# Planning Commission and Board of Adjustment Joint Work Session - April 17, 2025 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Commission · April 17, 2025 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6406 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6406?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2025-04-17 - **Body**: Commission - **Last revised**: March 28, 2026 - **Length**: 30,405 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Planning Commission and Board of Adjustment convened on April 17, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. in the Phoenix Building 3rd Floor Conference Room. The meeting consisted of 3 agenda items, all informational in nature, with the primary focus being a training session covering a legislative update, bylaws, meeting management, and hearing processes. No votes were taken, no formal presentations were recorded as separate agenda items, and no public comments were heard during the meeting. The session concluded with an opportunity for other business before adjourning. ## Attendance The following members were present at the April 17, 2025 Commission meeting: - **Present:** Megan Griffith, Larry, Jim - **Absent:** None - **Late:** None All three members were in attendance for the meeting, with no absences or late arrivals recorded. ## Contested Items - **House Bill 321 — Training Requirements and Appeals Standing Rules** [timestamp: 12:00] The Commission engaged in a heated discussion regarding House Bill 321 and its implications for existing procedures. The debate centered on two specific areas of concern: changes to training requirements and new standing rules governing appeals. Commissioners expressed confusion over how the bill's provisions would affect current practices, with discussion reflecting uncertainty about the scope and application of the changes. The structured data does not identify specific individual commissioners by name as taking opposing sides, nor does it record a definitive outcome or resolution reached during this portion of the meeting. ## Planning Commission and Board of Adjustment Training – Legislative Update, Bylaw [timestamp: 00:30] Megan Griffith of the Kentucky League of Cities led a training session for Planning Commission and Board of Adjustment members covering legislative updates, bylaws, meeting management, and hearing processes. The presentation addressed several key areas: - **Legislative Updates:** Griffith reviewed recent legislative changes relevant to planning commissions and boards of adjustment, providing members with an overview of how new or amended laws may affect their roles and responsibilities. - **Bylaws:** The session included discussion on the importance of bylaws as a foundational governance document for the commission, covering how bylaws guide the structure and conduct of the body. - **Meeting Management:** Griffith addressed procedures and best practices for conducting meetings effectively and in accordance with applicable rules. - **Hearing Processes:** The training also covered the proper procedures for conducting hearings, ensuring members understand their obligations and the steps required for a legally sound process. The session was informational in nature, intended to equip commission and board members with current knowledge and practical guidance for carrying out their duties. No votes or formal actions were taken as a result of the presentation. ## Other Business [timestamp: 1:05:03] Under Other Business, Commissioner Jim led a brief discussion covering several procedural and upcoming planning topics. - **Bylaw Updates:** Jim raised the potential need to update the Commission's bylaws, suggesting that a review may be warranted to ensure the governing rules remain current and appropriate for the Commission's work. - **Meeting Procedures:** Jim also emphasized the importance of following established meeting procedures, indicating that proper adherence to process is a priority for the Commission going forward. - **Affordable Housing Work Sessions:** Jim mentioned that future work sessions focused on affordable housing are anticipated, signaling that the topic will be a continued area of focus for the Commission. No formal action was taken on any of the items raised. The discussion was informational in nature. ## Adjourn [timestamp: 1:06:13] Before the meeting was adjourned, Mr. Duncan addressed the Commission regarding upcoming meeting dates for both the Planning Commission and the Board of Adjustment. No further business was discussed following this announcement. The meeting was then adjourned. --- ## Full transcript Is that better look at that look at that now I can sing I had a song prepared so no. In case this is the easiest agenda that we've ever seen so I don't have much to do thanks for letting me do it Larry, the first item, we are going to train today learning is always good so today will be our official planning commission board of adjustment training will be legislative update bylaws and hearing processes, and we have guests here today from Kentucky, the city, so we'll be great and available. We're going to kind of divide the conference. Thank you all so much for being here. I'm really excited to be able to talk to you all about things that these bylaws. That type of thing. This seems very formal because we have a presentation that's standing on the podium but I want this to be informal I want you all to ask questions if you have them, interrupt me raise your hand. We want this to be personalized to you so if you have issues that are going on and want to talk about them, please feel free to do that. Right. So if you're not familiar with the city's just very quickly who we are. We're a membership association serving more than 380 Kentucky city. We like to coin ourselves as the one stop shop for all things city so a few of the services we offer our legislative advocacy so we have people who go to Frankfort and make sure that city specific issues, and that you all are heard on those as well as other states. Legal Services which is the department that we are in so if you have legal questions or if anybody in the state has legal questions they can call and ask us. And then we do some community consulting training like this type of training that we're doing we have financing options. And we are also an insurance company we ensure over 600 public agencies in the state. And last but certainly not least, we're your neighbor, we're right across the street. We're over in the community trust building. So it didn't take us long to get here at all. All right, so you quickly went over the agenda but just to recap what we're going to talk about today. Legislative update there have been some changes in statutes relating to training so we're going to talk about what those look like going forward. We're going to talk about bylaws I know you all have had some conversation about what's in your bylaws what needs to be in your bylaws do we need to change our bylaws, we're going to have a kind of a conversation about what that looks like. And then Morgan is going to talk about meeting management conducting effective meetings things like Robert's Rules of Order. And then the hearing process that you all as bodies have people who come to public hearings, and you are quasi judicial in the way that you allow people to present testimony things like that we're going to talk about what's required under due process in the life. Maybe technology like. Nope. Where am I supposed to be pointing this. Nope. It was working. Clicking it I'm probably making it worse. Okay. Ah, that works, whatever you did. Yep. Okay. Thank you. All right, first legislative changes like I said there was some changes to some training requirements so because you all are here, you probably know that there are training requirements as members of planning commission the Board of Adjustment. And now those have changed. So that's why I have my little house bill here that's because of House Bill 321. And so we're going to talk about the then and now what was required of you and what now is required. We have a handy little chart here. So this is then. So this is currently what KRF 147A-027 says, and that is that for planning commissioners and Board of Adjustment members, your orientation training is four hours within one year prior to appointment, or 120 days after appointment, and then that continuing education requirement is eight hours every two years. For the planning professionals, zoning administrators, or other administrative officials in the room, your orientation training is required at eight hours within one year prior to employment, or 120 days after, and then 16 hours every two years after that. So again, this is what was. Now with with House Bill 321 here is what is currently the law. So planning commissioners are what will be the law, I guess, come when it goes into effect. So planning commissioners and Board of Adjustment members, that orientation training now is changed to three hours within one year prior to appointment, or one year after, and one hour on the impact of planning and zoning on housing supply and accessibility. The continuing education, so after that initial orientation, you have a seven hours every four years. So you can see that went from two years to four years, it doubled, and at least one of those hours has to be on impact of planning and zoning on housing supply and accessibility. So you can see that's a great change from the two to four years, you're basically spreading that training out over four years. The planning professionals, zoning administrators in the room, not much of a change, seven hours within one year prior to employment, or 120 days after, and then again, that one hour on impact of housing accessibility, or supply and accessibility, excuse me. And then it goes to 15 hours every two years, and at least one hour on the impact of planning and zoning on housing supply and accessibility. And I keep saying that phrase, yes, do you have a question? There was not an ethics requirement, correct me if I'm wrong. Okay, yes, that's a good point. So your local ordinance might state that there's an ethics, but Jim, I'm not sure if it does. For good reason. Are you an attorney? You might be confusing, okay. I'm just saying that because sometimes attorneys have ethics requirements that they have to do with continuing education. But no, there is no ethics requirements, so if you want to stop doing that, I think you probably could, or however you want to handle that. So again, I keep saying this phrase, training on the impact of planning and zoning policies and procedures on housing supply and accessibility, and you're like, what does that mean? I don't really know. We don't know. We haven't seen what that's going to look like yet, because it's just a brand new requirement. So I can tell you what our folks in Frankfurt told us about the intent or how this bill or how this language got into this bill, and that's their little spiel down there. The goal is to ensure that local planning and zoning boards understand how their decisions impact housing availability and the importance of creating opportunities for new housing in local communities. That's probably the PC answer. The real answer is probably the bottom one. This provision brought in support from groups like Kentucky Realtors Association, which built a broader coalition for the bill. So including that language probably got more support, which helps this bill make its way through the process in Frankfurt. Any questions on this? Again, substantively not sure what that training is going to look like. It hasn't been done yet, so kind of up to you all to decide what that looks like. Okay. This case, this is very small text, but I'm going to summarize it for you. This is an unpublished circuit court opinion that kind of talks about these training requirements. Because some of the questions we get at KLC is, oopsies, our members didn't complete their training requirements. Does that mean that every decision or every action they've taken is nullified, or do we have to go back and vote? How do we handle this? Luckily for you all, the answer to that question is you do not have to go back and vote, and it's because of this case. And the quick facts of the case are there was a family called the Cricks. They bought a manufactured home at a sale conducted by the master commissioner, and that was previously considered a nonconforming use. The zoning administrator wrote the Cricks stating that the nonconforming use of the property was no longer allowed because it wasn't in use for that 90 days. The Cricks appealed to the Board of Adjustment, and the Board of Adjustment voted that the use was abandoned. Then they filed, the city filed civil action against the Cricks to enforce the zoning decision and tried to remove the manufactured home from the property. Well, the Cricks filed a collateral action seeking, this is all legal terms you don't really need to know, but basically they said that the board could not issue that ruling because their board members were not properly trained. Exactly the issue that we just said, the call that we get all the time. And the court said that the board's action was not rendered void by board members failing to complete the requirements or to properly report the completion of their education. They said lack of training is certainly a ground for optional removal, but it does not void the action such board members take. So that's good, yes. That was the Court of Appeals, the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Yes. It did not. No. And this is an unpublished opinion, so attorneys in the room do not cite to it or follow the rules about citing to an unpublished opinion. But what this says is it's okay, it's not okay. We want you to be trained, right? Which is my next slide. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, right? But we want you to know that there is some protection. Things happen in life. We certainly want you to be trained, but we don't want you to be worried about the issue of, okay, we're missing, we're an hour short or whatever the case may be. How does that affect all of our decisions going forward? And again, the quote, just because you can doesn't mean you should. That's because, as you all know, because you are in this room right now, educated planning and zoning professionals are vital because they help develop or, sorry, ensure communities are developed and managed sustainably, equitably, effectively, promoting economic growth, environmental protection, and high quality of life. That's why you all do the thing that you do. This is why you probably serve on one of these boards. It's because of this reason exactly right here. So we want you all to be trained. The point of us bringing this case to your attention is not to say, oh, look, you can disregard the law. That's certainly not our intent, but just know that there is some protection if things happen or things come up. Okay. In the same bill that changed these training requirements, they slipped in some additional planning and zoning related things. One of those is what we call standing. So in House Bill 321, they added some language that says that for both the Board of Adjustment and the Planning Commission, any person claiming to be injured or aggrieved by a final action and that owns real property within the same zone where the property that is subject to the final action is located can appeal. So that underlined text means that if somebody wants to appeal, then they also have to own property in the same zone that was subject to the final action. This is the language for the Board of Adjustment, similar language to the Planning Commission. You don't have to read all of that. It's the same thing. But what does that mean? What does restricted standing mean? It clarifies that now the appeal rests with those who own real property in the same zoning district as the property at issue. Again, this is from our legislative folks. The clarification was important. It creates a clear objective standard for those who can bring appeals and helps prevent litigation brought by parties without a direct stake in the area. It tries to strike that balance between protecting due process and avoiding unnecessary delays in land use development decisions. So while this change in the law may not directly impact you because you're not hearing the appeal, it can indirectly affect you because if less people can appeal, then those decisions may not be drawn out as long as they have been or could be. They are appealing to the circuit court. Yes. Good question. So, in the appeal context, sorry, is that a different? Okay. We'll use your mic. There you go. If a zoning city that has zoning, if they have an ordinance that says manufactured homes or temporary homes are not permanent homes, and you have an ordinance that says you cannot have those, does this make that null and void? So, this does not. This change does not. The question that you're asking about can a city restrict manufactured homes across the board is a different question. There is state law that dictates how we identify or recognize manufactured homes. I think it's safe to say that a city cannot blanketly say no manufactured homes in the city. But that's a different question than what this bill is doing. Does that answer your question? That's fine. Okay. Megan, I still, and you may be prepared to address this, and again, as you said, this doesn't directly affect the board or the planning commission. However, it is a question that staff gets after decisions of the board and the planning commission. It sounds like the way that this is being interpreted, if anyone, say, who lives in an R3 zone, say, wherever that is in Fayette County, can appeal a decision that is made in another R3 zone. They can live 10 miles away. Is that what it's saying? I think that's the language. If they own the property that is subject, that is within the same zone, so both are B3, you're saying. R3. R3. Or whatever zone, right. Right. Then I think under the reading of the statute, that answer is yes. But they have to be injured or aggrieved as well in order to keep that commercial. Right. But I think what's curious about that is. You have pockets of the same zone across the city. All over, that's right. So it could be somebody who's closest physically to that zone, but it's a different zone. They would not be able to file an appeal. No matter how much they're aggrieved, they would not be eligible to file the appeal. I think that is correct under the plain reading of the statute because there is no other qualifying language about proximity or anything like that. Okay. All right. Thank you. I have a question. Just reading the language on its surface, within the same zone, where the property that is the subject of the final action is located. What does that mean? Within the same zone? What zone? Are we talking about a class of R3 or are we talking a zoning district? Like, which is on the next slide? I think it's extremely ambiguous. Yes. Was this 2024 session? No, this is this session. 25? Yes. So there's plenty of time for it. So the intent of this statute is really to stop outside of prison from filing? Yeah. A lot of the stuff we don't have is probably going to be cut back. Yeah. Yes. Like everything else. So if that's the case, we don't need to be having this meeting. It's not all legislative updates. This is just one item. I'm just letting you get to the point. This is the first agenda item. There's plenty more to come. Question in the back. That's a good question. That's a good question. These are all really good questions. While we're on that, with the way I'm hearing it, R3 zone, you've got a B3 zone that backs right up to it. Just because that invisible zone line, the neighbor, property owner right next door wouldn't be able to? And that goes to the heart of Jim's question. Yes. I think under the way that this is currently written, I think that is true. And a reminder, this has nothing to do with who can bring action to you all. This is who can appeal action to the circuit court. I know it's still, like I said, indirectly affects you, and you're going to get those questions. But it's not on the forefront of actions brought to you. Okay. Now that we're all severely confused by House Bill 321, and I brought no clarification to the issue, we will move on. Did we touch everything? Okay. Any more questions about that House Bill 321 before we get to bylaws? You're like, I just had plenty of questions, and you answered zero of them. So, no, thank you. Great. Okay. All right. So, we're going to talk about bylaws. Both the Board of Adjustment and the Planning Commission have bylaws, and that's because these statutes right here, 100-167 and 100-221, say that you shall adopt bylaws for the transaction of business. So, just generally, what bylaws are are the regulations of a corporation. We're using the word corporation pretty broadly here, obviously. They contain the basic rules for the conduct of the corporation's business and affairs. They may contain any provision for managing the business, regulating the corporation's affairs, that are not inconsistent with statutory law, a.k.a. state law. So, your bylaws can basically be whatever you create them to be, as long as they are not in conflict with some other legal resource or statute or constitution, all those things. So, state law establishes the very bare minimum for requirements for bylaws. Basically, those two statutes that I put up there, that's all that there is. It says you shall adopt bylaws. It doesn't give you guidance about what has to be in them, what can't be in them, what should be in them. It just says you shall adopt them. So, the Planning Commission and the Board of Adjustment have discretion to include details of what you want in your bylaws. That can contain meeting management, procedural rules, decision-making processes, all of those things can be housed in your bylaws. So, for you all, the thing that you want to take into consideration when amending your bylaws is basically, do you want them to be broad or detailed? And I have a chart here dictating kind of why that is and what that looks like. So, if you go to our broad category, that's going to give you flexibility because overly detailed bylaws can make it difficult to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. If your bylaws are so detailed and restrictive that they cannot account for something out of the ordinary that comes along, that's obviously going to restrict you in how you handle business. Same with unnecessary restrictions. Some matters may be better addressed in separate policies rather than codified in bylaws, which require formal amendments to change. So, there is an avenue that you have bylaws, but then you also have separate policies of both the Board of Adjustment and Planning Commission. If you do that, then you don't have to jump through those large administrative hurdles to amend your bylaws. So, that's something to take into consideration, too. Do we want to have some outside documents that we reference, that we all agree on, but maybe that aren't adopted formally within our bylaws? Same with legal protection. More complex bylaws can lead to unintentional violations if the members aren't fully aware of every procedural requirement. So, what we don't want to see happen is that you overly detail your bylaws to say, we are going to do X, Y, and Z, and then you don't do X, Y, and Z, and somebody comes along and says, hey, you didn't do X, Y, and Z, and your bylaws say you're supposed to. So, again, that's where we go under the broad category. So, if you leave your bylaws more broad, then you kind of avoid these issues. Now, it's not always better to do that because there is some pros to having more detailed bylaws. So, that's going to outline very specifically your procedures and your requirements, and that's one, clarity and consistency. Eliminating that ambiguity, if it's very broad and nobody knows what's going on, that really doesn't help you, right? So, if you can eliminate that ambiguity and have outlined how your meetings are conducted, that can then prevent disputes over procedural matters. So, if you outline, here is how our hearing is going to be held. We're going to have this first, this second, and this third. Then, everybody's on the same page. Nobody can come in and say, hey, we want to do three first. Nope, our bylaws say we have to do it one, two, three. So, clarity and consistency. Same thing with transparency. You all are in public service. You understand the importance of transparency, especially with land use regulation. The actions that you take impact your residents directly. So, they expect and demand transparency, and you can do that by using those more detailed bylaws. So, providing those detailed expectations about public participation, how we're going to set our agenda, how we're going to run our hearings, that then allows the community or any stakeholder to come and know the rules of the game before they try to play it. Same with legal protection. So, well-drafted set of bylaws can help prevent challenges, because if we're kind of making it up as we go, somebody's going to come in and say, hey, you made that up as you go. Nobody knows the rules here. We weren't afforded due process or whatever the case may be. So, as you can see, there's no black and white good or wrong answer here. It's going to be tailored to what you all think is going to work best for your organization. Any questions on broad versus detailed bylaws or bylaws in general? I'm going to take that as I did such a good job as explaining it, right? Okay. So, looking at your bylaws specifically, my little meme here, how old are the bylaws, you ask? Well, the Board of Adjustment bylaws, you could still smoke on planes when they were adopted, and if you don't believe me, I Googled it, and you could not smoke on planes anymore in 1990, and your bylaws were adopted in 1987. So, if that gives you any context to how old the bylaws are. Planning Commission is not as bad. I think they're 2012, but still 13 years old. So, what are in your all's bylaws? So, the Board of Adjustment bylaws are a little more detailed. Again, I think it's just from when they were adopted. I didn't put everything up here, but here are the different articles. So, you can see these are pretty detailed. We have the order of business. We have the types of appeals. We have the procedure for appeals, which is great if you are following them, the big kind of underline, if you are following them. I don't know. I don't come to your meetings every time, but that's kind of the conversation we're having. We don't want to have bylaws to this detail if we're not following them. And I'm not saying you're not, but just something to look at when you go to look at revising those bylaws. We want to reflect our current practices, but we also want to be able to handle any kind of off-the-wall thing that comes our way. So, I'm not going to go through all these, but just articles of the Board of Adjustment bylaws. All right. Planning Commission bylaws, again, I don't know if it's just because they were a couple decades later, but here's just the articles for Planning Commission. It's not quite as detailed, but again, it does have some guidelines about how we handle hearings and things like that. So, the big question mark, how often should we review them? There is no state law that says you have to review them every 10, 15, 5, 1 year. Right? Some of you are familiar with the comprehensive plan. That has to be done every five years. There's no similar requirement for bylaws. However, we do recommend at least every five years. Why is that? Because we do want to reflect what we are currently doing. Do we operate the same way as we did in 1987? Probably not. Right? So, we want to make sure that we are reflecting our current practices. Also, we need to make sure that we're adapting them to any legislative changes that come. As you can see, we just had a big legislative change about your training requirement. If a commission adopted the previous training requirements in their bylaws, those are now wrong. Right? So, again, reflecting the current legislative scheme is a good reason to review and update your bylaws. And then, again, addressing emerging issues. You all can probably say that land use regulation is not the same today as it was in 1987. Right? With the pop-up of short-term rentals or all the things that we're seeing in this area, there are new issues that may need to be addressed through our bylaw process. Not saying they do, because, again, going back to the conversation of detailed versus broad, but these are the reasons why we at least want you to sit down and look at them and say, are we currently doing this? Is it legal? Is the law still the same as it was when we adopted these? And are there any new emerging issues we need to address? Of course. Anything in our bylaws that 443 will have us have to change? I can answer that, I think. No. So, House Bill 443 would not require you to change anything in your bylaws, because I do not think it addresses approval of development plans in there currently. Correct? I'm looking at Jim. I'm doing a phone a friend. Both of them. Mr. Penn, we would certainly want to confirm that, but, yes, we'll make sure. So, public comment is not assured in our bylaws? Well, it is talked about in meeting procedures generally, but I don't think it breaks it down between development plans and zoning hearings. I don't know. I'm just asking a question. But public comment is described in the bylaws, yes. Yes. And that's a great point. So, again, to my point, we have new legislation coming out. We need to check our bylaws to reflect, currently, are we doing that? Is our practice, and is it legal? So, that's a great, that's a great example. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Okay. So, again, this is just reiterating what I just said. When you go to change or look at those bylaws, does it conflict with state law? Are we currently doing it this way? And are we unnecessarily restricting ourselves? Those are kind of the major questions you're going to be asking yourself when looking at any potential changes. Okay. Any more questions before I pass the mic to Morgan? Okay. Thank you all so much. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Morgan Patterson. I'm the Director of Municipal Law for Kentucky League of Cities. And, again, thank you for having us out here to conduct this training. We're really excited to be here in front of you all. So, how many of you all are planning commissioners? Okay. How many for Board of Adjustments? Awesome. Okay. So, we're just going to talk a little bit about meeting conduct. I might poke at your bylaws and the like as we go along, but we're just going to talk about conducting effective meetings. Just to give you background, for me, I've been an attorney for a ridiculously long time now, 25 years. For me, if there are attorneys who have been here longer, that's not poking fun at you. That's just how I feel about it. And I was a former hearing officer for several years. So, I do come to this with at least some modicum of training, background, and experience in how effective meetings are conducted. So, why do we have a meeting structure? Why do you guys have me here talking about a meeting? What are we doing here? You want to establish ground rules for meetings. So, we're going to talk about parliamentary procedure. The whole point of parliamentary procedure is to establish ground rules, so people know. How many of you all have ever been to a board meeting, a volunteer board, or some nonprofit, where they say they follow Robert's Rules of Order, but then they just kind of throw it out the window? Okay. How long were your meetings? Like nine hours? Yeah. So, that's part of why we have these ground rules, right? That gives the chairperson, whoever that is, an opportunity to say, hey, we are so far off the beam that I can't even see the beam from where we are. Let's finish up. So, we want to have the orderly, expeditious, and efficient transaction of business. The other thing is how many people generally spoke in those meetings that you had that went nine hours? It might have been everybody, but it might have been two or three people who monopolized all the time, right? So, how do you protect the minority views and the majority views? How do you encourage people to have those discussions? And that also includes following those rules. When is somebody recognized? When can somebody speak? Or do you have somebody like me, who's a big mouth, who just wants to get up here and talk for an hour? So, Kentucky statutes don't require a certain type of meeting, a certain type of rule. They don't give you a lot of guidelines. They do say that y'all can establish rules for your meeting. And generally, that means that almost everybody is going to follow Robert's Rules of Order. Because state law doesn't require you to adopt any type of formal meeting rules, what I can tell you is it's a good idea to amend Robert's Rules of Order because some of those rules and those motions are so nitpicky and so sticky that you're going to mess it up. The worst one is a motion to lay on the table. Nobody understands what it means. Nobody does it right. It gets violated all the time. And if it's used consistently to achieve a purpose that it's not defined as, then does it really matter if it suddenly takes on that meaning for that business or for that group? So if you say, like, motion to lay on the table, and that just means that you're going to leave it there and take it up some other time, that's not what lay on the table means, but that's what people commonly use it for. If that suddenly becomes how y'all do it, you've modified Robert's Rules of Order. And that's okay. So my point in saying all that, as confusing as I may have made it, is that it's okay to modify those rules. In fact, we encourage it to make sure that whatever rules you're adopting is tailored to how your board conducts business and you're not just stuck to some hyper-bureaucratic rule that nobody's going to follow and people will sit around and play a game of gotcha. So Robert's Rules, it's also not new. Established by General Robert as a standard guide for meeting conduct in 1876. Basically, the Parliamentary Procedure Manual, and people can be certified in Robert's Rules of Order. I am not a certified parliamentarian, I promise you, which is also why I can tell you that you have flexibility. If I were a certified parliamentarian, I would be standing here and telling you that you do everything wrong. So the rules cover motions, debate, voting, and meeting structure. So this is the basic motion process. And again, people get it wrong. It's okay. The Robert's Rules of Order police are not going to show up and arrest you. But basically, to bring any matter before the body, to bring before a board, you're going to have somebody make a motion. Now make a motion that we hear blah, blah, blah, right? And then another person has to second it. If you don't second the motion, the motion dies for lack of consideration. Once the motion is seconded, generally the chair is going to say, what the chair is really going to say is, okay, we've got a motion in a second. What Robert's Rules of Order says is that the chair is going to restate the motion. Okay, you can do that. Or you can say we have a motion in a second, discussion. Then you're going to have debate or discussion, however you want to call it. Okay? Then a vote is taken on the motion, and the chair announces the result. You can do most votes are taken by voice vote. You can do a roll call vote. Because of the requirement in the Commonwealth of Kentucky that any action taken, the vote of each member has to be recorded, and that's part of the Open Meetings Act. You're going to do a roll call vote if it's anything but an administrative act. So, for example, you might even say, we're going to adopt the previous minutes. All in favor, aye. Any opposed, like sign. But that's not an official action taken by the committee or the Board of Adjustments. If you're going to take a formal action to vote on a zoning amendment or conditional use permit, then you're going to do a roll call vote where each member's name is called, and you have to have your vote on the record. So, that's why different types of measures are going to be treated differently. Okay? But even with the motion minutes, you're going to have to have a motion in a second. So, that doesn't change. It's just how the vote is calculated. Morgan, Jim, over here, before you proceed, I suspect ours qualifies, but our roll call is electronic. So, the names are not individually called, but they are displayed on a screen for all to see. I suppose that complies. That absolutely suffices. And how many of you all have watched, you know, when you have insomnia, you've watched the General Assembly in Frankfort? Because if you watch it and you don't have insomnia, then hopefully you're paid to do it. Okay, they have the same roll call, electronic roll call, and that's fine. It just has to have a formal, you know, a formal roll call vote process where the record's kept. Okay, so this is spaghetti junction. This is the vague description. Can you believe that this is vague? But it is of how motions happen. So, you have a main motion, right? Somebody makes the motion. You can amend the motion. Now, if you ever come to a KLC board meeting, this is where it gets fun because you can amend the motion a million times. And this will happen in our board meeting. And we have one person. He's the city attorney in Franklin, the city of Franklin. And he's the one who J.D. calls on to piece together the motions every single time. So somebody will make a motion. Somebody else will say, I make a motion that we amend that motion. Then somebody else will say, well, what if we do this and we'll amend that one? It turns into a hot mess. So then the final motion, it all has to be taped together and put together in a format where somebody can articulate it. And that will be the final motion. So you have the main motion. You can amend it, right? It's debatable, meaning you can have that debate. So I make a motion, we do blah, blah, blah. I second it. It has to be seconded before it comes before the committee. Then it can be amended until the cows come home, right? You amend the amendment. You do this. You can withdraw. You can vote on it. And then suddenly there are all these interrupting motions on the side. And, again, in the general assembly, what you'll see people do all the time is they'll start going, motion to adjourn. Right? They do that. And everybody in Frankfurt is going, yes, please. But, no, they'll call motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn is the highest ranking motion. And it's supposed to stop all debate. And everybody has to vote on it. Okay? Normally what's going to happen is the chair, the Speaker of the House, or the Senate President is going to pretend like they're deaf and that they didn't hear it. But that's why we call them interrupting motions. So we have question of privilege. Okay? Parliamentary inquiry. Information. Point of order. Now, the question of privilege is rooms too hot? Rooms too cold? Can we have a bathroom break? Like, that's personal privilege. Right? And that, it does have to be voted on. But usually the chair is going to say, okay, let's deal with this. Parliamentary inquiry. A question of parliamentary procedure has to be recognized by the chair and then a discussion ensues and ultimately the chair rules on whether the matter of parliamentary procedure had merit. Okay? That does not require a vote in a second. The chair rules. Then you can have an appeal of the decision of the chair and that's going to require a vote. So this is why I say don't get too overly bureaucratic with how you adhere to the Roberts Rules of Order. Some of these are very important. A point of order, that's really for when your meeting is completely out of hand, it's gone off the rails, and you bring people back to the agenda. You can say point of order, the chair rules, and the chair is probably going to say, okay, let's get back to the agenda. Here's where we were. This is the next item. Let's move forward. So some of them are very important. Some of them are used to be a jerk. Right? I mean, if all you do is sit around and say motion to adjourn, you're doing that to derail the discussion. Or if you have somebody you don't like and every time they start to talk you say question of privilege, you know, I mean, that happens. So we say always, even to our city councils and city commissioners, like, try to get along and do the people's business. Nobody, I mean, y'all are not paid enough to live off of for being on the planning commission or the board of adjustments. I know. There you go. So you can get a parking place? Well, but even so, y'all do this because you love the city of Lexington and you feel passionately about what you do. You know, that's just the reality. All public servants do that. We could make more money elsewhere. We could have better things you could do with your time. I know. Then listen to me. But because of that, what you're doing is the people's business. You know, planning commission, you guys, I've lived in Lexington most of my life. You guys have a very important job. I know this. Right? Board of adjustments, same. We appreciate what you do. Ultimately, you're trying to do it for the betterment of the community. When you have somebody who you don't Jean Hall with on the commission or the board of adjustments, and you just want to, you know, stick and stick a finger in their eye. These motions can be used to do that, and I'm just going to encourage you not to. So we do have all these other motions to reconsider. Next motion. Here's the thing with Robert's Rules of Order. The basics are how do you want your meeting run? Have your motion, have your second, have debate, adhere to the rules, and try to have an orderly, functional meeting. You have more information in front of you now, and, you know, and that can be helpful. You can go online. You can go down a rabbit hole, and you can find out as much about Robert's Rules of Order as you want. But the basics are just know that you can make the motion. You can amend motions. You can do certain things. Right? And then you have a chart there. That can help you. Abstentions. This one word, abstention, is the cause of more consternation in the Commonwealth of Kentucky for any board or committee member, any council, any commission, than I could ever possibly imagine. And it's because in the 1800s, they decided in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Court of Appeals, which was the Supreme Court at the time, decided that there is no such thing as an abstention under the law of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And good news. Y'all do this right, even if you're not sure that you do it. You did. So anytime somebody says that they abstain, their vote is going to count with the majority vote. Even if you have a tie and somebody abstains, then the motion is just lost for lack of a majority. But if you abstain, your vote will be counted with the majority. The only way to truly abstain from a vote is to, and Megan got the process down from y'all, you file out, fill out a form that provides the reason that you're not going to vote on an issue, and you physically remove yourself from voting. You do not count as a quorum anymore for the purposes of voting. And that is, like I said, it started out in the 1800s, but we do have a more recent case law from Pearson Trapp versus Nippenberg from 1965. And it just says the rule is that when a quorum of governing body is present, those members who are present and do not vote, they are considered to be acquiescing with the majority. So the reason this can be important is if you have a legitimate reason for abstaining that could potentially cause you, place you in ethical jeopardy, you want to make sure that your vote isn't counted with the majority, that you have taken the necessary steps to remove yourself from that vote. So that's... Morgan, I just want to point out here we call that a recusal. A recusal. Yes. Okay. In Frankfurt, we call it taking a walk. So, because literally members get up, walk out of the room, take a lap around the Capitol and come back. So, you know, here you guys actually use the Queen's English and call it a recusal. All right. Voting in the negative. This is another thing that can happen or that can come up as a question. Voting to disapprove versus failing to get a motion. So, if you get a motion in a second, but you don't get a majority vote to pass it, then the motion dies. That's not the same thing as a motion to disapprove. Our recommendation is for the purposes of Planning and Zoning and Board of Adjustments, if it's not going to pass, have someone follow up with, I make a motion to disapprove. Know that there is a formal vote that the body has disapproved, you know, the map amendment, the zone change, what have you. This matters because taking no action has other implications in the Planning and Zoning context, as you all know, and in the Board of Adjustments, because after a certain amount of time, whatever's before you may become final in favor of the filer, and that may or may not have been your intent. Okay. So, having it on the record instead of having that long time to wait or even a question of whether it was a formal motion to disapprove, that can be helpful just to take that action. So, voting in the negative, if it's a yes vote on a motion to disapprove, that means it's a denial of the request, which I know sounds silly. Yes, sir. Question, when we have a tie vote, how does this tie in? So, if you have a tie vote, then it is just going to fail for lack of consideration, and it's going to, it'll operate just like no motion at all. So, I think in most cases, what is it, within 60 days, it'll become, whatever it is, will be approved by operation of the law. Is that it? Is it 60 or 90? No, no, no, no, no. It just, it's just going to depend on what it is. That's what I was trying to. We also have a provision for the, for a zone change, that if it ends in a tie vote, that the planning commission will reconsider that within 30 days. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, they can be reconsidered, but it doesn't, I guess, it can be reconsidered at any time, but any motion can generally be considered under Robert's rules, but yes, under zone changes, after 30 days, those can be brought back up before the body. Oh, did you? So, for our purposes, if it ends in a tie vote, the applicant did not get an affirmative action, so they can't move forward with their application. They have the opportunity to refile. We let them refile the next month if they want to. Yeah, they can, they can refile right away. A disapproval action by either the board or the commission puts them on a delay for at least a year. Well, KRS allows for the planning commission and the board to do that, and I think they allow for a delay of up to two years. In our case, we've elected to use one year, and those are in the bylaws. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, when a request is unlikely to pass, so what we're saying is consider going ahead and making a motion to disapprove, then just letting it fail for inaction. And then, for meetings, KRS 100-163 requires at least six regular meetings annually. I don't think y'all are in jeopardy of having this issue. So, any special meetings, you have to have at least seven days' notice, and this is a variation from the Open Meetings Act. The Open Meetings Act generally requires only 24 hours' notice, but the statute for planning and zoning is different. All right, public comment is not required, and this is one area where you want to double-check your bylaws and make sure that you're following them, and if you're not, it doesn't have to be in there. So, a lot of what we were talking about with the bylaws, the level of detail, you may or may not be following everything that is included in your bylaws. There's nothing wrong with taking it out. You can have what are called formal meeting rules that are adopted and reviewed, basically like a standard operating procedure instead of having them formally codified in bylaws. So, the public comment is not required, but it is different for public hearings. The Open Meetings Act doesn't guarantee the rights of the public for general meetings, but they do for the public hearings for Planning Commission and Board of Adjustments, okay? And one thing to remember is to listen to your planning staff and your attorneys. If you just read the statute of your own volition, you're going to think that the legislative body has the ultimate authority to just undo everything you do, so why do you bother? That is not the case. They have to either have their own formal hearings or they have to do some extra stuff if they're going to overturn one of your decisions, so definitely follow the recommendations of staff, follow the information that's before you, and most importantly, only consider the evidence that's in front of you, okay? And that can be really hard, especially when you live here. You have to make decisions based upon the evidence that's presented to you and not based upon necessarily emotion or what have you, and I'm sure you've already had that lecture before. But with public comment, people get really, really passionate about stuff. It's funny because even in my job at Kentucky League of Cities, it's easy for me to look at the plain language of statutes and be like, oh, this is just a NIMBY situation, not in my backyard, but then y'all go ahead and try to change a zone in Southland where I live, right? Yeah, good luck. You'll see what NIMBY looks like, and I've seen that happen in my neighborhood over and over again, and I do the same thing, right? I look at other cities, and I'm like, well, y'all are just being unreasonable, and then now talk about moving the urban service boundary, and we all get ideas. So with public comment, you have to hear it, but you don't always have to consider everything. You know, there are sign-up sheets, time limits. You can have them state their name and address for the record. You can put some basic requirements. What you can't do is you cannot have ladies' night where nobody but women can talk or, you know, yeah, right? That'd be a very long meeting because I'd show up. You'd never hear the end of it. No, or my favorite, nobody with a graduate degree from Duke University can speak because that would probably be universal. Yeah, y'all, I'm so bad with regular microphones. I'm so sorry. I usually have a lavalier because I can't sit still any time we do training. It's been a struggle my entire life. But so what you can do is you can put general restrictions, general guidelines on the meetings. You just can't have something that's unconstitutional or, I mean, I think that Duke University, anybody with a degree from Duke should be prohibited. But I guess we're not allowed to do that either. Okay, so final thoughts on parliamentary procedure, like we started out with. The majority really needs to respect, you know, the minority. Even if you don't like them, just remember, you know, everybody's here because they want something better for the city of Lexington. You may not like what those other people like. Right. But they come here with genuinely the fire in the belly. So and the individual has to respect the rights of the majority minority as well. And assume intentions are honorable and have honorable intentions yourself. And then treat others as you want to be treated and respect each other's positions. Okay. So now moving on to the hearing process. Yes, sir. When you talk about the majority and the minority, we're not talking a race here. We're talking about position. Yes, sir. Okay. That's correct. Thank you for clarifying. Yes. All right. So the hearing process. And we're talking about basic procedural due process. So in administrative hearings, if y'all can reach way back to civics, for those of you who had it, I did. I'm also political science undergrad. So I was inundated with it. Basic procedural due process. What that means is we're talking about administrative hearings here. We're not talking about the judiciary. Administrative hearings, and that includes planning commissions and board of adjustments. The authority is from the executive branch of the city. So it's under the city's police power. It flows through. That's important because of how due process is handled. When people come in here, Lexington doesn't pay for an attorney for somebody who's in front of the planning commission. They have a right to counsel, but the city doesn't have to provide it. They have the right to provide their own. There are a lot of differences from when someone ends up in a court of law. Right? But the basic due process is nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process. Okay? Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. So what is due process here? It's very basic. It's just to ensure that people get a fair shake in front of a government body. And that for the purposes of planning commissions and boards of adjustment, that things are actually done within the public purview. Procedural due process requires a notice, an opportunity to be heard, and an impartial decision maker. That's it. That's the basics. And in a lot of cases, not here, in a lot of cases, you don't even have to have an impartial decision maker. When it comes to hearings in front of, before the executive branch. It does not mean that hearings have the same measure of formality. Y'all are not going to get issued robes. Nobody has to go through the formal process of standing when y'all come in, although it's always polite. The hearing is not a criminal proceeding. So they don't have the right to a speedy trial. The timelines are established by statute and ordinance. They don't have the right against self-incrimination, unless they're getting ready to incriminate themselves criminally, and they might take the fifth. Nor to a grand jury. None of those rights that you see are going to apply. They are entitled to notice. And again, those are going to be spelled out in your statute, in your ordinances. It has to be reasonable and timely. It has to include the nature of the hearing. And y'all know, like, if you have a zone change, it's going to be posted for a certain number of days. Has to be at the property and in the paper. Time, date, and location of any hearing. Potential impact on property rights. And then there are provisions that dictate who can attend, who can appeal, who can speak, and the like. And then the right to be heard. So, in all of your hearings that y'all have where the public can speak, they're going to be able to present testimony, present evidence, documents, photographs, cross-examine opposing witnesses, which is always fun when they can do that, right? And that's only if applicable. It's not going to be the case in a lot of, in most instances that you guys get heard. And then the right of impartial decision makers. Decision makers, as best as you can, you need to come unbiased and free of conflict. So, that's what we're talking about with the recusal. If you think you have a financial interest, I mean, it doesn't mean that you're not going to have an opinion, right? If you're, you know, you may have been selected for the planning commission because you're a builder. You may have a relationship or a background in building and development, in architecture, in some area of expertise that lends itself to the subject matter that's going to come in front of the commissioner of the board. That doesn't mean that you're automatically conflicted out of every little situation where that's impacted. What it means is, do you have a financial interest? Do you have an interest such that you don't believe you could look at the facts, look at the law, and be impartial? And transparent in your reasoning. You know, if you think that there's something, an issue where this could call your, you know, your bias or it could cause your impartiality into a question, disclose it. Mention it in the public meeting. We tell council members, commissioners, and mayors that all the time. It's like, no, this is not technically a violation of your ethics ordinance, but nothing prohibits you from disclosing that just so everybody's aware. Just so everything's out on the table. And then avoid ex parte communications. They can actually be illegal in most instances. It can undermine the fairness. So even if you're just in the bathroom and a person walks in and tries to engage, ah, member of the commission, can't talk to you. Right? And recusal may be required if there's a conflict of interest or the like. So ex parte communications can include any off the record discussion between the decision maker and the party involved. It's pretty, pretty simple. It can incur, it can occur in person, by phone, email, text, even through social media. So, um, as much as I would love to say that you should all just go ahead and get rid of your social media, nobody's going to. Um, and as I always tell people, the only thing you see on my social media are pictures of my, you know, dogs. My husband occasionally doing something like stoking the smoker box with a leaf blower, um, because that made me laugh and I had to video it. But other than that, um, you know, I try to keep business off of social media because of my position. And try, always have. What y'all do is up to you, but beware of the direct messages on any of your social media. And the issue is it violates due process. Also, it can create a bias. You're getting information outside of the hearing process and what your planning professionals provide you. Which is not anticipated under the statute for how you develop, um, the conclusion, how you arrive at your decisions. And it can lead to legal challenges if somebody finds out. Right? It just can. And just avoid private conversations with the parties. And disclose any unintentional ex parte contact. Talk to your attorneys. Find out, hey, this happened. Should I make mention of it in the public meeting? How should I handle it? But just make sure that you're providing that disclosure. And base decisions only on the official record. So, hearing process by the planning commission bylaws. The staff presents their report for 30 minutes. And this, again, is where we say you might want to look at amending your bylaws. Because they are very specific. 30 minutes for staff to present. Right? Sometimes it might take longer. Right? How long did it take on short-term rental regulations? But seriously, I mean, do you really want to be restricted? Because that can set you up for an automatic challenge. Staff didn't present for 30 minutes. Staff presented for 45 minutes. Could that be an issue? Of course. Applicant presents its case. They only have 30 minutes to do that. Well, what if it's a hyper-technical issue? What if they're having to present, to present on, you know, road studies? Environmental studies? What if there are very complex issues? Any proponents of the proposal can testify for 10 minutes. Do you all follow that every time? You may not want to. Okay? And then any objectors can present an opening statement and testimony for 30 minutes. So, this is why we said, just look at your documents. You want, if you want to be that specific in a standard operating procedure or meeting procedure as adopted by vote of the board, great. Then you can amend it simply by voice vote every so often. But you're not going to have to go through the formal process of amending your bylaws and filing your bylaws. Okay? But right now, this is the hearing process. So, like we said, just remove the time limits or remove the hearing process altogether and just adopt it in your formal SOPs. Okay? Y'all, that's pretty much it for me. Unless you have any questions. The good news is, I'm literally across the street. We talked to Tammy. We talked to a lot of the staff. We're available for discussions pretty much any time. And yes, that's an old picture of me. Do not judge. We have not retaken it in a while. All right. Just on behalf of the Planning Commission Board of Adjustment. They, especially the Board of Adjustment up until through the winter, were having extremely long meetings because of the short-term rentals. Planning Commission can find themselves on any given Thursday having a long meeting. And they may need to take a comfort break or two during that process. What should they not talk about on their way to the snack cabinet? Anything. Just talk about... How many of y'all like dogs? You can talk about them. What about cats? How many of you have kids? Grandkids? Birthdays? Do you like to garden? Talk about any of that stuff. Gardening might even be tiptoeing into the wrong area, depending on what area of the city you live in. So, yeah. I'm like, if you live in Ashland, don't talk about anything. You know, North Ashland, talk about nothing. No, but, you know, talk about anything except for the matter that's before you. And we talk about this a lot when we do our city officials trainings. Because what you probably have most in common is this. I mean, some of y'all might have been friends or known each other beforehand. But mostly, this is what you're going to have in common. So, just think about talking about puppies, kittens, rainbows, the weather, you know, basketball, football, hockey, F1, NASCAR. Whatever it is you're into, you know, aside from the issues before y'all. I'm very long-winded. I know you expected just a real brief answer. I'm glad of the experience of this society. You also might be ready to get to know the community as well. So, if four of you are together, it is definitely public business. And it's not a waste of time. It's a sacrifice. Well, thank you. Thank you both. It is our pleasure. Thank you all for having us. We enjoyed being here. Okay. Mr. Duncan. Mr. Chair, Madam Chair, thank you all for coming today. We have gotten the board and the PC together from time to time. but it's been a while, so it's good to have everyone here and talk about these issues. If there is interest and there may even be guidance in updating the bylaws, we'll discuss that at meetings, future meetings, and how we could go about doing that for both boards. But in the meantime, if you have any questions, you're welcome to shoot them to us and we'll make sure that we know who's here today. You all will get credit for this time that was brought before you and we thank you. Yes. Our next work session, which we devoted to affordable housing? Not the next work session. There are two work sessions for the Planning Commission in May. So the first work session will be business updates. It's the second work session in May that will be affordable housing. So my question is, would there be benefit in inviting the Board of Adjustment to attend that one as well? Absolutely. If the chair and the board want to come to that, we'll make that information available to you, certainly. So without that, Mr. Chair, Madam Chair, the next meeting of the Planning Commission is Thursday, April 24th of the Planning Commission Zoning Hearing, 130 Council Chambers. The next meeting of the Board of Adjustment is Monday, May 12th at 130 at the same place. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Don't talk to strangers. Baby, don't you talk. Don't talk to strangers. You know he'll only ease you up. Don't talk. Don't talk. He don't talk. Don't talk. Don't talk to. Nobody talk. Nobody talk. Don't talk. Don't talk to. Don't talk to strangers. Don't talk to strangers. Don't talk to strangers. Don't talk to strangers. Don't talk. Why must you disappear? Why must you go? When I need you here with me Don't you know how much I love you? And why must you say goodbye? Once you saved my life Now you're leaving me to die, girl Don't you know how much I love you? You give me Just enough to keep me hoping Enough to make me forget The promises you've broken Why must you come around Just to pick me up So you can watch me hit the ground, girl Don't you know how much I love you? Don't you know, no Don't you know how much I love you Oh, oh, oh You give me just enough to keep me hoping Enough to make me forget the promises you've broken Ooh, tell me how long must this go on? I'm so far gone, I'm on my knees now, baby Don't you know how much I love you? Don't you know how much I love you? Don't you know, no Don't you know how much I love you? Don't you know how much I love you? She left a yellow rose And a long neck bottle On the table beside my bed With a short little note Said I had a good time It was written in lipstick red She didn't sign her name I wonder if that's a little secret That she keeps Ooh, she's walking around in my sleep Dream walking, pillow talking She's calling my name again Day is breaking, I ain't waking up I'm sleeping in I'm on a roll now I gotta know how this dream ends She took my new sunglasses And my old jean jacket And she never even bothered to ask You could say I haven't seen her Since the late last summer But every night she comes back Just like smoke through the keyhole She slips in so silently Ooh, she's walking around in my sleep Dream walking, pillow talking She's calling my name again Day is breaking, I ain't waking up I'm sleeping in I'm on a roll now I gotta know how this dream ends Ooh, there's a thin line Between dreams and memories I'll be losing my mind Until she comes back to me Dream walking, pillow talking She's calling my name again Day is breaking, I ain't waking up I'm sleeping in I'm on a roll now I gotta know how this dream ends She's walking around in my sleep She's walking around in my sleep She's walking around in my sleep She's walking around in my sleep I close my eyes Only for a moment And the moment's gone All my dreams Pass before my eyes A curiosity Dust in the wind All they are is dust in the wind Same old song Just a drop of water in an endless sea All we do Crumbles to the ground Though we refuse to see Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind Oh Oh Now, don't hang on Nothing lasts forever But the earth and sky It slips away And all your money won't another minute buy Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind Dust in the wind Everything is dust in the wind Dust in the wind Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind All they are is dust in the wind Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind Dust in the wind The midnight sun The wheels go round and round On my mind Restless hearts Sleep alone tonight Sending all my love Along the wire They say that the road Ain't no place to start a family Right down the line It's really you and me Loving a music man Ain't always what it's supposed to be Oh girl, you're still my moon I'm forever yours Faithfully guitar solo Circus life Under the beach of love We all need the clowns To make us smile Blue skies at night Always another show Wondering where I am Lost without you Being far away Is the oldest love affair Two strangers meant to fall in love again I'll give the joy Of rediscovering you Oh girl, you're still my moon I'm forever yours Faithfully guitar solo Whoa-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh Faithfully I'm still yours Whoa-o-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-o-oh Whoa-o-o-o-oh A little country church on a two-lane road A bride and a groom coming out the door White lace dress and a red bouquet Just married, ridden on a blue Chevrolet Don't that make you wanna fall in love? Don't that look like a picture of us? A match made in heaven if there ever was Don't that make you wanna fall? Oh, that just makes me wanna give you my heart Every forever needs a place to start Gotta be a sign from my baby Don't that make you wanna fall in love? Oh, folks sitting in a front porch swing Still holding hands like they were sixteen Fifty good years, they're a lover's dream Darling, that could be even me Don't that look like a picture of us? A match made in heaven if there ever was Don't that make you wanna fall in love? Don't that look like a picture of us? A match made in heaven if there ever was Don't that make you wanna fall? Oh, that just makes me wanna give you my heart Every forever needs a place to start Gotta be a sign from my baby Don't that make you wanna fall in love? Yeah, yeah Well, now, don't that make you wanna fall in love? Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah I'm setting fancy free Because she wants to go She's tired of loving me She told me so I guess she don't know Just how much she means to me But along with all my dreams I'm setting fancy free Yes, I'm setting fancy free Even though I love her still She'd be no good to me If I held her against her will Even though that girl She's the best part of my world Along with all my dreams I'm setting fancy free Oh, Lord, you just don't know How it hurts to say goodbye She did her best to stay I can't say she did not try I just hope the road she takes Leads back to me So along with all my dreams I'm setting fancy free Yes, I'm setting fancy free Even though I love her still She'd be no good to me If I held her against her will Even though that girl She's the best part of my world Along with all my dreams I'm setting fancy free I'm setting fancy free Even though that girl She's the best part of my world Along with all my dreams I'm setting fancy free Even though that girl She's the best part of my world Along with all my dreams I'm setting fancy free I'm setting fancy free Even though that girl She's the best part of my world Along with all my dreams I'm setting fancy free Even though that girl She's the best part of my world Along with all my dreams I'm setting fancy free Thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you this afternoon, Councilmember Beasley. Mental health has been on the forefront of hot issues that need to be addressed within any corrections system, and especially county jails. Some reports will tell you that two-thirds of jail inmates have some type of mental health condition or are suffering some type of psychological impact from being incarcerated. We feel like here at the division that we have a good handle on mental health. We just merged the contract with Mental Health and Medical under Yes Care. Yes Care has put a really experienced team of mental health professionals on the ground. Dr. Duff, Dr. Diego, Dr. Phelps, Dr. Zulega, they are all heavily involved in the standing up of this mental health unit that we have here at the division that has a mental health professional in the unit at all times. What we're doing on the custody side is all of our basic jail officer academies going forward will have a 40-hour course called Crisis Intervention Team that the National Institute of Corrections gave us. You're going to have a jail officer that is up trained in mental health conditions and how to recognize them and what to do about it. That's going to give us better safety and intervention, and it's also going to give the mental health professionals that are trying to help these individuals in the unit good information that they otherwise wouldn't have. I think this unit is unique in jails, but I also believe that it's what the future holds for corrections and that you'll see this become fairly common going forward, I think. Thank you. The officers that we have that are already out of the academy, will there be an opportunity for them to go through that training as well? We have a plan for that also. Pulling officers out of the line in large numbers for long periods of times presents a challenge, but we feel like we can do it. We're going to run the CIT courses. We're going to run one or two or three and run them as an in-service and pull officers that have not had the training, veteran officers that have not had the training, they'll have the opportunity to. The goal is to get the entire officer force trained in CIT, and that would be, I'm almost certain, a first in the nation. Thank you. Welcome back. Now we have Sergeant... Arrington. Arrington with us. I'm the Sergeant over Classification here at the Division of Community Corrections. We're responsible for making sure everybody goes where they're supposed to go in a safe way. All right. So how many people were booked into the Lexington Division of Corrections in 2024, and what are the top four or five reasons why someone would get booked into our jail? Of course. Yeah. So in 2024, we had 10,932 bookings into the Fay County Detention Center. Now, in a lot of cases, that's not different people. Unfortunately, sometimes that's the same person multiple times. That's broken down by about 8,200 males and about 2,800 females, and that comes out to an average of 30 people, 30 bookings per day, which will look different depending on what they were arrested for. Some people are there for a very short time. Some people are processed all the way through and need to be assigned housing deeper into the facility. Now, some of those charges, like you asked, we see a lot of alcohol-related charges. They were intoxicated in public, quite a few driving under the influence charges that come in, possession of a controlled substance. No matter what the substance may be, we see a lot of that. Failure to appear makes up a large percentage of people that get arrested, so they didn't show up to their court date, and they end up with a bench warrant for their arrest. From there, we start to get into assaults, some violent things, domestic assault, and violations of EPOs, DVOs, things of that nature. So we have more folks booked into our jail that are intoxicated than we do for violent crime? On average, I'd say that's accurate. Okay. Thank you. Okay, so now we have Sergeant Townsend with us to tell us what it looks like to be booked and processed through our detention center. So once you're brought into the facility by the arresting agency, we go through a series of triage questions at the front before you're brought any further into the facility to make sure that you're, one, safe to be into our facility, and that, two, that you aren't having thoughts of harming yourself or anything with mental illness or anything like that. From there, we'll move on down to getting your booking photo, the wonderful mugshot. From there, you'll be able to use the phone, eat a sack lunch if you're hungry, and kind of wait for us to be able to get through to the fingerprints. Then we'll do tattoo pictures, go ahead and get you body scanned around to the property counter where we're going to go through the jelling process of getting you into the orange jumpsuit. Once you're in the orange jumpsuit, you'll see the nurse. Once you've talked with the nurse, went over questions regarding your medical, mental health, and everything, at that point is when we determine where you're going to be housed, and we'll go ahead and take you on back from there. Now, depending upon your charges, there is a chance that you may not make it back that far. In that case, then, we do allow you to hang out and take a little longer so that you can bond out or pay your fine or whatever your case may be so that you can get out. Okay, so just a few follow-up questions. So, I don't remember anybody's phone number. So, for my phone call, I'm assuming that you've taken my cell phone at this point, right? Yes, ma'am. So, how am I going to call my friend to come and get me out of jail if I don't remember their number? So, when you come in, we do go through all your property. We do take any dangerous contraband out of it at the counter, and we do allow you at that point to be able to get phone numbers out of your phone, anywhere from three to five phone numbers typically, and then you're able to use our jail phones that are able to make local calls and long-distance calls at that point. Does everybody have to get body scanned even if I'm going to bond out? No. So, the only way that you have to go through the body scanner is if you're going to be sent to the back to be housed within one of the housing units. Does the jumpsuit only come in orange? Yes, ma'am. Currently, general population only comes in orange. I hope you'll never have to worry about me being here. Okay, thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you being with us today. We have Major Crawford with us now, and he works with the recruits when they go through the training academy. Is that correct? That is correct. Why don't you tell us a little bit about how that works, like what that looks like for us? Excellent. As you stated, I am the Bureau Commander for Professional Standards. That also entails the Bureau training. During that time, I provide oversight to our 13-week recruit academy. As far as our recruit academy goes, we have an eight-week classroom portion. It's a pretty challenging and diverse classroom recruit academy. Not only do the recruit officers learn things from law, basic operations, facility policy and procedure, but they're also challenged mentally and physically in regards to being able to respond appropriately during the course of their duties as well as I talk about mentally. We understand that our role here, we're half social worker, half law enforcement officer, and we deal with people, people in our community and on a day-to-day basis. And so not only do we require our officers to have courage, but they also must possess empathy. We teach our recruit officers the importance of dealing with individuals on a day-to-day basis. We teach them how to engage in verbal interaction with a positive outcome. We teach them how to deal with individuals in crisis. With such a diverse and challenging recruit academy, it helps build their confidence. And with that confidence, we then transition them to the facility training officer phase, which is a five-week phase of training where they work with a facility training officer to put into application everything they've learned in the classroom while working with the offender population. And then upon their successful completion, they are sworn in at a graduation ceremony. And in the conclusion of their probationary period, they are given the opportunity to obtain the certified jail officer status to help continue to build that confidence as they pursue and complete their career as a correctional officer. How long are they on probation for? They are on probation for a period of 12 months. Is that 12 months from when they got hired or 12 months from graduation? A date of hire. That's correct. What is the scariest part of training for a new recruit? What do you think it is? What do they worry about the most? Other than the typical getting, having the O.C. level one exposure. Go, go, go! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Get back, get back, get back! I would say in the grand scheme of things, I think in this line of work, you know, most people don't know what being a correctional officer entails. And so when I see people on day one, when I introduce myself and we talk about what this job entails, eyes wide open. They don't know what to expect. And it's our job to make sure they know exactly what and be prepared what they're going to encounter on a day-to-day basis. And I feel like we do it proficiently doing that. So I'm sure everybody knows by now that our daughter was one of the last graduating classes. I'm sure everybody in the jail knows it and everybody in Fayette County knows it because I talk about it all the time. She loves you and the program. Well, thank you, thank you. I don't know what made her wake up one day and decide she was going to be a corrections officer, but here we are. And I assume that she's not the only one who just gets up one day and goes, I think I'll try out for the Community Corrections Department. That's absolutely correct. I always tell everyone there's two ways that you come into the business of corrections. Either you've known somebody and they've told you about it or you're curious and you jump in and then here you are in the Recruit Academy and you learn to love it. And so I'm glad to hear that. Thank you for sharing that. And she does love it. Excellent. She does. Yes, ma'am. Thanks for being with us today. So, Corporal Woodrum, I hear that you have a distinguished honor that I would like to hear about. Would you like to tell us what your distinguished honor is? I am the state of Kentucky's first certified jail officer as recognized by the American Jail Association. What exactly does that mean? So it means a lot of things. It means that I was able to sit for a national recognized test to test my skills and my proficiency level to ascertain whether I know what I need to know to be great at my job. And how many other officers in our Community Corrections Department are? Eighty-six. We have 86 officers? Eighty-six. Eighty-six officers. That makes us number one in the nation. And that doesn't happen without the training that we receive here. And it doesn't happen without the encouragement of the chief to his executive command. And if it doesn't, that means something. That we have a leader in the chief's spot. Somebody who got a national designation and then instilled in us that we could do the same thing, that they could test our competency. And we come out as number one in the nation with 86 certified jail officers to date. And again, that doesn't happen without good leadership. That's amazing. Eighty-six of y'all being certified is amazing. I appreciate you talking to us today. Chief, thanks for allowing us to come out here today and spend some time at our detention center. Is there any last words you have for the folks before we wrap this up? No, we just really appreciate the opportunity, Councilmember Beasley. It's one of the stated goals that I told the officers that I would concentrate on getting done for them, which is wrapping all the good work, the hard work, the brave deeds that are happening behind these walls and these doors and get that out to the community. So I just want to thank you for giving me a venue and an opportunity to do just that. So I know the officers will appreciate this. Thank you. Thanks. We appreciate you having us. Thank you. Welcome to Code Enforcement or Not! With your host, 6th District Councilwoman Denise Gray and her special guest, Director Lee Steele of Code Enforcement. Hello, everyone. This is me, Denise Gray, your Councilwoman for the 6th District. Today, in my second council comment of 2025, I am glad to bring to everyone Director of Code Enforcement, Lee Steele. Hello. Good to be here. Lee, I'm just so happy to have you here today. Over the past year, you and I, we've done many town halls together. And I just want to say, before we get into this conversation, thank you. You're welcome. It's been a pleasure working with you. I enjoy every moment of it and looking forward to what's on the horizon. You're new to this position. I have been in this position since fall of 23, just a little under a year and a half. Wonderful. So, Lee and his team have made some amazing achievements and changes here in the Division of Code Enforcement. They've been working so hard to implement some wonderful changes and we will learn more about those changes today. But first, time to play a game. Code Enforcement or Not! So, I'm going to ask you some of the questions that my office has received from residents around Lexington regarding code enforcement. And oftentimes, many of the things are not covered by code enforcement. So, in this game, I'm going to give you some of those scenarios and you're going to say, let us know if it's code enforcement or not. Okay. We'll start off with a really easy one. Ready? Yes. Okay. You ready, audience? Let's do this. Okay. My neighbor has a giant pile of trash in the middle of their front yard. It's been there for over a month. And they have three junk cars parked there in the front yard, too. Is that code enforcement or not? It is split. Part of it is code enforcement with the trash and debris and the cars parked in the yard falls to Lex Park. Okay. Lex Park or even our traffic safety. Our non-emergency public safety, yes. Yes. Awesome. So, here's another one. You ready? Yes. Are you ready? Yes. Get ready. Here we go. I heard that property owners are responsible for their sidewalls. I broke my ankle on a sidewall in front of my neighbor's home. I told the neighbor about it, but they did nothing. Is this code enforcement or not? It is. It is. We report all those sidewalk cases through Lex Call 311-425-2255. We'll inspect, mark, and ask for replacement or repair of the damaged sidewalk panels. Did you get that question correct? No. Applause to you if you did. Do better on the next one if you didn't. Okay. Here it is. There's a business next to my home that has placed a huge, brightly lit billboard that shines right over into my yard and through the window to my bedroom. Is this code enforcement or not? It is not. Oh, wow. Who is it? Right now, Lexington is still crafting light pollution ordinances, but at this time, it's a use of the property problem, and that would fall to zoning within the division of building inspection. Oh, that's a good one. So, remember, for a building inspection, you just call 311, and you ask for a building inspection if that is your issue. Well, you're educating us all today, and thank you. You're welcome. Yes. Okay, so this right here is my final question. So, are you ready? Yes. Are you ready? Yes. All right, let's go. Here it is. My neighbors behind my house have so many chickens, loud barking dogs, and big trash bonfires, and their gutters are broken. Every time it rains, it runs down into my backyard. Is this code enforcement or not? It's not entirely code enforcement. That's a pretty big bunch of things going on there. We can break it down. Right now, Lexington hasn't put a definitive number on how many chickens. We just recently started kind of overlooking the roosters. As long as they're semi-contained in the backyards, we do know they can get out any time they want or choose, but that's not been a problem here of late. You mentioned in that comment about the burning of trash. That's definitely going to fall to, and you're going to actually call emergency 911, and LFD is going to come out and see if you've got a burn permit. Mostly inside the city, there's not going to be anything larger than a fire ring acceptable, and it's not even meant to be used then as a trash burning pit at that point. It's for just ambient lighting fire. We mentioned about the runoff of water coming from possible gutters. Obviously, a property maintenance issue would fall to code with the gutters, and if the gutters are so bad or the drainage system has caused water to run onto another property, what code needs to see is that water is impacting the surface area of the neighboring property by cutting ruts, and then eventually it'll cut its way all the way down to the street, and usually it makes a deposit of debris onto the sidewalk, and that's how we track it back, and that is something that we can help with. Awesome. So that was a doozy. It was a multifaceted question, yeah. Yes, it was. And we get that a lot, and that's why I emphasize the customer service side of our phone calls. We need to make sure we know where these calls go, and not only should we offer to give them the number, we should probably connect them and get them there, and that's what we do here. All the staff up front has been cross-trained with LexCall, with myself, and all these kind of questions you're asking, and I think they do a wonderful job getting people to the right parties when it's not code. Right, and I just want to go ahead and say thank you all, because since you've become the director, the transparency from the Division of Code Enforcement has been night and day, and your leadership is why all these positive changes are happening here in the environment that you have created. I mentioned to you back in September of 23, customer service would be the paramount thing for code, and in our business, if we think about it like a foundation, an engineer will tell you, if you don't build the foundation perfect, you can't have anything above it worth anything, because those little cracks become fractures, fractures become big problems. Think about that the same way with your staff. If you don't train them up from the beginning, from the foundation, and get that mindset set from the beginning, you're looking problematic for the future. And now that this game is over, we're going to go to a commercial. Well, thank you for returning after that commercial break. Well, now it's back to work. We have some big questions for Director Lee Steele regarding code enforcement that can help the people of the 6th District and all over Lexington. What's the best possible way to report a code enforcement or a nuisance issue with the Code Enforcement Division? Well, we definitely want you to use the City's Lexical Division, 311-425-2255. We want to do it for multiple reasons. It's a great start to the tracking ability of the case that you've established. The citizen will get their case number, and they can follow it through then the process. Yes, so 311 is our one stop for City Hall for all things. And also something that I'm working with Director Kendra Carter of Lexical 311 is making sure that once the complaint is put into Salesforce, that not only you receive the first initial email, if you put your email address in, but you'll also receive an update as the case progresses. There have been many changes that you have brought in and brought like a new light here in your division. What are some of those changes that you and your staff are doing now? We didn't have a formalized professional training program here. Formalized training program just starts from the week before you get here. It takes you all the way through about your fifth week. Get into your testing phase, all the way through you go to your state certification levels. You're with somebody for the first nine months you come in here. That's one of the major things we made a change in. A couple of things that I did on the procedural level that have made differences. Previously, we were issuing multiple fines when we had the opportunity to abate. And an abatement is something that can make an immediate impact and solve an issue. If you can abate it for what you can give a citation for, let's get the problem out of the way. Stops the phone calls to 200 Main, stops the phone calls to us, and the same amount of damage is done. The abatement versus the fine are about the same. And what we do now is we go and notice an order, we do a citation, and we assess. Can we abate it for the next step? Fine. If we can, we go after it and get it done and get it over with. We finally achieved abating five sidewalks now. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but we've gone from 20 years of zero to five in less than now six months. And what that does is in the sidewalk world, the fines are $10 a square foot. And they can add up so quick that you can put a house in foreclosure over a few sidewalk panels. And I thought that was ludicrous. You know, one of the big issues that we heard during our town hall is about issues regarding abatements and lessening the fines for our residents. And I really like what you came, come in and have done to make it basically more customer service oriented and making sure that we actually help people instead of punish them. I'm curious, after our town halls that we had, we had basically many of our residents are fearful once they get the citation. What if a resident receives a citation from code enforcement, what should they do? I like to tell everybody they should do three things. At the bottom of the notice, they're going to have the officer's phone number, his name, and his email address. They should go in and do a blast, in my opinion, write out one statement that they want to make contact to talk about this case. And they ought to copy and paste that into an email and they ought to text the officer too. That gives them complete confidence that they've reached the individual they want to talk to. Once they open up that line of communication, the door opens wide open for them what can be done. There's compliance schedules, there's alternate programs. We're able then to sit down with you one-on-one and tell you what you can do versus just what you would not know if you never called. It's a new day here in the Division of Code Enforcement where they are willing to work with you to fix whatever you were cited for. Solution-based. We want to be known nowadays as a customer service oriented, solution-based organization and not just enforcement. Are there any other abatement programs that the Code Enforcement offers? Well, I mean, we would consider our Housing Repair Assistance Program an abatement. Just to be short on that program, any owner-occupied homeowner that receives a notice of violation from our office, once we identify that they're owner-occupied, we shift them over to a program coordinator, Jerry Lucas, and then he vets them through Community and Resident Services. Once all the financial work is done, if they're approved, what that program will do is take care of that violation. And then we'll also do a life safety check of your home and see if there's anything else. What we're finding is most common, and I was pushing for this, we go in for one thing, but then I notice a 75, 80-year-old person has lost their balusters to get down their steps. Or they've isolated themselves to the side door only because it's one step out. And I don't want them not to have it one way out of their home. So this program has been utilized in more ways than just making the repair that we came across. It's actually done some very good life safety stuff. So, as you know, our other biggest program, our number one big, big program is our cost share for sidewalks. Yes. But that program there has been fabulous, where what we do is basically, in a nutshell, we split the cost 50% with the homeowner. And also, that program, all of these abatement programs, they are a priority for the council members. We just met, and we are standing with you. We want to make sure that our residents have the resources, too. And we have the funds so that sidewalks can be abated as well as the home repair. So we're about solution-based. We're trying to be a solution-based as you are and help our residents. Thank you for your time, and thank you, the residents of the 6th District and of Lexington, for tuning in to learn all of these wonderful things that Division of Code Enforcement is doing in our community to make, because we're solution-based, customer service-based. And pretty soon, residents, when you complete your Let's Call 311 report or complaint on lexingtonky.gov, and you put your actual email in, you will start to receive updates of how that case is going along. So that way, we keep you informed of what's going on. But thank you again for your time. Thank you for all the wonderful changes you have implemented. And as always to you, the residents of the 6th District, see you soon. Thank you. I believe in kingdom come And all the colors will bleed into one Bleed into one Yes, I'm still running Through broken bones and loosened chains Carrying the cross, I'm ashamed I'm ashamed You know I believe it But I still haven't found what I'm looking for But I still haven't found what I'm looking for But I still haven't found what I'm looking for But I still haven't found what I'm looking for But I still haven't found what I'm looking for I see the questions in your eyes I know what's weighing on your mind But you can be sure I know my part Cause I'll stand beside you through the years You'll only cry those happy tears And though I'll make mistakes I'll never break your heart I swear by the moon and the stars in the sky I'll be there I swear like the shadow that's by your side I'll be there For better or worse, till death do us part I'll love you with every beat of my heart I swear I'll give you everything I can I'll build your dreams with these two hands We'll hang some memories on the wall And when there's silver in your hand You won't have to ask if I still care Cause as time turns the page My love won't age at all I swear by the moon and the stars in the sky I'll be there I swear like the shadow that's by your side I'll be there For better or worse, till death do us part I'll love you with every beat of my heart I swear I swear by the moon and the stars in the sky I'll be there I swear like the shadow that's by your side I'll be there For better or worse, till death do us part I'll love you with every beat of my heart I swear I swear I Swear I was born in Lone Rock Had a childhood sweetheart We were always hand in hand I wore high top shoes and shirt tails Suzie was in big tales I knew I loved her even then You know my papa disapproved My mama booed But I told him time and time again Don't you know I was made to love From the world all around Yeah, hey, hey, hey She's been my inspiration Showed appreciation For the love I gave her through the years Like a sweet magnolia tree My love blossomed tenderly My life grew sweeter through the years I know that my baby loved me My baby needs me That's why we've made it through the years I was made to love Worshipping under her Hey, hey, hey All through thinking then Our love just won't end Cause I love my baby, love my baby Ah, ah, ah, ah Truth be told My baby needs me And I know I ain't going nowhere I was the heart you took In a love book vacated I had the fever when you passed it near Oh, if, if I'm out of town If this whole world crumbled By her side I'd still be standing there Cause I was made to love I was made to live for Yeah, hey, hey, hey Ah, I was made to love Built my world all around her Hey, hey, hey Ooh, baby, I was made to believe You know Stevie ain't gonna leave her, no Hey, hey, hey If I Should Stay If I should stay I would only be in your way So I'll go But I know I'll think of you Each step of the way And I will always love you I will always love you Bittersweet memories That's all I am taking with me Goodbye, please don't cry We both know that I'm not what you need But I will always love you I will always love you I hope life treats you kind And I hope that you have all that you ever dreamed of And I wish you joy and happiness But above all of this, I wish you love And I will always love you I will always love you I will always love you I will always love you My old man's backhand used to land hard on the side of my head I just learned to stay out of his way There've been street fights, blue lights, long nights With the world sitting on my chest It just showed me how much I could take Hard times, bad luck, sometimes life sucks That's alright, I'm okay It ain't nothing but another day But only God knows where I'd be If you ever stopped loving me The bank man, the boss man, the law man All trying to get their hands on me And I ain't even done a damn thing wrong I've been waylaid, freight trains, short chain By bigger and fatter men And all I got to say is bring it on Hard rain, rough roads So my life goes That's alright, I'm okay It ain't nothing but another day But only God knows where I'd be If you ever stopped loving me I need you, gotta have you In my life, by my side Every day I'm alive Every night that I'm breathing I need you That's alright, I'm okay It ain't nothing but another day But only God knows where I'd be If you ever stopped loving me It ain't nothing but another day But only God knows where I'd be If you ever stopped loving me If you ever stopped loving me If you ever stopped loving me If you ever stopped loving me If you ever stopped loving me If you ever stopped loving me If you ever stopped loving me You and I must make a pact We must bring salvation back Where there is love, I'll be there I'll reach out my hand to you I'll have faith in all you do Just call my name and I'll be there I'll be there to comfort you Build my world of dreams around you I'm so glad that I found you I'll be there when the love is strong I'll be your strength I'll keep holding on Let me fill your heart with joy and laughter Togetherness is all I'm after Whenever you need me, I'll be there I'll be there to protect you With an unselfish love that respects you Just call my name and I'll be there I'll be there to comfort you Build my world of dreams around you I'm so glad that I found you I'll be there when the love is strong I'll be your strength I'll keep holding on If you should ever find someone new I know he better be good to you Cause if he doesn't, I'll be there Don't you know, baby, yeah, yeah I'll be there I'll be there Just call my name and I'll be there Just look over your shoulders, honey I'll be there I'll be there Whenever you need me, I'll be there Don't you know, baby, yeah, yeah I'll be there I'll be there Just call my name and I'll be there I'll be there I thought love was only true in fairytales And then for someone else, but not for me Our love was out to get me That's the way it seemed Disappointment haunted all my dreams Then I saw her face Now I'm a believer Without a trace Of doubt in my mind I'm in love I'm a believer I couldn't leave her if I tried I thought love was more or less a given thing It seems the more I gave, the less I got What's the use in trying When all you get is pain When I needed sunshine, I got rain Then I saw her face Now I'm a believer Without a trace Of doubt in my mind I'm in love I'm a believer I couldn't leave her if I tried Our love was out to get me That's the way it seemed Disappointment haunted all my dreams Then I saw her face Now I'm a believer Without a trace Of doubt in my mind I'm in love I'm a believer I couldn't leave her if I tried Then I saw her face Now I'm a believer Without a trace Of doubt in my mind Said I'm a believer I'm a believer Said I'm a believer Said I'm a believer Don't let him near me Don't let him touch me Don't let him please me Jesse I won't cut fresh flowers for you No, Jesse And I won't make the wine cold for you No, Jesse I won't change the sheets for you I won't put on cologne I won't sit by the phone for you Annie Keep reminding me That he cut out my heart like a paper doll Sally Tell me once again How he set me up just to see me fall Jesse I won't cut fresh flowers for you No, Jesse And I won't make the wine cold for you No, Jesse I won't change the sheets for you I won't put on cologne I won't sit by the phone for you No, no, no Jesse Quit come here I won't tell a soul Not even myself Jesse That you've come back to me My friends will all say She's gone again But how can anyone know what you are to me That I'm in heaven again Because you've come back to me Oh, Jesse Jesse I'll always cut fresh flowers for you And Jesse I'll always make the wine cold for you Jesse I can easily change my mind about you And put on cologne And sit by the phone for you Oh, yeah Jesse And soak in the wine And drink to the heart Which has a will of its own My friends Let's not pretend They're feeling bad They think I've sunk so low Jesse I'll always cut fresh flowers for you And Jesse I will make the wine cold for you Oh, Jesse And I will change the sheets for you And put on cologne And I will wait by the phone for you Oh, Jesse Oh, Jesse Jesse I will cut fresh flowers for you And Jesse I will make the wine cold for you Oh, Jesse And I will change the sheets for you I must have dreamed a thousand dreams Been haunted by a million screams But I can hear the marching feet They're moving into the street Now, did you read the news today? Did you read the news today? Did you read the news today? They say the danger's gone away But I can see the fire still lights Burning into the night There's too many men Too many people Picking too many problems And not much love to go around Can't you see this is a land of confusion? This is the world we live in And these are the hands we give up Use them, let's stop trying To make it a place worth living in To make it a place worth living in Oh, Superman, where are you now? When everything's gone wrong somehow For men of steel and men of power Losing control by the hour This is the time, this is the place So we look for the future But there's not much love to go around Tell me why this is a land of confusion This is the world we live in And these are the hands we give up Use them, let's stop trying To make it a place worth living in To make it a place worth living in I remember long ago In a land of confusion This is the land we live in And these are the hands we give up On this edition of Lexington Now, 250 Lex Literary Celebration, The Lexington Writer's Walk and Severe Weather Preparedness. I'm Neal Noah and welcome to Lexington Now for the week of April 14th, 2025. Lexington's 250 year commemoration continued this past week with the Literary Celebration at the Kentucky Theater. Here are some highlights. I hope you are as excited as I am about celebrating our literary legacy tonight. As everyone by now is well aware, we are in our fourth month celebrating Lexington's 250th birthday. Yes, and this month we are focused on music and the written word. I am so excited about this month. I love music and writing is particularly important to me. As a young student, I was introduced by an English teacher to journaling. Each day we had to write something in our journals and I've continued this practice throughout my life because I loved it, including keeping journals during overseas travel with my husband while he was active duty in the Army. And then many years ago, when our children were young, I taught a creative writing class at Glendover Elementary School as a volunteer teacher. You know how that goes when you're a parent. It was so much fun working with students to engage their creativity in writing. We were lucky enough to have former Kentucky Poet Laureate George Ella Lyon come to the class one day. She demonstrated using a story board to bring the story and the illustrations together for the students. I still like creative writing, both prose and poetry. And you never know, someday you might find a mystery novel titled Murder in the Council Chamber. Sounds good, right? I always have a stack of books to read when I have a few extra minutes. And my passion for writing and reading led me to be part of the committee that formed the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. Literature and the written word have a rich history right here in Lexington. Once known as the Athens of the West, Lexington has long been a hub for writers of all types. And tonight, we get to hear the words of several of these great writers. Again, we are so excited about all of the upcoming events for the rest of the year. And in April, we are eager to continue sharing the talents of our literary and written word artists. For a full list of things to do the rest of this year, visit 250lex.com. National Book Award. The Pulitzer Prize. National Book Critics Circle Award. The NAACP Image Award. The Duggins Prize. These are just a few national awards received by Lexington authors for their outstanding literary works. Why does Kentucky have so many talented writers? One reason is Lexington's top notch writing programs which impact thousands of people every year. Writing isn't easy and it's a competitive market. To achieve the level of success our local authors have takes a dash of luck and a tremendous amount of skill and talent. I also know that while I may never receive national awards, the dream of having a novel published is not impossible. Writing is a journey. There are ups and downs, plot twists and antiheroes, days when the writing flows and others when it doesn't. As we celebrate this literary month, I encourage you to consider the stories you have within you and if you're driven to write them down and put them on the page. Begin the journey. If you do, know that Lexington's literary community will be there to cheer you on every step of the way. Another opportunity to celebrate Lexington's rich literary heritage is coming up with the Lexington Writer's Walk. Here are the details. We have made it past a wet week here in Lexington and we're here in this beautiful Gratz Park behind the historic Carnegie Center. We just wrapped up a month focused on education as part of our year-long celebration of Lexington's 250th anniversary. And now in April, we are focused on music and the written word. Today, we're here to talk about a great opportunity, the Lexington Writer's Walk, coming our way on April 24th. Some may wonder why we're having so many events focused on the written word. Well, literature is a great source of inspiration. It's a great source of inspiration. It's a great source of Well, literature and the written word have a rich history here in Lexington. Once known as the Athens of the West, Lexington has long been a hub for writers of all sorts. Our community has been the home of numerous well-known writers, orators, printers, and publishers. Lexington is a city of writers and a lot of people don't really realize that. We have more than two dozen best-selling authors who live here now, including part-time the U.S. Poet Laureate. But this is not anything new. Lexington has been a center for writers for most of its nearly 250 years. And when I developed the Lexington Writer's Walk, the idea was to publish a booklet that visitors and people from Lexington could come and pick up at the Carnegie Center or at the Downtown Visitor Center, where they're still available for free, and you could kind of walk around Gratz Park and see places that are associated with some of the famous writers and other literary people who have lived here. On the 24th, I'll do kind of an in-person version of that tour. We'll walk around Gratz Park and I'll talk about some of the writers and publishers and printers and historians who lived in these houses here. You know, people like Mary Austin Holly, who was the first historian of Texas, James Lane of the 20th century, used to teach up in a building in there at Gratz Park when it was part of Transylvania's academy. Mary Britton, who we'll soon name a new middle school for, she's known primarily as Lexington's first African-American licensed physician. But before that, in the 1890s, she was an important civil rights journalist. In fact, she was so important that the great black poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar wrote a poem about her. She was a newspaper publisher in Lexington. Henry Clay's law office was down the street. He was one of the major orators of the 19th century. And that was a time when most people got their political news by the spoken word and not the written word. But anyway, it'll be just an interesting walk around the park. We'll hope for nice weather like today. And you'll learn something about Lexington and its rich literary heritage. And so it comes as no surprise that something like the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame would be part of Carnegie Center's work. However, the literary walk was something that we felt like fit a gap that was here in Lexington for people to know about their own history in the city. So we hope you will come out on April 24th at 630. And the reason why we're doing this on April 24th is because it is Kentucky Writers Day. So if you don't know, on April 24th, that's when Robert Penn Warren was born. And so on April 24th every year, all of Kentucky celebrates writers on that day. The first printing press came here in 1787. And that was the start of the explosion that has led to the embarrassment of riches that we have in the literary space. So you can imagine as an aspiring novelist that I never became and a musician that I never became, I was really excited about this month to turn it over to the people that know how to write and how to play music. So I think we're going to fulfill that ten times over. But again, part of this embarrassment of riches, I was actually able to enjoy myself. The so-called three amigos, James Baker Hull, Ed McClanahan and Gurney Norman, I was lucky enough to attend classes with two of those three over multiple semesters. So that's something that's very close to my heart. But as it relates to 250 Lex, again, we're excited about this month. But overall working with Dr. Eunice Beatty and our full commission, the promise that we made from day one to the mayor was we're going to build programming for the community that is interesting, inclusive and memorable. We obviously know it's going to be interesting if Tom Eblen is involved. And I think if people do take the time to come down here, they're going to take away some amazing memories. So I encourage everyone to participate not only in the month of April around the written word and music but continue to take a look at what we'll be working on for the rest of the year as well. Thank you very much for coming out. Hi, everyone. Here it is, April. Spring has sprung and our 250th anniversary celebration continues. This month we are celebrating all things music and the written word. From writers and poets to musicians and performers, we've got it all. Take part in celebrations of our literary community with writers and poets from all over the world. We're going to celebrate all things music and the written word. Take part in celebrations of our literary community with writers known across all America. Over 25 different venues await you in April to help celebrate our first ever one-of-a-kind month of music. There is truly something for everyone. For more information, visit www.250lex.com. Hello. I'm Lt. Chris Van Brackle with the Lexington Police Department Traffic Unit. Today we are talking about disability accessible parking and the aisles between those parking places. Accessible parking is a valuable and necessary resource for people with disabilities. Accessible parking is a valuable and necessary resource for people with disabilities. Accessible parking is a valuable and necessary resource for people with disabilities. And that includes the striped area next to accessible parking spots. These are access aisles and it is illegal to park here even if you have an accessible parking permit. Police in Lex Park will write tickets when they see vehicles parked in an access aisle or parked in an accessible space without a placard and the fine is $250. Know where and where not to park until the access aisles clear. Thank you and drive safe. Welcome back to Lexington Now. April is the heart of spring severe weather season in central Kentucky. Emily Fay of Emergency Management gives us some pointers to stay safe. They say April showers bring May flowers but they also bring severe storms and with that severe storm damage. So last week we had a severe storm roll through our state. We were hit with straight line winds. It was between 85 to 95 miles per hour winds which caused a lot of damage. So what we want people to know and understand is it is time to be prepared for those things. Having an emergency plan and having an emergency kit are some of the most important things you can do before a storm hits. So for an emergency plan let's say for a family of four that would include where you are staying. You would need to have a shelter. You would need to have a shelter. You would need to have a shelter. And any other planning you would need to do to take care of your family. So those with young children would have diapers and toys and extra clothes. Those with older children might have books and homework and things to keep them entertained. If you're a family that includes a shelter, it can be very helpful. So it's time to think about what you might need the next time this happens. So it's a blue sky day. You don't want to think about something bad happening. But weather is unpredictable and we need to be prepared. So now is the time to sit down and go, okay, we didn't have power. What do we do about food? How do we get our medications refilled? Did our pets have enough food? It's always good to keep that emergency supply kit in something waterproof like a rubbermaid tote or a waterproof backpack. They even make five-gallon buckets you can cinch up and now you have a way to carry water as well. Just do what works for your family, but it's important to do it. So every emergency kit will vary by family based on that specific family's needs. But in general, you should have enough nonperishable food and bottled water for three days per person. So a family of four, four servings a day per meal per person. And you'll also need to have first aid kit, medical supplies, prescriptions for your family, blankets, flashlights, extra batteries, a weather radio with extra batteries. Make sure all of your emergency electronics are battery powered so that you can switch those out and still use them when the light goes out. If your family includes pets, if you have a cat or a dog, parakeet, you want to include them in your emergency plan, making sure you have food and water for them, about a gallon a day for dogs and cats, depending on the size. Obviously Great Danes are going to need more water than Chihuahuas. But making sure you have that with you, an extra leash, a collar, any medications they may take, toys to keep them occupied. Pets get stressed, too. You want to keep those anxiety levels down, and everybody loves a good toy. And making sure that you're prepared to bring them with you and that they're a part of your emergency plan. So where you go when you evacuate because your house is flooding needs to include a safe place for your dog or cat or parakeet to go with you. I would keep your emergency kit somewhere you can easily access it. Some people keep it in the utility closet or a linen closet. I know mine personally is tucked in the back of the pantry in my house. Ideally, we would suggest people check their emergency kits once a month to make sure your food's in date, nothing's gone bad, your medications like Tylenol, Advil are still good, and that nothing has been worn apart with age. However, if you can't do that, it's just a little too daunting. You can always do it by season, so spring, summer, winter, fall, which is a good idea to check to replace those emergency clothings because you need different stuff in the winter than you do need in the summer. So if you have to be out in severe weather, obviously it's best to stay safe. So depending on your severe weather, thunder, lightning, those actions are going to differ. Stay aware of your surroundings, keep away to have emergency alerts, weather alerts if you're going to be outside, and above all, take care of yourself and those who are with you. A watch and a warning, constantly issued by the National Weather Service or other local alerting agencies, sound very the same. You've got a watch, you've got a warning, but the difference is sometimes confusing. So a watch is when a weather event may happen. The possibilities are there. You have all the ingredients, but it's not yet happening. Whereas a warning is when all of those pieces have come together and it's either going to happen or already has happened. So if you think about it in terms of tacos, a watch is when you have all of your taco ingredients laid out in front of you, but you have not combined it. A warning, on the other hand, is when you've taken all of those ingredients and put them into your taco shell and now you have a taco. The best way to be prepared is to stay notified, whether that be having a weather radio or getting your emergency alerts following local news outlets, just to make sure that you have that information coming in when you need it. If you live within Lexington and Fayette County, you can sign up for Lex alerts on our website, bereadylexington.com. And opt into weather notifications and any other type of notifications we offer to be alerted when something happens. And it's a free service that sends a notification via text, phone call, to a landline, even an email when they're ready to go out. Council is back from spring break and that means we're back to a full schedule of live meeting coverage on Lex TV and streaming online. And remember, you can also find the most up-to-date information on non-televised city business at lexingtonky.gov. Here's this week's meeting coverage. ♪♪♪ That's all for now, but as always, you can keep up with us on social media. Check out the latest traffic updates on XLXRex or catch our live traffic cams on lexingtonky.gov. For all of us at Lex TV, I'm Neil Noah, and that's it for tonight. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ So law enforcement, many times when we think of that, we think of solving the crimes, responding to the crimes, the detectives, solving the crimes, but we don't think about the victims. And we don't think about the victims' families. So obviously that's very important and something that the Lexington Police Department is extremely committed to work with and help these folks. So give us some examples of ways that this program helps those victims and families. So a lot of what we do, what we're talking about here, is the follow-up. So if you have had to have police to your home or someone has had to call police to your home, we already know that you have survived a traumatic event. And it's very natural and normal to wonder, what do I do now? What happens next? What can I do to keep myself safe? What are my rights? So that's where we come in, and we will reach out and contact, by phone primarily, but also in person too as well, any survivors of an intimate partner violence, interpersonal violence, or any violent crime as well. And just let them know what the next steps are in prosecution. We can register them with VINE to be notified if their offender is released from custody, let them know when their next court date is. All victims, thanks to Marcy's Law, have the right to be notified in a timely manner of court proceedings as well as attend those court proceedings. So we call and let people know what their rights are as a survivor of a violent crime in Lexington. And you hear people talk about Marcy's Law more now, obviously, so that's really one of the major components of that, is the notification process. It is. Marcy's Law made victims' rights in Kentucky a constitutional law, and so victims and survivors have the right to be heard in court proceedings involving their offenders. We work with every unit, every section of the police department, but if you are a survivor of an intimate partner violence crime or we're talking about a crime against a child, you are also going to get assigned a detective who is highly trained, trauma-informed, victim-centered, and is also going to follow up with you as well. So all of our detectives in our unit are also very well trained. They're like advocates as well. So it is very much a team effort between us and the detectives to make sure that anybody who has survived a violent crime in Fayette County, especially when we're talking about domestic violence or interpersonal violence, is going to be very well taken care of. So it's more than just the justice of getting the crime through the court system. It's about helping those victims all the way along. Very much so, and in a lot of cases, the investigation is still ongoing. If the patrol officer could not make an arrest due to various reasons at the scene, there's going to be a detective that's going to follow up and take those next steps and go above and beyond for that victim, and every single one of our detectives in the Special Victims Section does that. And I've heard you say before that Lexington, and I think I've heard you say it too, that Lexington is very resource-rich, and that's really what you all do, is kind of put people in touch with those resources, and what are some of those resources? So we are extremely fortunate in Fayette County to be partnered with a lot of our outside agencies. A lot of what we do is referral-based, so our job is to make sure that victims and survivors get connected to resources to get help and get the next steps. We're very fortunate to have Stephanie Theakston in our Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition Board. We are a member there, and she provides us with resources for survivors of domestic violence to help them with their next steps, like providing them with security equipment and things that they might need to feel safer in their home. We're also very fortunate to be partnered with Divine Karama and One Lexington, and so he helps us provide access to programs and counseling and support for families who have survived an incident in Fayette County involving gun violence. So it's a huge program, what he's doing there. We work very closely with the other advocates at the County Attorney's Office, as well as the Commonwealth, so that the survivor has a streamline from the arrest to prosecution, and so hopefully the process for them is a little easier given what they have survived. Now, does your program refer the victims to these, or can they reach out and call them, or does it have to? It's a little bit of both. It's a little bit of both. We communicate weekly with the County Attorney's Office. It's basically just communication to let them know what we've done with the victim, just so that, you know, because a lot of times victims, they may tell us one thing, but then tell them another thing, so it's just a way of communicating to see kind of just where we're going with that person. Kind of keep everybody in the loop. Exactly. So how would someone get in contact with you all? With the passing of Marcy's Law, try, with there being the four of us, we try to assign an advocate to as many case reports every single day as we possibly can, so ideally if you're a victim of a violent crime in Fayette County, you shouldn't have to do anything. We will reach out to you, but if you need us, if you have a follow-up question, if there's anything we can do to help you, you can call 258-3700 and ask to speak to one of us. So it's more than just resources, right, and I've heard you all talk about this before and the Lexington Police Department is obviously very committed to this, that sometimes people just need to, when they're a victim or a victim's family, sometimes they just need to ask questions, they need to have answers, but I've heard you say before that sometimes they just need someone there for them. Yes, that's a very good point. Sometimes we're not going to make a referral, sometimes we're not going to provide certain things, sometimes what anybody might need after surviving a tragic situation is just somebody to talk to, and that seems like a small thing, but it's incredibly valuable. It's incredibly valuable to have somebody to talk to. You've just survived a violent crime and you just want to talk it out with somebody, and we do that day in and day out, every day. We sometimes have communication with survivors. We no longer are working their case, but they still call and check in. A lot of times, too, and like Tisha was saying, one of the ways to kind of feed off of her is that it may not be a referral place because there's a lot of times that victims will also come into the lobby and want to speak to us, and it's just a matter of, like you said, just listening and just hearing them out, and it may not be an actual referral that we get, so a lot of times we get individuals that may not be a referral to us, and they'll call us from downstairs and say, hey, so-and-so is here, can you speak to this person, provide them with victim services, and we'll make sure that's available for that as well. Awesome. Well, we thank you all for joining us today, and I've learned a lot more about the Victims Advocate Program. Yes, thank you. Thank you for having us. Yes, no problem. Yes, you are very welcome. Hello. We are here with Ms. Robin Anderson and Marisol Contreras. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having us. Absolutely. So you all also work with the Victims Advocates Program. Yes, ma'am. And one of the things you do is what's referred to as the SOS Program, is that right? Can you tell us a little bit about that? SOS stands for Surviving Onward Sessions, and it is for families and friends that have lost someone due to homicide. We meet the first Tuesday of every month at the Dunbar Community Center. We start with some food, a little fellowship, and then typically we have a speaker every week in which we bring in from all different community agencies such as One Lexington. We have a prosecutor come from the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. We bring in our Robbery Homicide Unit, Bluegrass Care Navigators, and many more, and also some of our grassroots type of services such as SWAG, which is Tonya Lindsay who works with homicide families as well after losing her son. And it's just a way for families to come together and learn a little bit more about what our community has to offer and then find support with each other. Now, I know you had mentioned that these are, I guess, victims of homicide deaths. What about overdose deaths? Now we pretty much work up every case as much as we can. And one of the new areas that we are working with is overdoses in which the person does not survive. And we will reach out to the family and just offer our condolences and let them know of any support that our community has and offer those services to them. Awesome. So, Ms. Contreras, can you tell us about your background? Yes. Like you said, my name is Marisol Contreras. I came to the department in 2022. That was the goal of the department when they opened a position for bilingual advocates. You know, it's a matter of trying to help the community, to make them feel safer, and to make them feel comfortable coming through with reports. When I talk to the victims, I always like to explain the process or what's going to be happening next. You know, I let them know if another person is going to be trying to reach out, what their role is, and why they're reaching out. Sometimes, you know, the barrier of the language makes a big difference and impact. It can be intimidating for the person. So that's the reason why we try to provide the services in their language. So both reporting and also following up. That's very important to have that. Absolutely. So when we were talking to Leticia and Cornetta, we were talking about, you know, the resources. So I know being on patrol, we're familiar with some resources, Greenhouse 17 and the NEST. Can you all tell us a little bit more about that? Well, when it comes – yeah. I'll give a little bit from when it comes, again, for the Hispanic community, we try to network with those agencies. Some of those agencies have also made efforts to have a bilingual person. So by different workshops and meetings that we attend with those agencies, we try to network. So let's say that I have a Hispanic person that only speaks Spanish, you know, I'll let them know. We have these resources that are provided through a different agency, but you can reach out to this person. She also speaks Spanish. You talk to them, and they should be able to help you with this, this. And if you have to reach out to another agency, this is what their services are so that they have clarification on those resources. Ms. Contreras, is there a message in Spanish that you would like to say? Sure, yes. Hi, everybody here at the police department, appreciate you as well. And thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Thanks. So, Bajie, it was really nice talking to the Victims Advocacy Program. I did not know that there was that many resources for the victims and their families. So what are we going to be talking about next month? Episode three of season two, we're going to be talking about something that's kind of near and dear to my heart. It's a program that I actually started 25 years ago and just recently turned it over to some other officers that were part of that program in their youth. It's our Explorer Post 357 for ages 14 to 21, giving them an insight and training into law enforcement. So I'm excited about that and going back a little bit and talking with some of the officers now that were part of that program when they were as young as 14 years old. So that's coming up next month. So join us next episode on Yearlex PD. [♪upbeat music♪ [♪upbeat music continues♪ You I don't have to look no more In all my days I hoped and I prayed For someone just like you Make me feel the way you do I'm never, never gonna give you up I'm never, ever gonna stop Stop the way I feel about you Girl, I just can't live without you I'm never, ever gonna quit Cause quitting just ain't my stick Gonna stay right here with you Do all the things you want me to I'm never, never gonna give you up I'm never, ever gonna stop All the things I feel about you Girl, I just can't live without you I'm never, ever gonna quit Cause quitting just ain't my stick I'm gonna stay right here with you Sometimes I wonder Where it is love goes I don't know Even heaven knows I know you had some dreams That didn't quite come true Now I'm not the one Little girl who's keeping you I was either standing in your shadow Or blocking your light Though I kept on trying I could not make it right For you girl There's just not enough love in the world I know people hurt you so bad They don't know the damage they can do And it makes me so sad How we knock each other down Just like children on a playground Even if that old sun went down I was either standing in your shadow Or blocking your light Though I kept on trying I could not make it right For you girl There's just not enough love in the world Oh darling There's still a shady little town And sometimes it's so hard to smile For the world, for the camera Still has something left You don't have to prove nothing to nobody Just take good care of yourself I'm not easy to live with I know that it's true You're no picnic either babe That's one of the things I loved about you Time will come around When we need to settle down Got to get off this merry-go-round I was either standing in your shadow Or blocking your light Though I kept on trying I could not make it right For you girl There's just not enough love in the world For you girl There's just not enough love in the world Not enough love in the world In the world In the world In the world Everybody's going out and having fun I'm just a fool for staying home and having none I can't get over how she's setting me free Oh, don't tell me That's the snake I'm digging by just hanging around I know that I should have some fun and paint the town I'm just a fool for finding justice Oh, don't tell me I bet she's not like me She's out and fancy free Working in the morning with all her charm I still love her so Brother, don't you know I welcome her right back here in my arms Well, there must be some way I can lose this lonesome blues Forget about the past and find somebody new I thought of everything but late at night Oh, don't tell me I bet she's not like me She's out and fancy free Working in the morning with all her charm I still love her so Brother, don't you know I welcome her right back here in my arms Well, there must be some way I can lose this lonesome blues Forget about the past and find somebody new I thought of everything but late at night Oh, don't tell me I bet she's not like me She's out and fancy free Working in the morning with all her charm Oh, don't tell me Oh, don't tell me Oh, don't tell me You and me, we come from different worlds You like to laugh at me when I look at other girls Sometimes you're crazy and you wonder why I'm such a baby, cause the dolphins make me cry Well, there's nothing I can do I've been looking for a girl like you You look at me, you got nothing left to say I'm on about at you until I get my way I won't dance, you won't sing I just want to love you, but you want to wear my ring Well, there's nothing I can do I only want to be with you You can call me your fool I only want to be with you Put on a little dill and sit on a fence I say that line is great, you ask her what did they buy She said I shot a man named Greg Took his wife to Italy She had earned a million bucks and when she died Came to me, I can't help it if I'm lucky I only want to be with you Ain't Bobby so cool I only want to be with you Yeah, I'm tangled up in blue I only want to be with you You can call me your fool I only want to be with you Sometimes I wonder if it'll ever end You get so mad at me when I go out with my friends Sometimes you're crazy and you wonder why I'm such a baby, yeah, the dolphins make me cry Well, there's nothing I can do I only want to be with you You can call me your fool I only want to be with you Yeah, I'm tangled up in blue I only want to be with you I only want to be with you I only want to be with you I only want to be with you I only want to be with you Now if you're feeling kind of low About the dues you've been paying The future's coming much too soon And you want to run but somehow you just keep on staying Can't decide on which way to go Yeah, yeah, yeah I understand about indecision But I don't care if I get behind People living in competition All I want is to have my piece of mind Yeah Now you're climbing to the top of a company ladder Hope it doesn't take too long Can't you see there'll come a day when you won't matter Come a day when you'll be gone Oh, oh, oh, oh Hello, my name is Diane. I'm here today from the Lexington Senior Center. I'm going to lead you through a 50-minute exercise class. This class is called Get Up and Go. And one of the things I love most about this class Is it does give you the option to do some exercises seated As well as standing. Now most of the class in the beginning I will be leading you through some standing exercises A little bit of cardio. We're going to walk back and forth side to side. But if that doesn't suit you You can follow me for the entire class seated. I'm going to use a little bit of equipment today. Today I'm going to use this ball. If you don't have a ball at home You have a lot of different options. One would be a pillow. Maybe something right there off of your couch. Something like that. Weights. If you don't have any weights You can always go to your pantry Grab a couple of soup cans Or just follow me without either one of these things. This you might not have. This is an exercise band And it's going to offer you some resistance training. And again, if you don't have it You can follow me perfectly Just kind of creating your own resistance. So with no further ado I'm going to turn on some music And we are going to get started. First thing I want you to do Is stand up nice and tall. Big deep breath. Exhale. Up again. And down. Alright, let's march. Warm up your body. Alright, let's take those feet out Wide. And back in. Back out. And back in. That's all it is to it. Just move. Alright, this time we're going to go out And I'm going to plant the feet down on the floor. I'm just going to do a little light stretching. Now when you go into this stretch Ideally you're not pushing your weight Into the back of your knee. You just want to keep that weight right here. Tummy tight. Nice and easy. Let's do four. Three. Two. Now just hold. Now this is where you're going to get that great stretch. Release that arm. Big stretch. Good. Let's bring it on back down. And rock side to side again. Alright. We're always going to do the same thing on both sides. Get ready. And hold over here. Good. Now let's release that arm. Oh, big stretch. Good. Bring it down. And now we're going to stretch out our back. I want you to remember this stretch. It's called a cat cow. Round up like an angry cat. And then just flatten out. And then round up again. And flatten. Alright, let's do one more. Big, big, deep angry cat. Roll it all the way up. Shoulders up back and down. Take you right back to where you started. Nice and easy. Little march. Feet out wide again. And back in. And back out. This time wide, wide. Little toe tap. Little toe tap. Side to side. Now there is a purpose behind this. It's going to get you to stretch out the top of your foot. So be aware and exaggerate that. Toe, toe, toe. Alright, let's change it to heel. Close up that heel. Let's add some bicep curls to that. There you go. We're going to do this four more times. One, two, three, and down. Alright, I'm going to bring you right back here. And one more deep breath up. And exhale. Good. Okay. Come on back to that march. This time I'm going to bring you up and back. Walk four times. One, two, three, four, and back. And up. So that's all it is. Just walk, walk, walk, touch. Walk, walk, walk, touch. One more time. And stay in your place. Good. Going to take you back out like this. We did this in our warm-up. Side to side tap. Heels. Close up feet. You have heels going on. And move up four, three, two. Now move back with your heel. Now travel up with your heel, but let's add some arms. And go back. One, two, three, and travel up. Looking good. Move on back. Stay in your place with those heels and curls. Four and three and two and march. Right back here. This one will be a little different. Walk up four. Go. A little different on this one because on four, I want you to add your knee up. So it looks like this. One, two, three, up. So sometimes when I'm teaching class, I like to say you're playing basketball. So dribble, dribble, dribble, shoot. Woo! That's it. So you got big arms, big legs going on. Heart rate's getting up. Remember, that's the purpose. That's the purpose of our cardio set here. We want the heart rate to increase and all the good things happening with that. One more time. All right, guys. Stay in your place. Just knees. Remember, at any time throughout this workout, you should have your chair handy or something. And if you want to, look right here. Easy hold on. All right. Stay with that knee, but change it to a kick as soon as you're ready. And we'll take you right back where we started. Heels. Right there. Yes. Travel. Return. March. Walk up four. All right. Let's add that knee. Play a little b-ball here if you want to. Dribble, dribble, shoot. Up. Yes. One more like that. Just knees. Just knees. Four. Three. Change it to kicks. Four. And take you back to your heels. All right. New move. This is called a step touch. You're moving laterally. Just get the feel of it. It's a nice, kind of a natural move. Let's add a few arms here. And I want you to move up. And then go back. And now I want you to think about these arms like a figure eight. And back. Looking good. Let's travel up for your final set. Return and stay in your place. Step touch. Now grapevine. It looks like this. Call it a grapevine. If you want to think about it in a different way, think of it as two step touches. That's all it is. One, two. We're going for three. Now single step touches. This is what you started with. Yeah, right here. Good. New move. You're going to pull that heel back behind you. This is your first time really bending that knee today. The first couple you're going to feel. Try to get a little deeper each time. All right. Let's move up with this. One, two, three. Move back. Step touch. Move up. Hamstring curl. I call it a hamstring curl. Forgot to tell you that part. Step touch. Let's go up. Hamstring curl. Step touch back. Yes. All right. Here we go. Big step touch. Get ready. Grapevine. Go. You got it. Remember, you can break that down to two step touches or any time. Any time you're feeling a little confused, all you have to do is march. We'll get you right back to where you need to be. All right. I'm going to add a hamstring curl onto this. One, two, three, curl. You're pulling that heel up again behind you. Four, three. All right. Single hamstrings again. This time, let's go into windmill. Reach back and tap that heel. Good. Big bend in the knee. Big lift with the arm. For four. And let's step touch again. Two more times. And march. Good. Let's take a big, deep breath. Exhale. You're starting to feel a little breathless. That's good. That's what we're working towards. We're working towards a nice, steady buildup. I want you to march and take it from the very top. Walk four. Two, three, four. Five, two, three, four. That's all it is. This time a little different. We're going to end this little move with a kick. Walk, walk, walk, kick. Looking good. All right. With arms. Let's do a little punchy bag. Punch. One, two, three. Punch, kick. Punch, kick. Walk, walk, walk. Punch, kick. One more time. In your place. Just punch and kick. Go. Looking good. You can level forward like this. And return. If you're running out of space where you are, stay in place. Move up. And move back. All right. Going right back to that heel kick. Woo! Yeah. Now how about a step touch? Okay. Now, from here, we're going into a speed skate. Very similar to a step touch, but you're down a little bit. And one leg's going back. Got those arms moving, guys. Just like you see in the Olympics when you see the speed skating. So much of the momentum is created with the upper body. Now I'm going to take you directly back. So this is called a back lunge. Your moving leg goes behind your supporting leg. Let's go! Doesn't have to be perfect. All I'm asking you to do is move. I want you to feel secure and safe in the movement. Try not to stop. Going to continue with your back lunge. Four, three, back to your march. Yes. Good job, guys. Push down. Push down. Basketball. Woo! That's it. One, two, three, big. We have one more. Knees in place. All right. Now, see these knees are coming right up to that chest? We're going to change that and take it straight out. Whoa, that's a big difference. Big difference. So let's punch down as we do that high knee. Whoo, yeah. Let's take one arm in, one out. Right there, right there, right there. Hang with me, guys. Bring it right back to the chest. Let's march. Let's all march. Roll your shoulders up, back, and down. Keep moving. Back, up, and forward. Big, deep breath, and exhale. Feet out wide. Toe tap. Now, don't get too excited. We're not finished yet. What we're going to do is keep you moving. Can you get a little lower? Can you get a little lower? Can you add some arms? Of course. Of course. Of course. How about an uppercut? Big, big, big move. Yes. We have four, three, two. Now relax your arms a bit. Take it back to step touch. Works perfectly. Grapevine, go now. Continue with grapevine. Remember that high knee? Let's add one. Right there. Right there. Right there. One more. Now repeat your high knee. I haven't really shown you that yet, but all that means is lifting without any stopping. Pull. Now bring this repeater knee to chest. Oh, yeah. Go back one. I just showed you that. And march. Good job. Next step is a V step. Step out, out. Go. All right, listen. Now here's your change. Change with your other leg. So it's out, out, in, in, creating a V. March. Walk four. Make sure you're taking deep breaths. Sometimes when the going gets tough, we tend to hold our breath. Last thing we need to do, make sure you're breathing. All right, let's add the kick with that punchy bag again. You ready? Bam. You got it? Come on now. Give me a couple more good ones. In place, just kick and punch. Heel dig. Step touch. Oh, yeah. You've been down here before. Great bond. High knee. Right there. Right there. You know what's coming. Repeat it. Oh, yeah. Two, three. Bring it to the chest. And back lunge. And march. All right. Feet out wide. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Beautiful job so far. Let's take a quick feet. If you have some water, great time to have some water. Make sure that the equipment that you have is stored in a way that you won't trip on it when you stand back up. All right. So, this is my band. Again, if you don't have one at home, just follow me without anything. This tool is for resistance. So, you gain strength and flexibility by using resistance. So, I'm going to have you hold it. Sit up real tall in the chair before we do anything at all. Sit up tall. Pull your tummy in, shoulders back, and just pull. Looks easy, right? Give me about four or five more seconds and you'll be going, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Up. Chest. Up, overhead. And chest. Go. All right. This is where we're going to get tough. Out and down. So, where am I aiming this? Pretty safe to say wherever you are. If you look at where the ceiling and wall meets, that's kind of what you're eyeballing. So, you're at an angle and the purpose is... Let me have one more here. To hold it at an angle and squeeze your shoulder blades. So, I'm going to turn here and finish our last set. Eight, pull. Seven, pull. Six, pull. Five, four, three, two. All right. Here's a break. Here's a break. Good job, guys. March. Nice and easy. Nice and easy. Let's do it again. Go. Pull, pull, pull. Chest level. Five, six. All right. Let's go back to that angled pull. Pull down. Pull down. Feel those shoulder blades doing the work. Four more here. Good job. And break. March. Just stay seated and march. That's just going to keep your heart rate up. Give your arms and chest a little break here. Looking good. All right. Relax a bit. And let's bring that band back. Now, again, if you don't have a band, no big deal. You can follow me. Let's pull that tummy in, sit up tall, and do a few little punches out. Out. Punch out. Out. Out. Continue. Pull. Stay with it. Punch it. Final eight. Go. One, two, three, six, seven, and eight. Yes. All right. Good job. Put the band down. We're getting ready for a little bit more standing work. But before we stand up, lace up your fingers. Turn inside out. You need a nice stretch. All the way up. And unlace. Okay. In my classes, I like to have people be aware of how they stand up. So cross your arms and stand up. All right. Looks easy, right? But you wouldn't believe how much we hold on to things or use a ton of momentum to stand up. So practice. Next time you're standing and sitting, are you holding on to anything? Hopefully not. All right. Let's march a little bit. Now, I don't know how much room you have where you are, and actually I'm going to step back a little bit here because what I'm going to do is have you walk up eight times. Go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Five, six, seven, eight. Five, six, seven, eight. Stay in your place. Wide feet, toes. You all know this. This is what we did our first minute we met each other. Woo! A little bit different on this one. Let's lift that leg all the way up. Let's add some arms. Big, low, big, low. This is called a slow motion jumping jack. Big, down. All right. Let's put those arms down. Go back to toe taps and step touch. Let's call this a stand sit. Get ready, guys. Double stand sit. Go now. One, two. Woo! Double. Couple more. Singles. March. And again, be thinking about eight. In your place for now. Get those knees up. I hope you're smiling. I hope you're having fun. Walk eight, go. Five, six, seven, eight. Five, six, seven, eight. Five, six, seven, eight. Back. All right, I got a new move for you. How about this? Oh, you don't like it? No big deal. Just do it. Just see if you can. March. Woo! Walk eight. Five, six, seven, eight. Up eight. This is your final eight. We'll return eight. Five, six, seven, eight. Be deep. March. March quietly. Quiet. Barely touch that floor. I can hear my boots. Let's go a little deeper. Now we can hear them. That's okay. Get those knees up. Woo! Come on, get your knees up. Little bit higher. Little bit higher. Looking good. Come on, maybe a little bit higher. Little bit higher. Toe tap. Good job. Backstroke with that. Easy toe tap. Now let's go back to heel and change the position of your arms. So if you're a swimmer, this is going to be a freestyle stroke. Arms down and heels and step touch. Stay and sit. Your stay and sit looks just like a double step touch. Just a little bit more bend in the knee. Woo! Let's do two more. It'll be our final one right here. Woo! Arms bend. Great job, everybody. Great job. All right. So we are going to switch gears now. Good time to grab some water if you have some. After you have a nice sip of water, let's pick up our dumbbells. So guys at home, if you don't have them, I'll repeat it again. Anything works. Maybe a can of soup or nothing. Because ideally, this is really a lower body exercise. Stand in front of your chair and come down in a deep squat. If you're unfamiliar with squats, they're really not super simple. You really need to think about it. You're going to come down as if you're sitting on a chair, then you change your mind. Let's do one more. Okay. So a couple things to look at. Are your knees coming over your shoes? Definitely need to reevaluate that. Do not do that. You want to come down, leading with your backside. Squeeze. Lower. Squeeze. Lower. So it's a movement you do all day long. You didn't even know you were doing a squat. Down and up. One more time, everybody. All right. Let's take a little break. That was great. I'd like to finish that set up with eight more reps. By the way, prefer weights here. That works well. No weights work well. Let everybody be aware. No knees over shoes. Let's go. One. Two. Three. Four. Eight. Good, good, good, good. All right. Next up, we're going to go into some upper body work. So you've got your weights. I'd like for you to stand comfortably with your feet about hip distance. And this next exercise is called an overhead press. So you're just going to go straight up and come back down to your goal post position. Let's go for ten. You ready? One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Let's do one more and we'll take a little break. Good. If you follow other instructors here at the Lexington Senior Center, you may see some different exercises. You may see the same exercise taught a little bit differently, maybe a few different reps, this and that. But believe me, it all is good. Some people do eight reps, some people ten. But that's what's cool about being able to pick up different videos. You'll see different ways. All right. Second set. You ready? You're going up. Now make sure, guys, you start and stop in that goal post. Let's go, guys. We have five. We have four. Stay strong. Three. One more. And you did it. Beautiful. All right. Let's switch it up. Have a seat. Put your weights down close by. And let's take a big deep breath. Fill your lungs up. Exhale. If you're sitting in a straight back chair like I am, let's get a little bit deeper stretch using the chair. Bend forward and fingertips come behind the chair. Now, if you're on another type of chair and this doesn't work, that's okay. Just hold your arms back. But if you're here, this right here is a wonderful stretch for your shoulders. Bring your chin down. And then turn and look over one shoulder. And turn. Go to the other side. Good. Turn and come back. Let's march. So in get up and go, in a lot of the classes at the senior center, we use a chair instead of getting on the floor. So we incorporate abdominal exercises in almost all of our classes. Seated. And that's what I'm getting ready to do. We're going to start with a little stampede to just kind of work out the cheeks and the legs. Have a little fun. Feel a little freer here. And march. All right. Let's make sure we're seated tall. Abs in. And let's go to some kicks. How about some heel digs? Now we're going to take that dig to the side. Lifting elbows. All right. So far so good. Let's add full arms. And this is going to lead you in to the most fun you've had all week. Seated jumping jacks. Oh, yeah. There is such a thing. And they're a lot harder than they look. Woo! All right, guys. How about three, two, and march. Good. So now that you know what's coming, let's do it all over again. Stampede. March. Four kicks. One, two, three heel digs. One, two, three side dig. Elbow. Full arm. And here's those seated jacks. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and that's it. Woo-hoo! No more of those. Stampede, though. Let's get those legs worked out again. Hold. Fill your lungs up again. Exhale. All right. Knees together. Roll up off of your heels on your toes and simply lift and crunch into that and relax. All right? Let's do ten. One, two, three. Woo! Five, six, seven. Crunch in now. And that's it for that set. So you can see it may look easy, but it's not. But you do have to kind of force yourself to pull that belly button in, come on down and deep crunch. So let's try ten more and then we'll move on. One, two, belly button to spine on three, four, four, three. Woo! We did it. Great job, everybody. Big, deep breaths. And exhale. All right. Let's reach down and pick up those dumbbells again. When you start seated with dumbbells, I like for you to put them on your legs between your knee and hip and then walk up carefully and slowly. All right. So next step is going to be a side raise. You're going to bring your weights down here like this. This is a shoulder exercise. Go out and back down. So let's say you're at home and this is quite difficult and you find yourself using a ton of momentum and you find yourself bringing your weights way up to the ceiling. I'd like for you to put those weights down and just perform the exercises without weights for today. One more and we'll take a break. Or maybe two or three with, two or three without, something like that. You'll figure it out. You can do it the best way for you. Here we go. One, two. Weight training is so important, so important for everybody, but especially folks over 65. It's just essential to how we're going to age. How about two more? How about this last one? Yeah. Okay. Next step, we're going to work on the back of those arms. So this is a tricep kickback. I like to take one foot forward, one foot back. That's just what I like. By the way, if you prefer this stance, that's perfectly fine. A little lean forward, though, is very important. Elbows up and you're going to kick back a bit. That's two. That's three. Come on, let's get the back of those arms. We have five more here. Last one. All right. Let's take a little mini break. Change your leg. Lean forward. Elbows up. Let's go. One, two. You can do it. Come on. That's three. Four. That's five. Six. How about two more good ones? Come on, you can do it. Last one right here. Yes, you did it. Good job, everybody. All right. Next up, biceps. So you just worked the back of your arms, so we need to get that front. So let's do a little different stance here where your feet are hip-distance apart. You want to feel comfortable. Knees are soft. Elbows into your waist. Let's hold like this. This is called a hammer grip. We're going to do ten like this. Ready? One, two. That's three. That's four. Five. Tummy in tight. How about one more? All right, good. Take a moment. Now I'd like for you to change the grip. Turn it this way. We'll do another set of ten with holding the weight like this. Here we go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Let's make this our last one. Yes, you did it. And guess what? You get to have a seat now. Oh, gosh. I'm impressed. I don't even know what's going on behind that camera, but I think you all are working hard. I just can feel it. So let's keep that momentum up, and we're going to wind down here, getting very close to the end. But let's work really hard on this last one. This one is called a bent-over row. The benefit of this is it's going to strengthen your upper back. So bend forward, get the weight, and pull. So my head is up because I'm talking to you. But when you are performing this exercise, have your head, your gaze, a little bit above your shoes there. Just want to keep your spine straight. Okay? But I want you to think about pulling a weed. And the idea is to squeeze your shoulder blades. Let's do one more. And put the weight down. So if this brings something else to mind, remember when we had our band and we pulled like that? This is the same exercise, but instead of resistance, you're using your weight. So let's do another ten, and then we'll move on. One, two, three, four. I want you to feel it now. If you're not feeling anything, ask yourself, are you feeling it tightening between your shoulder blades? Let's do one more. Good one. One more. Excellent. All right. Excellent job, everybody. Let's put our weight down. Let's take our hands, lace them up. Big stretch. All the way up. Unlace. Hands down. Drop your chin to the chest. And now one ear to the same shoulder. Drop your chin down to the chest and go to the other side. And come on back. A lot of times when we're doing weight training, we may not realize it, but we can kind of pull on our neck a little bit. So always a good idea to get a nice little stretch in between exercises or at least when we're transitioning from one thing to another. All right. Last, we're going to get this ball. All right. So again, if you don't have one at home, not a big deal. But let's just hold the ball for now, and we're going to do a little bit more stretching. Why don't you just take it and go real big with your shoulder. Wonderful stretch here in that shoulder along with working range of motion in the shoulder. So nice and smooth. No reason to rush. We're going out to the side now. Keep it lifted. Come across. And this is a stretch for your shoulder. Now we really need to get that tricep. So let's take the ball back and push down. I'll turn real quick so you can kind of see what this looks like. That's about how far you want to get if you can. Remember, exercise is a process. Every day you'll get better. Do not expect overnight success, and don't give up, especially on the days when you just don't have it in you to do it. Give yourself a 10-minute workout. That may be all you do that day, and guess what? That is fine, and that's better than doing nothing. All right, let's go back behind and get that great stretch. All right, guys. We are going to take this ball now, and this is where we're actually going to use the ball, is put it between your knee and hip. We're going to work on our inner thigh and outer thigh. And all we're going to do is sit up tall. Pull that belly button in, though. Shoulders back, head up, and just begin to squeeze the ball. Just squeeze and release. Let's go. You can have some fun here. Squeeze and release. That's all it is. Don't get too carried away. Forget to squeeze and release, though. That's it. You'll feel it. Give it about 20 seconds. You'll feel it. Squeeze and release. Squeeze and release. And this is what I was referring to earlier. Maybe if you have a little throw pillow, if you don't have a ball, or you can even put your fingers on the inner thighs to create resistance or nothing. Don't let the lack of equipment keep you from working out and following this video along. You can follow it perfectly without. All right, let's break. And let's do a couple more little abdominal crunches. Keeping the ball there, pulling that belly button in, lifting the heels. How about four, three, two, break. Back from the top. Squeeze it. Let's go. Squeeze, release. Oh, I'm feeling it. Almost there, I promise. We're finishing up in 10 seconds. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Woo! All right, let's take the ball now and put it in the palms of your hands. Palms of your hands. Elbows out. Simply press and release. Press and release. And the purpose of this, it gives you a little strengthener for the chest wall. So you'll begin to feel the pressure and the squeeze under your arm as you strike the other underarm. So it doesn't have to be fast. Nice and slow, press. All right, now take a real quick break and bring the ball up and just press and release your elbows. You can go a little faster here. It's the same muscle group. You're going to feel it in the same part of your body. Press and release, press and release. Last four. And release. Now keep those elbows close together. Lift and lower. And this will be your last one. Good job! All right, so we are winding down. The next exercise is very calming. It works your fingers. So we're going to use the ball for that. I want you to take one leg out, kind of creating a ramp with one of your legs. And take the ball, and with exaggerated fingers, walk the ball down. And if you don't have the ball, you can go along perfectly without. Walk down and back. And this time, let's walk it up to the hip. Bring it behind your back. Scoot back in the chair. And then rock side to side. Hold that tummy in tight. Side to side. Feels good. It's kind of a little back massage. And it's a little bit of work for your obliques. Center. Arms down. Reach back. Get the ball. Put it on the other leg. You know where we're going now. Let's walk it out. Exaggerate your fingers, because that is the point of this exercise. It's to work your fingers. And that will be your last time down. Bring it on back. And behind your back. And side to side. All right. Let's do four, three, two, and last time. Good. All right, guys. Ball goes up. And I'd like you to spend about two more minutes with me here so we get a wonderful stretch to end our class. Sit up in your chair and scoot down almost to the very edge. Lean back in your chair. Arms come up. Big, deep breath. Fill your lungs up. Arms up over your head. And exhale. Good. Arms come down. Let's pay attention to these feet. Take your toes down. Point your toes. Change that. Heels. Heels on the floor. And pull your toes up towards you. Let's do it again. Lower your toes down. Feel that wonderful stretch in the top of your leg, your shin. And now switch that. Heels. And now you're on calves. All right. Let's sit up real tall again. And take one leg. Wrap your hands around your shin. And pull your knee to your shoulder so you're on the same side. And this gives you a chance to roll your ankle. And reverse. Point. Flex. One more time. That's beautiful. Okay. Foot comes over here like this. Love this stretch. It's a hip opener, a hip stretch. Just sitting like this is a great way to get some kinks out. And you can intensify this move by actually folding down, if you'd like to get a little back stretch here. Sit back up and switch it up. Other side, of course. Knee to shoulder. Ankle roll. Again, exaggerating, maybe wiggling those toes a bit. Other side. Point and flex. All righty. Time to bring it over here. Push down. Okay. Good. Oh, forgot to show you, if you'd like to fold over. Come on back up. All right, everybody. Both feet flat on the floor. Remember earlier? We're going to try not to hold on to anything or use a lot of momentum. So cross your arms in front and stand up. Very good. Uncross. We're going to end our class where we started. Feet apart. You're going to slide down into a cat-cow. So we'll begin with a rounded back. In your angry cat position. And flat back position. Let's do that again. Round up. And round. Stay here. One shoulder down to the opposite big toe. Change it over to the other side. And now center yourself again. Rounded back. This time come up one vertebrae at a time. Shoulders up. Back and down. Exhale. One more time. Exhale. All right. Thank you all so much for joining me today here at the Lexington Senior Center. This class is called Get Up and Go. We have a tremendous amount of classes here that I'd love for you to investigate. Maybe there's something that's just right for you. Thanks again for joining me.