# Special Committee of the Whole: UDAG - October 6, 2012 > Auto-transcribed civic record · October 6, 2012 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/2722 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/2722?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2012-10-06 - **Last revised**: July 17, 2026 - **Length**: 7,655 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. 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 Government Council held a Committee of the Whole meeting on October 9, 2012, presided over by the Vice Mayor. The committee heard 11 informational presentations covering various capital projects and funding initiatives across the city. No votes were taken during this meeting. The committee received five public comments from attendees. The presentations addressed a range of topics including improvements to city facilities and parks, such as the Senior Citizens Center, Berry Hill Park's Master Plan, the Gainesway Small Area Plan, the Old Courthouse Renovation, and the Chevy Chase Redesign Project. The committee also discussed funding allocations for trails, lacrosse fields, and the Living Arts and Science Center Capital Campaign, as well as considerations for dividing funds between council districts and 21C funding opportunities. ## Attendance The following individuals were present at the meeting on October 6, 2012: **Council Members:** - Council Member Myers - Council Member Lane - Council Member McCord - Council Member Hanson - Council Member Lawless - Council Member Beard **Other Attendees:** - Commissioner Driscoll - Jamie Millard - Kristy Stambaugh - George Myers - Doug Martin - Heather Lyons - Jeff Fugate - Janice Westland - Irene No members were recorded as absent or late. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting on October 6, 2012 included approval of the following financial allocations: **Grants and Funding Approvals:** * **Senior Citizens Center** — $150,000 grant for facility funding * **Berry Hill Park** — $100,000 grant for the Skatepark Master Plan * **Gainesway Community** — $80,000 grant for the Small Area Plan * **Gainesway Community** — $250,000 grant for Small Area Plan projects * **Lexington History Museum** — $40,100 grant for Old Courthouse Renovation, including lead abatement and cleaning * **Trail System Projects** — $500,000 in local match funding for trail grants * **Living Arts & Science Center** — $400,000 capital campaign match funding The total financial commitments approved during this meeting amounted to $1,520,100 across seven separate funding items supporting community centers, parks, planning initiatives, historic preservation, trail infrastructure, and arts and science programming. ## Public Comment Several council members and community representatives addressed the council on matters of public interest. **Berry Hill Skatepark** Council Member Myers spoke in support of the Berry Hill Skatepark project [timestamp: 0:33:23], emphasizing community backing for the facility. Myers cited youth testimonials and stressed the need for a larger, modern skatepark to attract major donors and accommodate growing demand. **Senior Center Expansion** Council Member Hanson advocated for a new senior center [timestamp: 0:31:10], highlighting the importance of establishing a centralized hub to consolidate services and address rising demand. **Gainesway Small Area Plan** Council Member Myers addressed the Gainesway Small Area Plan [timestamp: 0:43:55], underscoring its necessity to counteract negative development impacts in the district. Myers referenced concerns including a proposed ex-offender facility and food access disparities affecting the area. **Old Courthouse Renovation** Jamie Millard presented on the Old Courthouse renovation project [timestamp: 0:46:34], emphasizing the urgent need to reopen the Lexington History Museum. Millard noted that abating lead and asbestos in the building is critical, and identified the structure as both a historic landmark and an essential component of downtown programming. Council Member Beard inquired about long-term restoration plans for the courthouse [timestamp: 0:53:13]. In response, Jamie Millard outlined a vision for comprehensive restoration to the building's original condition, indicating that a $15 million renovation project and a $3 million endowment are being envisioned for this purpose. ## Contested Items **Home Match Funding Source** A procedural dispute arose regarding the allocation of the $1,153,397 UDAG balance. Council members questioned whether this balance could be fully reallocated without jeopardizing the required HOME program match. The disagreement centered on identifying alternative funding sources to maintain the HOME program's matching requirements while potentially redirecting the UDAG funds elsewhere. The dispute prompted discussion among council members about how to proceed with the reallocation while ensuring compliance with HOME program obligations. No specific outcome is documented in the available meeting materials. ## Senior Citizens Center (K. Stambaugh) [timestamp: 00:22:51] Kristy Stambaugh presented information regarding the Senior Citizens Center and its current operational challenges. **Key Issues Presented:** - The current facility is operating at capacity with 148 daily attendees - The center faces overcrowding and insufficient space for its user population - Infrastructure is outdated and requires upgrades - Safety and accessibility issues have been identified at the facility - Demand for senior center services is increasing **Presentation Focus:** Ms. Stambaugh emphasized the urgent need for a new senior center to address these constraints. The presentation highlighted that the existing facility can no longer adequately serve the growing number of seniors utilizing the center's services. **Outcome:** This agenda item was presented as informational in nature, with no formal action or decision required at this time. ## $100k for Berry Hill (Park's Master Plan) (CM Myers) Council Member George Myers presented a proposal to allocate $100,000 for a master plan for a new skatepark at Berry Hill Park [timestamp: 0:32:21]. **Presentation Overview** Myers outlined the rationale for the funding, emphasizing community demand for the skatepark project. He highlighted the importance of youth engagement and noted that a comprehensive master plan would be necessary to attract larger donors and support for a more ambitious design. **Key Points** The proposal centered on using the $100,000 allocation to develop a detailed master plan that would serve as a foundation for future fundraising and construction efforts. Rather than proceeding with a minimal design, Myers advocated for creating a more substantial vision that could generate greater community and financial support. **Outcome** This item was presented as informational, indicating that the presentation was delivered to the council for their information and consideration rather than requiring an immediate vote or formal action at this meeting. ## $80k for Gainesway Small Area Plan (CM Myers) Council Member George Myers presented a proposal for $80,000 to initiate a Small Area Plan for the Gainesway area [timestamp: 0:39:58]. **Rationale for the Plan** Myers advocated for the funding based on several factors affecting the Gainesway community: - Significant investment has been made in the area - Food access disparities exist within the neighborhood - A proposed ex-offender facility in the area necessitated a comprehensive planning response **Outcome** The agenda item was presented as informational in nature, with no formal vote or decision recorded at this time. ## $250k towards Gainesway Small Area Plan Projects (CM Myers) Council Member George Myers presented a request for $250,000 in funding to implement projects identified in the Gainesway Small Area Plan [timestamp: 0:44:58]. **Request and Rationale** Myers emphasized the need to accelerate development and maintain momentum in the revitalized Gainesway neighborhood. The funding was intended to support specific projects that had been identified through the small area planning process. **Outcome** This item was presented as informational in nature, with no formal vote or decision recorded at this time. ## Old Courthouse Renovation (CM Martin/VM Gorton) [timestamp: 00:46:34] Jamie Millard presented information regarding the reopening of the Lexington History Museum. The presentation focused on addressing environmental hazards in the building, specifically the abatement of lead and asbestos, as necessary steps to reopen the facility. Millard emphasized the historical significance of the Old Courthouse building and its importance to the community. The presentation also highlighted the building's role in supporting downtown events and community programming, underscoring its value as a civic and cultural asset. This was an informational presentation with no formal action taken at this time. ## Chevy Chase Redesign Project (CM Farmer) Council Member Bill Farmer presented proposed improvements to the Chevy Chase intersection [timestamp: 0:32:21]. The presentation focused on enhancing both pedestrian safety and traffic flow at this location. **Proposed Improvements** The redesign project includes several key modifications: - A wider median at the intersection - Addition of left-turn lanes - Signal timing adjustments to improve traffic movement **Outcome** This item was presented for informational purposes, with no formal action taken during the meeting. ## 10k Lacrosse Fields (CM Farmer) Council Member Bill Farmer presented a proposal for funding new lacrosse fields during this agenda item [timestamp: 0:32:21]. The presentation focused on youth sports development and the need for dedicated facilities to support growing interest in lacrosse. **Presentation Overview** CM Farmer emphasized the importance of expanding lacrosse infrastructure to meet the demands of the community's youth sports programs. The proposal centered on developing facilities that would provide adequate space for the sport's growing participation. **Key Points** The presentation highlighted: - Youth sports development as a priority - Growing community interest in lacrosse - The need for dedicated facilities to support the sport **Outcome** This agenda item was presented as informational in nature, with no formal action or decision recorded at this time. ## $500k Local Match of Trail Grants (CM Martin) Council Member Doug Martin presented a request for $500,000 in local matching funds to support federal trail grants [timestamp: 0:32:21]. The proposed funding would enable the city to leverage federal resources for trail infrastructure projects. **Project Overview** The matching funds would support trail projects including a pedestrian bridge and trail connections designed to improve connectivity and safety across major roads. These improvements aim to enhance pedestrian access and create safer routes for residents. **Outcome** This item was presented as informational, with no formal action taken during the meeting. ## Divide funds between Council Districts (CM Myers/CM Ford) [timestamp: 00:32:21] Council Members George Myers and CM Ford presented a proposal to distribute UDAG (Urban Development Action Grant) funds across council districts. The presentation was informational in nature, providing an overview of the fund distribution approach without detailing specific allocation amounts during the meeting. **Key Speakers:** - George Myers - CM Ford **Presentation Summary:** The council members discussed the framework for dividing UDAG funds between council districts as a means of distributing resources across the city's various districts. **Outcome:** The item was presented for informational purposes. No specific allocation details were finalized or voted upon during this portion of the meeting. ## 21C Funding (Mayor Gray) Jeff Fugate presented on 21C funding opportunities during this agenda item. The presentation was informational in nature, providing details on available funding mechanisms, though no specific project or funding request was detailed in the meeting transcript. **Key Speaker:** - Jeff Fugate **Presentation Details:** The discussion occurred approximately 32 minutes and 21 seconds into the meeting [timestamp: 32:21]. Fugate's presentation focused on 21C funding opportunities available to the jurisdiction, though the specific details of which programs, eligibility requirements, or application processes were covered are not documented in the available transcript materials. **Outcome:** The agenda item concluded as an informational presentation with no formal action or decision recorded. ## Living Arts and Science Center Capital Campaign (CM Kay/VM Gorton/CM Ford) [timestamp: 0:32:21] Heather Lyons presented the Living Arts & Science Center's capital campaign to the council. The presentation highlighted the organization's growth and its impact on the community. A key focus of the presentation was the center's need for funding to complete a major grant match. The Living Arts & Science Center has secured a $1 million grant but requires a $400,000 investment from the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) to complete the matching requirement and finalize the grant. The presentation emphasized the center's community contributions and the importance of this capital campaign in enabling the organization to continue and expand its work. This agenda item was presented for informational purposes, with no formal action or vote required at this time. --- ## Full transcript Music Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. Today is October 9th, And this is a special committee of the whole for the council to hear proposals for the Urban Development Action Grants, fondly known as UDAG, among council members. And, Council Members, I appreciate your being here. This Committee of the Whole is intended to provide some transparency to our decision-making process as we decide how to best utilize these funds. And Council Members were asked to submit project ideas that came to their office from a variety of sources. and the proposal of a particular project by a council member isn't necessarily an endorsement of it. It's simply a way to pass it on to the process. When the UDAG funds became highlighted, and thanks to Councilmember Stinnett for putting that in committee, it seemed to me that we needed a process for sifting through these projects. So each presentation is given six minutes, so the timer will be on, and if you go on your six minutes, you'll get the hook. And we'll have some time for questions, and council members in the future will have opportunities to discuss each of these further. and so this is i kind of look at this as the lightning round to hear the to hear the first information about these different proposals so with that said i appreciate everyone who's here and we'll go ahead and start council members you should have a list yes council member stennett vice member before we get started i think it would be appropriate to actually disclose what is in the UDAG balance. We've had four opportunities to figure out how much money we actually have, and we've heard four different answers. So I think once and for all, we need to solidify what's in that account before we go down this list. Commissioner Driscoll? I'm not anticipating any decisions being made today, but I think you're absolutely right. We need to know the number as of this morning at 1030. Do you all have the one sheet that we gave you last time? The UDAG balance. I've got another copy. Would you like it? Because I added some detail that Council Member. How about you put it up on the screen? Okay. Please. Okay, do you want to go through it for us, please? The fund balance as of the end of fiscal year 12, again, it is unaudited, but we think there will be no changes to this fund. Again, fiscal year 12 was $1,262,103 and some change, but we rounded for this slide. We have expenses, it's spelled incorrectly, but fiscal year 13 expenses to date is 104,450. There's an encumbrance of 4,256, so there's available balance of 1,153,397. With one caveat that I spoke about last time, that we have traditionally used this fund for home match the last few years, and Irene has estimated that our home match during fiscal year 13 may be up to $250,000. The match can be paid with other sources, obviously, but the available balance is the $1,153,397. I have, I believe Council Member Myers asked for detail. We do have a couple more slides if you would like that. That would be fine. Yes. And I think also Council would appreciate knowing if the administration intends to use the $250,000 match. Okay. The second slide. I wanted to take each of our points from the first slide and give you the detail that I think you were looking for. The fund balance for fiscal year 12, the 1262-103. The beginning balance, as of the beginning balance in fiscal year 12, was a little over $500,000. We received revenue during the year $1,049,838.62. Of that, the Victorian Square payment was $1,022,000. It's at the bottom, the total at the bottom. And I do have copies, Vice Mayor, if you'd like to. That would be excellent. Thank you. This one as well. Thank you. So that was our revenue. We had expenses in 12 of the 29-330 net, and the grant match for home for fiscal year 12 was 304, 867, and 14. So that gets you to our starting balance from the first slide. So that was our detail for the fund balance. So then I took the second number, the fiscal year 13 to date of 104, 450. It was all Charles Young Community Center repairs. The long sheet that you're getting, you want to detail that is all. That's the plumbing, the HVAC, the everything that adds up to the 104, 450. That's straight out of the system. And then the third dot on the first slide was the fiscal year 13 encumbrances of 4,256. Again, the majority of that is Charles Young Community Center repairs that we are awaiting bills for, 3,938, 48. and then a very small amount, $318 for grant match that is still outstanding. So that's where your $4,256.48 comes from. So those are the detail. If you can do the first page again, please. That's your detail of the fund balance from 12, the 13 expenses today, the 13 encumbrances to give your available balance that we've given you. Thank you. We will take a little time here to have questions. And do you know if the administration intends to use the $250,000 match? We are looking at options. Again, that is an estimate because as we spend home dollars, and I'm sure you all understand from Irene speaking in the past about. We still have several years of home match outstanding. We've matched, already have some existing match for projects moving forward. So I think we'd like an opportunity to look at that. In other words, look and see if there's another source for that money. And do you know how much the existing match dollars are? I would have to get that detail. I don't have that with me. I'm sorry. Okay. But $250 is what Irene estimates additional is what we would top out. Again, I asked her for an estimate, and that's what she was able to give me, that that was probably the max additional match we would need over the course of this fiscal year. Okay. Thank you. We do have some questions. Council Member Lane. Good morning. Good morning. I want to show my ignorance today and ask you a couple of questions that I'm not familiar with, some of these details, where it says grant match home $304,000. Could you explain it? That is actually a deduction from the beginning balance plus the revenue minus expenditure. So is that, I don't understand why that would be a deduction from the amount. I was just trying to, because there were some questions about an amount, I believe that Irene had given you early. So I pulled that expenditure out. It was actually a transfer. I pulled that out separate from the expenditures from fiscal 12 because that had been a question. So I was just highlighting that, if you will. So the $304,867 is, do we actually have that money now and it's in another account? I don't understand exactly. Yes, it was transferred for the home match. Okay. All right. And then the other question is that if we match the available balance that we have now, if we reinvest that in other areas, the $1,153,000, we would then match that with 25% of our dollars, so we'd actually maybe end up with $1,000,000 total? Or am I misinterpreting that? Could you ask me that again? Okay. My question is if our current available balance is $1,153,000, do we have to add 25% of that amount in a match, which would in essence increase the amount available to invest somewhere else? That is the balance. The $1,153,397 is the balance. what the 25% I was speaking about the home match that traditionally our home match which is a 25% required match comes out has the last couple of years come from this fund prior years it's come from general fund I was just trying to explain to you that that is a potential historically the match has come out of this fund and the match required for home is 25% okay that answers my question thank you very much Thank you. Council Member Stinnett. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Commissioner, can you, by the people watching at home, explain what home money is? You're using an acronym some people may not be familiar with. It's a federal grant program related to assistance. Affordable housing? Excuse me? Affordable housing. Affordable housing, but I don't know off the top of my head all the criteria for which it can be used for, but it is basically globally for affordable housing programs. Yeah, thank you. A couple things. One, if the council decides to reallocate all $1,153,000 to other projects, where will you get the home match money then at that point? That's what we're looking at as we finish up the annual financial report for you all, looking at if there's any available sources. So that affordable housing match fund called HOME could be in jeopardy if we don't account for that in this? Well, I think that we are confident that we could identify those funds, depending, again, on what is determined for the total expenditures out of UDAG balance. And then what about the Streetscape project that was mentioned back in July as being part of this fund? Has that account been closed out yet? Are there still monies in there? Where are we standing on all the projects that we've had? Is this a clean slate of the balance? All encumbrances, everything's been dealt with or closed? Technically, that is not the budget amendments need to happen, but as challenges that we've had in all of our capital projects, there were some projects that the project's complete in terms of needing dollars. We technically need to close that out. This is the balance of all projects. I mean, the only ongoing projects would be the remaining dollars for Charles Young that are encumbered and that very small grant match. Very good. Thank you. Appreciate the information. Thank you. And, Commissioner, on the long sheet that you distributed, this is straight off of our PeopleSoft. It is, and I know it's tiny to read, but that does add up to the 104. Okay. That is what I wondered. All right. Any other questions? Council Member Myers. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So, Commissioner, this number is the number we can rely on. Yes, sir. Thank you. Are there any other questions before we move on to our lightning round? Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. And the first presentation up is Senior Citizen Center, presented by Christy Stamball, our aging services coordinator. It's a good thing that I talk really fast. Yes, it is. Thank you. And just, we won't start your time quite yet, but to say to council members, if there are questions that you don't have an opportunity to ask today, we'll have a system to compile them and get more information about each project. Okay. All right. All right, so I thought that we'd start with the existing senior center. Did you know that in 1983 it was first built and it was just 10,000 square feet? There's been two additions since, and they're kind of very unusual yet artistic additions to the property, but they're not straight walls, which only gives us 17,000-some square feet. Of that, it's mostly hallways and offices, so there's really only 7,000 square feet for programs. And you'll see why that's significant in the coming slide. But the city does own the property, the building, and the land. And the silver tsunami is upon us. Every 8,000 seniors are becoming 65 years old every day. And so we know that our numbers are rising, that we are having more and more seniors, that Lexington is an exceedingly wonderful place for people to come to. Their younger children, 30-year-olds, are living here. They're staying here. And the baby boomers are choosing to move where their grown children are. And at the Senior Center, since January, we are having 35 to 40 new seniors. And that means they're filling out an intake form. They're committing to giving us background information on themselves. They're 60 years or older, and they're Fayette County residents. We have waiting lists for the programs, and we're actually maintaining these lists. The one program that has just blown us away has been yoga. A small article ran in the newspaper for the yoga class, and we had 40 people. And the instructor said she could take 40 people, so I'll be doggone. We squeezed 40 people into the biggest room that we have, which is not even 4,000 square feet of space. And that second day of class, we started the waiting list. So then we had 40 more people on the waiting list, and we started another yoga class. That class now is going to end next month, and we have 40 people on the waiting list for the next class. So what we know is we need to squeeze in more yoga, and I'm not sure where we're going to put it except maybe at the Charles Young Center. our surveys demand that people are asking for new a bigger center in our fitness class we might have 50 persons exercising and truly they cannot extend their arms but they're concerned that we're going to stop letting them in the room which is kind of what we have to do for safety sake and so they're very concerned there's not enough parking there's 117 parking spots over there and at least on four occasions we've poured over parking into the church lot across the street from us, which has necessitated the seniors to cross Nicholasville Road to get over to the Senior Center for Programming. I've gone over there on a couple occasions and there's been one or two spots available, so I've parked over at the church. But what makes me nervous is that other seniors have come in, found that there's not parking available for them at our current facility and left. We have limited restroom facilities. Do you like the plunger? We had big giggles. But one day, one of our restrooms was not working, and that left us two restrooms for 125 people, ladies, that is. The building needs a new roof, and it's about $250,000 for that roof. And so here are the unduplicated numbers since we enacted our brand-new MySeniorCenter data collection program in March. These are 699 unique or different seniors, not duplicated. But last week we had 303 different seniors come into our facility and participate in programs. That 642 units of service is how a person might come to exercise three times a week. And so those would be the duplicated numbers. The average daily attendance, 128. and the maximum daily attendance on record that I just kind of was at my desk and said, oh, what's it look like today, was 148 different seniors inside the senior center. So here's the fitness numbers because this is by far the largest group of numbers that are regularly high. So in theory, we have 81 different users who have come to exercise generally more than once. Most people come two to three times a week. And then you'll see that there were 58 in the range of motion, which is a seated exercise class. Line dancing has just gotten very, very big, and line dancers need a lot of space to move around. The fitness room is equipped with two treadmills, two recumbent bicycles, and an elliptical. And so on any given day, there could be 14 people that come and go at their leisure into the fitness room. We have a baby monitor to provide for the safety, so it's got a camera. And our gal at the front desk kind of watches that throughout the day. And here's what we know. We need a new center. The one that we have, I mean, that's pretty simple, right? The one that we have is obsolete. It's more than 30 years old. It's almost to the end of its useful life. It needs many, many repairs. And I started gathering data from facilities management, but then it got overwhelming for me as to how many times we're calling for service or repair over there. Currently, we have way too many people for the current facility. We're getting more and more seniors every day, every month. The traffic at that center is certainly a barrier to extending our day. The traffic at 4 o'clock when the flow changes, many of our seniors have said, I can't come, I won't come, there's only one lane to get me back to the north side of Lexington. Well, Steve, thank you so much. You were very good about, and we can look at the age slide that was after this. And are you willing to take a few questions? Sure, sure. We'll spend just a few minutes if there are some questions right now that council members want to ask. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you for your presentation. And I, too, agree that we need a new building. And I was wondering if you had by chance an update. I know that we were looking at some different sites earlier. I think the CAO said he may have an update for us soon. Do you have any idea? We hope that the consultants might come to Council in November. November. They've done the preliminary and they continue to work on the site selection and are being exceedingly thorough. These are consultants that specialize in senior centers. Are they looking at buildings that currently exist that could be retrofitted or are they looking at new construction? They're looking at a combination of both. We've given them a sample of both and so they're having a hard time comparing apples to apples because it's really apples to oranges to kumquats to pineapples. Sure. Well, thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Hanson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Christy, thank you for presenting this. And I guess my question would be, have you looked at the Senior Citizen Center as doing one big center or doing the satellites, which would work best for the city? Our feeling and what we're seeing kind of across the country, and we've asked the consultants this and said kind of what's the norm, but our feeling is we really need a hub. We have satellite centers. We have three current satellite centers in addition to the one main center. But we really feel like we need a hub where a new resident could come to town to know where to get services. And then from there, if there are more satellite centers, we could plug them into a place closer in their community. But where we are now, it's really a multifocal place. They can come there. They can get activities. They can get recreations. They can get Medicare enrollment information. They can get nursing home information. They can get information from our other partnering agencies. And we really like that. And what our community is telling us is that they want ease and streamline of service. And so while we currently are operating satellite centers and we've not discounted that, we really feel pretty strongly that we need to have one centralized location to serve many seniors in one place so that it doesn't become my neighborhood's thing, but instead a citywide service. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much, Christy. We really appreciate your presentation. Thank you for your time. Next on the list of LFUCG-owned entities is Council Member Myers will present a $100,000 request for Berry Hill Park for the Parkmaster Plan. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Vice Mayor. We're going to key up a little bit of a video for you guys. As you know, we closed the pool at Berry Hill Park, and we have a proposal to replace that pool with a skate park. And we did a council report earlier in the year. We interviewed several of our young people and adults in the community that talked about the current skate park and what that's meant to them and what a new skate park would mean to them. And we want to play just an excerpt of that video. And then I've got a photo I want to put up there and then a little bit of conversation. Do we have any sound? Can we stop my time? Can we restart my time? We need to give Council Member Myers some time back once they get some sound and start this over. Please. We'll give you back 15 seconds. How's that sound? That works. I have two people in the audience that are going to yield their time to me. farther up in skateboarding I'm from a really small town and where we lived we didn't have a skate park we had nowhere to go and they're actually trying to outlaw it right now and I moved up here because my mom pretty much gave me the choice to move wherever we wanted to. And I like this park a lot, so I was like, you know, let's move to Lexington. So you actually moved to Lexington because this park is here? Pretty much, yeah. So what would a new skate park for you mean? It'd be pretty tight because, I mean, it's pretty crowded. I mean, the population's grown a lot since, you know, just even last year. It's definitely a pretty much new wave sport coming in. So I think it'd be nice. Plus, I mean, this park was built back in the 90s, and just skateboarding's changed so much over the years that it's pretty much different terrain. But it'd be pretty sick to have a new park. It's changed a lot of kids' lives. I mean, you can understand, like, some kids, you know, you can let them down the wrong path, so to speak. But, I mean, with skating, like, that's an outlet. So a lot of people come out to the park and enjoy themselves. That's excellent. So how's the culture out here in the community? It's a good night-type knit group? Yeah. Well, everybody's got their own cliques, so to speak. You know, like, everybody rollerblades, your skateboards, bikes, scooters, whatever. Okay. But, like, everybody's just here to have fun. And, like, everybody's friends regardless. Like, we all go hang out outside of the park. So there's no controversy, so to speak. Sure. So what will the new skate park mean to you when we get that going? New skate park? Yeah. Hopefully bigger ramps because, I mean, I've been coming here since the beginning, and honestly, I jumped off the roof into the park before, so. Okay. I mean, that's just how big things can be, you know? Okay. Like the park in Louisville, that's a good example. Right. Bigger ramps and bigger things happening because I've got friends that skate that, like, all the time, and it's like you see some of this stuff, and it's incredible. Like, I mean, some of the bikers getting, like, 10 feet air out of, like, the 13 foot, that's ridiculous. I just want that to be able to happen in my town. Okay. All right. I was a little younger when the park actually opened, so I missed the whole initial fundraising and organizing and all that. But, you know, because people before us had put in hard work and got this park here, it really opened up a whole lot of opportunities for me. Okay. So what has it meant to you to be able to do, I watched you earlier, what has it meant to do some of the stunts that you do now because the park is here? Well, really, it's a really introspective sort of thing. You know, you can kind of get inside of your head and just have a good time. I mean, without it, you're still going to have people doing the same stuff. But, you know, now they have a nice centralized legal place to do it. Right. And, you know, it's offered myself and a lot of other people really good opportunities. Okay. So what will the newscape part mean to you? Oh, more room. So, you know, it's nice to be able to, you know, have the opportunity to get in and help organize things. So, you know, maybe a little bit of input into what comes out of it. Sure. You know, have a nice place for, you know, kids that are just getting into it. A nice new place, a modern place to get into and sort of, you know, really see what they can do. Now, we're... Thank you very much. and now we're going to put up a sort of a proposed master plan for that park. And I just want to say that Friends of the Skate Park has submitted its 501c3 paperwork and so that's in the process. So now we're ready to start to kick off our fundraising. We have a $100,000 pledge. You know, the mayor and the council put into this current budget $150,000 towards the skate park here at Berry Hill. and that wasn't a match to money that we had raised, but we said we would try to raise the rest of the money. The reason we put the money in there was because the study that was done from Parks and Rec, 79% of the people said that if you take an amenity from a park that saves money, that that money that's saved should be reinvested back in that park. What we did was made an agreement that we would take several years of that savings, put it in a lump sum back into the park, and then after that, moving forward, that savings could be saved. and moved on to the rest of the aquatic plan. In the process of doing our fundraising, we reached out to a couple of really major donors, and one of them said that the plan that we had proposed originally wasn't big enough for them to get involved in. And so that's why we came back with the second scope in an effort to entice some of the bigger donors to get involved. If you see down at the end of the park, you've got a BMX terrain park. That's something new that some of the people in the community have said that they wanted it here locally as well. So we just encourage that either out of this funding or some other funding that we can continue to support this skate park. And that ends my time. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Councilmembers, do you have any questions on the Berry Hill Master Plan skate park? If not, Councilmember Myers has a presentation on the Gainesway Small Area Plan. Is that... Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I think we have a few slides we're going to put up there. And I won't go into the detail of what a small area plan is. I think most of the people in the room know we have Chris King in the back who can answer those type of questions after we're done if you have any questions about that. But we're asking for $80,000 to fund the Gainesway small area plan. The planning department has said that we need this small area plan. And certainly if you look at what we've tried to do in this community, since I've been on the council, we've got a resurgence of investment back into this community. Small area plans do the following things. They foster regional planning and economic development, protects an environment, promotes successful accessibility to neighbors and neighborhoods. It also preserves the quality of life. If we go to the next slide, please. here is obviously the area around the circle is the target area next slide and actually if you can go around that's the 8th district there if you can go to the next slide please here's some of the investment that's happened in the district over the last few years we've had 1.1 million dollars into completion of the Gainesway Park Master Plan we've got roughly a million dollars into the Gainesway Community Center another $450,000 trail system that's actually going into construction phase right now as we speak. There's been multi-million dollar public and private sector apartment complex redevelopments in the neighborhood. And then if you look at the area, it's approximately three square miles, 7,000 households, about 16,000, 17,000 people. there's a high number of households that are located more than a half a mile from a grocery store that have deteriorated housing, underutilized property, and vacant lots the next slide I want to put up Ms. Janice Westland from Planning Department created some fantastic maps and this map right here shows food access in Fayette County. And so if you look at, in particular, seniors who are a certain distance away from access to food, that's what this map represents. And I would love to have her come up at the end and answer some questions about...actually, if you could come up real quick, please. And just talk a little bit about this map and what it represents. And just there's three minutes and 20 seconds left. We're good. We know we're just doing auditions. This map shows in the red circles the grocery stores, the major grocery stores. The yellow circles are pharmacies. You can see all the spaces in between those coverage areas. That means that those are the areas that are more than a half mile away from a grocery. The blue areas are the census data that were mapped to show one of them was high household population areas. The other was areas with a high number of households with no vehicle. And the dark blue areas show an intersection of those. So the dark blue areas show you where there's the highest number of both of those combined. So those are the areas that when you see an area like that where there's a far distance from a grocery store, that's one of the reasons that this area was proposed for a small area plan, along with some other areas in the county. Thank you very much. So we're asking for money right now to get this small area plan started because, as you know, we've got another issue, sort of an assault that happened on the 8th District in terms of the Trent Boulevard property and what is being proposed there currently and how that impacts this neighborhood. We have a neighborhood that has four elementary schools, a middle school, a high school, two parks, a number of daycare centers that have roughly 200 kids in daycare. And right in the middle of all that, there is a proposal to put in a development that we'll have up to 120 ex-offenders located smack dab in the middle of all that. And so we see this sort of as a crisis that we need to continue with the resurgence of this area of our city and all the investment that we put in there that instead of starting to move backwards, we continue to move forward by implementing this small area plan as soon as possible. So that's why we're asking for that funding. Again, the planning commission or the planning staff has already said that it needs to be done. what we're really asking to do is expedite that process. And really, if I could just go ahead and go into my next presentation, because I don't really need that six minutes. Okay, the Gainesway Small Area Plan projects. Yes, and the $250,000 that we asked for there is to do some things to target and to fulfill some of the things that come out of the small area plan. And so really the main thing is to get the plan done, but then secondly, if there is funding available, that we can actually apply some of that funding to some of the things that the plan comes up with. And that concludes my presentation. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Council members, do you have questions for Mr. Myers? I know that years ago we used to have money in the budget for small area plans, and we haven't had any for several years now. Council Member Lane. Hi. Right. Council Member Myers, the cost for the small area plan, do you have a bid on that, or is that an estimate? How did you come up with that number? I asked for, from Commissioner Paulson, just kind of a roundabout estimate. So we could say up to $80,000, so if it's less than that, then we just need the money to get the plan done. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just real quick, Council Member Myers, what was your ask for the skate park portion? It was $100,000. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, Council Members? All right. Thank you very much, Council Member Myers. Next on the list is the old courthouse renovation, and Jamie Millard will do this presentation. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor and members of Council. All great cities have history museums, such as London and Paris, and that's just in Kentucky. Since Friday, July 13, 2012, the Lexington History Museum, however, has been shuttered because of measured levels of lead, primarily on surfaces in the dome and basement, but also on surfaces on the other four floors. In addition, stable asbestos in the dome and basement and leaks in the roof were offered as reasons to close the building to the public. The discovery of lead and asbestos in the building, despite a sign to that effect on the door to the dome since at least 1999, was prompted by a report of mold in the Lexington Public Safety Museum on the first floor. The cause given was a leak in the roof, when in fact the source is a leak from the cheapside-facing balcony that is easily remedied by removing weeds growing there. From mold to asbestos to lead prompted the LFUCG Law Department to declare the building a threat to child safety. The building closed and the flags lowered. According to Dr. William Goetz, a qualified lead abatement specialist who has written abatement protocols for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and surety providers, advises museum management that lead paint is present in all buildings constructed prior to 1978. In addition, all renovations prior to 2008 did not require lead abatement. The former Fayette County Courthouse, home to the museum since 2003, was built in 1900 and renovated in 2001. Dr. Goetz recommends a combination of scaling off high-risk areas in the building, such as the dome and basement, administrative control of non-public areas, that is, isolating the fourth floor, thorough cleaning in public areas, that is, the first through the third floors, encasing identified lead hazard in the second floor public area, and establishing a regular schedule of maintenance, cleaning, and development of protocols relevant to daily building closures, maintenance, and other related procedures. The cleaning portion of the project would take no more than three weeks and provide short-term employment to homeless veterans. Dr. Getz would oversee all phases of the project, from training to execution, to development and implementation of the protocols. Air Source Incorporated will validate the results. Furthermore, Dr. Guest proposes permanent repairs be made in a design flaw in the box gutters below the dome to ensure the building's roof is secure. This involves replacement of portions of the wooden sill under the box gutters at the base of the dome roof. If that portion of the application is approved, incremental costs to replace the original weather vane on top of the dome and replacing light fixtures illuminating the dome exterior would be feasible. The fixtures would be LED lights for operational costs, savings, and longevity. Now, I'd like the next slide to show that the costs itemized are not to exceed costs, placing a ceiling on the projects with potential overall savings. Any portion of the project that would go over budget would be borne by the appropriate vendor. The UEDA grant would benefit the city because the Lexington History Museum is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization established at the direction and initially funded by the mayor's office. It operates in the former Fayette County Courthouse building, pursuant to a requirement by a memorandum of understanding between LFUCG and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, entered in Franklin Circuit Court in January 1997. The building is as iconic to Lexington's worldwide image as is the surrounding horse country. Constructed in 1900, the structure is a fine example of the Richardson Romanesque architectural style that dominated the city at the turn of the last century. Structures are built to be used. When open to the public, a building is appreciated and becomes a source of understanding as to why it was constructed, how it was used, and how it adapted to changing times. A closed building is neglected, not maintained, and slowly forgotten until it becomes a candidate for demolition. Lexington cannot afford to lose a building that defined the central city in the early 20th century, adapted to the needs of the courts as the needs of the courts increased, was repurposed as the Lexington History Museum in the early 21st century as a gateway museum for Lexington and the Bluegrass region and serves as the heart of the regenerated Cheapside Entertainment District, serving as a staging area for Thursday Night Live, service support for the Lexington Farmers Market, meeting space for diverse public programs such as the Rupp Arena Arts and Entertainment District presentation, Cheapside Entertainment District Association meetings, the Fayette County Bar Association annual meetings the annual Edward T. Houlihan III Fayette County School History Fair and numerous weddings and as a backdrop for the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July. Lexington not only needs the Lexington History Museum the museum needs Lexington and the UDA grant to clean the building and reopen to serve all the people in the discovery and interpretation of the history of Lexington and the Bluegrass region. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. That was a lightning round. I will entertain questions. Council members? Seeing none, I thank you very much for your presentation. Oh, is there a question? Yes. Okay, Council Member Lawless? Have you all explored any other grant opportunities? I know that that's been an issue because of the lease. We have been exploring grant opportunities for all of the nine years we've been in operation, some to great success, and others, as you know, in that world, there's no givens. Right. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Beard. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Jamie, I'm thinking about future cycles that the History Museum or the building itself, for that matter, will go through. Has there been any forward-looking work done, even if it's pen and pencil on the back of an envelope type of thing, to see when and where and how long this will last you all? and are there not other needs as far as elevators and things of that sort that need to be upgraded or whatever? Since 1999, I really should have brought it, we have a plan that is literally that thick. It looks like a portion of the New York phone directory that was developed by Greg Pick Simons that is a complete renovation of the building back to its original style on the interior. with that wonderful steamboat staircase that splits up and up all three levels, two-story courtroom, and would give the community the opportunity to see the building as it was originally intended, where you stand on the short street level and look all the way up 119 feet to the underside of the dome. We project currently that that would be a $15 million project and then an additional $3 million established as an endowment fund for the continued maintenance of the building. That would protect the building and bring it back to its original style. That's an ambitious project, one that we have had more as a hope and a dream than a reality, but we're working on the impetus of that currently to see if that's not the real answer. This project is more of a, in a sense, permanently it affects the roof, and that's a good thing. The cleaning of the surfaces to abate lead allows the building to reopen and be safe for the public. But again, that's a short-term fix. The long-term fix would be to restore the building as originally designed. Well, $15 or $16, $19 million is a lot of money. It's a lot of money. And I don't see that on our horizon. Well, we see it on our horizon, and the chairman or the president of our foundation, Foster Ackerman, has a funding plan for that $18 million. Welcome. Thank you very much. Very briefly, to answer your question, we're working with Jeff Fugate and Downtown Development Authority to develop what will be a sophisticated plan that will involve use of historic renovation credits, tax credits, new market tax credits, possibly a commercial financing component, local philanthropy grants. I mean, it's going to take a while to develop the whole thing, but we are working on it through the Courthouse Square Foundation. and I'm not going to kid you, at some point we're going to have to come back and ask the urban county for a component of the $18 to $20 million. But we're going to look for every dollar that there is out there before we come back in the hopes of making that request as small as possible. Thank you. That's all I need to know. Appreciate it. Thank you. Council Member Myers had said earlier that his project wasn't big enough to attract serious money. We think our project is big enough to attract serious money, including naming rights portions of the building. Council Member Hanson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Jamie, thank you for presenting this. And just so I have a clear understanding, the $373,100 would be just to get it reopened. To get it reopened would actually take $40,100. That is the abatement cleaning process. process and that's why you split out these numbers but it's almost like a lucky strike extra if we have the opportunity to repair the roof which does need repair. The leaks are not descending into the building, they're mainly in the dome area but that's a structural need. As long as you're up there, replace the weather vane which we still have, reinstall the lights which were installed in 2002 and do some other incremental work. But if you talk about reopening the building it's a forty thousand dollar question okay and and then that would then it would become in compliance as far as public safety yes for our expert tells us that yes okay that's what they regular maintenance cleaning schedules and I also I wanted to comment that I really admire your passion for this history museum. And I've grown up in Lexington, and it was the center point, I think, of our city as I was growing up. So I do appreciate that. I appreciate you bringing this forward. And I certainly hope that there are some long-term plans to restore it to the original. Since 1999. Thank you. Shirley, thank you. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you for coming in today. You talked about your plan being big enough to attract big donors. A few years ago, there was a plan floated out or an idea floated out to move the Explorium over to the courthouse and to make that a destination so that people all around the country and the world would come to that spot. but also that would allow for some bonding to take place that would allow some insurgents of money in there to fix some of the issues with that building. What do you think about that plan? We're open to any creative use of the building. There's a lot of space in that building that's not being currently used. The original plan called for retail on the first floor, a cafe that would open out to Cheapside Park. We've repurposed that now that new restaurants is open downtown. to reintroduce a soda fountain to downtown Lexington, which we haven't had for several years. So we have a plan that's in place, but it evolves. We're open to any outside organization that wants to share the space, as we were, for the Isaac Scott Hathaway Museum, for the Public Safety Museum, for the Kentucky Renaissance Pharmacy Museum. So we've been very adaptive and creative in our operation since we opened in October 2003. Okay. Has our facilities management people done any type of scope on what the real needs are for that building? They have been in the building. They have made various reports internally that I know of. I don't think there's been a comprehensive overview of the building other than the target mold, fine lead, oh gosh, we have asbestos here, and then.