to address any stormwater questions that's come to my attention. There's some stormwater concerns by the residents in this area, and I have had some preliminary discussions with the Division of Water Quality, and I think there are some opportunities to improve the stormwater in this area with some partnerships there. And as with any development in Fayette County, there are some regulations that we need to follow with the stormwater manual that you all have adopted, the EPA, and we will follow those in strict adherence as this process, if it does move forward. But just wanted to keep in mind, this plan is conceptual, and as we hone in closer, there will be a lot more details come out. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Messer. David Henry? Vice Mayor Gurry, I may probably take more than three minutes and would like to have Mr. Goss's three minutes. I am president of the Eastern Little League at the park, so I've got I'm not a presenter, but I've got quite a bit to talk about here to hopefully iron out some questions from some people. I live at 1849 Blairmore Court. I want to thank all of you all for having us today to speak about Eastern Little League and our proposed improvements. As I said, I'm president of the Eastern Little League, and lucky enough to call Acton Park its home and has since. The park was donated by Mr. Acton in 1973. I would like to show a picture of that first year from 1974. This is from the first spring that baseball took place at Acton. If you look in the background, there are no houses, only farmland, which was Old Ware Farm. Contrary to flyers and what some neighbors have been falsely communicating to others, baseball is and always has been meant to be at Acton Park. I played at Eastern Little League from 1976 to 1981, beginning as an eight-year-old T-ball player and finishing as a 12-year-old Little Leaguer. I have never lived more than two miles from this park. It is my home park, and I love it. And I've loved it in its natural state as long as anyone in this room. I've used it for obviously baseball, but also played tennis there, family get-togethers at the pavilion, football in the open areas, played in the creek, and about any other activity you can do at the park. So when people say this is only about baseball it is about a park that is 35 years old, updating it to 2010 standards and a better place for everyone, which includes the neighbors and, yes, the Little Leaguers. Now about Eastern Little League. The league is over 50 years old. It began at Woodland Park in the 1950s and, as previously mentioned, moved to Acton Park in 1974 for Morton Middle School due to expansion of that school. It began on one field in 1974, and since then over 7,200 children in Lexington have enjoyed playing baseball at Acton Park in Eastern Little League. The second, or as we call it, the lower field, was built around 1977, still before most of the homes in the neighborhood were ever built. The majority of the houses were built between 1977 and 1981. It grew a little in the 90s to 10 Little League teams. In the early 2000s, Rookie League coach pitch was added, and then around 2005, tee ball was added again after losing it years before when the parks department operated it in the mornings. Therefore, since around 2005, we have operated 5- to 6-year-old tee ball, 12-year-old minor league, and major league. In 2005, we had a kid population of around 250, but since adding tee ball due to the parks department handing it over to us, we have grown to our current level of 480 children. At this population and current layout, the park is not safe or properly equipped One comment or question we have heard throughout this, why don't you change your boundaries or district to reduce the number of kids at Acton Park, and why are kids from Andover and kids who don't live in Chevy Chase come and play baseball at Acton Park? It's already been mentioned once today. Well, our boundaries are set by Little League International, not our local league or our local parks department. If the children and parents choose to play Little League baseball and not other affiliations, then it is either our park or the other. In essence, Lexington is divided in half for Little League baseball. Acton Park is thriving and an electric park because of baseball. Can you imagine what parks are like when there are no planned activities or leagues? We have overgrown grass and weeds, overgrown trees and other eyesores. It isn't that the parks department doesn't take care of these parks, they do, however, they are more dormant. What people don't realize is Eastern Little League is one of the more responsible leagues for upkeep of the grounds. Our annual budget is over $100,000. This money buys uniform supplies and maintains the grounds of Acton Park. Our parks department is responsible for maintaining the grounds, trim trees, paint, fix fences, and basically make the place a better place for everyone. We are responsible by contract from the parks department as a franchise league to take care of the baseball portions of this park. If you don't believe this, ask the parks recreation maintenance people. The neighbors who are against this project obviously do not understand the layout and structure of costs and responsibilities of park land. When I have spoken with people about these improvements, one of the concerns or questions is you are trying to take over the park with baseball. This couldn't be further from the truth. We already maintain and occupy probably 50% of the park. For example, the placement of the third field, we are already occupying that area. We have our batting cages there. On a nightly basis, the eight teams that play games on the current fields practice in the batting cages and grassy area before the games. And the two to three other teams conduct practices there as well. Therefore, on average, we already have 10 to 11 teams nightly using this space. We are proposing to move the T-ball games and some practices to this area so kids can practice on an actual field. Maybe your time has expired. Do you need more time? I do. Thank you. What we are proposing is to move the T-ball games and some practices to this area so kids can practice on an actual field, not an imaginary one in open grass. By building this third field, it would open up the pavilion area to other activities. I want to show how this works, and I do have another layout here. The first schedule is a copy of this year's first week in May. The second one, which will come later, scoot it over to the left. This is the first week in May. This is the number of teams that come to the park for scheduled practices on that particular day, 12, 14, 12. That's the current schedule. The next schedule, if we had a third field, it would be 13, 14, and 12, you can see, so we're maybe increasing the teams by maybe one per night, possibly two on some nights. As you can see, at any one time, there would be no more people or cars in the park than the current layout. There would be a few, but not a massive amount. The concession stand is the original building from 1974 and has never been updated. We plan to build a new one, which would serve not only little leaguers, but jazz at the park and any other activities at the park. The current concession stand is not capable of doing this. It has a lot of history. We all love it and, frankly, are simply trying to make it a better place for everyone. We are willing to concede baseball during the busy nights on Jazz Night, and we're proposing more and improved parking so cars can actually drive down Turkey Foot Road on Saturday afternoon. I find it comical, the only time police are called to Acton Park for parking is during baseball. In fact, there are three more times people at the park and a police officer is never called for illegal parking. I'm confused why neighbors who already dislike the current parking layout and who call the police on a daily basis on people who illegally park are not in favor of trying to improve this problem. Help us find a solution. We're open to suggestions, but please understand baseball is here to stay at Acton Park, so we must work together. This is a public park, and contrary to any belief, does not bother or remove any trees other than four or five evergreens near the batting cages. Not one tree near the pavilion or the creek would be sacrificed or bothered during this project. In fact, we plan on planting more trees to beautify the common areas of the baseball portion of the park. I've already met with Tim Query of the Forestry Department. He seems to be fine with it. I'm not a politician, but simply a volunteer. It is amazing to me that anyone in the neighborhood or the city would vilify, attack, and downright lie about volunteers such as myself, Mr. Wood, and others who are simply trying to improve city land for everyone with private money. In today's economic times and budgetary problems, I would thank you as public servants must be responsible and help us move this project forward. I want to thank each of you for your time and consideration and approval of this very important project. Thank you. Mr. Walter yielded his time. Next, we have two more who have signed up. Actually, three more. Mr. Babbage. Well, I certainly personally understand the situation that you are in with an issue like this. And I deeply respect and appreciate each and every one of you. I'm here as a resident of 632 Centennial. Laura and I back up to the park, and we've been there for quite a few years. I like baseball. I'm a small, very small owner of the Legends with Alan. My children have played in the league, both sons and daughter. I played in the league, not very well. T-ball was not invented. And that's the issue before you. Acton is fantastic, as has been said, if we don't mess it up. Paving more of a park or developing more of a park sounds ever so slightly against common sense. Efficient use of parks would raise a number of subjects that would be as near and dear to you as I hope this is, as near and dear as this is to me and to my neighbors. Grass could certainly be more efficiently used, get those trees out of there, put in a couple of baseball fields. Glendover could be paved in the front and developed in the back. Morton could be reopened, again, in the back when the trailers go out and those schools are finished. But we've made other decisions over time that we need to protect. If you want to walk or take advantage of other athletics, the Arboretum is an excellent option right there in our neighborhood, and you all and UK have done a fantastic job with it. I knew Penrose Acton and had a great affection for Mr. Acton. I think he would be shocked that we're at a point where we have this level of not only disagreement, but this level of suggestion to overdo that piece of land. He would be shocked, as some of us were shocked, when this came to light. And we're not here to try to misrepresent it, but to understand it and to encourage you to do the right thing. The judgment of government is the subject of great question every day in this era that we live. I'm here as a volunteer to say that common sense, I hope, would say that Acton Park is a neighborhood park. It has been an extraordinary place to be and to live. I hope you will keep it that way, and I hope you will see that your first duty is to preserve Acton Park. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Mars. I'm having trouble, Ruth. Okay, I got it now. My name is Richard Mars. I live at 1929 Blairmore Road. I have three children that play in the park, twins, six-year-olds and an eight-year-old. They put their absolute heart and soul into this. I think that was, you guys saw a bunch of that when we brought the Little League Congress to town and did a lot for our community and the involvement. One of the small things I want to speak to is I think what this does for our community is it helps our obesity epidemic. A lot of kids and a lot of involvement and a lot of practices keep our community healthier. And I think the walking trail around that will also help provide incentives for our community to get involved and get active. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Mars. Ms. Setlak. Hi there. My name is Ruth Setlak, and I live at 937 Turkey Foot. We are the benefit, not only of course of just the benefits you get of playing in sports, but we have met the most amazing coaches. And they're getting life lessons playing baseball at Acton. One of the beautiful things about Acton versus some of the other parks that we could play in is that family feel, that small park feel that we have there. It really does feel like a family when you play there. And our kids feel blessed to have our kids playing at that park. We're in support of the park changes. And I was happy that David showed that the increase of the ball field won't exponentially increase the traffic there, because that is a critical issue. Living right on Turkey Foot, just a couple houses down from the park, that's a very unsafe situation, because there's cars parked on both sides. And it's difficult, but cars coming from different directions want to get through. And it's difficult for kids who want to cross the street. And it's just something that I'm hoping that we rectify. But in terms of the extra ball field, we have difficulty just getting the kids that are playing there currently scheduled for games. And having the extra ball field will alleviate, I think, a lot of that congestion in terms of time of getting those kids there. And in terms of practices, we have to go to practices all over the city to try to get enough practice time in for the kids. And this would help them be able to do their practicing right at Acton. So those are really the points I wanted to make. It's just that living on Turkey Foot, the parking, actually, when we bought the house, we were told not to buy on Turkey Foot, because the traffic and congestion from both baseball and the jazz park was terrible. We chose to buy there anyway, and we're thrilled to be in the neighborhood. But we're hoping that you fix that problem and that you take a look at supporting some of the changes there. I think everybody is very open to hearing the concerns and trying to work and address the concerns. But we're just hoping that things go both ways. Thank you. I have no one else signed up to speak on issues on the agenda. So that allows us then to move forward. Thanks to everyone who has been here today and participated. We have no rezonings requested. Is there a motion to approve the docket? Motion to approve the docket. Second. There's a motion by Council Member Ellinger and a second by Council Member Crosby. Is there any discussion regarding the docket? Council Member Beard. You forgot Brian Wood was making a presentation. He's going to. I'm curious about the agenda. The presentation on Ecton Park comes later in the meeting. It's agenda item number six. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have a motion to put an item on the docket Thursday night. I'd like to make that now. Go ahead. I have a motion to approve a bond ordinance authorizing the issuance of 65 million in general obligation bond anticipation notes for the financing of the construction of the Eastern State Hospital project and authorizing related actions and a resolution authorizing the advertisement for bids and the distribution of a preliminary official statement related to the issuance. So moved. Motion by Council Member Blues to amend the docket. And a second by Council Member Lane. Is there any discussion regarding the amendment? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye. All opposed, nay. The motion carries. Is there any further discussion regarding the docket? There is a motion. Hearing none, Council Member Lawless. I had a couple of questions. The number 12, the communications officer, part-time position, part-time position. Under second reading of ordinances, I'm sorry, number 12, an ordinance amending section 3 of ordinance number 202-206 to remove the deletion of the communications officer, part-time position. What division is that in? Is there someone that can speak? Commissioner Bennett? Thank you, sir. Commissioner, Council Member Lawless is referring to item number 12 on the docket ordinances, the second reading of ordinances. Council Member Lawless, I believe it is in the division of Enhance 9-1-1. It's a cleanup of an oversight from years and years and years ago. They're positions that have not been filled at least since 2006. So it's just a cleanup. So are these E9-1-1 dispatchers, operators? They were, I think, at least at that time intended to be just part-time call taker positions. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other comments or questions regarding the docket? Council Member James? Thank you, Vice Mayor. In regards to number 3 under second reading of ordinances, I just wondered if there could be a little bit more information. I guess it would come from planning of where the B-1 zones would be, where this would take effect or be allowable. And I don't need it at this time. And I'd be happy to just send an e-mail out. But if anyone receives an e-mail and responds, I'll send an e-mail out requesting that. But I'm just looking for a mapping of where those potential new outdoor cafes would be, and just for our own records, for our own. So I'm guessing this is all over. This is not just in Chevy Chase area. This would be for every B-1 zone. And I don't know. I just feel like we need to get a little bit more of a handle of where the B-1 zones could be, where we'll see outdoor cafes. I would interpret that as a graphics illustration of the locations, right, a map of the locations. But you're asking that as a clarification. Yes. Right. So that would be, I think Commissioner Webb was here. So, Mike, if you could just take that, help us with that. I don't know that you need to. Actually, Council Member James is not asking for anything. Yeah, just before Thursday night, just a mapping of where the B-1 zones are. If you want to send it to Commissioner Webb, if you want to send it to council members, in particular to their districts, that would be wonderful, too. I mean, you don't have to send a giant, you know, wall map or something, but just the relevant B-1 areas. Thank you. Thanks, Vice Mayor. All right. Any other comments or questions regarding the docket? Hearing none, we can take a vote then. All in favor of approving the docket as amended, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. The motion carries. Next on our agenda is approval of the summary. Motion to approve. Second. It's a motion by Council Member Ellinger, seconded by Council Member Crosby to approve the summary. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of approving the summary, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on our agenda are budget amendments. Move approval. There's a motion by Council Member Gordon, seconded by Council Member Beard. Is there any discussion regarding the budget amendments? Hearing none, we're ready for a vote. All in favor, please say aye. All opposed, no. Motion carries. New businesses next on the agenda, item numerical five. Move approval. There's a motion by Council Member Gordon and a second by Council Member Crosby to approve the new business. Is there any discussion? Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have a couple of questions. On item K, Commissioner Bennett, this is the COPS grant for $7.9 million and it's to hire the 50 police officers for a three-year period. And I want to know when you anticipate if this grant is awarded, when you anticipate the money coming and when the recruit class or classes would be and then what your projection is for the cost to urban county government in year four. I don't know when the actual awards will be. You'll recall last year as part of the stimulus package, the first round of the COPS grant funding was made available. We were not successful in getting any of that money. Basically this is just a reapplication or an updated application for those 50 officers. I don't know what the award, the projected award date is for the money. I don't know how successful it will be. So would you anticipate that in year four, I mean, we would be 100% responsible for those officers and that it would be somewhere in the $8 million plus range? That $7 million plus is the total for the three years. It's not an annual amount. So look at that. Roughly a third projecting some increase in benefits between now and then and increase in salaries, but roughly a third of that amount. Okay. Two plus million. Yes. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And then you might be item N is the item which creates the no parking zone during the World Equestrian Games. And if I understood this correctly, the no parking zone will be, will include Ironworks Road, Newtown Pike. It's illuminated in our packet. And my question is how will the public be, particularly the public who are from out of town, be notified? And this says there's no budgetary impact, but I'm wondering if there will be signage to let people know. There will be signage. And actually, let me ask Commander Blanton to address that from the traffic section of police. Okay. Good afternoon. I'm Commander Mike Blanton with Division of Police Traffic Section. And to address your question, yes, there will be signage at the beginning of each route that will be placed by the state working in cooperation with the WEG organizers. There will not be signage over so many intervals, but there will be signage on each route. And, as well, it's going to be part of the public announcements, plans, part of the WEG games to make everybody aware of that. And, obviously, the reason for that is for the safety of everybody involved in coming to the WEG games and stuff, and the potential for hazards of a vehicle that could pertain or contain dangerous type materials that would be left along the roadway. That's the reason why we're making that request. Okay. Thank you. And the state is paying the cost of the signage, did you say? That's correct. Okay. Thank you very much. And then my last question is on Item R. Commissioner Cole, I think this is the one that has to do with the Picnic with the Pops and the language change to the ordinance. And my only question on this is, is this permanent language change so that in any year other than the World Equestrian Games the Picnic with the Pops could go elsewhere, or is this a one-time temporary change in the ordinance? I mean. The Picnic with the Pops Commission does not know what the future holds with respect to the horse park and its use of its property, number one. Number two, this year we're being forced, the Picnic with the Pops Commission, is to relocate elsewhere. It seemed reasonable to change the language to allow the Picnic with the Pops Commission to make that choice as it's forced to for whatever future events there might be. So the intention was to change the language to let it be at the horse park or someplace else as events would dictate. So it's intended as a permanent change. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I had a question on Item, looks like it's Q, please, on the building the wheelchair accessible project. I see this is our first change order and it's over ten percent of the total budget. I'm trying to see why we're already having a change order and the ten percent seems a lot higher than the original bid of the lowest bidded company, if I'm not mistaken. They're leaving like flies, Vice Mayor. I think we need to maybe move on until they get an answer. They answered my question on the other item Council Member Gordon asked about. Well, the actual, is Steve Feast still here? Can you answer on V? This is for our new recycling center. And I just want to clarify that the $1.3 million we're spending, one, is coming out of the Urban Services Fund for solid waste, and two, this is just for design only. This is not for any right-of-way land acquisition. This is just design money, correct? That's correct. It's coming out of Urban Services Fund. This is just for the design traffic flow patterns and things of that nature. And this is for the property located out Old Frankfort Park Pike next to the current facility? That's correct. Of solid waste, not recycling on Manchester. And what's the time frame are we giving them for a scope of work? Joyce, I think it's 2013 is the completion of the project. I think Design or total cost? I think 2012, sometime in spring of 2012, they're supposed to have the design completed. I think Joyce may have the answer to that. A little over two years or a little under two years? Phase A will be at the end of this year, and they will report back to council on that time. At the end of this year? Okay, good. That's fine. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Cole, did you have an answer on the project for the front of the building for the wheelchair lift? I know we've had a lot of discussion on this and are eager to get this completed for our folks. I can get the project manager down here who can give more detail, but I know that when they went to install it that there were some problems with the structure where it was going to be installed on that floor, and that was the majority of that change order. The other issue was a color change. The standard color that it was scheduled to come in was not going to match the other decor in the interior of the government center. So they changed the color to make it blend in better. And what's the new color? I'd have to go look at it and tell you. It blends in so well that I don't know. And when do we anticipate this being completed? It is complete. That's what I thought. Thank you. That's it. That's it. Council Member Feigl, you would? Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have a few questions. Regarding the no parking zone on Ironworks Pike, or actually associated with the FBI World Games, I'm just curious because is there anyone here to answer this question again? Commander Blanton. I know that early on there was some discussion. I know that early on there was some discussion about closing Ironworks Pike to traffic, to public traffic. I assume since there will be parking out there that that plan has been scrapped. I'm not aware of any plans to ever close Ironworks Pike to the public. There will be some restrictions out there to make sure that we can get the traffic into the park and out of the park. And there will be some turns that you can normally make that we will not be able to make on Ironworks, but Ironworks will remain open. Okay. And there will be public? The public will be allowed to go out there and try to find a parking place along the road? No, the parking along Ironworks Pike between Newtown Pike and Georgetown Road, that area will be prohibited. Parking along the side of the road, that is correct. It will be for what kind of parking? Parking along the curb in that area will be prohibited under this ordinance. Oh, okay. I'm through with that question. Thank you. On item number on you, this is about the contract for advertising and marketing services for environmental quality. I just have a question about the contract. I believe that this is to, in fact, generate more recycling and waste reduction. Is there anything in the contract that actually measures the results of this effort that will measure the results? Well, the ultimate issue will be the amount of materials that we divert from the landfill and the amount of materials that we increase into our MRF when we are building a new MRF and we want to make sure that we fill that material up. And so to get that word out, we have to make sure that we have a good coherent message. Has there been some discussion about what the expectations are in terms of any increase in revenue from recycling? We're anticipating 6 million next year. And so that's what we're driving for. And that's the expectation of this marketing campaign? That it would help us to get there. Thank you. I have one other question. Okay, I think my question was already asked. It was about the recycling facility. This is to actually complete the design for the new recycling facility. And my concern is that we're in a real financial crisis with the city and to invest this much money in a design for a building that we may or may not be able to build in the oncoming years. I have a question about that. And I really don't know that anybody can answer my question. I just have some concerns about spending that kind of money on a design plan when we really don't have a plan to pay for the facility. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Feigl. If I may take the privilege of the chair for just a moment, Mr. Green just informed me that our guests from WKYT who are here to receive an award have to get back to business, back to the station for the news. So with you all, unless there's objection, can we do the presentation real quickly? And Susan Bush, Susan is Acting Commissioner. Thank you so much, Susan. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. As many of you know, the Division of Environmental Policies, one of their main focuses is to provide public outreach and education activities on our environmental initiatives in the city. For the past two years, we've scheduled an entire week of activities around Earth Day, and we use these events to bring attention and to inform our citizens on what we're doing across the city. This year we held a series of five news conferences during Earth Week, and some of you on the Council participated in many of those events. But we would like to take this opportunity to recognize WKYT-TV, Channel 27, and its news department for its coverage of our Earth Week events. Channel 27 covered all five of these events and provided the viewers with information on sanitary and storm sewer projects, energy efficiency, recycling initiatives, ribbon cuttings at McConnell Springs, and our neighborhood community grants. And you just have a short, just a short clip, if we may, of some of the coverage. To a fast start in repairing and improving sanitary and storm sewers, but he says there's still a lot more work to be done. Mayor Newberry was talking about the improvements as part of the city's Earth Week. The mayor says environmental improvements have been at the forefront of his administration, and that's why around $60 million was spent on sanitary sewer projects last year. This year, money will be spent to improve the South Elkhorn Pump Station. There will be upgrades to the Town Branch Sewer Treatment Plant and also the West Hickman Sewer Treatment Plant, to name a few. Polluted creeks and streams in Fayette County are simply no longer acceptable, and we are going to continue to make significant improvements in our sanitary and storm sewers in the months to come. This week, including a spring cleaning day this Saturday, where Lexington residents can dispose of hazardous household waste products for free. Channel 27 has also provided extensive coverage of our single stream recycling, where we can combine glass now, which increases our recycling revenues. This news coverage has helped us work to protect and improve our environment, and by watching these news stories, our citizens are better informed and hopefully motivated to change behavior and participate in these efforts. So on behalf of the Department of Environmental Quality and Mayor Newberry, I would like to present a small token of our appreciation to Mr. Robert Thomas, News Director and Amber Philpott, News Anchor of Channel 27. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you all so much. Thank you all so much. All right. We can move back then to new business. I believe if Council Member Feigl, you were finished, right? You were complete? Well, basically I'm complete, I guess. But this morning in services, or this afternoon in services, we had a discussion about golf courses, and it started me thinking about how we maybe need to look at privatizing, or at least the possibility of privatizing lots of other things in our government. And I think I brought this up once before that, before we build this recycling facility, that I would like to hear more about some cost analysis of privatizing that service and would like to see it go through the same process that the golfing discussion is going to go through. I don't know if it's appropriate to put that into a committee at this point. I apologize. Give me just a moment here to kind of catch my breath and we'll get back on track. Council Member Crosby. I think that Council Member Feigl had a question on the table. If someone could answer her. My question was, is this the appropriate time to refer this to committee to take a more detailed look at it? Recycling. And privatizing versus the city investing in a facility. Again, I apologize. Can you tell me which new business item you're referring to? It would be appropriate at this point to move to refer item B to a committee. There's a motion on the floor to approve the new business items, as I understand it. Okay. So after we've looked at new business items, then I would make a motion to put it into committee? You could either do that now or later, whichever you prefer. Okay. I would move then to place this item into the services committee for some discussion. Did I hear a second from Council Member Lane? The motion is to refer item B to committee for further consideration. Mayor? Council Member Crosby. Mayor, we have a waste management task force currently in place, and we'd be happy, this is part of the discussion that we are having. I'm not sure if it was clear earlier in the meeting, but certainly this is something that is being discussed and has been brought up during this task force. It came up today as part of our services committee, but I don't know if you were in the room when I said we were having future meetings after we get through budget, and that may be the appropriate place to put this since we're already discussing it. That's fine if we want to put it into, what did you call your group? It's a waste management task force. Task force. Yes. Okay. And we already have all the private interest involved as well as our own division, and we have had one meeting, and we've been gathering information, and we have discussed recycling to some extent, and I believe those discussions will continue. So we're doing, I think, what you're suggesting already, if you just would like for us to make sure that we, the meetings are public meetings, and we can make sure that you know when they are occurring. Thank you. That's fine. I would place that then in the waste management task force. Council Member Lane, you'll withdraw your second. Is there a second to the motion to refer to the waste management task force? Motion dies for lack of a second. Now, as I understand it, we're on new business items, and Vice Mayor Gray has indicated to me that Council Member Crosby, then Council Member Lawless, and Council Member Henson and Council Member James wish to speak. My apologies for running late, but the FFA convention was in town. They have 1,800 people here, and they asked me to come over and say a word of welcome. I'm glad to have them here for the next two or three days. You may see them around Rupp Arena in their blue corduroy jackets. So we're delighted to have them here. All right. That takes us back to the new business items. Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question on you. I'll just continue where Council Member Feigl left off. If Mr. Feist was the one who spoke earlier, I don't know if he wants to continue. My question is, if you look back on page 62, the out-of-pocket expenses will be billed separately. Are those somehow built into this cost, or are we going to have to do a budget amendment once we get out-of-pocket expenses? I'm sorry. I'm not familiar with that aspect of the contract. Okay. Council Member Crosby, it's not in addition to this. This includes those expenses. Thank you. That answers my question. And then I also had one on K, the COPS grant. I'll start asking my question as Commissioner Bennett is coming forward. If you could tell us, it's my understanding, I'm kind of reaching back from when I chaired the public safety link, but did we not apply for two separate grants during the last go-around? I think one was maybe through the stimulus money that was provided nationally, and then we also applied for another COPS grant. Is that? We applied for several grants during that round of funding, but only one hiring grant in terms of hiring police officers. We did get some money through one of the stimulus grants, one of the burn grants, to hire some civilian employees to free up sworn, but that was the only sworn grant application. So we didn't get any? So we applied for a grant for sworn police officers and we did not get it? We did not get any. Louisville didn't get any. There were very few jurisdictions in Kentucky that did. Do we have a contingency plan if we do not get this grant to hire more police officers? Not at this point, ma'am. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Council Member Wallace. Thank you. My question is the third one about you, the contract services for advertising environmental quality, but it's a different one than the previous ones. Was this put out to bid? Yes, it was. Yes, it was competitively bid. The selection committee, the formal process, the selection committee met and made recommendations, and the recommendations are here. Okay, thank you. And do we know if this was the non-low bid or? You know, I don't know if it was the low bid. It certainly wasn't the highest, but I'm not sure where it fell in that category. Thank you. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I had a question also for Commissioner Bennett on item K. We thought you should get your exercise. I'll just stay up here this time. In the current budget for fiscal year 11, we have one recruit class. Is that correct? Yes, that's what we planned, yes. Okay. So this would be in addition to that if we were to receive this grant. That's correct. Correct. Now, in the event, over the three-year period, you could hire 50 officers, and in the event we could not afford them in year four, like Council Member Gorton talked about, what would happen? Would they be collective bargaining? Would they be collective bargaining? Right. I would anticipate so, yes. So it would be like there are permanent employees, and we would have to cover the cost in year four, correct? That would be the anticipation, yes. Okay. Thank you. I mean, not that we shouldn't apply for these grants. I think they're great, but we also need to look at to make sure that we're not getting into something where we would have to lay off or whatever. Thank you. You're welcome. Council Member James, do you still wish to speak? Sure, I would. Thank you. Item P, it might be Commissioner Helm, maybe? No. It's Item P. Corrections. Oh, okay, yeah, it is corrections. Okay. Oh, it's the social worker thing that got me there. Right. The description on that item talks about that it was difficult to find a social worker, a licensed social worker, and I'm not a social worker, but that is really hard to believe for me. We found that hard to believe, too, but we advertised and got a grand total of two applicants, neither of whom we desired to hire. Really? Yeah, so we changed the job classification a little bit, changed the requirements a little bit, got a much better applicant pool, and assuming you approve creating the position, we were bringing forth a person to fill it. This is one of those positions that I mentioned a while ago that's federally grant funded. It was a position that was approved through one of the burn grant awards to hire, at that time we thought a social worker, but it will be an eligibility counselor now, to work in the CAT program, the Community Alternatives Program for Corrections, in both day reporting as well as offender reentry programs. So we're hoping to really develop those and get those ramped up a little better than we have been able to. What's the language you changed in order to make it eligibility coordinator versus social worker? I'll have to get HR to get that to you. I don't know. They and Corrections coordinated that piece of the process. I think it may have been a licensing requirement that we eliminated, but I'll have to get them to get the detail to you. And federal government-wise, they don't care one way or the other which one it is? No, they're fine. As long as the role is being fulfilled. Correct. When we advertise, and this might have to go to Human Resources, but maybe you know, when we advertise, can we do anything special, like go to the School of Social Work at the University of Kentucky and see, you know, if they have some kind of list of folks looking? In terms of recruitment, yes. We're allowed to do that? We're allowed to do some recruiting efforts, yes. Do you know if that was done in this case? I don't. I don't. Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Mayor. I'm just kind of curious about that. You know, me personally and my, you know, council members get calls all the time about jobs. I know you all probably do. And the ones I get more than anything are social workers looking for jobs and placement. And so I don't know. It's kind of odd. Thanks. I would encourage you to bring this particular opening to their attention and any others for that matter because we need the best people we can get. Council Member Wallace. I didn't notice that, but since I'm a master's level licensed clinical social worker, I know the importance of training and licensure and the scope of practice. And so I, too, would be very interested in seeing what language you changed. Did it just make it so someone who hadn't had the training and proper licensing was able to take the job and essentially practice social work? So I, too, would be interested in that. Thank you. And I'll certainly forward applications to you from social workers. All right. And either of you wish to expand on that situation? I can. What we changed, we were having difficulty not so much recruiting a social worker, but recruiting someone with a license who would accept those parameters of the salary. And we had only so many dollars to work with within the budget, so that was what was difficult was finding someone with a license So by removing the license requirement, the duties are staying essentially the same. We're just removing the need for a licensed social worker. I was going to say, was that salary set by the federal, whatever the federal money was, or because I know that we're working in human resources to compete with the market, so where did we fall into when it comes to the market of what folks are making licensed social workers? It was falling below that, but we were staying within the parameters of what was given to us within the grant, and that's where the difficulty came from in establishing the salary. Okay. Was this a bachelor's level? I believe so. It did require a licensed social worker. I know that. When we started, we were requesting for a licensed social worker. Okay. And if they have a degree in social work and they do not have a license, it's illegal for them to practice? Right, and that's why we changed it to a case manager and removed that qualification. So they're doing more case management work. If they have a degree in social work and are not licensed, it's illegal for them to practice, even case management, just FYI. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. I guess I want to continue on the same conversation. I have my MSW, but I'm not licensed like Council Member Lawless. So I guess where I'd like to go is if the grant only provided X number of dollars, is it the 4318 or 4557? How much did the grant provide for the salary? Do you know? Okay. Well, I won't get hung up there. Did you guys look at the opportunity to just add to the grant and supplement that so that we can attract folks that have an LCSW that would be interested? Instead of, it almost seems like we've dumbed the position down by saying, let's get rid of the licensure requirement so that we can get somebody in to do the work, but we still need the LCSW, I would think. So is it possible to just add to the grant dollars to boost the salary and put it back out there and see if we can find an LCSW that will come in? It would require approval for money from the general fund to add to that. Right, right. That would be someone else's decision. But I mean, right, it would be our decision to do that, but technically it can be done, right? Do you know what the market rate would be, how much more than what the grant would provide we would need to go to attract an LCSW, a quality LCSW? We would have to look at what we offer for the social work position, what the salary range is for that in our salary scale, and then it would depend on what the education experience the person brought as far as the salary calculated in that range. Okay. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your last point. So it's actually, I think I misspoke also. It's not an LCSW, it's just an LSW, right? Licensed social worker instead of licensed clinical social worker. It's a licensed social worker is how it was advertised initially. Okay. Would it create a problem to hold this up and take a second look at that and see if we can bring some more money in to get market rate and bringing a licensed social worker in instead of just a? Or is this a? I think we would have to look at, one, how long the grant funding is available, and I don't know what the length of the grant is, but the longer you delay it, there is, and we would need to confer with community development, because sometimes if you don't fill the position as you were required to by the grant, they may pull those dollars back. So we would need to see what parameters we're working in, because the position has been vacant for a few months, and we wouldn't want to lose those grant dollars by going back to the table and starting over. Okay. One final question. If you're talking about filling the position as the grant required, then wouldn't we need the licensed social worker? Isn't that what the grant required originally? We would have to look at the grant. Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion on the new business items? Council Member Wallace. I'm sorry, it's on the same topic. Do you already have someone in mind to hire, or are we just approving the position? I think the person has been selected, haven't they? I think they have. Okay. Thank you. If there's no further discussion, we'll proceed to vote those in favor of approving the new business items, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Mayor, I want to vote no on P. Madam Clerk, if you will note Council Member Gorton's voting no on item P. All right. The next item on the agenda, if I understand correctly, is the report of the special planning committee meeting. Council Member Gorton. Thank you, Mayor. The planning committee met in a special meeting on May 27th, and the meeting was called in order for us to hear a presentation on design guidelines and form-based guidelines. And Chris King, our director of planning, gave a very good presentation on these two items. And he covered definitions and explained form-based code as well as design guidelines and talked about steps which would be required to create a form-based code. And some of those were confirming community commitment, determining types of codes and boundaries to be covered by the code, and engaging design professionals. Mr. King, in order to prepare design guidelines and form-based code, asked some key questions which would be needed to be answered, boundaries to be regulated, character elements, the role of the downtown building inventory, and whether a new code would be mandatory or advisory, and who would create guideline documents. There's one motion to come out of this special meeting, and the motion which I bring forward is an amended motion by Council Member Blues directing the planning committee, actually I believe this is directing the vice mayor, to form a task force within 30 days of approval, which would report quarterly to the planning committee with the end process of moving toward form-based and or design guideline codes. The task force would be comprised of council members, government officials, community representatives, and professionals. And so I bring that motion forward. Can I hear a second? I have a second by Council Member Blues. Those in favor of approving the motion to recommend the creation of that task force, please wait a minute. Council Member Wallace, I had you on my screen here to speak. Yes. Okay. All right. Does anyone wish to speak on that motion? Let me speak. Thank you, Mayor. There have been some discussion about the formation of this task force and some suggestions that it be comprised of council members and then invite members of the community in. And this would follow the model which we utilized for the water quality, for the consent. And I think, in fact, Council Member Gordon, you had these suggestions. I've talked to Council Member Blues about this as well and others who have made suggestions. And we have received inquiries from members of the community. I believe the motion as stated and as the committee approved does specifically include members of the professional community and citizens. Yes. So my own sense would be that perhaps a more effective model would be the model that we used for the consent decree where there was an active engagement of community members in the process. Would that require a change in the motion if I approved it, if I appointed the task force this way? I think it would. Okay. All right. Then if that's the case, should there be some discussion about it? Amending it. Amending it, yeah. So do you wish to move to amend the motion? Well, yeah. I would actually defer to Council Member Gordon on this. It was her recommendation. I think it has merit. I think for this task force to actually execute the work that it should and can get done, it has merit. I actually agree with you, Vice Mayor. The way the stormwater fee task force worked is that it was comprised of people from the community as well as council members, but the council members were the only voting members. I think that's what you're ñ is that what you're referring to? Yes. Yes. So I think it was very effective and could be effective again and include members from the community. Does anyone else wish to speak on the motion? Well, as it stands, the motion is to authorize the Vice Mayor to appoint a task force within the next 30 days that would include members of the council, government officials, community members, and professionals. That being the case, those in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And then, Mayor, just one other thing. I wanted to ñ this was a very interesting presentation, and I think the council members who saw it learned a lot. And I would encourage people to go to GTV3 and watch the replay of the May 27th special planning meeting because it's a very good, concise discussion of form-based code and design guidelines, which, since we're moving along this path, it would be good to educate ourselves. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Blues, I think you've got the Water Resources Oversight Committee report. Thank you, Mayor. I'll be brief. Reporting on the Water Resources Oversight Committee meeting on May 25th, the minutes and attendant documents have been distributed to all council members. The minutes have not yet been approved. In response to a request by Council Member Stinnett, the Acting Commissioner of Environmental Quality reported on the distribution of revenues produced by the landfill fund, which brought in $8.2 million in fiscal 09, $5 million through the first three quarters of fiscal 10, how these funds have been allocated and used. You can review the minutes for that information. Approximately $14 million of the fund is now invested in certificates of deposit at a fairly low rate of return, and Commissioner of Finance Romkey reported that she will be working with Brad Stone and environmental policy on ways to invest those funds, which are not required to pay down immediate costs or to maintain liquidity, possibly at a higher rate of return and productivity. In regard to a rain and flooding response policy, especially in the wake of the May 1st and 2nd incessant rainfall, Water Quality Director Charlie Martin provided the committee with documents that outline LFUCG response procedures during and in the wake of significant rain events such as those of the 1st of May. We have a number of policies regarding flooded basements, pumping out basements, cleaning up after flooding, and you can, if you look at handout number 24 in your packet, you'll see what those are. But Mr. Martin suggested that we may need to develop a comprehensive rain plan, more or less on the model of the snow plan which Public Works provides for snow events in winter. Mr. Martin indicated that such a plan can be done in-house, and in response to committee members' request, we will present at our June meeting this month a scope of work, and then a draft of a rain plan at our August meeting for our consideration. Director Martin reported that the Department of Water Quality will be looking to lease 15,000 to 18,000 square feet of space for Department of Water Quality administration instead of purchasing or building a new facility, at least until the decision is made regarding a new government center. The committee should receive that recommendation in August. He also reported that the Division of Water Quality will be awarded an Outstanding Watershed Management Award for the McConnell Springs Water Quality Project. Any questions for Council Member Dues? All right. Council Member Crosby, I'll let you introduce the presentation on Acton Park. Thank you, Mayor. It is with great pleasure that as I look out in the audience and see many old friends and new friends all here to hear this presentation, I have to say, first and foremost, many of you all know that this park is not a 7th District park. It is in the 5th District. However, when approached by Eastern Little League, many of you all know that kids from all over Lexington play in this league and they approach various different council members regarding their desire to do improvements to this park. And so I was the one who requested that we get a presentation so that we could just hear. It was my understanding during some of these meetings that there was a lot of confusion about the conceptual plan, and it's also my understanding there's a public meeting tomorrow night within the district that people can attend and also a Parks and Advisory Board meeting that will be occurring where this will also be discussed. But I just thought it would be nice when I checked the availability that maybe all the council, because so many of us have families that participate in this league, that we get a presentation on what the desired improvements are. I would like to say before Mr. Wood comes up to the microphone that we need to keep in mind that he is a volunteer doing this. He runs a company here in Lexington, and most of these people who have worked on this plan have been volunteering their time. So hopefully we can keep that in mind when we're deferring questions to them. There may be several different people that we have to defer to because I believe it's a group effort putting this plan forward and that Mr. Wood just has the maybe fortunate or unfortunate pleasure of being the one to present it to us. So with that, I would like to introduce Mr. Brian Wood to the podium to give us a presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wood. You'll have 15 minutes. Brian Wood, 4001 Walnut Station Road. Council, LFUCG, staff, neighbors, I'm here today as a past player, a parent, and a volunteer of Eastern Low League. Over the past several months, members of Acton Park Eastern Low League have been meeting with neighbors, consultants, engineers about a proposed renovation and update to our city park. During this time, we've made many advances, many discoveries concerning the park and its partnership with the neighbors. There have been several miscommunications and emotions along the way, and I apologize for any miscommunications. Hopefully today, with this conceptual plan that's on the screen in front of us, that we can better clarify where the park is headed and try to preserve the park. In order to receive everyone's input and educated decision, we've done the following. We have met with Jerry Hancock, Kimmerer Cole, council people, and representatives to see what the city's goals and financial condition are to achieve this plan. We've met with different neighbors to discuss their needs and issues. We've gone door to door with petitions to take into account also other neighbors' input. And to continue this effort, to show good faith, we are having a public meeting tomorrow night at 6 o'clock at the pavilion at the park. Some of the findings that we have found along the way, which have already been mentioned, that the league and the neighbors have in common are, first of all, most importantly, parking. Parking is one of the main issues at this park. Being so successful, we've had to deal with numerous instances of kids jumping out behind parallel cars on the roads. City services has a difficult time with fire trucks, ambulances trying to get up and down Turkey Foot. Several issues. To kind of give you an idea of where the park has come from and the plan has come from, we had originally planned parking up on the top north corner behind there where that green area is for an additional parking lot there. We started with just putting in a parking lot. Then from there we went with porous pavers for parking there. And then after many discussions with neighbors and so forth and concerns, the idea came to put the parking along Turkey Foot. That's how that plan came and evolved to there. It wasn't just a stab, let's throw it on the street. It has evolved. Second, noise. Noise has been a big concern for several of the neighbors down where our current batting cages are, which is where the proposed tee ball field is. The constant pinging, the questions, the yelling of coaches, and everything else that involves with a vibrant baseball participation. We try to accommodate the noise requests by moving the cages up more towards the basketball court. That's why I got relocated to the center of the park. ADA. ADA compliance is a huge factor in a very personal situation for me where I have seen parents and grandparents not being able to attend their kids' games in the lower field. We currently have a handicapped parking space in our existing parking lot, one. They back up there and sit with binoculars and watch their kids play baseball in the lower field. They can't make it there. There's no way to get there. We currently do not have any restrooms available that are handicap accessible to whether it's us, jazz in the park, somebody wanting a picnic, somebody to enjoy the beautiful setting that we do want to preserve. It's not capable right now. A walking trail, which is proposed as well, is probably one of the more difficult challenges. Amongst the parking, it's the most costly of these challenges. The proposed walking trail is very expensive, but it also brings up other questions. Storm water, trees, how do we deal with vandalism, security? Does it bring more people to the park? At first, initially, looking at the walking trail, we thought it was a slam dunk. That would be great. It would update the park similar to an arboretum type feel, similar to a veteran's type idea that's in newer parks. After looking at it, meeting with trees, you know, the tree situation, meeting with the storm water situation and having those discussions, we feel that it is a doable project. It will just take time and resources to try to figure it out. And I think it would be a great addition for the park. Security and vandalism I brought up. We currently have different security issues at our park, as many parks do. Vandalism takes place on a regular basis. Spray painting of the dugouts, the beer cans where the parties take place in the hidden dugouts, and everything else. And that's one issue also that the neighbors have brought up. On the new plan, it shows a proposed concession stand located right in the middle of the park. With that new concession stand, which would be a one-story building with a walkout basement because we have about a 12 to 15-foot elevation change right there that we have to address. By doing that and placing the concession stand there, we would place the standard floodlights that you would have coming down, not stadium lighting, that many, which is another misnomer. I just want to make sure I address that. Unlike other city parks with stadium lighting going up for night games or anything else, we would have zero of that. By placing the concession stand in the middle of the park, we should also add necessary lighting at that particular point to help discourage any congregation there. Also, on the proposed plan, as mentioned, we already have two fields. We are looking to tweak our existing lower field by turning it this way. And during this tweak, we would look to rip out the existing dugouts and also deal with other kid-oriented issues such as overheating in the dugouts by placing them with the more standard issue dugouts, which is chain-link fences and just a roof over the top of it, which would also discourage kind of a private area where kids might do no good. The third field is an area that is a hot button. As you can see, the third field is not that large. We aren't proposing any fencing as an outfield fence for the third field. It is space that we're currently using. As mentioned, with the noise and the constant congregation of many age groups, we do have safety issues there. And to expand on what Mr. Henry was saying, by adding a third field, it really helps with better practice times to help allow mothers, fathers, get their kids there who can't usually get there at 415 and start times because they're working. It allows us to manage their expectations as well. As you mentioned, the third field at the most, because of our current 480 people, would only possibly add two teams of which we already have a waiting list for t-ballers that we are not currently serving, which would be a total of 26 kids. If you want to get, you know, the word expansion, I just think we need to clarify that. This is more of a renovation, an update to try to bring Acton Park into 2010. The funding for the park is also a larger question. Our intent to do these renovations is through the use of private funds and donations. The current volunteer base and past volunteer base would help us accomplish this. It would be naive to assume that we can raise this type of money instantaneously and look to do these improvements over a three to five year period. The first phase, which is another question, how would you do this? You'd build your fields first. The first phase would be the parking and becoming more ADA compliant with the concession stand and accessibility to the park. Those are the first immediate needs and the funds need to be placed there to try to help with the driving parking issue with ADA compliance. The third phase of the field, the third phase, first phase parking, concession, ADA compliance, second phase would be the work on the bottom half in conjuncture with the third phase with the walking trail. We would hope to be able to work with some, hopefully get some grant money because that would be one of the only areas that we'd have the ability to find some extra funds to help us pay for that deal. How much time do I have left? You've got about four minutes. Okay. In conclusion, as you enter the current park, the majority of the existing structures are staying the same. We aren't touching the pavilion area. The parking would be taking up where the current sidewalk in is pulling parking. The existing structure, the existing concession stand would be staying exactly the same. We would be gutting it and putting in our bathrooms there because of the accessibility for more functions by the pavilion. We would then build the concession stand, which would be a new structure. We would take an existing lower field, turn it to the left, and then the existing area of the batting cages would be moved and designed with the new proposed tee ball field. The last thing that the park wants to do is affect tradition. We want to keep the preservation of the park. We are excited that neighbors want to continue to hear us. We definitely, as Mr. Cavanaugh said, we do not want to make this a center point situation. The phrase has been used that it's all about the kids, but it is more than that. It's about the tradition. It's about positive experiences that have been created through dynamic parents, kids, and volunteers over the past 30 years plus that has been literally at Acton Park. There's been tremendous courage that has been delivered by our volunteers over past and present for us to get to this point. Acton Park, along with other city parks, are a blessing to this community. It is my opinion that Acton Park has earned the trust from the city and the neighbors. During this process, we have realized that it is tough to find a common field. We have given and will continue to give our best effort to keep the optimism it takes to shape young kids' lives and to improve the tools to help them do so. Acton Park was donated for the use of a baseball park, and we are trying to be proactive to incorporate the Navy, not the Navy, but I wish the Navy, incorporate the neighborhood and the city and all the concerns surrounded by it to help Acton Park move forward for the next 30 plus years. And I want to thank everybody's time today, effort, energy that's behind me, neighbors included, because without the neighbors, it does not make us perform to our best, and I realize that. So I want to thank them for being here as well, not to mention all the volunteers and the staff that have gotten us to this point today. Thank you, Mr. Wood. Questions? Council Member Feigl. Thank you, Mayor. No, I don't really have any questions. I think I know a little bit about this, but I do want to make a couple of comments, if that's okay. Do I stay here or do I go? You can have a seat if you want. But you might stay close. You can sit there. First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for being here today. I do have a tremendous appreciation for the public process, and each of you have certainly an interest and a right to express your views. It's kind of ironic that earlier in the meeting, Ken Kurtz was here, and he spoke in favor of a project that I had proposed in Chevy Chase, a redesign. And I was so encouraged by that, because there were no people here to object. And I think part of the reason that there were none here to object is the process that we used to come up with that plan. It was a very deliberative process. It was a very open process, where all of the neighbors were involved in actually sitting down and helping to draw the plan. Now, I know that takes a lot more time than some people like to spend, but I think that when you have a project that has the potential to be a real asset for the neighborhood, you have to get everybody involved. And that was the process that I had originally proposed. When I learned that this park plan was being proposed, I thought it was wonderful. It's very unusual when you get a group of people that come together and say, we want to do this for your city and we want to pay for it. So, you know, particularly in this budget cycle where we have no money, it certainly warranted taking a look at it. It wasn't until later that I realized that it had a couple of problems with it. I didn't think they were insurmountable problems. But number one, it didn't comply with the city's parks master plan. Again, I don't think that's insurmountable. But then I found out there were objections from the neighborhood. I had not heard those before. So the first thing that I did at that point was to invite a group in to sit down and talk about the plan. We had representatives from those areas directly surrounding the park, the ones that abutted to the property, and some people from the baseball association. And we really had, I felt like, a pretty good meeting where we talked about where the differences were, where the common ground was, and where we might compromise. And I left that meeting thinking that we were going to come back together in a small group and begin to work out some of the issues that we identified that day. And unfortunately, I lost control of that process. And so here we are today. This was supposed to have been on the agenda for the council to actually make a decision on whether or not to move it forward to the docket. But I was able to set that back and say let's do this. Let's talk about what this plan is. Council members up here had already begun to get phone calls and e-mails, and they had no idea what was even being proposed. So we have placed it on the agenda for tonight or this afternoon just for informational purposes only. In addition to that, we will have a public hearing tomorrow night at the park, which had not been originally planned. I know that this has become a very contentious issue in your neighborhood, and I hate that because I have friends sitting on both sides of this aisle. And it is very heartbreaking to me to see you all disagree with one another. I don't think it had to be that way, but I'm not sure how we undo that now. But what I would say to you is that I welcome every one of you to feel very free to come in and express your views, express your displeasures, your support. I know there's a tremendous amount of passion for this. And I have passion for kids, too. I've been an advocate for kids all my life. And that's why this appealed to me in the first place. But I do want to say that the most important thing here in my mind is a process where everybody's opinions are welcomed and everybody's input is considered very thoughtfully. And that's what I would like to see happen. If this doesn't go forward, I don't know where it's going to go from here. If it doesn't go forward, then I would like to try again to get people together and see if we can't come up with something that both groups can buy into. So I offer that to you, and I would be willing to facilitate meetings. and I would be willing to facilitate meetings, whatever you'd like for me to do. But I just wanted to let you know how my thoughts were. I was not asked to put this on the agenda for action. It just appeared there. And I do appreciate the fact that the baseball group was willing to come in and make this presentation just for informational purposes only. Council Member Feigl, your time has expired. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Council Member Feigl, for making it clear that this is not an action item at this time because I was going to ask what might be on the table. And I think that this body is far from ready to engage in that kind of discussion right now. I also appreciate the fact that you see this as an important deliberative process and one that's going to have to involve all of the neighbors. Because I think the last thing that we want, and which would be detrimental to any park improvement project, is a divided neighborhood and a divided public. That sends a bad signal. I think that there is an enormous amount of work left to do on this, if it goes forward at all. And one of the questions that I would have has to do with numbers. What kind of dollars are we talking about here? What kind of guarantees do we have? What sort of guarantee might we have that a Phase I, once completed, will lead to a Phase II? What kind of obligations might fall upon the city once a project such as this has started? These are questions I'm not asking for answers at this time, but they are questions that are going to have to be answered definitively when we come to any really serious discussion about this proposal. So I thank you all for being here and bringing us some preliminary perspectives and information. I do think that we are at the very, very beginning, at the very least, of any serious discussion of these kinds of improvements. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Feigl, thank you for your comments and perspective. I had two questions, which may not quite be appropriate right now, but I am curious at some point if this plan moves forward, whether Urban County Government has weighed in on the stormwater issue and the parking issue, whether those have been looked at. And since we're not actually, it may not be appropriate right now, the detail of it, but I do want to be reassured that any plan that comes forward has been through traffic engineering, through our stormwater division, our stormwater section, and that those questions are answered. So for future, thank you. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Wood, actually, we kept you around for a reason, so could I ask you a couple questions? First of all, let me say thanks to folks who have stuck around. Sitting through council meetings is not the most entertaining thing to do on an afternoon. I really appreciate folks for hanging out with us. Could you put the drawing back up? That would be great. Are the tennis courts slated to be moved? Because that would be expensive, wouldn't it? Very expensive. Yeah. Okay. Because obviously they'd fit better that way than this way. Very expensive to move those. I couldn't price out that to you. No, I got you. I got you. And also, where is the playground? Is that going to be moved? No. The playground was just renovated. The playground is, if you look, the basketball court? Right. In between the pavilion and the basketball court is that playground. And so the configuration for, I guess, Tuesday night jazz is not going to be changed at all from that as well? We're not touching anything in the front where the jazz thing is held, except for the parking that would be located on the street. And you don't have a before and after, do you, with you? A before and after picture? Yeah. I do not, but we can surely send one out. Yeah. So I guess I'm trying to remember, because this is not in my district, but so the baseball field at the top of the picture, that's going to be? That stays the same. That's the upper field. And so it's this area, the tee ball is empty at this point? Yes. That's where our existing lower field is already. Okay. And the field on the right up here, is that going to be moved slightly? The larger field on the bottom of your picture is considered the lower field. The lower field will be tweaked, turning it towards the basketball. So do they sort of face each other now like an hourglass? Is that right? No, they're exactly as you see. It's just turned about 10 degrees to the left. Okay. Or turned up to the top. Okay. And do you know how many parking spaces you're adding along the top? I thought it was about 30, 32. I've played many jazz nights out there. So it's about 32 spaces. Yeah. And that is really one of the most significant things that needs to be done. To address the parking, we know games and so forth, we feel that will also relieve that time period as well. So you're probably going to about double parking, is that right? Close to. Well, again, I appreciate it. Thanks for taking my questions. And I was just trying to understand where it is and how things are getting moved around. And, again, I appreciate folks coming out and not falling asleep during our meeting, I guess. So thanks. Thank you, Mary. Council Member Wallace. Yes. I was one of those people that started getting calls. And my understanding is that the location of the third, the smaller field, that's actually the new field. And that currently kids are playing there without a field and without. So would this provide some additional screening so balls wouldn't go into the playground or? Basically it's a restructure of who's using it. We get away from the harder balls that were older kids used to our T-ball, which is a rubber ball, and put that back up there, place it into a more organized area. Does that answer your question? Basically kids are playing ball there without a field. And we have a safety issue because we have the older kids, 12-year-olds, throwing a baseball around a 6-year-old. We're trying to structure to where we move our kids and say this is young kids. Will. Okay. Concerning the third field, I want to mention, too, that it would be a temporary fence around that field only during baseball season. Okay. So when baseball was not going on, that fence would come down. It would be green space, just like the current field is now. Right now the current field that you see there that would be shifted a little bit is a temporary fence. And, you know, the proposal is to make that a field and to make the third field a temporary field. Well, first of all, I'm just thrilled to death that this is something that isn't in the third district for once. So that makes me very happy. But it sounds like everybody has a common goal, and that is to have a neighborhood park that everybody can be safe in and enjoy, and that maybe the wants and needs of both groups, I hope there can be some compromise, because I've found that if people can kind of sit down with an open mind and say, yeah, I'll give up this or we'll take that, that great things can happen. So I wish you great luck and, again, bless you for being in a different district than that. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of comments and a couple of questions kind of interspersed. One is I think it's really important that everybody in the room understand that our park system would not really function and function very well if it weren't for the investment of folks in these leagues and private citizens. Council Member Gordon and the group that she works with, with Friends of the Dog Park, it's all private money that puts these things in. I know over at Shillito, you know, we wouldn't function unless it was from the serious investment of these parents over at not just baseball, but football and lacrosse and these other types of things. And so it's because of your all's hard work and your own money and sweat equity that our park system actually has the amenities it does for our kids. So thank you, first and foremost. The other thing is, is that I think it's really important. I know Council Member Stennett and I know myself have both had situations where this has worked really, really well, where a baseball addition or complex in an existing league, in an existing setting has worked extremely well. But it only works well when there's a process where the neighbors are on board and aware. And I think that that's where the breakdown is. And as I've watched the body language, every time somebody gets up to speak from the other side, the other side starts doing this number and no way, that's not true. And what that tells me is, is that there's just a huge miscommunication. And I would encourage you to please take Council Member Feigl's offer, and let's just start over with this and talk about what benefits all parties. Ryan, one question to you about the parking. You mentioned those are 32 extra spots. Are people basically parking on the street up there where you're putting the slots in? It's Death Alley. Oh, yeah. Okay. And the way you put those slots in, are they the type of reverse slots like we have over at Main and Rose? Yes. Which is one of the most safe features. There's only one place in Lexington that has it. It's on Main and Rose on Elm Tree Lane. And it allows somebody to back out, back into that space, so you can see folks coming, pedestrians. It is one of the most safe features. If you're going to drop 32 new slots in somewhere, that is exactly the right way to do it. So I think there's a lot of good aspects as to what these folks are proposing and some intentionality that really does benefit everyone. But, again, that miscommunication piece is really, really what is disconcerting. And I think that it's because the process, we've got folks who want to get stuff done, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But we've got other folks who say, well, wait a minute, this is my backyard too, and what about us? Let me speak real quickly to the trail issue, because I think the gentleman in the back brought it up, and anybody that knows me knows this is my issue and that I can talk somewhat intelligently about this. Trails are an amenity that allow everyone to exercise. There is no difference on a trail. A grandparent can walk with a grandkid. A world-class athlete can be out there with someone in a wheelchair. So when we talk about this just being a baseball field or a baseball park and that type of thing, the best thing you can do is drop a walking path into this thing, if you really want to increase activity levels for everybody and open this park up to people of all abilities. The stormwater issue. Ten o'clock today, the mayor and I were just out at the Legacy Trail. We're pouring miles of pervious pavement. That pervious concrete can drain five inches of rain in an hour. It cleans the rain when it goes through. So there are solutions to this that can negate that whole stormwater issue, and it's all in the materials that you use. And I'd encourage you to look into those types of things as you go further. No matter what community I've studied and been in across this country and around the world, the very first thing that neighbors will say is this is going to bring in crime. It's the very first reaction, and it's a very natural reaction. But it is actually the exact opposite. Home values go up 16% where trails are located. Ask anyone in Beaumont what the number one amenity of their neighborhood is, and they'll tell you it's that trail system that exists right now. That trail system exists before any homes went in. That's why they love it. If that system wasn't there and we proposed to put it exactly where it is today, every single person would say we don't want it because it will bring crime in. The bottom line is from Boulder, Colorado, to Madison, Wisconsin, to Aachen, Germany, everyone says the same thing. What I would encourage you to do, though, as a neighborhood and as a group that is looking at that piece is to engage the services of Dr. Derek Paulson. Dr. Derek Paulson will do it for free because he does it in his hometown. Derek Paulson is a professor of criminal justice at EKU. He is hired by the State Department to teach cyberterrorism all over the world. He is the foremost authority on what's called safe by design, how you build a neighborhood, how you build a trail, how you build a park. We brought him in for the Legacy Trail, and it allowed us to really think about things differently. So if the concern of the neighbors is if we drop something like that in, it might bring crime in, and you don't believe this guy up here talking about stats, I'm spouting off, that's fine. That's a natural reaction. Derek Paulson is someone, I'll give you his number before you leave, that will come in and be delighted to sit down with you, Councilmember Feigl, and work with you all. He's also a Fifth District constituent. Councilmember McCord, your time has expired. I would encourage that open dialogue. That's the main thing. Thank you. Councilmember Myers. Thank you, Mayor. Since this is just on here for informational purposes today, I had Joe Shuler, my aide, pull down the aerial view of the park the way it currently exists, and I wanted Mr. Henry to kind of illustrate for all of us what the park looks like today, as opposed to what the proposal is. Well, either one of us, it doesn't matter. Basically everything that you're looking at would stay the same except the round at the bottom, the field at the bottom near the tennis courts, would be shifted 15 feet towards the basketball courts and towards the tennis courts. Okay? And what that would do, in the bottom left-hand corner to the left of that diamond, there are batting cages, which we just redid last year. We put up steel beams and we're making them because you all, 10 years ago, moved our batting cages to Veterans Park for another reason. But we redid those batting cages, and we have approval to actually put a roof over that when we get the money. But we are going to, the plan is to reuse that steel and those purchases for those batting cages to other places, you know. But that, where those batting cages are, that right at the bottom, that open field would be under the batting cages there, is currently, last night, Brian and I, we coached a team together. While our kids are batting in the batting cages before the game, we have 11 kids out there from 10 to 12 years old, and we're hitting ground balls and fly balls and they're throwing the balls in. While we're doing that, there's a second batting cage directly next to it. Usually it's 7- and 8-year-olds or 5- and 6-year-olds doing the same thing. So we're mixing 5- and 6-year-olds and 10- through 12-year-olds. And as you all know that have children, there's a big difference between a 12-year-old and a 6-year-old, and it's a safety hazard. Our proposal is to put a tee ball field that would be a temporary field. It would be used for practices strictly for 5- and 6-year-olds and games for 5- and 6-year-olds, and it would be used for the 7- and 8-year-olds to coach the kids for practices at night. Brian mentioned in his presentation, currently, because it's strictly daylight time, Acton Park is not about baseball until 11 o'clock like other parks in the city. Acton Park is about baseball until 830, dark time. That's what it's always been. We don't want it any different. So the proposal would be to start the tee ball times instead of 4-15, where a lot of parents would get a lot of complaints because, you know, everybody's world, parents' work. We would start the tee ball games later at 5-15, 5-30, and hold maybe one to two tee ball games a night instead of one, and then maybe a practice on that field later that night. And then on the other field that we would shift would be strictly one rookie game and one minor league game. Currently, the way the schedule is issued right now, we have tee ball 4-15, which lasts one hour, 5-15 goes rookie league, which is coach pitch, and that lasts an hour and 15 minutes to 6-30, and then you have minor league. That's all on that one field, and minor league lasts from 6-30 until dark. And what we did, and we used to have a practice, scheduled practice on that field after the minor league if there was daylight left. But we have changed that this year, and we're now letting those minor leaguers basically play until their game is complete, six-inning game. We used to cut it off in an hour and a half because there just wasn't enough time. So, you know, we've reduced our practice time a little bit on that field because we feel like those minor leaguers deserve a full game just like any other. Why cut their game short? Just because, you know, space. So Mr. Hancock of Parks and Recreation, the people of Parks and Rec, were nice enough, and we do have two other fields we practice at. One is in Woodhill that we don't take care of. We have a machine that takes care of these two fields and a storage facility tucked back in the trees. With this proposal, that storage facility would go bye-bye, and the concession stand that is currently being used would be used for storage and, like Brian said, updated ADA bathrooms and that type of thing. You know, like I was saying, currently we use Woodhill and then Johnson Heights, which is a park I've lived in Lexington all my life and never seen the park, but it is tucked away. Actually, most of the teams prefer now to go to Johnson Heights than Woodhill just for various reasons. They're both very usable parks, but I just wanted to kind of explain to you in the restructure, but as far as the top of the park, the rest of it is really not touched. It's just that bottom corner. Okay. Thank you. I'm not sure how much time I have left. Mr. Hancock, can you come up just real quick? Seven seconds? I have a question. It's been said this is a park master plan for this park. We haven't heard from Parks on what you think about, apparently this doesn't fit with the current master plan, so what does Parks have to say about that modification and what's Parks' recommendation on this? You've asked two questions. I'll answer the first and I won't answer the second one. How's that? The parks master plan, the original plan from 1998, says take baseball games out of neighborhood parks, and we challenge all of you to build Cardinal Run Souths for us where games could take place so cars would go out of the neighborhood. With respect to this proposal, I'm standing here because I think there are positives and negatives on both sides, and I would like to continue to hear the neighborhood talk. We had a 15-minute presentation here that's taken a good deal more than that. We've got more public input to be held tomorrow. The Parks Advisory Board will weigh in on the 17th. At a point in time, we'll come back to you. My position is I want to hear what the neighborhood has to say. If these folks can come up with $750,000, which is the price tag for all of this, and none of the neighbors object, well, then it's a slam dunk. Let's do it. If they can't come up with all the money, if a substantial number of the neighbors find the objections to be too great to overcome, then I think we'll have another opinion for you. This is not one of those cases that's obvious, or we wouldn't have been here for an hour talking about it. I'd like to reserve my judgment until I've heard more from the neighbors, from the league. The stormwater and parking people haven't weighed in. This is an open question. At this point, it's still conceptual, and I'd like to leave it there if I can. Sure. Okay, one final question. When I asked if there's a park master plan for this park, I know that the overall master plan is to move baseball out. But is there a plan for this particular park? In 1998, all parks were looked at and there were vignettes supported for each of those. At that time, it was called out that this park should become a practice area for baseball and games would be played elsewhere. When we updated the master plan in 2009, we did not ask that that park or any of the others have their master plans updated. So the original one stays in place. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Wallace. Just real quickly, there was some work done at Woodland Park, and people are very passionate about Woodland Park. And we were able to use, with the help of Kenzie and Mr. Hancock, a pervious surface parking lot that was a little bit more expensive. But if you go over to Woodland Park and look at that parking lot, it made a tremendous difference in the stormwater runoff. So that's all I wanted to say. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. I could probably comment on this subject all day long, being that I've been where your folks have been, living by a park growing up. But also I ran a park, Kenilwood Park, in northern Cal Ripken for years, up until actually this is the first year I have never been involved in it since 1996. I kind of miss it. Now this is kind of bringing back a lot of these issues. I went to the neighbors. We got lights at Kenilwood. We said that we were told in 1997 by our previous parks director that we would never have lights. We were told in 1998 that Kenilwood would become a practice field facility. Now today we have redone fields, new bathrooms, and a new storage building meeting place. So can these things happen simultaneously and together working with neighbors? Yes, they can. We had great public meetings. We had a lot of the same opposition. But over time people realized the value we were placing into the parks, a lot with private money, such as you're willing to do today. So it can work. I want to give you hope. There is hope for the future for both sides to get together. And I hope Councilman Feigl and any other councilman that wants to be involved, I'll be glad to help facilitate what can really happen because Kenilwood is a good example of that. Now are we still planning to move one day? Who knows if we'll ever get a park out on the north end like we have on the south end at Cardinal Run or Shillito or Veterans. Maybe one day in Hamburg area we'll have a master park, so to speak, where we can all go together and have a good facility near the interstates and better amenities. But in the short term, we've got to work together on this. This is a tough issue. I've battled it, like I said, since 1996, met with neighborhoods, talked about it. And there is a win to be had on both sides. I guess my main concern is, you know, the process. We all talk about process a lot up here. And, you know, this is one of those that the process is a must. Going before the Park Advisory Board is a great thing. But one thing we don't want to leave out is the neighborhood associations too. We got a lot of dialogue from them once upon a time in my areas. And I think they need to be involved in this. And there can be a win-win on this situation. So I appreciate all my colleagues' comments. And I'll be glad to help. Like I said, I've been down these roads many times. And there can be a good win. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Mayor. All that I wanted to say really too was that when this was put on the agenda for presentation purposes, the League was attempting, and I think that they have, it hasn't necessarily been shared with us, but they have been attempting to go around and show due diligence with the neighbors. Obviously there's some who may not agree with that. But I know that they have signed many petitions. And it might be helpful if the League was able to provide those to council members, because obviously there are two sides of the story and people who are for and against. And it kind of gives us, I think, an opportunity to review not only the support or lack of support in the neighborhood in general, but also across everywhere with this park services. So I think that if they could provide that information to the council members. If you don't want to make 15 different copies of everything you have, I'm sure my office or Council Member Feigl's or any one of our offices would be happy to make those copies, if you just get us one. I emailed them to Cheryl Feigl's office yesterday. There were about 40 petitions signed by neighbors, residents, and members of the park. So that has been done. So Cheryl, if you could share those with your fellow council members. Thank you, Council Member Feigl. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Jerry Hancock. Since you brought up the Parks Advisory Board meeting, which has been moved up, and since I've heard a lot of sentiment, particularly from the District Council Member Feigl, about the process and continuing the process and kind of revamping it, I wondered what exactly your hope is from the Parks Advisory Board on the 17th, which is next week, for you. I mean, I'm just curious. My hope is that the meeting tomorrow will result in enough consensus, at least toward what are the most contentious elements, or that there might be general agreement in one vein or another, that in the ensuing week, these folks and their professional colleagues in the design area or whatever can help minimize or address some of those objections so that when we go to the Advisory Board on the 17th, we have even more consensus or a lack of consensus. I would like to go to the Advisory Board and present both sides of this, perhaps hear a few speakers and have them weigh in. In all candor, I don't expect that we'll have a finished product on the 17th that answers the issues of parking. There are some issues with the parking there with Romney Road and whatnot. I don't see that we'll have a finished proposal that the Advisory Board or you would say, yes, this is what we absolutely agree to on the 17th. I know they have some deadlines, but it's my hope that we'll be closer than we are today at understanding the entire neighborhood and the players' consensus or the recognition that there's a lack. I'm hoping we had 40 people in the room. They don't represent the whole neighborhood necessarily. I'm hoping we'll be closer, and I'm hoping the Advisory Board will be able to see whether there's a balance or whether there is a view that's coming forward that satisfies more of the objections than we're seeing today. We have a long ways to go. I'm not confident that on the 17th we're going to have a piece of paper we can bring back to you that says everybody agrees to this. I'll know a lot more tomorrow. We expect a few hundred people to show up in the park and have a conversation with us. Thank you. Council Member Feigl, I guess I'm a little uncertain about where this is all going, but we heard that there hasn't been a stormwater assessment by LFUCG and there has not been a traffic engineering assessment. Is that your understanding? There has been an initial review by Charlie Martin who was here just a few minutes ago about drainage, and I think Brad Frazier is here to talk about the traffic or the parking. Do you mind to speak to what you know about this, Charlie? It's very limited, because I honestly did not know where this park was two weeks ago. It's very limited. I've basically been reacting to the same plan that all of you saw, and from a general concept in looking through the records that we had is that I don't see that there is a huge stormwater problem that exists up there. I think we've got a water in the basement problem, one we've talked about in the past, judging by LexCol records and some of the sanitary sewer assessment work that's been done up there already. I think that some folks have mentioned that, you know, there are other mechanisms of putting in trails by using, you know, different styles of pavement and all that, that the opportunity exists there, but I didn't see that stormwater was a major hangup to having the discussion. One of the things I do want is that if something does move forward with it, is we certainly want to take advantage of the opportunity to insert water quality oriented type of improvements in the periphery of the park. Because I do know for a fact that there are sanitary sewer lines that circle that park, and they are in poor condition. We've already determined that already, and so there would be a good opportunity to be able to do that work simultaneously. Okay. And then I don't know if Brad Frazier left. Jeff, are you replacing Brad? Just in my last few seconds, if you could speak to the assessment by traffic engineering. Well, so far we're still in the middle of assessing the traffic situation around the park. Last week a petition, three different petitions on three of the surrounding streets was sent out for no parking. We sent out and tried to get a 65% agreement with no parking restrictions on public streets, and we haven't got any of those back yet. And does your assessment include the fire and emergency services to be sure they can get through, that sort of thing? Well, to tell you the truth, we weren't aware of a situation over here, because I guess if you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, that's a lot better than a continuous situation throughout the year. It sounds like this only happens in the summertime. So once, if the parking is removed on one side of Turkey Foot in particular, that will allow a lot better emergency access to the area. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Mayor Gray. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate what everyone has said today. And, Jerry Hancock, I thought you did a nice job, Jerry, of illustrating a lot of experience in these situations. And I think in the last three and a half years I myself have seen sometimes, you know, it was Yogi Berra who said it's deja vu all over again, right? We, believe it or not, we gain a little bit of experience behind this horseshoe in seeing these sorts of issues emerge, develop, get work through and processed. I couldn't, you know, and we also engage others, we ask opinions. Part of my process is to ask members of my own family sometimes. Since I've got five brothers and sisters, four of them live here, 18 nieces and nephews, a lot of them have played at Acton Park. They're moving on now to veterans. But I talked to one of my brothers and I said, so, you know, what do you think about this? And he put it really wonderfully, I think. Stephen said, you know, he said our four years there were the closest that I've ever come to a slice of Norman Rockwell's America. You know, seeing a Norman Rockwell image. And that was a pretty remarkable way of expressing it, I think. But he also said that that picture could wig out if I'm in the neighborhood. And he can understand that. And he said, you know, what I'm sure is important is that those who are passionate about baseball don't let that passion get too far ahead of a process that does include the neighbors. And my sense of this conversation today may be that that is where everyone is recognizing that would be useful to go. And so I think that what is being encouraged in terms of the public meetings is a good thing. And I know that everyone on the council will be attentive to it and put their best energy and thoughts into it. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Stennett. I just had one follow-up question for the league. Do you all do fall ball there? So you do do fall. So it's more than just eight weeks in the summertime. We're talking about parking enhancements. It would also help picnic with the pops. It would help baseball fall ball as well. Yeah, fall ball is only for six weeks. Okay. And the numbers in fall ball are more, instead of 480 kids, more like 150 kids. And there's only one game on each field a night. How many kids total do you have in the league? 480. Like I said in my presentation earlier, in 2005 we had 250. And because we took over T-Ball from Parks and Rec, that has made our league explode from the bottom up. And I can say, you know, back in 1996 when we started the changes at Kennewood Park, we had the same number of kids there today as we did back then. Changing the park, putting lights in, causes adding more games or more teams, so to speak, or more kids necessarily to the league. We're able to give kids more practice time, more times to develop their skills, more times to have games involving their teammates with them. So one thing I would ask the league to be cognizant of during this whole debate is these folks have to live there 24-7. You come in daily and leave there daily. They are there 24-7. So they're also your biggest asset as well, too, to help you keep the amenities that you hope to improve safe. They're your best eyes and ears out there. So that's where you start trying to find the common ground. What I would think would be, and what we did try to do at Kennewood was find what public amenities are we going to improve first and then worry about the baseball amenities, such as in this case would be the ADA bathrooms. I think the whole neighborhood would benefit from that. Fixing the parking first. Those are things that everyone benefits from, not just the baseball. Then focus on the baseball. If you'd be willing to do that, I think that would go a long way, too, and also correcting the stormwater problems, making sure those are fixed first, too. So those are ways to find common ground. Just more food for thought out there. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Feigl. Well, just one other comment. I'm chairing a committee that's charged with looking for additional resources for our park system. And I think this underscores the fact that our park system is inadequate for our community. And we've allowed it to kind of age. And I don't think that we're properly meeting the needs of our community. And I just think we have to do a better job of that. But I think this issue coming forward the way it has just underscores the need for everybody up here that we really need to focus a little bit more attention on our parks. Again, I offer whatever I can do to help you facilitate a design that everybody is happy with and can consider this an asset to the neighborhood. Just give me a call any time. I'd be happy to meet with you any time. Thank you. Anything further from the council? All right. Thank you very much for your time and your presentation. That takes us down now to council report. Step to the microphone, if you may. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have one question about that public meeting tomorrow night. It's scheduled for 6 o'clock at the park pavilion, but Bill Meck tells us the skies will open at 6 o'clock tomorrow night. And it may not be possible to hold that meeting, I presume, if we have thunderstorms, what have you. Is there a rain date? Do we have a rain location? I don't. Just, Mr. Hancock, do we have a rain location or date for the meeting tomorrow night? No, sir. I think the shelter will hold 100 people out of the weather, but if it's storming, let's try the following night or something. I don't know. I'm sorry, I hadn't thought of that. A light rain will be fine. It's a very good shelter. If it's a very stormy night, can I use you as a contact in the neighborhood and Brian use you? If it looks like it's going to be stormy at 5 o'clock, we'll let people know that way. Thank you, Mayor. That's a very good and pragmatic point, so thank you for raising it. All right. We're ready now for council reports. Council Member James. What happened to me? Thank you, Mayor. Let me find my sheet here. Council Members, you should have received something in your box. Oh, here it is. There was an announcement that came in our boxes of an invitation, and I'm extending this invitation to everybody that's leaving as well as everybody that's watching. The Equestrian View at East End, the development that formerly was the Bluegrass Aspendale area, they are opening up their Bridal Wood and Grand Oaks apartments, and if you have not been to that area of Shropshire and Sixth over by William Wells Brown, you're missing a treat because there are some phenomenal designs of some high-density development that are over there that are absolutely amazing in their color, in their character, and just totally reframes that entire neighborhood. But check it out. The dedication is on Friday, this Friday at 10 a.m. That's the dedication ceremony. But on June 10th through June 12th, from 10 to 5, will be kind of the grand opening where you can tour through the unit. So I hope that you'll check it out. For more information, you can visit www.lexha.org, which is the Housing Authority website, or you can call my office at 258-3216 if you want more information. So come check it out and look at the beautiful designs there. Thanks, Mayor. Thanks. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. I'm passing out a couple of documents. Can you maybe skip me and then come right back to me after the next person? I'd be glad to do that. Council Member Smith. Thank you, Mayor. Just want to remind my colleagues who are also on the Building Task Force that hopefully we'll have our final meeting this Thursday at 2 p.m. in the fifth-floor conference room. That's June 10th at 2 p.m. It's our next Building Inspection Task Force. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks. Council Member Myers, you need another minute? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I just have one quick announcement. The Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association will hold its monthly meeting tonight at Meadowthorpe Park in the community center. That's at 7 o'clock, and I hope to be able to join my neighbors at that meeting. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. A couple of announcements. One, as was mentioned earlier, I want to say what an extreme, I guess, honor it was to stand out there with you today out in the field at Coldstream Park and look at what wasn't necessarily groundbreaking but the pouring of pervious concrete for the Legacy Trail. As was said earlier today, this is something that is truly a legacy for a number of folks that have poured their heart and soul into this, and it is a game changer for this community. It is something that, whether we're looking at it from an economic, environmental, or physical aspect, it's something that benefits the health of this community. I was very humbled that things that you're drawing on napkins a few years ago are now starting to appear, and I appreciate all the work that your administration has done and Mike Webb and Keith Levin and all these folks who have really done amazing work. And when the story is actually told of what it took to get us here, it's a pretty phenomenal story, and it wouldn't have happened without everybody going above and beyond, and I'm just very appreciative for that. Secondarily, I want to make sure that everyone at the Council and everyone watching is made aware that on Sunday, this Sunday, the 13th, from 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock, our airport is doing something that no airport in the United States has ever done or is doing, and that is that they are opening up the new runway that is being constructed to pedestrian traffic. Second Sunday in June will be held from 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock on the new runway, and you're able to bring your blade bikes, walk, bring a picnic, bring your lawn chairs. We'll have an area cordoned off that we call the observation deck, where you can just go and watch planes take off if that's what you want to do. It's free. There will be a Black Hawk helicopter, the police helicopter, fire trucks for kids to be out there on. But this runway is 4,000 feet, and it's three-quarters of a mile in one direction. It's pretty amazing to stand out there and be able to think that our airport is doing that. And I want to encourage everyone to come, and for those who do come, I just want to make sure that I've said this once, don't go to the main entrance of the airport. You can't get there from there. You want to go down Versailles Road past the airport about two miles. On your left is the fire training center, and you want to turn up in there, and parking is right up on that. But this is a day that potentially is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I want to encourage everyone to come out because we are being followed nationally right now by so many other communities and publications at what Lexington is doing for health and wellness. And I think that bodes really well and speaks well to the efforts that we're doing. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Feigl. All right. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. As is the norm, I'd like to move that this week's NDF be approved. I have a motion by Council Member Beard and a second by Council Member Martin to approve the NDF. Council Member Gordon. Yes, I move to this amendment relates to my cost center and my NDF. I move to amend the NDF to Friends of the Park in Fayette County from $29.77 to the corrected amount of $23.75. Any objection? All right. We'll allow that amendment to be made if there is none. Those then being in favor of approving the NDF as now amended, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Feigl. Are we on council report? We are. We are. This was mentioned just very briefly a little while ago, but I do serve on the picnic with the POPs committee, and I just wanted to share some additional information. It has now become public information, which they had asked me to wait until I shared everything with council until it was public. But we will be at Keeneland this year, and it will be a one-night performance only, and it will be renowned artists and acrobats from Cirque de Symphony, and it will be an extremely entertaining evening. And the tickets, although they've been available two nights in the past, they will only be one night this year, so it's first come. So anybody who is interested in attending this year's picnic with the POPs needs to get their reservations in as soon as possible. The date is August 21st from 8 to 10 p.m., and it will be at Keeneland. Thank you. Thank you. I think Council Member Myers is now ready. Thank you, Mayor. Council Members, I passed around two different memorandums. We had two what I think are pretty important meetings this morning, and the first one we'll talk about is the Citizens Advocate Work Group. And in that meeting a motion was made to move forward with the beginning of a charter process to fill the position of Citizens Advocate. So I'd like to ask the Vice Mayor to go ahead and initiate that process. And just for clarity before questions begin, the goal is to start that process. That committee will not get its charge until after the council takes a look at that office and determines how it wants it structured moving forward. So I'd like to ask the Vice Mayor to do that. I'm sorry. I lost what you said just there at the end. The process wouldn't start until. The charter requires that a committee be formed, and each district council member has the privilege of placing someone from their district on that committee. That's the process that we want to start. The committee, once the names are submitted, the goal is to give you 14 days to submit a name for that committee. If not, then one will be appointed for you so we can get that process rolling. But I want to be clear that the committee, once the people are established for who the committee will make up will be, they're not going to get their charge on what to do until after the council looks at that office. The reason I say that is because in this morning's meeting there were questions raised about the office itself, and I don't want to get too deep into that, but how that may look moving forward. Okay. Heard the motion. Is there a second? It's not. We decided earlier that we didn't have to make a motion, but we just wanted to publicly ask the Vice Mayor to start the process. All right. Right. Once the names are submitted, then a resolution will come forward for passage to actually put them on the committee and then start that part of the process. Mr. Stennett has a suggestion. Don't forget. Fourteen day. Fourteen day timeframe from council members to get your name to Rebecca so she can compile the list. If your name is not there, I think the Vice Mayor will take the liberty and appoint someone from your district for you. But we want to make sure we all get our names in at expedient time. And your time starts when the Vice Mayor drops the memo out to all of us, and it will outline what the charter says about, you know, how you pick that person from your district. Yes, sir. Could you just say who's on the Citizens Afghan Work Group, please? It's actually myself as the chair, Councilman Blues, Councilman McCord, Councilman Stennett. Councilman Beard. And then today, for purposes of this meeting, we extended. And I think Councilman Ellinger is already on there anyway. For the purposes of this meeting, the Vice Mayor was asked to include all the at-large members. And so for today's meeting, we had all three of the at-large members as well. And Councilmember Crosby, I'm sorry. It's been a long time since we met, so that was. Okay. Anything further on that issue? Councilmember James. Just a point of clarification. It's only the district council, right? Correct. So it will be a committee of 12 that will make this election? Correct. Okay. Thank you. All right. Councilmember Myers. Okay. And then secondly, we had a meeting, the first meeting for the Special Investigative Committee. And the committee has a motion made and passed unanimously to ask that we place on the docket for the Thursday, June 10th meeting, a resolution authorizing the Special Investigative Committee to secure outside counsel with the funds coming to pay for that counsel from the Law Department's professional services account. So moved. Second. I have a motion with Councilmember Myers and a second with Councilmember Gordon. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Excuse me, Councilmember Lange. My only question is, since the auditor is coming in and is going to do the audit, do we need the attorney now? I was at the meeting, so maybe you could just touch on that question. That's actually a great question, and yes, the answer is yes. And then to elaborate on that, yesterday myself and Joe Shuler met with Brian Likens, who is the executive director who is going to be heading up the state auditor's investigation. And we met and talked about collaborating and working together in tandem in terms of not stepping on each other's toes and those kinds of things, but then clearly having two separate investigations. And he, too, thought that it would be wise for us to get our counsel in place sooner rather than later. And one of the reasons why we want, the hope is to get that in place by the end of this week. We have a meeting coming up on Monday. We hope to have the counsel in place for that meeting so that we understand, as we make our request for documents and different things, that we do that correctly and that we also protect those documents in the way that they need to be protected. Any further discussion? Councilmember Stennett. Councilmember Myers, can you publish a list of the set meeting times? I think there were some people asking about that. Absolutely. I know you scheduled several this morning. I think it would be helpful if you email this or publish it so people can have it. Absolutely. All right. Councilmember Wayne. Could you also just say what the scope of the investigation is for the public and for me, because I'm not sure which I'll decide on this morning either. Okay. We took the scope from the motion that was made in the council meeting to unanimously form the committee, and that was to investigate the fraud allegation and the handling of that fraud allegation by our internal auditor department and board. And just for added information, we also discussed the fact as a committee that the expectation would be that if by chance anything else was uncovered in the process of this investigation, if by chance, that the expectation would be that the committee would bring it back to the full council to vote on how to address those other issues, that this isn't an expedition adventure and that we're not going to look to expand upon what the original motion that created the committee dictated. That's very good. I compliment the committee. That's good. Good work. Thank you. Anything further? All in favor then of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Mark. Thank you, Mayor. The Southland Jamboree starts in one hour and five minutes on Southland Drive next to Southland Bowling Lanes in Southland. The concert starts at 7 o'clock and come early so you can eat at one of the very fine eating establishments on Southland Drive. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Wallace. Thank you. Yes, and the Southland Jamboree is in my district also. It's actually in my district, so hop on over. The Historic South Hill Neighborhood Association will meet tonight at 6 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in the Parsonage Building in the basement. Anyone and everyone is encouraged to attend. The Historic Hill Street Neighborhood Association will meet Tuesday, June 15th at 7 at the First Christian Church at the corner of Audubon and Forest Park, and everyone is welcome to attend that also. On June 11th at 8 p.m., Busters will host a benefit for the Women's Community Garden Project. This supports organizations like the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program, Virginia Place, Chrysalis House, and Family Court will receive assistance from this fundraiser. Music, art, and a fashion show are a part of this fundraising event. Tickets will be available at the door for $25, or you can go to www.bustersbb.com. And another very exciting announcement. The Southline Project is coming near completion, and there will be a block party on Saturday, June 19th. The street will be closed at 2 for preparation of the party, and the party starts at 4 until, I guess, 10 or so. So there were several businesses that went out of business as a result of this. Others are kind of hanging by a thread, but looking forward to it being over. So I encourage everybody in the community to come out to the South Limestone Streetscape Ending Block Party, June 19th. There will still be work to be done, 4 o'clock to whenever, to whenever the police show up, I guess. That was a joke, sorry. Thank you. Thanks. Does any other Councilmember wish to report? All right, we'll move along. The Mayor's report is for information purposes only. If there are no questions on that, we'll proceed to the last agenda item, which is public comment. Does anyone wish to comment on any matter not on the agenda? Mr. Mundy. A little levity here. All right. Is there a motion to adjourn? There is a motion by Councilmember Martin and a second by Councilmember Myers that we adjourn. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you.