# Council Work Session - October 26, 2010 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · October 26, 2010 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/1704 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/1704?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2010-10-26 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: June 18, 2026 - **Length**: 6,280 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council held a meeting on October 26, 2010, presided over by Mayor Newberry. The meeting covered three agenda items spanning planning, parks and recreation, and a formal recognition. Two of the agenda items were informational in nature — a Planning Committee Report and a presentation on the Parks and Recreation Leaf Collection Program — while the recognition of Harmon Parker was formally approved by the Council. Over the course of the meeting, five motions were brought to a vote, and no public comments were heard. No presentations or public testimony were recorded outside of the agenda items addressed by the Council. ## Attendance All 12 councilmembers were present at the October 26, 2010 Council meeting. No members were recorded as absent or late. **Present:** - Councilmember Crosby - Councilmember Gorton - Councilmember Beard - Councilmember Blues - Councilmember McCord - Councilmember Stennett - Councilmember Feigl - Councilmember Henson - Councilmember Wallace - Councilmember Ellinger - Councilmember James - Councilmember Wayne ## Votes and Decisions All votes at the October 26, 2010 Council meeting were taken by voice vote. No roll call votes were recorded. - **Approval of the October 19th Summary** [timestamp: 0:01:36]: Moved by Councilmember Crosby and seconded by Councilmember Gorton. The motion passed by voice vote. - **Approval of New Business Items** [timestamp: 0:01:36]: Moved by Councilmember Beard and seconded by Councilmember Crosby. The motion passed by voice vote. - **Initiate Text Amendments on Zoning Ordinance Recommendations and Land Subdivision Regulations** [timestamp: 0:05:56]: Moved by Councilmember Gorton and seconded by Councilmember Blues. The motion to initiate text amendments passed by voice vote. - **Approve a Resolution for the Lexington Fayette Urban County Mobile Home Park Guide** [timestamp: 0:07:04]: Moved by Councilmember Gorton and seconded by Councilmember McCord. The resolution passed by voice vote. - **Refer the Taxicab Ordinance to the Services Committee** [timestamp: 0:28:24]: Moved by Councilmember Wallace and seconded by Councilmember Crosby. The motion to move the taxicab ordinance into the Services Committee for review passed by voice vote. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council addressed one financial item during the October 26, 2010 meeting: - **Leaf Collection Program:** The Council considered an appropriation of **$500,000** for the leaf collection program. No vendor, recipient, or resolution number was identified in connection with this item. No additional budget actions, appropriations, or financial resolutions were recorded for this meeting. ## Contested Items - **Leaf Collection Program**: The Council engaged in a heated discussion regarding the municipality's leaf collection program. Councilmembers raised concerns about the efficiency and cost of the program, with some members expressing that they were not supporters of the program. The available record does not specify which individual councilmembers took particular positions, nor does it detail the specific cost figures debated or the ultimate outcome of the discussion. ## Planning Committee Report [timestamp: 02:06] Councilmember Gorton presented the Planning Committee report to the Council. The report covered two primary topics that had been taken up by the Planning Committee: the downtown Lexington building inventory and tree-related regulations. No additional details regarding the specific findings of the downtown building inventory or the particulars of the tree-related regulatory discussion were recorded in the available summary data. The presentation was informational in nature, with no vote or formal action taken as an outcome of the report. ## Parks and Recreation Leaf Collection Program [timestamp: 07:34] Tim Clark from Parks and Recreation presented the plans for the 2010 leaf collection season, including changes intended to improve the efficiency of the program. The presentation was informational in nature, and no vote or formal action was taken by the Council. No additional details regarding the specific changes to the program, concerns raised by Council members, or further discussion are available from the provided meeting record. ## Harmon Parker Recognition [timestamp: 38:06] Mayor Newberry recognized Harmon Parker for his work building bridges in Kenya. As part of the recognition, Mayor Newberry proclaimed October 26, 2010, as **Harmon Parker Day**. Both Mayor Newberry and Harmon Parker were key speakers during this portion of the meeting. The item was approved by the Council. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the October 19th summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business items - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Initiate text amendments on zoning ordinance recommendations and land subdivision regulations - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve a resolution for the Lexington Fayette Urban County Mobile Home Park Guide - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Move the taxicab ordinance into the Services Committee for review --- ## Full transcript to have the opportunity to see some of our employees who have been participating in the winner's circle. The winner's circle, as I suspect some of you know, is an effort to try to give folks some additional insight about high-level customer performance, and we have a number of individuals with us today who have completed that course. Let me, if I may, call their names out and ask them to stand as I call their names. Jeff Estes from Lexcall. Malcolm Ferguson from Code Enforcement. Sam Hugh from Planning. Gene Humston from Law. Jeff Lewis from Revenue. Bonnie Mays from Adult Services. Earlene Medina from Revenue. Vanessa Sanford from Human Resources. Teresa Warrick from the Law Department. And Angela Williams from Social Services. Let's give these folks a round of applause. Thank you very much for your efforts on behalf of Urban County Government. We appreciate your being here today. Is there any public comment on any issues that are on today's agenda? All right, we'll move along. We don't have a docket to approve. We do have the October 19th summary to consider. I have a motion by Councilmember Crosby and a second by Councilmember Gorton to approve the October 19th summary. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. All opposed, no. Motion carries. We don't have any budget amendments. We do have some new business items. Do I hear a second? I have a motion by Councilmember Beard and a second by Councilmember Crosby to approve the new business items. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Takes us down to the Planning Committee report. Councilmember Gorton. Thank you, Mayor. The Planning Committee met on October 19th. And, Councilmembers, I've placed at your chair two documents, both of which have been seen by you before today. One is the letter from Karen Angelucci, Chair of the Tree Board, with the proposed ordinances, and one is in relation to the mobile home park issue. The first item that the Planning Committee discussed was the downtown Lexington building inventory. And Betty Kerr, Director of Historic Preservation, made a presentation on the downtown Lexington building inventory. And this is the second time that the Planning Committee has seen the building inventory, and then the full Council had already seen it also. And she discussed the different categories of rating, outstanding, significant, contributing, non-contributing, and post-1965, and discussed regulatory processes such as overlay districts, form-based codes, and incentives for revitalizing historic structures and new construction. And there was extended conversation and questions. And, basically, the future discussions of this building inventory will be incorporated into the ongoing task force, which is looking at design guidelines and form-based codes. We were also fortunate to have Mark Denin at our meeting. He is the Director of the State Heritage Program and the State Historic Preservation Program. And there was some discussion of placing any incentives and earmarks which might be linked to historic building inventory on our website, and Betty Kerr is going to work on that. She thought that would be a helpful idea. The second issue we discussed was the tree-related regulations. This came back to the Planning Committee for the second time. The first time the committee looked at it, we asked the tree board and planning folks to go back to the home building community and get their input and ideas, which they did. And so this ultimately is in relation to street trees, and I've distributed to you the proposed changes in the zoning ordinance. Those would be text amendments. And the proposed changes in the land subdivision regulations, which would also need to be text amendments that are initiated, and the requirements in the Code of Ordinances and the engineering manuals, which would not be text amendments. So after lengthy discussion and questioning, the motion coming forward is to move to the full council the recommendation to initiate text amendments on the zoning ordinance recommendations and the land subdivision regulations and to move forward to the full council the Code of Ordinance recommendations. And this motion is coming today from the Planning Committee. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Gorton, second by Council Member Blues. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And just as a reminder, when those text amendments are initiated, if the council approves that, they will go to the Planning Commission, and then they will come back again to the council. So the council will have another look at those. The next item we discussed was mobile home quality of life, and Council Member James brought forward a trifold, which I've given you a copy of this trifold, and it probably will need vetted one more time to be sure it's inclusive of all of our utilities and the necessary areas in government which need to be listed. But this was as a result of some of the quality of life issues that occurred with our mobile home parks this past year. And so coming out of that discussion is a motion to approve a resolution asking to adopt the Lexington Fayette Urban County Mobile Home Park Guide for use by the LFUCG. So moved. I have a motion by Council Member Gorton, second by Council Member McCord. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Any questions for Council Member Gorton? Seeing none, we'll proceed to our next presentation by Tim Clark from Parks and Recreation. Tim, welcome back to the podium. Good afternoon, Mayor Newberry, Vice Mayor Gray, and council members. I'm Tim Clark, Superintendent of Park Maintenance with the Division of Parks and Recreation. And as you guys all know, Parks and Recreation manages the residential vacuum leaf collection program. And we've been preparing for the past several months for the 2010 leaf collection season. All of our trucks are being retrofitted. The leaf boxes have been put on. All of our leaf vacuums have been serviced, thanks in part to Dave Loney and Fleet Services crews. We've got all of our drivers lined up. We have additional training scheduled for our drivers this coming Friday. We've hired 35 additional seasonal employees that will work our leaf crews. And our supervisory team's in place, Kevin Kuhn. Kevin's sitting in the audience today. Yuri Washington and Garrett Caudill have been running the program for several years and do a fantastic job. Today I've prepared a brief PowerPoint presentation to answer some of the questions that you might have regarding the 2010 leaf collection season. Basically, the residential vacuum leaf collection service is Parks and Recreation crews will collect the leaves that citizens have raked to the curb. Who is eligible for the service? It's basically offered to all citizens in the urban service area who receive the urban county government waste collection services. And this is approximately 90,000 residential addresses. I'll talk about this a little bit later, but citizens can look up their address on the website to see if they are eligible for that. Well, the leaves have started falling, have been for several weeks, and after today's storm, I'm sure quite a few more will be coming down. But we're ready. We start Monday. And our plan is to finish by the end of this calendar year. We divide the city, the service area up into five separate zones, and each one of those zones receives two weeks of leaf pickup. This might be a little difficult to see. However, that's an indication of our zones. And that's a copy that's in the handout that you have in front of you. What do the citizens need to do? Basically, they just need to rake their leaves to the curb. We ask that they do not put them in the street. And if there's rocks or tree limbs and such, they need to take those out. Those cause problems for our leaf vacuums. If citizens choose not to take part in the leaf, the vacuum leaf program, or if it takes a little while for us to get back to them, they have other options available to them. This is a list of those options. The linear yard waste container, they can get the 30-gallon paper yard waste bags. Other options right there. How do we communicate the information? We do it in a number of ways. And yesterday there was a news release about the leaf collection program for this year. We utilize GTV3, our website. The Lexington Herald-Leader assists in getting the information out. We ask for council members' help. If you have newsletters and such, we'd like for you to put any information in that. They can call, citizens can call Lex Call. Pat Tatum and her staff do a fantastic job of answering questions and fielding those questions. Or they can call Parks and Recreation at the number indicated. But we try to get the word out so people know that we're coming. When they need to have their leaves out and have those out there so we can get them picked up. As you may recall, I was here back in May and presented to the Services Committee and indicated that there were some changes, some things that we were working on to improve the efficiency of the operation. One of the biggest things that we're real excited about is the change that's been made to the website. And I encourage all of you guys to go out to the website. It's on the front page of the home page of the LexingtonKY.gov. Phillip Stafel and Computer Services and GIS, those guys have done a tremendous job and helped us out to get the website to where it is today. But the change that we're most excited about is citizens can put in their specific address and after they do that, we will have a text response to them that says either yes, they are eligible for the service and these are the dates that they will receive service or no, based on our information, you are not eligible for the service. And then we provide additional information for them to check in case they think there's a mistake. They, once again, can call LexCall or call us at Parks and we'll get to the bottom of that problem. But we think that this change alone will make a tremendous difference on the number of calls that we receive and will just really help improve the program overall. Another thing that's taken place this year, we've been able to get a few more rear loader trucks and replace some of our dump trucks. The advantage there is the capacity of the rear loaders versus the capacity of the dump trucks. That will mean fewer trips to the landfill on Haley Pike. And then the other change is we're going ahead and planning Saturday pickup times. Previously, we were using Saturdays as kind of an as-needed basis, but we're going ahead and building Saturdays into our schedule. Questions? But before we jump to that, I wanted to point out the picture on the right there. That's an example of what we frequently encounter where leaves have been raked into the street and we ask that all citizens not do that. So at this time, I'll take any questions you might have. All right. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. Tim, thank you for coming and bringing us an update before we begin leaf collection. As you know, I haven't been a big fan of this program. I think it's one of the more inefficient programs we offer in government just to the nature of the cost and to the number of citizens we don't serve with this program. So speaking of cost, how much money is in the budget for leaf collection this year? It's right around half a million dollars. And how many more crews do we have? Did you say we increase the number of crews so we can compact the pickup time so we don't go into the new year like we have in the past years? No, this budget actually has remained constant for several years. But we've hired additional seasonal employees. We just felt like we needed to staff up a few, especially now since we've got three more rear loader trucks, we need additional men to work with those trucks. But the budget has not increased. No, but you expanded the crews and shortened the time frame in which we pick them up? The time frame is relatively the same. I mean, we've always provided two weeks of service for each one of the zones. We expect it will take that and then possibly additional time, depending upon the weather. You know, obviously if it snows, which has happened in the past, that we can't pick up leaves when there's snow all over the top of the leaves. We do work in the rain. But there are a lot of factors out there that impact our serviceability. And if we get to a location and someone has, like the picture showed above us, put them in the street, will we still pick them up? Absolutely. Hold on, the second part is we're finding people and citing people for putting things in our storm drains right now. I've seen a lot of leaves swept into our storm drain system. Are we going to continue with enforcement when we see someone do this, or are we just going to pick it up and move on? Our task, our challenge is to get the leaves picked up. We're not, Parks and Rec is not responsible for the enforcement. No, I understand that. Would you notify Environmental Quality if you do see someone sweeping them into the storm system? The whole point of getting them off the streets is so they don't go into our storm drain system. We can certainly add that. Thank you, sir, and I know this issue is in Services Committee, and we'll be looking at different ways to do this hopefully in the future. Thank you. Council Member Feigl. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Tim, for this nice presentation. I also want to compliment you on the website because I wrote an article for the Chevy Chaser, which I do monthly, and I wanted to include information about the leaves because I'd seen some residents beginning to rake their leaves into the street, and so I felt compelled to put that in the news article, and I found all the information I needed on the website, so I want to compliment you on that. Well, it's certainly a team effort, and Phillip and his staff, they've done a tremendous job. They pretty much dropped everything else that they were doing to come and assist us, and we vastly appreciate everything they've done for us. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Tim, for being here, and I agree with Council Member Stanton. I'm not a big fan of this program either, but I know that a lot of residents do like the program. I wanted to see, just to ask, can you explain how they go about getting the leaf bags? If they don't want to rake to the curb, how does that work? I'm going to ask Steve if he would answer that. Thank you. Residents receive coupons in the newsletter that they can take to any retail outlet here, and they can also call 311 and ask for up to 20 coupons for that, and that's good for 100 bags. Do the residents that are not within the urban service area have any alternatives? They can go purchase the bags on their own if they want. If they have private collection, the private hauler would pick them up? They would have to. That's something that we're not involved with, so they would have to do that on their own. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Wallace. Thank you. I'm excited about all the revamping you've done. Last year there were a lot of problems with leaves never getting picked up. I don't think they ever did. So can they go to the website and report if the day that they were told their leaves would be picked up and they weren't? We don't have a mechanism on the website today to do that. What we would prefer they do is contact LexCal and let LexCal generate a service request, which is then sent to us at Parks and Recreation. And also, as in the past, we've received e-mails from council members and council member aides about specific issues as well. So we'll take those e-mails and we'll address all the issues and complaints that come to us. Okay. And if people have the lenny, are they still eligible for the coupons for the bags? My understanding is, yes, that they are. Okay. And also, I just want to remind people that another option, which is good for your lawn and good for the environment, is you can mow them and mulch them right there. And it looks like you never had any leaves. And in my book, that's a lot easier than raking. So I wanted to throw that out. And thank you. I hope it goes really smoothly this year. And thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Peer. Thank you, Mayor. Tim, the situation we've been in for the last few months as far as the level of dryness, 1.1 inches since August 1st, have you all had to adapt or think about extending the time frame when these leaves get dropped? I, for instance, in my front yard, I've got one tree that's totally bare, and another tree is still green and thinks it's April. Have you talked with Tim Querrey or anybody at UK about adjusting anything to take care of this problem? We talk with our forestry staff on numerous tree issues. And we've had these conversations over the past couple of months. With all the dryness, a lot of leaves have begun to fall. And obviously there's still quite a few more to come down. We expect that over the next two months that most all the leaves will be down. We will extend past December as necessary to make sure that all the leaves are taken care of. In addition to the residential areas, we also take care of the medians, Richmond Road median, for example. So we have crews that will stay and continue to do that as well. But it's not an exact science with these leaves. There's dryness and wetness impacts when they come down, which species fall and that type of thing. So we moved the leaf collection season earlier this year because of the dryness and the leaves that were coming down. We thought we'd better go ahead and get started earlier. So that's some of the adjustments that we make. And we'll continue to service areas beyond December as necessary. Okay, fine. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Any other questions for Mr. Clark? Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you, Mayor. I think we're ready for council reports. If council members wish to report, please indicate. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. This is our last meeting for a couple weeks. And many of you are in some heated elections and competitions out there. I just want to wish everyone the best of luck. And no matter what, let us all not forget why we're here, and that's to serve the citizens. Win or lose, that's still what we have to do the remainder of the year. So I do wish everyone luck. That has a heated race. And we hopefully see everyone back here in two weeks and ready to go on a couple of important issues before the year ends. Also, he already left a room, but I want to wish Chris King a happy birthday. I won't say which one, but it's a good one. So, Chris, happy birthday for him. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Feigl. Thank you, Mayor. I just happened to run across an article in the newspaper that I wanted to kind of bring to your attention. Lexington's Division of Water Quality was honored recently with a stormwater award by the American Public Works Association of Kentucky. And I just wanted to recognize them, and particularly Charlie Martin, for all the effort that they put into trying to maintain our stormwater systems and our sewer systems for the citizens of this community. And I just want to applaud them for their efforts and for the award that they've received. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. We just have two neighborhood meetings upcoming on Monday, November the 1st. Georgetown Neighborhood Association will meet in the O'Rear Center at 6 p.m. in Douglas Park. And the same evening, Green Acres, Hollow Creek, Breckenridge Neighborhood Association will meet at 7 o'clock in the Green Acres Park Community Center. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Hinson. Thank you, Mayor. Just real quickly, I know that each of you received a letter from Mr. Cushy with Hillcrest Memorial Park, and he was upset over his stormwater fee. So I just wanted you to know that I'm going to go meet with him. I'm going to get with Water Quality and find out for sure what's going on, but I think it's probably a mistake. But he had sent the letter to the mayor and then to each of us got a copy. And I spoke with him this afternoon, and he had not originally or previously reported that. So I do think that it just could be a mistake. And I'll keep you updated. Thanks. Council Member Wallace. The Goodrich Neighborhood Association will meet Thursday, October 28th at the end of Goodrich Avenue. I wanted to remind everybody that the Thriller Parade and Halloween Extravaganza will be Saturday, October 30th. The Thriller Showcase will begin at 7 p.m. in the Centerpoint Field. So it's always the parade starts outside the Kentucky Theater and will travel downtown Main Street to the Cheapside Pavilion. So that's always a lot of fun. Last year we were in a council meeting during the Thriller Parade. I also want to remind everybody in the 3rd District and other areas that Sunday, October 31st from 6 to 8 p.m. is the official trick-or-treating. So be careful driving and watch for the little goblins and fairy princesses, et cetera, that will be out on the dark streets. Also, I have a question for, I guess, Commissioner Bennett, is he here? Or somebody from Human Resources? I'll go on. Also, I want to make a motion to move an issue regarding the revision of the taxicab ordinance into the Services Committee for review. So moved. I have a motion by Council Member Wallace, seconded by Council Member Crosby, move the taxicab ordinance into Services Committee for review. Yes, sir. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. What are you looking at us doing? One of the provisions in the taxicab ordinance locally is that someone has to have 25 cabs to start a cab business. And I think that's higher than most communities. So if someone has five or ten vehicles, they can't start a cab company. And I thought it would be important for us to look at, since we're encouraging business and entrepreneurship, maybe lowering that or stepping it up. I also understand the reason that we don't want somebody with one car to start a cab company. So that's why I'd like for services to look at it. Is that okay? Motion is to refer the cab ordinance to the Services Committee. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Commissioner Bennett, if you could come on up. Yes, sir. It was me. I understand that a lot of public safety employees have to be recertified every so often. Firefighters, police, I'm not sure who all, maybe some other in some of the other areas, they have to be recertified. And they have to take tests to be recertified. Okay. At least for the firefighters right now, the manuals are not updated with the tests that they're taking. Are we talking promotional tests or? I believe recertification tests. Okay. That I'm not aware of, but I'll look into it. Yeah, if you would, please. Sure. I assume it would be human resources that would be responsible for getting them the updated manuals. I don't know what it is. It could be human resources or the fire department. But I'll take a look at it. Okay. Thank you very much. Sure. You're welcome. That's all. Thank you. Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to announce, I think most people got a copy, or at least council members got a copy of the letter from Nick Newman, the president of the Fraternal Order of Firefighters. And he was announcing to us that on Saturday, December 11th, they will be having the largest fundraiser for their toy program, which is the Chuck Williams auction. Chuck Williams is a firefighter who was killed in the line of duty on February 17th, 1997. They have raised more than $182,000 for kids in this community whose parents can't afford to buy them toys. And they're looking for members of the community to help support them during this auction. They've set some aggressive fundraising goals of $20,000. And so they want to start early and try and get people, if they have any gently used items or overstock items, to donate to this program. You can either call the fire department and arrange for a pickup if you're unable to drop it off, or you can drop it off at any of the fire stations. So I would encourage everybody to try and attend that and also donate if you can. And also, just with their toy program, if you have any toys, I know with three young children, I accumulate toys. And so I've always taken over boxes to any fire station. They'll also accept toys for the actual toy drive. And my only other announcement, Council Member Lawless made regarding the Thriller Parade, and I hope to see everybody downtown for that and their zombie costumes. It's a fun evening and thousands of dancers dancing to Thriller, and you have to kind of have a high tolerance for hearing Thriller over and over. But it's such a fun night. So I would encourage everybody to come out. Thank you. Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to give you all a report of what's going on this weekend with the Lyric, just if you haven't heard already. We're really excited about the Grand Reopening weekend. It's a weekend full of events. Thursday is an event where school children will come to the Lyric. The mayor is also doing a ribbon cutting on that day as well. We will have some fifth-grade students from surrounding schools, some walking and some riding on buses that are coming to be able to get a feel of what it feels like to see a movie at the Lyric. And that's going to be exciting. On Friday at noon, there is a senior movie day, and we are going to be playing an old black-and-white film reminiscent of the days when the seniors used to attend the Lyric back in the day. So at noon, if you want to attend that, I believe you do have to be a senior to attend that. So if you classify yourself as that, then come on down. They're asking for a donation of a dollar at that time to be given. There will be a tour for the seniors after that viewing of the movie. That evening, Lavon Williams' art, if you've not seen his art, you need to come check it out. It's visual art. He does work with wood, folk art. There will be a gallery opening starting at 6 o'clock with Lavon Williams up in the exhibit space, which is the second floor of the new building. And so it will be a reception for that. Beginning at 6.30 is the dedication of the quilt. Community members came together over a few months' time and created a quilt in honor of the Lyric, and it's amazing. I got to get a peek at it, and it's really creative, and we've got some creative folks here, so we'll be doing a dedication of the quilt. At 7 o'clock there will be a panel discussion. I believe that panel discussion is focusing on folk art. I may be wrong about that, so please don't hold me to that. But whatever it is, it's going to be fun to be there. So that will be in the new theater space or the renovated theater space, so please come out for that discussion. 8 o'clock on Saturday morning is breakfast with me, and we'll be enjoying some local foods and enjoying some amazing photography by Jeff Maddock, who is a neighborhood resident who's been taking pictures of the East End area and the Lyric renovation throughout its progress. Very intriguing art that we'll have on display there. We'll have some young musicians that will be there to serenade us through the breakfast, and really it's just a time to celebrate the revitalization of the Lyric as well as the revitalization of the East End area, and there's a lot to celebrate going on there. That evening, if you don't have your tickets already, I'm sorry, sold out performance that evening, and we're thrilled about that. And that will be some local artists as well as the headliner of Mickey Howard will be there, so we're excited about that. Parking, if you're interested. I know everyone's interested and anxious about parking. Shiloh Baptist Church, the PNC Bank, which is on the corner of Elm Tree and Main Street, have given those spaces to us there for use. It's a garage that's right there on the corner. We'll do some maneuvering because you'll have the thriller going on downtown as well, but we'll try to have signage directing you as to how you can enter that parking garage. And also Central Christian Church has given us authorization to use their spaces for that evening. So we feel like there will be sufficient parking available, as well as all the work that LFUCG has done along Elm Tree Lane to designate parking, and there's a few spaces that are right directly across from the Lyric Theater, which we're trying to reserve for elderly and folks that might need closer access. There will be a shuttle that will run to pick you up. We'll have those spots designated. So if you have to park at PNC or Shiloh or at the Central Christian spot, look for a nearby sign that says Lyric Shuttle that will be around to pick you up, so you won't have to walk that far, although it's less than three blocks either way. So it should be nearby, and hopefully it will be a nice evening for you to take a nice evening walk before and after the event. So, Mayor, I just wanted to give an update to everyone, and especially to extend the invitation to the council members and you, Mayor, as well, to attend at least. I know you're going to be at a lot of events, but if you can come to the breakfast event, I'd love to have you there where you can kind of get some of the energy that I'm feeling, based on all the things that are happening in that area. Thank you. Council Member Wayne. Thank you, Mayor. This afternoon I was coming to the council meeting, I got on the elevator with a student from the University of Kentucky, and then I found out that these were journalism students, and, of course, publishing a magazine, I'm pretty fond of journalists. So I want to just take this occasion to welcome the class from the University of Kentucky School of Journalism to our meeting this afternoon. Thank you all for coming. Thank you. Does any other council member have a report? Well, I don't have a report, but I've got a special recognition today, and I'd like for Harmon Parker to stand and be recognized for just a moment. Mr. Parker is a native of Lexington, and his name might be familiar to those of you who watch CNN, because he was recognized in September as one of the top ten CNN heroes. And there's about a minute and a half videotape that I would like for Chris to queue up for us to give you just a little background about Mr. Parker. What strikes me about this place is the beauty and the feeling of being insignificant. Life for people here is very difficult, very secluded. The beauty of this place also becomes dangerous because of these mountains when it rains. My father came to the market in the morning. He was with my mother. On the way back in the evening, they found the river was flooded. They drowned. I've worked all over Kenya. Every community has the same story. Crocodiles and hippos and loved ones lost. When it floods, people really suffer not being able to get across to the clinic or the market or to their school. Oh, look at this. Here come some kids helping. The very first bridge I built, I saw how it could change lives and transform communities. So I carried on, and I love what I do. My name is Harmon Parker, and I build bridges to transform people's lives. The community has to initiate the project. They have to participate and make some sort of financial contribution. I don't know how many goats I have in this region, but they always give me a goat. I've spent half my life in a tent. I've had malaria seven or eight times. It's hard, and it takes a lot of determination. A bridge is a beautiful metaphor for many things. I feel I'm privileged to do what I'm doing, destined to help people, and I'm driven by that. Mr. Parker, if you'll join me at the podium. I have a proclamation that I have prepared that I want to read to everybody, just to let you know a little additional information. Whereas Harmon Parker was raised in Lexington, married his wife, Terry, in 1984, and their son, Josh, was born in Lexington. And whereas as a Christian developmental missionary for over 20 years, Mr. Parker gained an understanding of the dangers faced by the residents of Lexington. And whereas to protect villagers from the dangerous waters, Harmon built a footbridge in 1996 over the Moroney River, not familiar with that one, and demand for more bridges soon began to grow. And whereas in 2003, Mr. Parker was able to build a bridge across the river and build a bridge over the Moroney River. And whereas as a Christian developmental missionary for over 20 years, And whereas in 2003, Mr. Parker founded Bridging the Gap, and through the organization, he has built 45 footbridges to keep villagers, especially children, women, and the elderly out of dangerous waters. And whereas in September 2010, CNN named Harmon one of the top 10 CNN heroes, making him eligible to be named CNN Hero of the Year, and for a cash prize that will allow Harmon to save more Kenyans from the perilous rivers. Now therefore I, Jim Newberry, Mayor of the Lexington, Fayette, Urban County Government, do hereby proclaim Tuesday, October 26, 2010, as Harmon Parker Day, and urge all citizens to vote now at Google CNN Heroes 2010, and often you can vote multiple times for Harmon Parker as CNN Hero of the Year. Congratulations. Thank you. Mayor Newberry and council members, it's a privilege to be here. It truly is. And I'm a bit jet-lagged. I just arrived a couple of days ago, but I just completed another bridge for the CNN shoot, so it's 46 bridges now, so I hope to push 50 pretty soon. It's just great to be here. It's great to be back in Lexington. My handprints are all over this city, being a mason. I've built homes in all parts of this wonderful city. I've built horse barns for W.T. Young. I was kind of his personal mason. And people are asking me, I have to answer this question at some point, who is my hero? And people at CNN, they want to know this, but I haven't been able to answer it definitively. But today I'm thinking I would say Goose Gibbons, because you all know who Goose Gibbons is? 43 points in the basketball game. But anyway, it's great to be here, and this recognition is very much appreciated. And I look forward to representing Lexington and the state of Kentucky in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving evening. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does any member of the public wish to comment on any issue not on today's agenda? Do I hear a motion to adjourn? Second. I have a motion by Council Member Blues, second by Council Member Gordon. All in favor of adjourning, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Motion carries.