The ¶¶ Everybody, welcome. Welcome to the meeting of the work session of the council. And we'll start. I'll call the meeting to order, and then we'll begin with public comment for issues on the agenda. Mr. Mundy, anybody signed up? Nope. Thank you, sir. All right. Next is requested rezoning requests, and I believe there are several actions here. And if you all will sign up for motions, I would appreciate it. Thank you very much. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. If we go in order, I am number seven. Okay. I didn't think they needed to be in order, but. They don't have to be in order. Did somebody say they did? They do. Okay. They do? Council Member Lamb says they do. Okay. All righty. Then who's first? Council Member Gibbs. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, sir. I think Dick Murphy said he's here for you for something. That's number eight. Okay. So on number five, I'd like to put that on the docket without a public hearing, so moved. Second. All right. A motion by Council Member Gibbs and second by Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Who's next? I haven't got the agenda in front. Eight. All right, Council Member Brown. Yeah, a motion, I'll make a motion that we place it on the docket without a public hearing. Motion by Council Member Brown and second by Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion? All right, hearing none, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. motion carries council member Henson she's ready council member yes ma'am no no I knew you were okay I'm next right yes ma'am you are I move to place on the docket without a public hearing number seven second all right motion by council member Henson second by council member Akers all in favor please say aye opposed no motion carries thank you all right we're back to councilmember Gibbs Thank You mayor I'd like to place number eight on the docket without a public hearing with the understanding that this will that this will be withdrawn by the petitioner so moved all right motion by councilor Gibbs second by councilmember who got to say? Council Member Bledsoe. All right, thank you. All in favor, is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Mayor, I'll need to recuse from that one. All right, did you all get that? Council Member Evans recused on number eight. All right. Generally, it's a why. Berm is involved in that one. Berm's involved, okay. I move to place on the docket without a public hearing item number nine. Second. Motion by Council Member Akers, second by Council Member Farmer. Any discussion? All right. If not, we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Aye. It's the next one yours too. It is mine. And I thought that I had made the motion in recent past to place this on the agenda for November meeting. But I'm not sure. I referred to the video today and you made a motion to table for the October 22nd. So that's why it's on the docket today. Thank you. Well, then I also make the motion to add number 10 to the docket without a public hearing. Second. Motion by Council Member Akers, second by Council Member Farmer. All right. Is there any discussion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Is there a motion to, we can move on to the approval of the docket. Is there a motion to approve? I move. Second. Motion by Council Member Farmer. second by council member scutchfields any discussion on the motion we have a walk on is there a walk on who's got it council member stinning go thank you sir i move the place on the docket for the council meeting on october 22nd a resolution authorizing the lexington center corporation to enter into a loan agreement with the kentucky development corporation bond development corporation for the purpose of borrowing an amount not to exceed $15 million to pay costs of various capital improvements and authorizing the Kentucky Bond Development Corporation to issue bonds payable from payments to be made by Lexington Center Corporation under the loan agreement. So moved. Second. All right. Motion by Council Member Stenet. Second by Council Member Fred Brown. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. And the motion carries. Allows us to move on. I think we have another walk-on by Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. I move to place on the docket for the Council meeting on October 22, 2015, a resolution authorizing the Kentucky Bond Development Corporation to issue bonds payable from TIF revenue to pay certain costs of development of the Summit Lexington project. I so move. Second. Motion by Council Member Lamb, second by Council Member Henson. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Allows us to vote on the docket. Motion. Oh, there's another one. Where is it? Get the wild one. There are. We're all right. All right. Good. All right. Allows us to vote on the docket. Motion. Is there any, without further discussion, all in favor, motion to approve the docket. Please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. It allows us to move on to approving the summary. Is there a motion to approve? Move approval. Second. Motion by Council Member Farmer, seconded by Council Member Stennett. Is there any discussion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed? All right. Motion carries. That allows us to move on to budget amendments. Is there a motion to approve? No approval. Second. Motion by Councilmember Stenet and second by Councilmember Farmer. Is there any discussion on the motion? Councilmember Hensley. I think this would be the appropriate time that I have a motion to amend the list of budget amendments on page 2 to include a budget amendment to use $230,000 for the Commonwealth's Kentucky Wire Project to provide funds for fiber optic cable, fiber access points, and maintenance. Second. Motion by Council Member Hensley and a second by Council Member Henson. That's tough. Is there any discussion on the motion? Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. So this would pay for that with funds from Fund Balance, I assume? The 230? Where are we finding it? Yes, sir. Mr. Bill. That is correct. We were wanting to bring this forward when we had FY15 fund balance discussions. But because the contractor is going to actually start work in the next few weeks in Fayette County, we needed to bring this forward now to get this fiber late at the same time they're putting down the state fiber. So we're asking for you to approve current year fund balance, FY16. This was a new business item last week and would be on for first reading on Thursday night? That is new business to allow the state of Kentucky to lay this. What we are asking them to do and for you to authorize is to lay separate fiber at the same time that is owned by LFUCG. It won't be part of their network, but since they're their open ditch, put it in there, they will put a bundle of fiber in there for us. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Farmer. Is there any further discussion? councilman evans was the was there already a plan to do this or i it seems in short notice i mean when was it originally planned to be done we had discussed that possibility but really that possibility did not come about till we started to discuss with kentucky wired project and where they were starting in the time frame this is a great opportunity for Lexington because we will actually own the fiber that will be laid at the same time. They need the money, they need our commitment basically so they can order the fiber so that it can be included as they do the trenching, the coring, and the pulling. All right. Any other, any further discussion? All right. Thank you, Aldo. Thank you. All right. Then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye aye opposed no the motion carries all right is there any further discussion on budget amendments all right if not then we can vote on the original motion all in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right, next is new business. Move approval. Second. Motion by Council Member Farmer, second by Vice Mayor Kaye. Is there any discussion on new business? Please sign up if there is. Council Member Stenner. Thank you, Mayor. I had a question on item M, as in Mary. This is the Streetscape Project and a personal service agreement with the 21C Hotel. So tell us what this project is. Is it fixing the streets going along all of Upper Street between Short and Main? Yes. In Main Street? Back in July you all approved us taking some of the bond money that we had for Vine and Main Street and doing Upper Street there. We would ultimately do the courthouse side and all of it between Main and Short Street. So it's not just the portion in front of 21C. It's the entire street on the east side right now. And then when the courthouse construction gets underway, we'll do it on the courthouse side. And so where is the 207 coming from? It wasn't identified in the... It is from the original bond money for streetscape for Vine and Main Street. Okay. And then is this 100% of the cost? Yes. And it's to resurface as well? No. Resurface is separate, but we've got the funds to do that. And where are those funds coming from? I can't tell you off the top of my head. Because we had the $10 million for neighborhoods. It's not coming out of neighborhoods. It's not coming out of neighborhood funds. It may come out of the streetscape funds that we have to do that. I'll have to get back to you on that. I can't remember. I'm sorry. Okay, because it just says in the memo the block will also be resurfaced. Yes, it will be. So that's additional to the 207. That's additional to the 207. It is. All right. Can we get a budget accounting for what the streetscape money, how much is left, and how much was spent? Because some of us thought we had already zeroed out this account and utilized the money somewhere else. But if there's additional funding in there, it'd be nice to know about it. We'll get that. We'll provide that information to you. And also, where the money is going to come to resurface that block? Because obviously, with it being closed, it's taken a beating the last year and a half, two years. No question about that. And, you know, is 21C putting any money into fixing the sidewalk around there that they've tore up since they've been under construction? All I know is the 207 is to do the streetscape work. I can't tell you whether they've got additional money into it. I'm sure that they do. But this is to do the streetscape work. And who will perform the work? Will we be doing the work or will we let their run? They're going to have subcontractors do the work. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Council Member Lamb. Thank you. Mr. Holmes, if you don't mind, I'll start with item M as well. I know we know businesses in this area have expressed strong concern with construction, road closures, and utility work and short street scaping, and with their main concern being lack of communication. So I'm wondering if we have a plan drafted for this what the streetscape is going to look like the length of time It's gonna take and the construction phases so that we can make sure that we share it with these businesses Ahead of time so that we can make sure that they're made aware of this. I would hope that we would do that. We'll do so. Thank you The other question I have on item F as in Frank We got to Visit the senior center today, which was outstanding and It's exciting to see such a wonderful project going up. I know that we've actually used This methodology of doing preparing change orders behind the scenes in an effort to move things forward I'm just curious about this percentage increase and I'll be honest with you I didn't have a chance to look up some of the other change order structures that we've used in the past. Is this a larger amount than we normally? Is it 1% that we've used in the past, or is it 10%? It is 10, so this is lower than that? Okay. All righty. Okay. I mean, I think it's a great project, and it seems like that we're moving forward on it. Do we also, is there a report of the change orders that have been processed already that we will be provided? We're glad to provide you a detailed list of the change orders. So far, we've had 24 total for the project. And primary interest in this request is to continue with quick processing of the smaller change orders, which could cause us, otherwise would cause us some delays in the scheduling. but we have a detailed report be glad to provide it uh to the council all right i appreciate that sure and then the other one is just an actual correction on item h as in harry um there's a reference to a resolution number in here 1203-2015 and all i can say is from my history if we are already at 1203 we're in trouble it's um resolution 588 i believe should be the correction on this. It's item H, not resolution number 1203, so just for a reference point. So it's not incorrect in the resolution that comes forward. And I believe that is everything. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. Council Member Fred Brown. You have a question on two items. I'd like to ask a question on Elm that we just talked about on the streetscape. is the street still going to have two lanes on it? We're not taking any of the lanes off on the street? No, absolutely not. It'll be within the existing sidewalk area. So the traffic flow and pattern is going to be the same as it always has been? Yes, sir. Okay. And as far as the sidewalks in there, are we in this streetscape, are we making a pull-off there on the sidewalk? Not on upper. There is one on Main Street. On Main Street. There is one on Main Street. But it doesn't impede our traffic control or pattern either. Okay. Thank you. Second item, Charlie Martin, I think. E, authorization to execute D, no other necessary documents for the sale and transfer of three properties. I tried to, I looked on the map there, but I just couldn't get them together. Are those three properties, are they contiguous? contiguous? I don't know for certain whether they're contiguous. We've been buying, unfortunately, been buying properties along Fort Sumter, Gale Drive area for a while. There is an active priority stormwater project there in the Eastland Parkway area that involves Fort Sumter, Gale Drive. There's also on Clarksdale Court that we've gotten some FEMA grant for as well. So this is continuing that mitigation along that drainage As you'll recall, Eastland Parkway goes in the loop. There's two bridges, one that goes over the creek and then it loops back around the other. Those two bridges are really a big contributor to a lot of the flooding that goes on through there. But in order to try to mitigate the roadway, it was easier just to go ahead and buy the property. So you've been working on this particular project for some time? Yes. Yes. It's not in my district, but I'm familiar with it because I had this same occurrence over in District 8 a few years back. and all of our properties were contiguous, and I think it was about five properties, and it was more cost-effective to buy these than to do the stormwater improvements. And I assume that's the same cost analysis. It is. It is. Like I said, the problem with buying them all contiguous at the same time is not everybody wants to sell at the right time. Okay. But eventually we'll have green space? Is that what it's going to be left at, passive? Correct, and we will have a long-term obligation of cutting the grass. That's all right. I like green space. Thank you. All right. Council Member Maloney. Thank you. David Holmes, I have a question on M. On the utility poles and all that, I noticed when they did sidewalks on limestone and used that money to do some of those projects on Main Street, they took utility poles down. Are we going to be taking utility poles down on right there in that little area there? You mean to bury them underground? Yeah, put them all underground. I thought that was in the end of the month. I don't think that that's budgeted as part of that. I do not think that it's budgeted in that streetscape fund. I do think there is one utility pole that may get moved as part of this streetscape work. I mean, I'm just wondering, are we trying to be consistent with our utility poles when we start building these kind of things and remodeling? Are we trying to put them onto the ground? And is the administration, I mean, I guess is that the administration question? Is that part of you all, what you want to do on this, be consistent? I just don't want to see one street do it. And we're going to be right now doing a lot of projects over there. Is that supposed to be underground? Somebody don't want to answer that? Anybody know? Does anybody know, is that a rule that you all want to be consistent? What you're doing, you did on Limestone, you did on there. Now we're using the same money to do on unit, on wherever the street is up. I don't think it is. Is the utility? Are we going to be considered? That was never, I'll answer that. That was never made as a protocol. Do what? That was never made as a protocol. So tell me, do you want it to be a protocol? Well, it might be worthwhile. You want to suggest it? Do what? You want to go ahead and suggest that? I'm not the mayor. I mean, that's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea. Hey, listen, it's always open. All right. Never mind. I just ask. I think it's a good idea. Let's take a look at it. I know it's going to be not inexpensive, and it won't be done for that amount, Richard. All right. Council Member Evans. Just a follow-up question on item E. So I guess this would be for Charlie. Just the time frame once those deeds have been executed, the time frame for, I guess, would be ultimate demolition. Typically, we obviously work with property owners because we don't want to just rush them out, and so we give them that period of time. Then as far as from demolition, unfortunately, it seems like it's taken a little longer than I would like. I've had to wait on some demolitions over in the Clay's Mill Road area that our contractor's been working on. I thought about this during our stormwater meeting on Monday, that we may need to find ourselves an additional demolition contractor to be able to accelerate these things. As you know, while they're empty, they are a potential source of vandal. So I'm fully aware of where you're headed with this, and I'm worried about it as well. Okay. Councilmember Akers. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question on item A. $50,000 to support a master plan for the Pope Villa on Grosvenor. And it says that funds are budgeted. And I believe that I was in the budget link that you were in. And so I don't recall this discussion or this being a project. So if you could just tell us a little bit of history about... Those came into the budget through the mayor's commitment. And so it joined Historic Preservation's budget. We're essentially serving as the oversight to pass it through to the Bluegrass Trust. So it was not in the Historic Preservation's initial proposed budget, division-wise, but it came to be put under our umbrella as a method to honor the commitment that the Council approved through the FY16 process. Okay, and so can you tell us just a little bit about the project so we can all understand what the $50,000? I can very briefly, and also there's a representative of the Bluegrass Trust here, Tom Moore, if you want specifics. But essentially, as you're seeing in the materials, it's to do a study. The urban county government money would pay the large portion of the expense, but the Bluegrass Trust is paying a smaller amount of that expense. To accomplish looking at what are the physical renovation and modernization requirements necessary to get the building more suited for both visitors touring the historic site and their safety and experience of that, and also the possibility of having there be some office more day-to-day utilization of the spot. And those two functions would coexist. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you, Council Member Akers. Council Member Stendon. Thank you, Mayor. I was going to follow back on item M. Commissioner Holmes, before we vote on this, Can you please give the council and phone up with Council Member Lamb's request a rendering of what this is going to look like? Because on all the other streetscape projects, we had that along with Council Member Maloney's request. Are we putting utilities underground? You don't have to answer anything. I'm not asking a question. If you can just give us what that looks like, what the streetscape will look like, where the indention is that Council Member Brown asked about. Before Thursday is what you're asking for. Or before the second reading. Either way. Sure. If you can get to us. And the accounting on where this money is coming from. Yes, sir. I'm working on that now. As to Mr. Maloney's question, the one utility pole on the east side is coming out in the streetscape. The rest of them they're looking at when they do the courthouse. The other utilities, the main utilities are on the other side of the courthouse, and they will look at burying them as part of the courthouse project. Thank you. Yes, sir. Appreciate it. Well, and I'll get you the rest of the information that you... We need to look at doing it right. And since the mayor said if we want to make that suggestion, I'll be glad to if I can see what it looks like. And if we could put additional money to do it right now, because we're going to do some of a project right across the street, let's do it right. Yes, sir. So let's make sure. Thank you. Okay. Looks like that's all who signed up for discussion on new business. So we can vote. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. That allows us to move to continuing business and presentations. Is there a motion first on our agenda is NDFs. Is there a motion to approve? Motion by Council Member Stenet, second by Council Member Scutchfield. Is there any discussion? All right. Hearing none, we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next by Council Member Farmer, a summary of the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee, September meeting. Thank you, Mayor. We did meet on September the 15th. The notes appear on page 24 of our packet today. We approved our committee summary. We spent a fair amount of time talking about downtown speed limits. That discussion did not bear fruit that day, and we were not able to take it up during our meeting today. We'll have it on our agenda first for our November meeting. The third item on our agenda was the pavement management system, which was a broad-ranging discussion about data that we have cataloged through Applied Resource Associates about the condition index for all the city streets. We had a rather lengthy discussion about this in relation to timing as well as money. And at the end of that discussion, we had a motion that was made by Council Member Stenet to allocate funds for roadway repairs slash repaving in the amount of $10 million across all council districts according to roadway condition 65 or below. That was seconded by Fred Brown. During that discussion, an amendment was made by Council Member Mazzotti to allocate funding according to roadway condition of 60 or below. That was seconded by Council Member James Brown. That motion passed 7 to 3, and the original motion passed 8 to 2. so I would so move on behalf of the committee at this time. All right. Motion by Council Member Farmer, seconded by Council Member Stenet. Any discussion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Then we were short on our snow and ice plan, and then we looked over some of our committee assignment things and had a motion to adjourn. That would complete my report. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. All right, next is a presentation by Lex Tran on proposed service modifications. And I believe Jeff Fugate will start the presentation and be... And Carrie Butler will participate. Well, she shouldn't be modest. Carrie's going to do most of it. I get to wear a different hat today. In all my spare time, I'm also the volunteer chair of LexTran. And where's my clicker? Here it is. We're going to give you an update today as requested on the proposed service modification. Just for context, this was requested by council, right? This was, sir. Right. Okay. Just so everybody understands, this was a requested. Right. And to give you a little more context, tomorrow evening at 5 o'clock at the Lex Tran Training Center, which is back off of Short Street behind Central Christian, we will be having a board meeting where we will actually be making, as a board, voting on the proposals that you're seeing today. So this will give you a preview of what we'll be looking at tomorrow evening. We're having a public hearing at that time. It'll be a long evening, but it's very important stuff. So with that in mind, I want to give you just a quick reminder of who we are, right? So Lex Tran, 5 million customers a year. Most of those people are going to work and school. That's how people, you know, there's a lot of folks who are getting around, and I think Carrie may have mentioned this later, but we also know that about 70% of our riders don't have access to a vehicle at their home, right? So these are folks who need us to get around. We've got, excuse me, we have about 60 buses. We also manage the paratransit system. What paratransit means is those are the wheels, which is basically an on-demand ride for those who are mobility impaired. Our revenue is around $24 million a year. You can check my math. Most of that comes from the property tax assessment, right? So $16.5 million of that $24 is from the property tax. So it's generated locally. We're entrusted with using those dollars wisely. And so with that in mind, we are constantly trying to modernize the system, looking for efficiencies and looking for opportunities to provide new service to as many of our riders as we can. So as we look to the future, what's big? Energy diversification. Most of our buses are purchased partially with grant funds from the federal government, which currently has a focus on alternative fuels. So we've moved from an all-diesel fleet to we have seven C and G's, compressed natural gas on order. We have hybrid electric trolleys and we have five or will be ordering five electric vehicles in the very near future. We're looking at improving the Vine Street Transit Center. If you've been down there, it's a tough spot. But almost all of our riders, in fact, up to around 700 or 800 an hour will transfer there at its busiest peak. That's a lot of folks who are experiencing that space, and so we took the opportunity to include those improvements in the TIGER application that we hope to hear about soon. We're going to talk a little bit about looking for efficiencies in our route modifications in order to offer new services, particularly Sunday service. Think again about the folks we're getting around our system, work and school, and Sunday's a big part of work. And then also, if you've been at Loudoun Avenue, you've seen the progress on the new operational headquarters, which is administration, maintenance, operations, and bus yard. That will also, at the moment, the proposal is that it will also have a new CNG fueling station on site. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Carrie to talk to you about what we've been asked to talk to you about today. Thank you. Thank you all for including us today. So back in 2014, we received some grant funding from the Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning Organization to undertake a comprehensive operations analysis, or COA. This happens every three to five years. Transit agencies look at their routes, look at their service, how we can provide service more effectively, meet demand in our service area. So we looked at ways to consolidate services to improve frequency on high-demand routes and then also provide some simplification to our route structure. We looked specifically at the study at the jobs bus, which was discontinued back in January of 2015. We looked at our Colt Tralley service in and around University of Kentucky in conjunction with their master plan and their transportation master plan process. We looked at our transit center and how it operates, as well as our overall route structure. To sum up, the COA and all the work that staff and our consultant team did with one side does not quite do it justice. It's a thick document with a lot of analysis, a lot of detailed look. But this slide here does summarize and gives a snapshot of why we're looking at the routes that we looked at to make these proposals on. So if you see the black bars vertical on the slide, those represent the average monthly ridership for each of our routes, starting with Nicholasville Express Route 23 and then coming back this way to Nicholasville Route 5. The black bars represent the average monthly ridership, which for our busiest, most high-demand routes, climbs upwards of 25,000, 30,000 riders per month. This is an average for the past 12 months, but we did go back and do some analysis in the past three years to see that these trends are consistent between the past three years. The gray dots or the circles outlined in the darker gray represent the cost per passenger for the same timeframe. So the routes that you see that have the lower demand and have a higher corresponding cost per passenger are the routes that we looked at a ways to make some changes to meet customer demand. The next step for this process was to conduct a Title VI service and fair equity analysis pursuant to the Civil Rights Act of 1969 and Federal Transit Administration guidelines. This analysis looks at demographics to gauge impacts to minority groups or people on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum. So does demographic and geographic analysis to ensure that our service is provided equitably. This analysis confirmed what we expected to see, which is that we provide impartial and equitable service and that we offer that service without regard to race, creed, color, national origin. The next step for one more point. In this analysis, we wanted to look to confirm what our trip purpose for many of our riders are and to compare that both between minority and non-minority populations. So we see the blue pie chart up at the top is for work. Next chart, I mean, the next pie slice is for school and work. So we confirm that the majority of our trips are taken to get to work and to school. The chart at the bottom shows the distribution between minority and non-minority populations. So we see that same trend that most people are using this to go to work or to school, most of our riders. In comparing overall Lex Tran household income to Fayette County household income, Lex Tran riders do tend to skew to the lower end of the socioeconomic status. So we see a slightly lower income of Lex Tran riders than you would to average Fayette County household income. So the survey analysis confirmed what we have seen in past surveys as well as what we see on a given day. So we have the results from the COA. We have the Title VI analysis. And then we have staff recommendations and feedback. And we package that into a series of graphic displays and informational pieces. posted on our website and held eight public meetings where we could go a little deeper to gauge impacts with individual riders, make sure that they understood the changes we were proposing, as well as look for possible solutions or ways to mitigate the impacts that we were proposing. Our final meeting, as Mr. Fugate mentioned, is tomorrow at our Lex Tran Board of Directors meeting, where we will make recommendations based on the feedback we heard, any revisions that we are proposing on these proposed service modifications. summary of recommendations for the routes we looked at a series of changes that included excuse me additions consolidations or suspensions of certain routes our sunday service operates differently than our service on the weekdays and saturdays and as we've seen the workplace shift from more 24 7 to 24 7 from a 9 to 5 monday through friday we recognize that if your main trip purpose is to get to work, we have to provide a similar set of service on Sunday because people are traveling similarly as they do throughout the week. Proposing some changes to Route 16 to consolidate that with Route 31 to serve BCTC, Bluegrass Community and Technical College, Cooper Campus, the new Health First Clinic, as well as the UK Clinic at the former Turflin Mall site. Nicholasville Road proposed for consolidation along with Masterson Station, Alexandria Crosstown, which I mentioned, and the Northside Connector. The Colt Trally is proposed for a suspension through the winter months and to look for additional supporters over the months. And next steps, meeting tomorrow with our board of directors. And then we see, given the direction from our board tomorrow, between eight to ten weeks to incorporate and execute the changes as they're recommended. This will time with a regular scheduled service change that we make pursuant to our collective bargaining agreement January, May, and August. I wanted to recognize Jeff as well as Jill Burnett, Nikki Falkenberry, volunteer board member Chris Humphrey, Chris Chamotley, and then I do see some familiar lecturing writers in the audience. Thank you all. So I'm happy to take any questions or provide any information. All right. Council Member Evans. So we'll ask for comments and questions now. So Council Member Evans and then Council Member Gibbs. Thank you, Mayor. I am curious to know how many changes, or are you still working on those changes, had been made based on the comments that you received? because if I understand it correctly, you all had a proposal of changes and then had the different public comment hearings. How many changes have been incorporated based on that public comment that you've received? Okay. So, again, there's a little bit in fluid right now because we haven't had our formal board meeting tomorrow. So we have made routing revisions to a revised proposal for Route 12 and Route 20 to provide service along East Town, Old Frankfurt Pike, and out to Masterson Station. We are recommending no change to Route 17 and postponing the consolidation of Route 23. And Jill is reminding me some of the other ones. I think that's it for what we proposed with our series of public meetings and then what the staff will recommend to our board tomorrow. Because I've gotten calls, so I'll just be specific. Sure. The Eastland route, were there any changes made to that based on comments that you'd received? no and to be specific for that route the feedback that we heard was that our proposed rerouting our proposed revision and consolidation did not meet the primary purpose of that route and so it was not a was not basically an acceptable mitigation thank you mayor all right thank you councilmember evans councilmember gibbs thank you mayor thanks for presentation carrie and carrie you've heard this all from me before but i want to make a couple of please. I think a couple of the changes are short-sighted, specifically on Route number 16, which is now going to bypass the community college. Is that correct? It will serve the BCTC Cooper campus. It'll serve it if you walk over to Nicholasville Road. Good point. We did make a routing change based on the feedback we heard, so it will actually reach the intersection of Cooper and University. Okay, that's better. I still think, I'd like you to take a look at the historical record on that on that route because i'm convinced that a lot of the reason the ridership has dropped off is because construction around the stadium the the stop got changed many times which is one of the reasons i stopped taking that bus because i know nobody seemed to know where it was going to go it got changed all the time and i think um and i've heard that from several students as well um and i think if uh if you went back and looked at two three years ago before they started construction You might find that that might not, but I'd like to know what the readership was like before. Sure. So some of the changes to Route 16 were also made in order to incorporate the changes at the former Turf Lynn Mall site, as well as the new Health First Clinic and the BCTC. So it was not necessarily about ridership. We looked at it because it didn't have as high demand as some of the other routes. We were trying to provide service to all those three different sites along that corridor segment. Okay. Well, I saw it wasn't one of your better runs. I think it was like a $10 head run, something like that. But another one, a last plea for the blue route on the trolley, which, again, is one that's not quite making it, but it's not too far off. And I think that if you're running that in the afternoon for virtually no one, I think if you consider running that route just on Friday and Saturday nights, and we'd also talk about the possibility of voluntary payments from people, I think that route might be salvageable. And I think it's a tremendous amenity for a lot of people. So please, I'd like to just have you guys think about that again. but uh of course and that's where our recommendation for the trolley is to suspend that service through the winter months and to look for additional supporters see if there's a different way to offer a similar type of service at a more cost-effective manner so i appreciate those comments and um hear them thank you and i want to thank you again for the public meeting you did the bell house of course lovely space i came out on a tuesday night i think it was but thank you Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Gibbs. Council Member Akers. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Carrie, for coming. I did request this presentation. I felt that it was important that the public hear from you all in advance of the newspaper article after the board meeting to know what's coming. And I know that the public meetings have been well advertised and you've had some attendance, but I just wanted to make sure that before everything was final that the public had one last chance to hear from you guys. I wanted to ask, I love the recent partnership that you all have worked out, I guess, with the University of Kentucky. And so I was curious what other similar types of partnerships that you're working on, because I believe the city definitely needs more public transit, not less. And we need to encourage that. But I also understand that it's a cost to you all. Sure. So we do hear often from businesses, major employers, Xerox, met with Red Mile, the new renovated Red Mile, and a number of other smaller employers throughout the year. The, let's call it a success story with the University of Kentucky is that they charge for parking, and their parking is at a premium. I mean, they have some stories to tell about people just circling for a spot. So that makes the benefit of transit and Lex Tran very much more agreeable or beneficial to University of Kentucky, whereas some of the other employers do offer free parking, so it's not quite as much of a benefit. University of Kentucky is approximately 50,000 population, and there's student faculty staff retirees, so it was definitely a big employer. But I will gladly hand out my business card to anyone in the audience that is a business owner and would like to talk about transit service, because that is certainly a way to grow the system and a way to grow ridership. We definitely want to work with businesses. And you wrote down one of your quotes. You said that you all have to make changes to meet customer and demand was kind of the goal of this entire proposal. So what is the customer demand that you're having to adapt to or change to? When you're cutting services, it seems the opposite of meeting customer demand. So I'm just curious, from your perspective, what is that customer demand that you're trying to meet by cutting other customer demand? We're just trying to allocate resources to where we see the highest demand and the highest use. So on the major arterials here in Fayette County, Nicholasville Road, Harrodsburg Road, Richmond Road, Winchester Road, we often see peak hour a.m. and p.m. peak hour overloads on our vehicles. So trying to balance resources where we see high demand. I understand that if you are using a bus that has a lower demand, you have the high demand for that route. So we really are just trying to do what we can and match resources where we see high demand. But it's always a challenge. And I'm going to follow Council Member Evans' lead and specifically ask about Route 20 and Master Sensation. And that was the public meeting that had the most in attendance. It also had the most public comment that I see from feedback that you all requested. And the costs per rider have gone down over the past several fiscal years from $12.30 you provided to me between 2012 and 2015 to the most recent month of $9.13 per rider. So given all of that, given the number of people that attended the public meeting and the comments and the continual reduction of cost per rider, as well as Citation Road opening that is not being addressed at all, there's no bus stops along Citation, and just basically disconnecting that entire back end of Masterson, what changes have you made from the original proposal for that route? Sure. So we are looking at providing service both to McConnell's Trace, which is on the neighborhood to the south side of Leaston Road, as well as into Masterson Station about to where the clubhouse is. So essentially trading some coverage during the day to continue to provide geographic coverage along that area. That is a challenging corridor because of the amount of both employment and residential as well as Manchester Street. That's a growing area. Citation Boulevard, you're exactly right, is that that is a growth area. So we did feel like it was important to try to provide at least still some geographic coverage in the area. So that will be our staff recommendation tomorrow. Okay. My time is almost up, so I'm going to defer to the vice mayor. And then I do see a couple of riders from the route here. I don't know if you all signed up, but if you would like, let me know or sign up in the back, and you all can speak when we're finished. Thank you. Vice mayor Kay. Thank you, mayor. Thank you for coming today. And I supported the interest in having this presentation. I thought it would be useful to get as much information as possible about these changes out in as many ways as we can. And this is one of the ways to do that. The specific question that I have really has to do with the route that goes to what will be the new Health First facility. Really two questions. One, in the analysis, was it taken into account that that facility will be up and running shortly and will be a very heavily utilized facility. And two, could you explain essentially what difference it makes with this consolidation for the people who are coming from various parts of town to actually get to that facility? Sure. So with the new location of Health First Clinic along South End Drive and our recommended proposed changes to a revamped Route 16, we will provide service from from all over the county via a transfer to at our downtown transfer center to this new route 16 if you were coming from Cardinal Valley or the neighborhood closer to where the existing now health first clinic is you would take route 8 make a time transfer with this new route 16 and take over to the new location so for the people from Cardinal Valley they have to go basically back down to the transit. Where is that transfer happening? At the back side of the former Turflin Mall site. OK, so this is a little hard to do without a map. Well, I was going to point that out. Or a graphic display. Yeah. But essentially, folks who used to have a way to get to pick up a bus in Cardinal Valley and go directly, Now they'll go to Triflin Mall, meet a bus that's time to the bus arriving and leaving and so on. And I think that's been the concern. Yeah. And we have met with the executive director of Health First and have talked about how to transition patients, communications, information about how we, the routes that we'll provide, what the times are, do some events down there to make sure to communicate that information to their customers. Okay, and then the second part of the question was, in the analysis, is it forward-looking enough to take into account a place that is going to be very heavily utilized in terms of ridership, and does that affect the decisions you're making? Specific to the Health First Clinic or everywhere? Well, everywhere, but I've been asked specifically about that site. Sure. So we developed the changes to this revised Route 16 specifically for the new location of the Health First, as well as the UK Health Clinic and the BCTC Cooper campus. So we developed these. Huh. That was cool. It's magic. Look at that. So that's our current Route 16 that's on the display right now. So, yes, we did, in fact, develop the proposal with those new sites and changes in mind. I was trying to answer your question. I'm not sure if I did. I think you have. I guess so I'm map-challenged anyway. So if I'm interested in riding on Route 16 and I look at that map, it's going to tell me where that transfer might be that's not at the transit center. Is that correct? That's our current Route 16. Okay. So it would not show on this map the new route. But the new? But it could, but the new revised map will, yes. That's what I needed to know. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to follow up. Brent Rafferty, who's the Director of Health First, and I talked several times, and I got Brent together with Carrie, and they've talked several times. and he feels far more comfortable now than he did certainly a month ago with a new plan. In fact, said so personally. So I would applaud you all for working with him and trying to figure out a way to address it properly. And we're probably going to do a GTV about it, not only the opening, but how to get there, what it will look like, et cetera, and help kind of transition that a little more, too. So just one follow-up. Thank you. Thank you. Any way we can help get the word out is always appreciated. Thank you. thank you council member bludsoe council member henson thank you mayor thank you carrie for the work that you and your whole team i know you don't have easy tasks um in developing these routes and i know when i met with you and i felt perfectly comfortable. You made it very easy to understand. And I know we discussed the Southland Drive route. And I just wanted to point out on the little graph, it shows that 9% of the riders are using it for medical purposes. So another reason that, you know, although folks from Cardinal Valley, probably folks from Winburn, folks from many, many different parts of our city will be going to Southland Drive. So I agreed with you really that it shouldn't be necessary to have a bus specific to Cardinal Valley going to Health First unless they go to the doctor every day. And I don't think that's, you know, being realistic. That's what I was thinking. But I appreciate you trying to accommodate everyone that you can, and this is all done without any fare increases, reduction in services for our paratransit, and no cost increase for paratransit. And I do think that we have an aging population. Wheels ridership is going up. Anyone that is not able to walk to a bus stop would qualify and could apply to ride wheels. But anything, I also think that it's best to try to ride the city bus if you can. But I think we can accommodate most everyone in the city. If you live in an area and you can't walk for a long distance, apply to ride with wheels. Sure. So the paratransit service wheels is provided countywide by nature of your disability. If you're unable to make it to a Lex Tran fixed or a bus stop, we do offer the paratransit demand response service. Okay. But I thank you, and I know in the past there was a proposal to raise fares, and everybody can tell you how I felt about that. But I do appreciate you trying to be as efficient as possible with these routes. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Henson. All right. Looks like that's all who signed up for comments or questions. We thank you all for the presentation. Thank you all very much. All right. And that allows us to move on to council reports. If council members will please sign on electronically, and I'll call on you. Council Member Scutchfield. Thank you, Mayor. Just something really quick. The Childsboro Neighborhood Association has their meeting tonight at 6 o'clock at the Crossroads Christian Church, inviting anybody out to come. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Scutchfield. Council Member Hensley. Thank you, Mayor. Actually, I didn't hit the button fast enough for a walk-on business, so I have something I want to bring now, if it's okay. I can try it. Yes, sir. I've got a motion I want to move that will try to unwind some things that were done in the 70s. In our code of ordinances, I've discussed with public safety and Derek and the FAA that there should be no impact at this. But the background is in the 70s, we had all these helicopter ordinances placed in the law. But then there was an exception that says you can only land three times a month. So I'm trying to bring this into something that's practical so that we can encourage people who land helicopters, who land in properly marked areas and not create a public safety issue. So I move to place on the docket for Thursday's council meeting under first reading ordinances and ordinance amending section 2A-18 of the code of ordinances relating to helicopter landings within business and industrial zones. So moved. It's a motion by Council Member Hensley and a second by Council Member Fred Brown. All right, so what we'd be doing here is amending the docket already approved, right? we'd be amending the docket that's already approved with this resolution. Would that work if it passes? Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, any council member can walk on anything to the docket during this venue. All right. Okay. Just want to make it clear. I have a question on the motion. Okay, good. We're going to move to that. Yeah, discussion. Floor is available for discussion now. Council Member Lamb. Thank you. uh council member hensley i was asking if someone from the law department might speak about i mean three to thirty is just an interesting number and i just would like to know more history on that i've realized that it's 75 is a long time ago and we do have a lot of antiquated laws in our book and so but i'd just like to know a little bit more since i don't own a helicopter right you know the background and law can speak to it but i think the background that i've got is that in the 70s someone was landing their helicopter at Merrick and walking to dinner, and this was a knee-jerk reaction to that. And so all these ordinances were put in place, and then the exception was just to discourage use at all. So what's happened over the last 20 years is that the business aviation users have not put heliports or helipads in those areas because they can't use them more than three times a month. So right now they don't have to have them, So they just land at Hamburg or wherever, and there you go. There's no rules broken because it's not a helipad. So it's an unintended consequence that's created another discouraging issue. So is this something that could possibly, I mean, I know we have, I lived over near UK prior to my current residence, and I know that we had traffic, helicopter traffic for the university hospital. So would this possibly create more air traffic for other neighborhoods that might not necessarily have it? No, because it's not allowed in residential areas at all. So it's not changing. I mean, now you can't land in a residential area. You can only land in business, industrial. So it wouldn't impact a neighborhood. Okay. But you might have to fly over residential to get to an industrial business. Is that a fair statement? It's happening now. I mean, so it's not like anything's going to change practically. I mean, you're getting that traffic. Those are for the council reports. Okay. All right, who else wish to speak on discussion? Is that good? All right. Council Member, let me recognize Vice Mayor Kay, then Council Member Evans. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Hensley, my only curiosity about this is, is it extremely time-sensitive? Typically, a topic like this would be placed into committee so that there could be a full discussion of issues. Does it need to be moved in the next two weeks? I didn't think it was that significant because it's already something that's on the books, and we're just changing the rate, which isn't even being used now. It's just making it practical. so common sense on the surface it sounds like it's going to encourage a lot more helicopter traffic no I don't think that it's going to encourage more it's going to allow what's happening to be in a way that is safer okay thank you mayor council member Evans I would have the same concerns is uh council member lamb and vice mayor k have already said because normally i mean you know we study the things to death you know um you have all kinds of questions and we usually do that um in committee and i talk like i've been here forever but from what i've seen in the 10 months you know when when things like that come up i mean we've had things go into committee for probably something less significant than this. Again, on its face, it does sound like a drastic increase. But to you, it might not be, but to the rest of us, we don't know. So normally we ask for what are other cities doing, just to confirm what you might already know. So I guess I wouldn't be in favor of this motion just because it's not going through the normal course of vetting that we vet everything else through um even when it comes from from staff recommending things so um it it very well might turn out to be true and accurate but i would need some more information to to feel more comfortable um about that because it it does just naturally sounds like it's going to increase more traffic and i don't then want to get those complaints from my constituents So I think we would probably be doing a disservice to our constituents to not at least answer those pending questions. I mean, I want to go ahead and speak to the comment, Council Member Hensley. And then I'll ask Council Member Henson. There's not a lot of places that you can land a helicopter in Lexington anyway. So, I mean, I understand the concerns that, you know, it might increase traffic, but it's not like you can land it downtown anywhere at the moment or in these residential areas. Okay. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I know that Councilmember Hensley is probably more the expert in this field, but for those of us that are not, I would feel more comfortable placing the item in committee. And I don't even know where do you land a helicopter not having access to one. And you all don't want me to have access to one. But other than emergency, you know, ambulance-type helicopters. So I would like for you to consider placing this into committee. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Council Member Henson. Council Member Hensley? I was going to put that over. I was going to let Councilman, I'm going to defer to the Vice Mayor and speak just for a minute myself. Sure. I think what we're, you know, you're, as a new Councilmember to the process, I think we're all sympathetic to your encouraging legislation. And what I'm hearing is that perhaps the best approach to this would be to place it in committee. and that would be something that you would want to do on your very own, voluntarily, I guess, is what you're hearing. Understood. Yeah, right. Understood. So I guess it would go into the Public Safety Committee. And the Public Safety Committee. So just withdraw the motion and then amend the motion to place a time in the Public Safety Committee. Here we go. So we have essentially a withdrawal of the original motion and a new motion then to end with a second new motion that is seconded by Council Member Akers. So is there any further discussion on the motion? Or is there discussion on this new motion? All right. So if not, then we can vote all in favor of the motion. Please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. No. All right. But the motion does carry. All right. Amen. Why don't you say that out loud? I just want to lighten progress. Nobody wants to do anything. Council member, okay, we're back to... we're back to council reports council member Gibbs thank you mayor I just want to say I'm delighted to see money for the Pope Villa on the on today's packet that Benjamin Latrobe building is really important to the community it's a real treasure and it's going to be preserved and given a new function I'd like to thank mayor gray for his leadership on the issue i'd also like to thank the bluegrass trust and especially a member of the bluegrass trust dr daniel roland who's been advocating for this building for decades but thank you mayor thank you councilman gibbs councilmember fred brown thank you mayor i just want to comment on the paving uh that's going on uh my district was successful and I want to thank the Public Works Streets and Roads. They're moving along. Several districts are getting paved and I just wanted to just pass along the information. Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee has this and it's an ongoing item. I spoke with the Chair, Councilman Farmer, because we still need to tweak it a little bit. We need to look at some of the areas that we can enhance it, and hopefully we can get some more monies and look forward to maybe some spring paving in the various districts. And I think this is one of the things I'll certainly bring up when we look at our fund balance as to how much extra fund balance we have because as far as my district goes, and I think at all the other districts, the paving in my district is just the tip of the iceberg. We've just got some long overdue streets that need to be looked at and paved. So I just want to let people know that it's going good, and I've looked at it, and I'm pleased. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brown. It looks like that's all Council Members who signed on for Council reports. And it allows us to—Council Member Henson. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to quickly thank Commissioner Ford and CAO Hamilton for organizing the tour of the Senior Center. And I'm just so excited when next spring gets here that we will have a fantastic facility for our seniors. and tonight if you'd like to join us Cardinal Valley is having their neighborhood association meeting at Cardinal Valley Elementary at 630. Thank you Mayor. Thank you Council Member Henson. All right that allows us to move on to the Mayor's report. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion by Council Member Bledsoe. Second by Vice Mayor Kaye. Is there any discussion? All right. If not we can vote. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Piles is to move to public comment. We have two signed on for public comment. First is Billy Mallory. Is Billy still here? Yes, she is. My name is Billy Mallory. I live at 549 Mustang Crossing, and I actually have an announcement. I'm so sorry that I don't have a Breeders' Cup cap for everybody, but I hear they're soon to be released. And in the 1st District, we're actually basking in the purple glow of Breeders' Cup this week because we are celebrating Isaac Murphy Week with a very special guest that we introduced, he and his whole family, to the council in April when he was here promoting his book about Isaac Murphy. Dr. Pellen McDaniels III has arrived on Kentucky soil on Sunday. And we have a full week of events. You all have received this invitation, and we have some invitations on the back. And this handsome gentleman is Isaac Murphy, who is the best-known American jockey of all times. He won three Kentucky Derbies. His home was actually in the East End, and IMAG, which stands for Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden, is in the East End. And Dr. McDaniels wrote the life story of Isaac Murphy called The Prince of Jockeys, The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy. And he has spent quite a bit of time here in Lexington doing the research for his book at UK and Keeneland libraries. and he's been here enough that he's become a very good friend and he's gotten to know a lot of people from the Kentucky Horse Park, from Keeneland, from the IMAG board. He's become a very familiar face at Third Street Stuff. Every morning we're starting our day out there and every who's who in Lexington has come through there this week. But one of the events is going to be tonight at the Lyric at 630. And a surprise to us is that he's going to be awarded the key of the city. He doesn't know that, and we didn't realize that. We were asking for a proclamation of celebrating Isaac Murphy Week. But he will be absolutely thrilled. And I've got to make sure I get all this in. And he has been starting his days every day at the Lyric doing talking tours. He has an exhibit at the Lyric, and we have over 12 public schools who are either sending groups through his exhibit, or they'll be coming to the Lyric for the play that's based on Isaac Murphy's life, which is called I Dedicate This Ride, that was written by Frank X. Walker, who is the poet laureate of Kentucky this year. and it's produced by Patrick Mitchell. That is Friday and Saturday evening, and that is a pay-as-you-can, so you just show up and pay what you can for your seat. It would be best to call for reservations to make sure you're going to have a seat, and there will be a special school performance on Thursday that we have about four schools that are coming to see that. So we are so excited for Pelham, as we know him now, that we are hoping that he's actually going to establish a long-term relationship between Atlanta and Lexington. He is the curator of African American studies at Emory University. Because he's done so much research, not just on Isaac Murphy, but many black jockeys and much of the early horse history, he would like to be a visiting professor here at UK. So we're working on that. We're working on a special project and a documentary film with the Kentucky Horse Park. So we hope that you will come out to one of these events, all of which are free. Thank you. Thank you, Billy. Next is Doug Sycon. I pronounced that right, Doug? All right, thank you. Hi, I'm Doug Sycon. I live at 276 Masterson Station Drive. I've been riding Laxtran for about three years now, originally up on the Herdsburg route, and then my wife and I bought a house based on the criteria that I have to have a bus route to work and a safe bike route to work, and we found a house that we really liked with that, and I've been riding the route out there for two years. The ridership has increased dramatically since I started riding out there, At first, it would be pretty empty on the way out and somewhat populated on the way back home in the evening. Most of the traffic that gets off is at the jail and also at Amazon, and there's probably half a dozen or so that get off inside Masterson Station. Recently, we've been seeing up to, I think the most we saw was seven or eight people standing on the bus on the way home, and we all kind of like to joke about it that this is the route that they're cutting when we got, you know, 25 people on a, I don't know, 18-person bus. I don't know the exact numbers, but it's a crowded bus. I really just wanted to share that with you all, that this is not some abandoned bus that is not used at all. I apologize I didn't organize my thoughts ahead of time for this I think that's actually about all I'm all I'm going to say thank you thanks thanks Doug just out of curiosity anybody got a question or comment I was just going to did did you say you ride the bike and so do you place the bike on the bus with in the front okay primarily on bad over days I was busing over. Really in the summer I was busing a lot when it was raining every day. Didn't know if you used a bike rack on the bus. I know there are one woman I know uses her bike almost every day. Okay. Thanks. Alright, that's all we've signed on for public comment so that allows me to ask for a motion to adjourn. Motion by Council Member Stenet, second by Councilman Evans, unless there's objection, we are adjourned.