Music Thank you. agenda. So I'll look to our folks in the back. Do we have anyone signed up? No? All right. Thank you. There are no requested rezonings or docket approval today. And so I'll entertain a motion to approve the summary of April 12th council work session. Motion approved. Second. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger and Vice Mayor Kay. Are there any questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. There are no budget amendments today. And so I'll entertain a motion to approve new business. So moved. Second. Okay. Oh, Council Member Legree and Council Member Baxter. Now, we'll take questions on new business if you want to go ahead and log in, Council Members. I see none. All right. All those in favor of approving, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Now, next I will entertain a motion to approve neighborhood development funds. Thank you. Council Member Blumman, do I hear a second? Second. Second. Council Member Legree, are there any questions? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. We received something from the Law Department email today about 30 days out if you're a candidate. it and i don't remember in the past that said we weren't allowed to vote for ndf but according to the email it looks like we are not allowed to vote for ndf if it's 30 days out so is the law department here yes they are let's see glenda george is making her way to the podium there is she'll explain that 30-day rule that is actually in the council rules yep right um and so that is correct So 30 days out, if you have opposition, you wouldn't be able to vote on NDS. I always remember in the past we couldn't bring anything forward, but I don't know if we've ever had it where we couldn't vote. And that might just nobody really ever recuse themselves of it. But I think we need to make sure we recuse ourselves. So I just wanted to, if you do have an election, you do need to recuse yourself. So I will be recusing on number A. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Thank you very much. Anyone else wish to speak? Councilmember Sheehan? I will also be recusing. All right. Anything else about neighborhood development funds? All right. All those in favor of the neighborhood development funds, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? No on F. Okay. And are there recusals? Yes. Put your hands up high if you're recusing. So you can only do one, Council Member Maloney. You can either vote no or recuse. He was on new business. Oh, you were on new business? Okay. So we have Councilmember Maloney, Councilmember Ellinger, Councilmember Kloiber, Councilmember Sheehan, and Councilmember James Brown who are recusing. All right. How many votes do we have to approve it? Eight? Let's see. Hang on a second. Okay, that motion passes just by the hair on its chinny-chin-chin. Next is a summary for Planning and Public Safety Committee. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Planning and Public Safety Committee, February 15, 2022, summary of motions. The meeting was called to order at 1.05 p.m. The first item on the agenda was the approval of the January 18, 2022 committee summary. There were no additions or corrections, and the summary was approved without dissent. Next, we had a presentation by Richard Young and Civic Lex to discuss the upcoming on-the-table public engagement opportunity from April the 10th through April 16th. He explained that on-the-table conversations take place in person and virtually and are designed to facilitate relationships and discuss city issues. The comprehensive plan is required by state statute to be updated every five years, and public engagement is a crucial piece of the process, and on-the-table survey questions are orientated around the five themes of the comprehensive plan. Most of the committee discussions centered on this year's On the Table being a different process than how it started when discussions were not necessarily tied to one topic. Carla Blanton with Commerce Lexington provided a presentation on public engagement sessions to explain how the comprehensive plan impacts businesses. There was some concern that Civic Lex and Commerce Lex will not be using the same survey, which could make comparing data difficult. Young explained the difficulty in comparing the data because they are different questions and different topics, but there may be different opportunities to compare summaries of the data. Committee members express interest in having more of a collaboration between the data sets and a combined survey that includes questions from both groups, so data is more holistic for comparison. In addition to information that will be collected from the On the Table and Commerce Lexington, Director Duncan with the Division of Planning said they will schedule times for individuals and other interested parties to talk directly with planning staff. No action was taken on this item. The meeting adjourned at 2.43 p.m. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Are there any questions for Council Member Brown about his report? All right. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Up next is a presentation. Council Members, you will remember that you funded the ARPA Nonprofit Capital Grants Program, and we have Commissioner Casey Allen Bryant here to give the presentation, and I know she also has Teresa Maynard backing her up and all kinds of people out there. Welcome. Good afternoon, everyone. Do you have a PowerPoint? What did you say? PowerPoint up. PowerPoint. Yeah. That's okay. All right. Again, I say good afternoon, everyone. not to belabor you too long, but I do want to go into a fairly heavy description of this heavily vetted grant program that we lovingly call our NCP program. All right. How many degrees does it take to fill a clicker? There we go. I do want to just take the opportunity to thank the many people that were involved and the development of this program. I want to stress that it was interdepartmental. We have, of course, myself, our commissioner, Charlie Lanter, Commissioner Chris Ford, our top of our admin, CAO Sally Hamilton, Deputy CAO Glenn Brown, including our ARPA project manager. We have our Hillary Angelucci, who is our senior administrative officer, And then, of course, we had council representative through Jennifer Sutton. And I have to absolutely thank, not to leave her for last, but to say because I could not have done it without our senior administrative officer from social services, Teresa Maynard. I do want to say as we're proceeding through this that if you will hold any questions until the end, I possibly could be answering your question before as I go through, I may be answering any questions that you may have. Okay, so just that we want to recognize that in the past few years, there was a little something called a COVID pandemic that has put some strain upon the infrastructure of our local networks of community agency partners. We have developed this program to help alleviate some of that strain and stress on these agencies by devoting $6 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. Of course, these funds, as they are federal dollars, are subject to any kind of federal reporting and spending. We want to focus on agencies that have this proven track record, who focus on our vulnerable populations, and who work with or for residents of our service area, which is Lexington Fayette County. I do want to also stress that this is a one-time grant program, and it is for, again, our local 501c3s. Again, I want to, I'm going to repeat this multiple times, that it is for agencies that are located in and or serve our populations of Fayette County citizens. There are two major categories, and I'm not going to go into detail for them right now because I will go into detail about what they comprise of in a later slide. So for the process, it would be much like similar other grant application processes. There will be a request for proposals. You have a draft RFP that has been provided to you previously that's in the packet. We will have a proposal evaluation committee. And on that committee, it will be, again, interdepartmental. So we will have representatives of social services. Who better knows the agencies that we are targeting? We will have representatives from general services. I mean, we are talking about capital projects. And try as I might to yield a hammer, I really do not know how to actually yield a hammer and read proposals related to any type of facility improvement. So we will have our general services folks on there. We will have people who are subject matter experts, for example, our IT because you'll see as I get to the next slide that there are projects that are eligible that may be for improving their IT infrastructure. We may have people from code enforcement because that's an allowable expense to help get your facility up to code. And of course our agencies will be bound by agreements from ARPA as they are the sub-recipients. And some of those certain agreements are outlined in the RFP that is in the council packet for you. All right. So again, who is eligible? And you're going to hear me say this over and over. We will be looking for facilities located in an agency serving residence of our Lexington Fayette County. We are looking for community nonprofit partners who have that proven track record of performance. And as they provide their narratives, there's opportunities for them to provide us with that information. We're also looking for those that are 501c3 recognized by our IRS service. They either have to own the facility or have a current long-term lease. And we determined what should a long-term lease look like. And we came to the agreement that at least three years remaining on the lease would give us enough time for, just in case they do move on, to have reaped the benefits of whatever facility improvements that they have made to the property. And key to this is that all funds must be spent by the subrecipient by April 30th, 2024. Now I know you've heard us say many times, December 24, December 24, and that is true, that we must have the funds allocated by then. However, we want to say for this particular grant program, April 30th, that will allow us time to reallocate any funds that are not spent by our subrecipients. I also want to say as well that part of the agreement for, with ARPA is that funds have to be spent first and then reimbursed next. So that is a key caveat to that. And if you notice in our RFP, we say that multiple times, that agencies must first spend the funds, invoice us, and then we reimburse them. And that is not our regulation. That is by ARPA. And I have my ARPA project manager back here who can correct me if I misspoke, misspeak on anything that is being said. So what kind of costs are eligible? So we broke them down into facility improvements and operational investments. And so for facility improvements may be items that you typically think of, of course, right? Any kind of plumbing or mechanical that may happen. Any type of exterior, if they need a new siding, roof is bad, they need new floors, lighting. it also allows for acquisition of property whether it's a new building or land adjacent or what have you. Also for parking lots maybe they need to have the parking lots repaved or parking lot put in. Sidewalks or any kind of signage or what have you. And then environmental remediation which we all know can cost some multiple sums there. So asbestos or mold remediation Those are all eligible expenses. What's not eligible, and some may ask, is the leasing of property. So pre-funding a lease, that is not an eligible expense under this, however acquisition of property is. For operational investments, there may be some need for some type of generator. They may need to put in security cameras. Safety controls, maybe they have to put in some new air infiltration systems. Maybe they need to purchase some vans or some type of mobile unit. And as we all know, our IT systems can cost thousands of dollars. So maybe it's new computers. And once I get to the narrative about need, this is not just nilly-willy expenses in terms of operational investments. It's what's going to help them carry out their mission, carry out their objectives, and build their capacity. In terms of funding pool, we again have $6 million, and we have divided that up into $4 million for facility and $2 million for operational investments. We have set a minimum and maximum amount for each funding allocation. And so you may say, well, the minimum is $100,000 facility improvements. An agency may bundle in order to meet that minimum. So they may send in a request, maybe they need a new roof, and they need some new siding. Those are all eligible to do so. Or for operational investments, they may say they need to buy some new computer systems, and they also need to buy a van to meet that minimum request of $50,000. dollars what they may not do however is bundle across the two types of allocations in order to meet the minimums each agency is allowed up to the maximum at each category so that would be a maximum of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars and if you're trying to do the math really quickly on how many projects that way be so what we're saying for facility improvements is that if every agency requested the $100,000, right, at the minimum, we're looking anywhere from around 40. That would be the maximum amount of 40 agencies for this $4 million. Or at the minimum, we may have every agency request $500,000. That would be about eight facilities. So we're looking between 80 to 40. And these are all things we vetted and discussed in our multiple meetings we've had about this project, and we feel that that is doable for the purposes of this grant program and ARPA reporting. In terms of proposal evaluation criteria, and I won't belabor this too much because you have it in front of you on the scope of practice, But we're looking for these five factors will play into the proposal evaluation. And I think this needs to not be said, but I'm going to say it anyway for those who might be listening. Of course, we're looking the higher the amount, right, for the 100 score, that's who we will be evaluating and recommending for funding. Okay, so I need to obviously say that. so scoring does matter and always someone talking about are number one factor we're looking for agencies that are focusing on that one row population we're going to look at their mission and objectives and what they currently do those who are operating more at work focusing on those marginalized underserved low-income populations that are going to score higher in this category and they also need to of course have that problem when c three These are all factors. They need to have a gold star of transparency and the guide star. So these are all criteria we'll be looking for under this first one. We also need to examine their demonstrated need. So this is what I was saying earlier. You just can't buy a van for the heck of it, right? How does it help you meet your objectives? How does it help you meet your mission? How does it help build the capacity for your agency? And then we will ask for any type of data that is needed. So, for example, data may be we need to have an expansion on our facility because our waiting list is so long. Or we need to have improvement to our roof or our plumbing because of these code infractions. So that's the type of data that we're looking for. In terms of applicant capacity, has this agency ever worked on a capital project? Has this agency ever had grants? have they had grants with us and how was their track record when they had grants with LF ECG we're talking about feasibility can they get this project done by April 30th 2024 that's the date that they need to have in mind is it possible and then cost analysis of course we're going to be looking at total cost every agency needs to submit at least three bits for their work And so we will be looking at that. Is this cost the norm for Lexington, Fayette County area? Again, do not want to belabor too often, but I thought that was an accurate, fairly quick overview. You have your RFP of scope of practice, of course, in front of you. Now I'll entertain any questions. Thank you very much, Commissioner Bryant. Council members, if you have questions, please log in. Councilmember Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner. I don't have a question. I just have a comment. I just want to thank you and your team for all the hard work that you put into this. I'm really impressed, and I know that you guys invested a whole lot of time. So I just want to say thank you, and I look forward to seeing what the community brings us. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Worley. Thank you, Mayor. Also not a question. And, Commissioner, I just want to tell you, you and your team, this is fantastic. When we set out this expenditure through the ARPA funds, I think we gave you all a very difficult task in coming up with how this would work. And while I always supported the expenditure, I was always concerned, how are we going to be able to do this? And in-house similar projects in other areas, including economic development, we've had a difficulty doing ourselves. And so your team doing this all in-house, putting this together, it's really, really impressive. Congratulations and thank you. Thank you so much, Council Member Worley. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And I'll share my colleagues' sentiments and thank yous to you and your team for working on this and everybody involved. My question revolves around, and maybe I missed it. And so since this is one time money for capital projects, are we looking to put any deed restrictions on properties or any clawback clauses in it? Just keep somebody taking advantage of improving a property and selling it for profit? I mean, is that something that we should consider or is that just something that's out of our control since we just need to get the money out there? right i don't know that we could control that i mean we we put in the controls that we could for example the three-year lease so at least that they were going to a landlord couldn't kick them out you know they have to have a three-year lease so that they could have it in there in terms of deed restrict i don't know that we could do that i mean that is something that we we explored um i don't know if we've got our purchasing person here but um my short answer to you on that is going to be no. Okay. Yeah, and the only reason I even bring it up is just we want the money to go for community-based use and to do good, and I think we just want to make sure that we protect that investment when we do that. So that was just my initial thought. Yes, thank you. These are all, I appreciate your comment, these are all considerations that we had as well. Thank you. Council Member Maloney? Thank you. I, too, echo So what you all done, and that's something I pushed for $9 million. We could have done a few more. There's a lot of good nonprofits out there. So one example, and you talk about special needs and all that. What about education? And for instance, if a nonprofit comes in here, it's going to build a building for $3 billion, and they're going to need $500,000 additional. but it's more of an education to a need that is out there that's going to be able to bring more jobs and opportunity here. Is that going to be high on that list too? What I will say is that criteria number one, which was either directly facilitates or indirectly facilitates services for our vulnerable populations, which in a nutshell that's what the description was, If they, and their mission, and their objectives, and they are describing their programs, if it fits that, then they will score higher in that criteria. Okay, because, I mean, it is special needs. I mean, they need a job that they're running short of, and this is going to bring in more opportunities to educate these people how this job is very important and teach people how to do this job. I'm just trying to figure out because I'm going to get a lot of calls on this. And I'm just trying to see if they'll be eligible or not. That's correct. Sure, absolutely. And I will say that as you can tell who's eligible, we did not specifically say if you do not serve a vulnerable population, you cannot apply. But again, it's in the criteria. They will score higher if they can prove, right, through their mission and that they are working with or for that for vulnerable populations thank you thank you councilmember lamb thank you mayor and thank you so much for this presentation and again I'll I don't want to belabor it but thank you for all the work I know you know I truly believe when when a task is given the employees of the LFUCG step up and they deliver so my question the one question I have then who is eligible community nonprofit partners with established proven track records of performance that to me says that they have probably been in business for a while or is there is there any more definition of what that really means sure so under capacity they will give them an opportunity not to tell everybody what to put but that we are actually looking for an what to include would be what kind of employees do they have what are their employees records you know how long have they been in business so it's multi-factual that'll help them score those maximum 20 points because i do think that is important i mean absolutely this is an opportunity i'd often say that having these arpa funds at our discretion and having to go through the process has been something that I'm grateful for, but I pray we never have to deal with it again because it was a very difficult process. You know, he pulled at everybody's strings. So I appreciate this very much, and thank you all for everything that you all continue to do for our government and our community. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member McCurran. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner. You know, I'll echo on some of the same concerns or same conversation as some of the council members, but you guys were tasked with a difficult presentation here, and you came out ahead. So this is awesome, and I appreciate this. Thank you. My question for you is on the facility improvements. Is that something we've looked into, maybe a partnership with anybody who can help out with HVAC, plumbing, renovations, maybe in a cost savings perspective? I know we've got BIA or some of the neighborhood. So what I will say, and our ARPA manager, she's free to speak up as well, is that ARPA requires three bids. So for us to partner with one agency to perform certain types of facility improvements would not fit. Well, and I think that they might be interested in at least trying to help refer that to some of their members who are part of it, just to kind of broaden the scope, too, and diversify it. And that's something I'd like to see, just hopefully we can have some more cost savings for them, too, and then more money to go farther and wider. Thank you. I appreciate everything you and your team have done. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. council member plowman thank you mayor and ditto like everybody else said good work it's like putting together a big puzzle i'm sure but i was curious you know when we had the submittals on the portal do you remember or do you did y'all look at how many non-profit capital related operational related um submittals there were yes ma'am um it's been a while since i've looked at that list but i do recall when i first came before you saying this is just kind of what we're thinking you know i i think i had counted at that point i cannot recall the number at this time there were quite a few on there but i do want to say that not everybody that of course would fit this a plot would have had and applied for an arbor project but they there were quite a few on there and they ranged in hundreds of thousands to millions yeah i remember and i couldn't remember what that number is but just reading through them so um but that you did not have to be an arpa submitted project to be considered for this so how will you be marketing this well the same way that we've done many of our other grant programs some of we won't name them here yeah but we can send out through our typical channels that we advertise those grant programs through and the work i'm sorry no i was just going to say so if you have a three out three year lease you want to have a three-year lease remaining on that and but what would happen if somebody has a renewal that's within that three years is that could be a provision for those we would not want to the whole point of the three years is to guarantee that they will see the be able to you know see the fruit of their labor basically so it would have to be a three-year current lease it would have to be there is no way that we could get around that and I am a stickler for the rules and that would be what it is it must have three years remaining on that lease let me maybe they could accelerate the delays possibly yeah okay those are my questions thank you so much thank you mayor thank you councilmember Sheehan Thank you, Mayor. Just a clarifying question. On the facility improvement section, first starting with who is eligible, it says agencies must either own the facility or have a long-term lease, like the three years that we've been talking about, right? However, under facility improvements, acquisition of property is included in there. So do you already have to have a space to then be able to acquire a space? Or could you be eligible to acquire a new space when you don't have one? Correct. So it's hard to word things because we're talking about several scenarios, right? So they could use the facility improvement money to buy land, to improve the land that they have. So for those who are improving the land, they must either own it or they have to have a three-year lease. In another scenario, they can acquire land or property or what have you. Okay, I just wanted to clarify the wording. Thank you. It was hard to put that in words. Any other questions? All right. Commissioner Bryant, thank you very much. Thank you guys so much. You all have a great rest of your day. And now we're ready for council reports. You'll log in, Council Members. We're not. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to thank everybody that came out this past Saturday for the tree planting in the 9th District. We planted a ginkgo tree that I am assured is a male species ginkgo tree. Yes. Because they can be stinky. at the Shillitoe Playground. So thank you to Trees Lexington for making that happen. And then I also wanted to thank our Lex TV staff for coming out to the opening day of the Miracle League baseball game on Saturday. We filmed a council comment and just highlighted some of the great things that that league is doing. And then finally, I moved to place into the General Government and Social Services Committee, a presentation of updates from the Division of Code Enforcement. These items can include updates to the International Property Maintenance Code and a revised violations library, among other things. So moved. Council Member Lamb seconded. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Did you have anything else? Okay, all right. Vice Mayor Kaye. Thank you, Mayor. Many of you were in the room earlier when I made an announcement about a task work group to be established. Now I want to talk a little bit again about it in some detail. So I will be establishing a multi-stakeholder work group whose charge will be to formulate recommendations to the planning commission and the council on completion of the second half of the work envisioned in theme E, goal four of the comprehensive plan. The charge will be twofold. First, to identify land in the rural area with potential for future development without negative impact on the rural area. second to develop the procedures for decision making for consideration of including land for development. I intend to have this group complete its work by this fall when council will be considering the update of the goals and objectives for the comprehensive plan. Council member James Brown and I will co-chair the work group. The membership will include council members Plumman and Bledsoe. We will be contacting constituent groups for suggestions for other participants. And for example, those groups, the Building Institute Association, Commerce Lexington, Fayette Alliance, Farm Bureau, and maybe others. We will proceed by consensus and aim for consensus for the final recommendations to the planning commission and the council. We will be looking to the planning department to provide technical support, but the core staff and council aides will provide the administrative support. And when we have the membership established, I'll send out formal notice of the work group establishment. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Edwards, I wanted to provide information about the April is National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. And Friday, April 22nd, is Wake Up Lex. And you will see on the screen there's more information. 30 local cafes are helping to spread a message of support to survivors of sexual violence and information on resources. To show your support, visit a participating cafe, take a picture with the Wake Up Lex drink sleeve, and post on social media using hashtag WakeUpLex and hashtag LexStopDSV. To see a list of the participating locations, you can see the flyer and the government center elevators, or you can visit the facebook.com lexstopdsv backslash. So I'm hoping that everybody can go out and we can really make a large awareness presence for this wonderful endeavor. So thank you so much. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. As somebody that likes to ride their bike, I really appreciate the news that we received yesterday from the lieutenant governor. And is Commissioner Albright here by chance? Could you come to the mic and kind of explain what happened yesterday and tell us what we're looking forward to? Money. We're getting money. They're giving us money. And connectivity, and that's the big key when we have trails. So if you could just give me an update or give everybody the update would be great. Sure, happily. Thank you for the opportunity. The Alumni Drive Trail fills in the gap between Tates Creek Road and New Circle Road. So that will extend the connectivity through all of those subdivisions and a couple of parks. So very excited about that one. That one is not quite as far along, so it will have to go through the design process. But they gave us funds to go all the way through construction. So we're very excited about that. We weren't quite sure we would get the full amount. And then the Citation Trail builds the next phase of that trail and will connect us to the developer's project on the other side. So we're pretty excited to build that connectivity. And that gives us, I guess, 28 miles now if you go from Astershaw Station all around. And I'm looking forward to doing that route. Good, good. Hopefully not. I'll let you do that. Okay. And I'll invite anybody else who would like to join me here soon. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you Mayor. A couple weeks ago we had E9-1 down here and I had a couple people said to me that, I know you visit everybody in the government, but you haven't been by to see us. So last night I made a surprise appearance there and it was an amazing set up there. They are also short like everybody else and it really concerns me and And they were able to show me that on a good night, they should have six call center for like 3600 number, 258 3600 number. And for fire, they should have three for the 911 and for police 911. Lately, they've only averaged about one or two call center and two just about every night for the police and fire. I mean, two for fire and two for police. And there's a couple people that have been working there for like 15 days and working eight hours. And sometimes similar with the jail. And I understand we're having a hard time finding people. But there was, they told me there was some people that, and I know, Mayor, you're working with other counties to try to bring other jailers here now that you think are on the list that would be able to do it faster to get them in here because they're working in other jails and try to get them back here. I heard that there may be a few 9-1-1s that are working in the surrounding counties that want to come here. And I was wondering if there's some way we can get HR to maybe fast forward them through. And I know that's a lot more complicated than the small counties, and I know you have to do all those rules. But there are some people out there that I've been told in other counties that want to come here and work the 9-1-1. And I just think HR is another way we can fast forward those folks through there, and maybe HR can help us. I know it's all kinds of rules, but I'd like to see if somehow we can fast forward those through there. Thank you. And I also want to thank E9-1 for what they're doing and for the shorthand. And it's amazing, and my heart goes out to them. Thank you. Yes, thank you very much. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a few announcements. I just wanted to thank our folks from Environmental Services. I ran into them this weekend at Castlewood Park and then also at Shillito Park. They were doing, I think it was the reforest at home where they were giving out trees so you could take home and replant them. I think folks were excited about having that opportunity to pick up their own trees and take them home. But it's almost like a baby. You've got to be ready for the responsibility of taking care of those trees. They're hard work. But I think it's beneficial. Then also today I just wanted to thank the council members that joined me at Goodwill today. Council Member Maloney, Ellinger, and Council Member Sheehan. Goodwill, a lot of times, you know, you first think about them, you think they're just a neighborhood thrift store. But what they do and how they do it, they're just way more robust than just reselling used clothes. The workforce and the job opportunities that they are creating and giving folks the opportunity is just impressive. And what they're doing at that location on New Circle Road really impresses me. So I just wanted to congratulate them on opening that new Opportunity Center and thanking the council members for joining me. And then, Mayor, with your budget address today, I know there were some big items, some big ticket items in there. And you put a lot of focus on a lot of things that this community needs. But there were a couple of smaller things that I think kind of stood out to me that I think are just as important. One of them is, and I heard this at on-the-table conversations last week, was programming in our public parks. That's going to be a big deal in several neighborhoods. And I know Monica and her team at Park and Rex have been talking about it and working on it. The fact that it's funding that's going towards that, I think that's great. And then one of the other things that I think stood out to me was the infield infrastructure investment opportunities. A lot of times when we're talking about creating housing opportunities, affordable housing opportunities, A lot of times what gets overlooked or is kind of hard for folks to visualize where we have an opportunity to create additional housing is in blighted vacant lots. And if we can start coming up with solutions or ways to address and to activate those spaces, I think it could create some opportunity in our city. So I think once again there's an opportunity for government to help take the lead on an initiative like that. And then other than that, you know, I changed the subject from the budget to Vice Mayor Kay's work group going forward. I think, you know, the other big conversation that was on the table last week was about growth and how we grow as a community. I think the sustainability work group that was convened before did a lot of heavy lifting that needed to be lifted. And I think Craig said it today in planning and public safety committee. They actually did probably one of the hardest parts of the process to set us up to do the next phase of that process. And I think having a good diverse group of voices at the table to talk about how we grow as a community and how we protect what is valuable and how we create opportunities for other folks to be here and to stay here and appreciate what we all know is valuable in this community I think is important. So I fully support that effort and look forward to that going forward. So thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I was going to tell you, many years ago when my children were young, we had those parks employees in many parks, and they were doing programming every day in the parks. That's where my kids learned to play box hockey, if anybody remembers that. And I was glad to hear your comments about that because we have heard that over and over and over from people in the community. And then the infill issue, we've talked for many years about how to make infill less expensive and to bump it up a little bit. And we're pretty excited about this program. We have not tried it before. But I think it's going to be very popular and will really help our development community to, you know, access some of that no interest money to go into their project. So I appreciate those comments. We've heard the need all over the community as you have, Councilmember Brown. Councilmember Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor, and I'll piggyback on some of those comments. I appreciate your budget address, and I think the council now gets to take on our work. I appreciate the team, many of which of you have worked a long time getting the budget ready to present to us on the council staff and on the administration staff. So I think we're going to take the baton and start our work in looking at it in depth. And I think what it reflects on twofold is when we, you know, a year ago we sat here at the ARPA funds and said, we want this to be one-time money, give us your ideas, give us your thoughts. and some of that came back through non-profit investments, which I think this capital fund will address. The second piece was that investment infrastructure issue. And if you'll recall, about five years ago when Council Member Stenet was here, we passed the infrastructure investment resolution, started a fund, and we never actually funded it. We passed an ordinance and set it up and didn't put money towards it. And I think this is a great start at actually doing something to help developers in our neighborhoods It's provide that delta in a way that I think will allow the money to continue to be recycled, if you will, and reused into the community. So I think it's great. I'm looking forward to hearing more about that. I think, again, it addresses what people asked us to address when they submitted their stuff to us and their ideas. So I'm excited about that. I'm excited about the neighborhood investments for neighborhood traffic stuff. And that sounds, again, small but critical when complaints are that speeding on side streets, they affect quality of life when you're afraid to let your kids play outside. So I'm excited about that. All that being said, I am very excited. Neighborhoods are back to having community meetings, which is really nice. And Lieutenant Jeremiah Davis and I were at the Pensacola Park neighborhood last week talking about some new things. And this Tuesday night, the Pasadena Neighborhood Association is meeting at the Broadway Baptist Church at 630 on Tuesday. So I'm looking forward to sharing with them. And if you've been on Clay's Mill Road, we're still working on it. We've been working on it for a decade. We're going to be working on it for a while. Well, long after I'm gone. So if you're near that area with the rain and the challenge, it's caused more delay than we would like. So just keep in mind if you're driving on Clayton's Mill, just be more mindful as kids are out playing more often. To be careful on side streets, especially cut throughs. We're having a lot more complaints about people now realizing this is not going away tomorrow, and they're using side streets. So just be mindful of that. But I am excited. This Saturday, the Southland Park is having our last little investment of planting some flowers and plants. So if you want to be a part of the finishing touches on the Southland Playground, we're meeting this Saturday from 10 to 12. Bring your own gloves and your own utensils for gardening. I'm not a good gardener, but I will do my best. If you'd like to join us, that will be a fun time. And I'm very excited to have that park finally moving forward and getting to play, hopefully, here before school is out. Thank you, Mayor. Very good. Council Member McCurran. Thank you, Mayor. A few exciting announcements. One is after three years of waiting, we are finally going to have the Kite Fest at Master and Station Park. I know I see a few claps in the audience, and I'm doing the same thing, too. You know, we've relocated it from Jacobson Park three years ago, and the weather has delayed us, but right now we are looking at sunny and 80 degrees. So it's Master and Station. there might always be a little wind. Another thing at Masterson and Jacobson, the spray grounds will be opening this Saturday morning to everybody, and I hope that with that 80-degree weather, everyone can get out and enjoy it. And lastly, on Sunday, we will have the 15th pastor installed at First Baptist Bracktown Church, Pastor McFarland. He's a good friend. He's a good man, and I want to welcome him and his family to Lexington. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I forgot to also, we lost a good employee that some of you all may not have known, but she worked in the commissioner's office for many years, and she wrote famous articles and things, and that was Carol Siler. My heart goes out to her and her family, and she's in our prayers. Thank you. Thank you for mentioning Carol. She was a wonderful employee and a very friendly, kind person. Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council Member Kern, for mentioning the Jacobson Park spray ground. Other business and news out the Richmond Road corridor. Many of you all may have seen the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's announcements about substantial roadway improvements up and down Richmond, Athens-Boonesboro Road. There is, particularly for the Ellerslie neighborhood, but all interested that live in the area are welcome, tomorrow night at 630 in the Ellerslie neighborhood to talk about those improvements, some of which involve our entrance to Jacobson Park and the Ellerslie neighborhood, the Fairways neighborhood, all of the Hayes Boulevard neighborhoods are going to see substantial improvements. So particularly those Ellerslie neighbors, it is a neighborhood meeting, but all are welcome. Thank you. Thank you. It's a major project. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right. Any other council reports? All right. There is no mayor's report today. And so now we're ready for public comment for issues not on the agenda. Is there anyone signed up? No one signed up, so I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Thank you, Council Member Lamb and Council Member Plumman. All those in favor, say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you.