# Urban County Council - September 11, 2025 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · September 11, 2025 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6567 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6567?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2025-09-11 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: February 28, 2026 - **Length**: 39,667 words - **Speakers**: Mayor > ⚠️ **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 Urban County Council met on September 11, 2025, at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers in Lexington, KY, with Mayor Gorton presiding. The meeting covered 2 agenda items, including an informational presentation honoring Rena Baer from the Friends of Jacobson Park and consideration of an ordinance on solar energy systems. The council heard 2 public comments during the meeting and took 2 votes. The ordinance on solar energy systems was approved by the council. ## Attendance The Council meeting on September 11, 2025 had 13 members present and 2 members absent, with no members arriving late. **Present (13):** Elliott Baxter, Hale, Higgins-Hord, LeGris, Lynch, Morton, Reynolds, Sevigny, Sheehan, Wu, Beasley, Curtis, and Ellinger. **Absent (2):** Boone and Brown. ## Votes and Decisions Two ordinances came to a roll call vote during the September 11, 2025 Council meeting. - **Ordinance 0827-25** — Amending certain budgets of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government for FY 2026 Schedule No. 6. [timestamp: 1:47:21] Motioned by Mr. Ellinger and seconded by Ms. Reynolds, the ordinance **passed 13–0**. All thirteen members voted in favor: Elliott Baxter, Hale, Higgins-Hord, LeGris, Lynch, Morton, Reynolds, Sevigny, Sheehan, Wu, Beasley, Curtis, and Ellinger. No members voted against or abstained. - **Ordinance 0812-25** — Amending Section 4 of the Code of Ordinances relating to the keeping of certain animals. [timestamp: 1:49:02] Also motioned by Mr. Ellinger and seconded by Ms. Reynolds, the ordinance **passed 11–2**. Voting in favor were Hale, Higgins-Hord, LeGris, Lynch, Morton, Reynolds, Sevigny, Sheehan, Wu, Beasley, and Ellinger. Elliott Baxter and Curtis voted against. No members abstained. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council addressed two financial items at the September 11, 2025 meeting, involving contract funding and a grant amendment. - **Resolution 0772-25** authorized the expenditure of Council Capital Project funds totaling **$9,549.10** with the **Young Men's Christian Association of Central Ky., Inc.** No additional details regarding the specific project scope were included in the available data. - **Resolution 0762-25** approved **Change Order No. 1** to the stormwater quality projects incentive grants with **Rob Prop, LLC**, amending the agreement by **$43,800.12**. This change order modifies the existing grant arrangement related to stormwater quality initiatives. ## Public Comment Two residents addressed the Council during the public comment period. - **Nestor Gomez** [timestamp: 23:59] spoke about his work with OneLexington, emphasizing the importance of focusing efforts on vulnerable communities. - **Cheryl Birch** [timestamp: 27:58] addressed gun violence prevention, calling for survivor-led initiatives and criticizing the city's current approach to violence prevention efforts. ## Appointments The Council took action on several appointments to city boards and commissions during the September 11, 2025 meeting. - **Maria Gomez** was reappointed to the **Carnegie Center for Literacy Board of Directors**. - **Tonya Hale** was appointed to the **Environmental Commission**. - **Joseph Browning** was appointed to the **Tree Board**. ## Contested Items - **Ordinance Limiting Rooster Ownership:** This item drew opposition from several community members who spoke during the meeting. Residents raised concerns about the fairness of the proposed ordinance as well as questions about how it would be enforced. No additional details about the specific terms of the ordinance, the identities of those who spoke, or the outcome of the council's deliberations were recorded in the available meeting data. ## Rena Baer In Memoriam - Friends of Jacobson Park [timestamp: 12:45] The Council received a presentation in memory of Rena Baer, recognizing her contributions to the community and her work with Friends of Jacobson Park. This item (0862-25) was informational in nature. Key speakers during this portion of the meeting included: - **Mayor Gorton**, who presided over the presentation - **Eric Baer**, who participated in the memorial recognition - **Katie Lindeman**, who also took part in honoring Rena Baer's legacy The presentation highlighted Rena Baer's contributions to the community and her involvement with Friends of Jacobson Park. No debate or opposing concerns were raised, as this was a commemorative item brought before the Council to formally recognize her memory and service. The item was informational and required no Council vote or action. ## Ordinance on Solar Energy Systems [timestamp: 1:47:21] The Council took up agenda item **0778-25**, an ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance by creating **Article 31**, which would establish regulations governing solar energy systems. Key speakers on this item were **Mr. Ellinger** and **Ms. Reynolds**. The discussion centered on the proposed amendment and the framework it would introduce for solar energy systems within the jurisdiction's zoning code. The ordinance was ultimately **approved** by the Council. *Note: Additional details regarding the specific provisions of Article 31, any concerns raised during debate, and the vote count were not available in the source materials for this item.* --- ## Decisions - **Ordinance 0827-25** — passed (13-0): Amending certain budgets of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government for FY 2026 Schedule No. 6. - **Ordinance 0812-25** — passed (11-2): Amending Section 4 of the Code of Ordinances relating to the keeping of certain animals. --- ## Full transcript emergency medical situations is that everyone can feel flustered and overwhelmed and have just a lot of emotions happening. It's also a lot of pressure if your loved one is not able to speak for themselves at that moment, to be the person to speak for them. If you know what they would say, it does make it a lot easier to go through that process without having to agonize over what you think they might want versus what you might want versus what external family members might want. It just provides a lot of clarity in a situation that usually has almost no clarity and can really help ease the situation to make it a little bit easier. Those are tough situations always. But it's important to know that if you fill out advance directives that they will never come into play if you are able to speak for yourselves. The only time this comes into play is if you are unable due to a medical emergency to speak for yourself. Okay. Well, Mrs. Huntley, thank you so much for coming in to share information about this document and how to use it. Thank you. Lots of great information with regards to this. Again, thank you for joining us for the Senior Service Commissions, the Senior Minute. Thank you, Mrs. Huntley. Thank you so much. Have a nice day. Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon Thank you very much. We have a quorum. So at this time, it is my pleasure to welcome Minister Vaughn Little of the Glenn Arvin Church of Christ, and he will offer our invocation. Welcome. Let us pray. Once again, we have been blessed by God that doeth all things well. In that, he has lengthened out the fine, brickly threads of our lives, enabling our golden moments to roll on just a little further. And for that, we are grateful. As we would always say, that God is good, not just some of the time, but all the time. Father, we pray for the conduction of this meeting. We pray that those that are engaged with over 65 items on the docket will pay close attention to those things that are in need for this community. Father, we thank you for our mayor and her leadership, and we thank you for all district leaders that represent the people of Lexington, Kentucky. Father, we pray right now that we will remain focused on the business at hand, not only for Lexington, but for this state and for this country, and better yet, this world. Father, let it be known that the Glenn Arvin Avenue, every day and every opportunity, we have, we whisper a prayer for the city leaders here in Lexington. Father, as we close this prayer, may we always be reminded of our responsibility to all mankind, and that is to fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of not just man, but all people. Father, we are so grateful, for God shall bring every good work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be bad. Father, we continue our prayer with that wise man called, that wise man, Solomon, who made it clear, for it is our responsibility to love God and to keep his commandments until the very end. These and other blessings we pray, in your darling son Jesus' name, may we all say, amen. Thank you very much, Minister Little. All right, council members, we have minutes of the August 28th, 2025 council meeting. Motion approved. Second. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger and seconded by Council Member Curtis. There we go. Are there any corrections or additions? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. At this time, we have a special presentation. All right, at this time, I would like to ask Katie Lindeman, Eric Mitchell, and Council Member Joseph Hale to join me at the podium. This evening, we are here to honor the life of the late Rena Bayer, who died in July. Rena and Katie co-founded Friends of Jacobson Park in 2023. We are also joined by Rena's husband, Eric. And I want to thank both of you for being here tonight and for Council Member Hale as a supportive person. Rena was a gifted writer and photographer. She had what I call a real camera. And over the course of her career, Rena worked at Blood Horse Magazine, Keeneland Magazine, and Smiley Pete Publishing, just to name a few. She had a deep love of nature and Jacobson Park. Rena worked tirelessly to strengthen our community and natural areas. She also spent much of her free time capturing Lexington's nature landscape through her photography. Eric and Katie, we are here to express our sorrow for your great loss. And we are so grateful for Rena's many contributions to our city. At this time, I have a proclamation I would like to present to you, Eric, in Rena's memory. Whereas Rena Bayer, a dedicated community leader, was a loving and caring friend who was always there to offer support and a listening ear. And whereas Rena co-founded the Friends of Jacobson Park in 2023. And whereas Rena inspired many people with her courage and determination fighting a two-and-a-half-year battle with ovarian cancer. And whereas Rena is remembered by her friends and family for her kind soul, her spirit, her boundless generosity. And whereas Rena's legacy of kindness, generosity, and community spirit will continue to inspire and live on in the hearts of those who knew her, which is a lot of people. Now, therefore, I, Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare September 11th, 2025, Rena Bayer Day in Lexington. Now, at this time, we're going to have Katie say a few words. And then, Eric, if you'd like to say a few words, we would like you to. But we're going to start with Katie. All right. First of all, thank all of you for making this happen. Rena was a very special person in Lexington, and everyone knew her. And probably half this room is filled with people that are here for her. I met Rena three years ago, so I didn't get much time with her. But the impact that we made was unbelievable. We both love Jacobson Park, and we had noticed after COVID that the park was getting really trashed. And so I had a cleanup, met her. Someone said, you should start Friends of Jacobson Park. I said, no way. That's too much work. So a year went by. Rena spoke up. There was a bunch of keyboard warriors, like we see sometimes in Lexington, with negative comments. Well, we decided we're not going to be the negative comments. We're going to be the change. And that's what we need, is people to be the change. And so the first cleanup that we had ended up being the biggest volunteer event Lexington has ever had. And Rena was already sick at that time, so she was only able to join us the second day. We had 200 people show up that we didn't know. And we removed two tons of trash from Jacobson Park and the reservoir that had built up over the years. And so we started out with a bang, and we were afraid it was going to be disappointing after that. But things only got better. To date, we're at almost $100,000 that Rena and I wrote in grants and projects that we implemented for water quality at Jacobson Park through the use of native plants and different projects like that. And we're hoping to add some art to that. But I just want people to know, I wanted to leave you with this, kind of our logo that we have. We used a Margaret Mead phrase, and I think at the time we didn't realize we were going to have the impact we did. But boy, does this, this really describes it. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. So thank you very much. Thank you. All right. I want to invite Eric to say a few words. Thank you, Katie. Thank you very much. Thank you, Katie, Councilman Hale, Mayor Gordon. This is a tremendous honor, and I really do appreciate you recognizing how much Rena cared, not only for Jacobson Park, but for this community. We moved to Lexington in 1999, and it immediately became our home. And, I mean, this is a place where we've built a huge network of friends and family that are very, very dear to us. One of the things Rena loved most about Lexington, and unfortunately diversity has become a word that people don't want to use anymore, but diversity is so important, and this community is so strong because of its diversity. And Jacobson Park was so near and dear to her because of its diversity, and the people that came to that park from all corners of the county and the city who used that space. She also loved the diversity of the wildlife there. She was an avid bird photographer, and, you know, you don't get a lot of chance to see a lot of water birds around central Kentucky always. And Jacobson was a unique spot for that, and she loved the wildlife and the birds and just the whole welcoming vibe of that space. She valued these public spaces and wanted to be sure that they were cared for. And she made it a priority to her to care for it, to make them clean, and to educate people and teach people to care for these precious places that we have for generations to come. So thank you, everyone, for recognizing her efforts and for also recognizing the importance of these places. Thank you. We're going to get a photo. Let's get a photo now. We're going to get a photo. Thank you. All right. Can we put people in the middle? Yeah. Yeah. That's what we'll do. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. All right. Now, it is time for public comment, and this is for issues on the agenda. If you're here to speak for something that is not on the agenda, we'll get to you a little bit later. And, council members, we have quite a lot of people signed up, so we're going to the way this will work is I'll call your name and I'll ask you to come to the podium over here. For the record, you need to repeat your name and tell us your council district, and that's all for the public record. So first, I'll call on Nestor Gomez, who will be followed by Cheryl Birch. Welcome. Hey, good afternoon, Honorable Council, Mayor Gordon. You'll know I'm a preacher, so we turn around the timer usually. Uh-oh, not tonight. But, yeah, no, no. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity. I didn't know I was going to go first. But, you know, I will open up with this. When I first migrated to the U.S. 15 years ago, it was to Lexington, Kentucky. And when I left Mexico and I came here, my mama told me, wherever you go, you have to watch yourself, you have to watch the time, the place, and the people that you're around. And in a time like this, when there are so many things happening at a federal level where communities are being disregarded, especially those that are the most distressed and vulnerable, we cannot forget those that we serve. So I got two minutes to speak on behalf of One Lexington and the work that I do as a crisis response advocate. I serve as a pastor at Main Street Baptist here in Lexington, down the street with Fayette County Public Schools. I'm a neighbor in Cardinal Valley. I live on Devonport Street. And I can tell you that I often find myself in the wrong place. I often find myself in dark alleys in between federal agencies such as the FBI, local law enforcement, and gang members, mediating between them and aggressors or the victims as well. So why do I find myself often in the wrong place? Because I have not forgotten that a city can only flourish in council members. Never forget that the flourishment of a city fully depends on us placing the interests of the most vulnerable and distressed in our communities first. It is when we lose sight of those that we serve that we try to shut down, try to discontinue programs that are benefiting our communities in so many ways. I have many stories to tell you about the countless people that I have helped. You know, social media as an immigrant is crucial to us because oftentimes it's the only way we can communicate with our families. I don't have any social media. However, you can go and Google my name and you will find my address, 1192 Devonport Circle. And I do this work even though I'm standing in between gang members when even our police department used to mistake the 13s for MS-13. Thank you so much. Unfortunately, I have to enforce the rules. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Cheryl Birch followed by Sheressa Crovo. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Cheryl Birch and I live in the 1st District. Excuse me. Grassroot leaders are doing all they can to hold space for young people in crisis, but they are being met with unnecessary barriers. Mostly insurance requirements, restrictive training, mandates, and limited assets to funding. The very people closest to the pain are constantly left out of the city's plan to address it. Worse still, leadership roles tied to these initiatives are often filled with personal network, not public procedures and demonstrate experience. Recently, two newly created city jobs connected to violence prevention were quietly filled without broader community notification, excluding qualified, experienced individuals, many of whom are survivors themselves. This city also continues to pour public dollars into diluted programs like Everyone Counts, a $40,000 initiative that barely reflects the real community-informed recommendations made by the city's very own gun violence task force. This initiative, along with other city leaders, was absent from the recent vigil, the Super Sunday, and from the neighborhood where gun violence continues to live. This is about more than policy. It's about presence. It's about truth. It's about making sure that the voice of those living with the consequences of a crisis are heard and empowered, not sidelined. Our youth deserve leaders who show up with purpose, not photo ops. If the city can demand accountable, grassroots organizations, it must be willing to hold themselves to the same standards. It is time for an independent review of how violence prevention funds are disbursed and for a real commitment to survivor-led, community-rooted solutions. Our young people can't afford to wait any longer. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next is Cheressa Crovo, followed by Kajeda Jackson. Welcome. Hello. I am in Whitney Elliott Baxter's district. I have spoken to her about things in our neighborhood. And your name for the record, please. Oh, I thought you already said it. Sorry. Does my time start over? Cheressa Bentley Crovo. I've also had Dave Svigny come and speak to my classroom as a government teacher at Pollard and Stumbar. I have worked with Mr. Gomez. I've worked with Wynne Lexington to reach our students and do work that would otherwise not get done, meet with our students, help them avoid some of the pitfalls in our communities like gun violence. And this is something that's happening all over the district. So these are Dumbar students. We've had incidents of things in our own neighborhood. And, you know, I'm down the street from Whitney. These kids need the support in this community to feel safe. I walked the neighborhood where two Dumbar kids were shot just a week ago. And it wasn't about photo ops. And we were able to talk to people who felt safe giving us information, who felt safe talking to us because they know us. Where they may not feel safe talking to the police, they'll come talk to a teacher. They'll call me and tell me things. And just like Nestor, I find myself a lot of the times in between a rock and a hard place trying to do the right thing for the kids. And at the end of the day, you know, those are the future of this community, like Nestor was saying. Sorry, Mr. Gomez. You know, if we don't invest in those things and if there's a problem with how that money is being invested or there's too many people fighting over that piece of the pie, I need you to think about the future of this community when you vote on what we're going to do moving forward. Because you've been in those classrooms. You've seen my kids. We are a very diverse community with very diverse problems depending on what neighborhood you go into. And a lot of the neighborhoods that I am in or Nestor is in are the ones that need these people out walking the streets. Without those resources, those things are not going to happen. And the people like our community liaisons are not going to be there to intervene and help the kids figure out the best path forward, which sometimes they don't have the frontal lobe development to decide the most complicated situation. And sometimes they only see the easiest path. And these community groups are giving these kids a place that is safe, a place with resources, understanding how to better themselves, how to get out of these situations or these neighborhoods or away from these things. Having somebody talk to my child after a traumatic incident would have been great, but those things weren't there. So I encourage you, figure out a way to keep these programs for these kids. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. I may be mispronouncing your name. Kadeja Jackson followed by Robin Anderson. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Kadeja Jackson, and I am a resident of District 8. I am the founder of Keys to Brotherhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to mentoring young men and supporting reentry. I am here tonight to speak on the importance of One Lexington's outreach and survivor support in the fight against gun violence. So personally, my family has been directly impacted by gun violence, and I know the pain and trauma it leaves behind for me. This issue is not just a statistic or headlines. It's personal. One Lexington's work has shown me that healing is possible, and it inspired me to create my own nonprofit and turn the pain into purpose. They've given me the confidence, connections, and example to step forward as a leader in service to my community. Survivor support is especially vital when it comes to gun violence. Families who lose loved ones or experience shootings carry trauma that doesn't end with the incident. One Lexington stands in the gap, walking with survivors, helping them rebuild, and reminding them that they are not alone. The kind of care doesn't just change an individual's life. It strengthens our whole city, including the neighborhoods right here in District 8. So I just ask to continue investing in Lexington's work. Survivor support and street outreach saves lives. Heal trauma caused by gun violence and prevent future harm. I'm a mother as well, and I noticed a difference in my daughter's behavior and her academics in school just by having their support the whole entire summer. I'm a single mom. The entire summer they were there every step of the way, even providing transportation while I'm at work to get to the summer programs. And that really helped me tremendously. So I just thank you for your time and for listening to the voices in the community. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Robin Anderson, followed by Terry Dunford. Welcome. Good evening. I'm Robin Anderson, District 9. And I am here in support of One Lexington and the street outreach team. I have to commend the work that this team has done. They are boots on the ground, working with our community, sometimes hours, days, weeks after gun violence has affected our community. They are going out on the street and offering food, support, resources to the most vulnerable people that have just probably had the worst time of their life. And they are offering compassion, because let's be honest, not a lot of us want to go out and walk the streets and provide this type of service. It takes a special person to do this. And the communities know and trust these people. And they have a way of being able to bridge the gap between police, prosecutors, city government, in a way that someone like me, as a victim advocate for over 20 years, I could spend a year working with somebody building trust. They got it immediately because of the work that they do immediately on the ground, going out and talking with people. They're not showing up after. They're not sending them someplace. They are there with them every step of the way, providing resources that they need at that moment. So I am here standing with them today, and I ask that you do the same. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Terry Dunford, followed by Andre Wilson. Welcome. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Terry Dunford. I am in Councilwoman Lynch's district. What number is that again? Thank you for educating me today. I am a youth advocate. I run a nonprofit called the Voyage Movement. We provide wraparound services for the greater Lexington area. Though I live in Lexington, I'm the president of the NAACP in Bourbon County. That's where I'm a native of. And I sit on a lot of boards. I'm on the Drug Court Board, Mental Health Board, and I just do a lot of different things in the community. A couple years ago, I was asked to join the Crisis Response Team. I wasn't really aware of what really it was until I went out on one of our first neighborhood engagement walks. And I come up in the streets a little bit, but it was a little unsettling, you know, to see, you know, bullet holes in the walls and talk to a mother who a bullet had just, like, barely missed her baby's cradle. It was a little different. I didn't really know if I was going to be able to continue doing the work just because of those settings, right? But once I started to see the importance of these people whose lives had been shattered and them being able to see people come out in support of them, I understood this is where I needed to be, and I understood the importance of the program as a whole. And this is what I do every day anyway. This is kind of my purpose place. This is where I live, right? So to be able to see the impact and then to be able to see some of the relief and some of the anguish be, you know, lifted. The program is not perfect, and, you know, sometimes, you know, it's an individual who may need services who don't get it because of the political themes of budgets and, you know, some stuff above my pay grade. But overall, it's a solid response team, right? And I'm honored to work with the guys who we work with and the women because I understand everybody is doing it because they feel like they're in their purpose, though. They're not doing it for money. They're not doing it for clout. They've been doing it prior to it existing, some of them, some of us, right? So the thing that's critical about the work that we do is layered, and it's – I know they spoke about going over to your district. And the lady talking about the young man who was in her yard and thinking about the aftercare that she can call, she can get assistance, and this stuff is not no one-off. You know, these are things that my first call was two years ago. I still talk to these people today. They still can call and get assistance, whether it's just a phone call and a word of encouragement. But the other day, I got 15 seconds. I went on the call, and the lady showed me a picture of some young men who allegedly shot up her house. I knew these young men and was able to mediate a situation that probably saved five young men's life just by showing up. Thank you very much. Next is Andre Wilson, followed by Mick Miller. Welcome. My name is Andre Wilson, District 1. I'll tell you one thing. I'm on behalf of 1 Lex. I'm in a lot of organizations. I wear a lot of hats. And people ask me, what is the most affluent organization that you work with? And I say 1 Lex. I'm also on 11th District, 2nd District, Gun Task Force, Count on Me and stuff. But one thing that 1 Lex stands out is they are a ground-root organization that goes to the source. They got good resources and stuff. We did one campus where a young lady was in domestic violence, got shot six times, blood all in the apartment. She didn't want to go to that apartment. We ended up going and putting her in another apartment when we moved. Like Mr. Dunford said, we've gone over to Greenacres where people have shot up houses and cars and everything. I'm also a parent of a son that got shot in his temple, in his head. They was pulling bullets out of his nose. I'm in the hospital. I didn't know if my son was going to live or die. And Mr. Devine called me, started 3 o'clock in the morning. He called me every hour on the aisle checking on me that whole weekend. And Terry called me and stuff. I see the passion of this organization going inside the schools trying to talk to the youth. Because I feel that I do a lot of reentry. I do a lot of federal, state prisons and stuff. But still you've got to get them young. And I was just so honored to meet Mr. Devine, a man of the community. He was on Chestnut Street picking up trash in the community. And I stopped him and I told him that, hey, I put all my life on hold because I had to raise my sixth child. He said, man, I've got this organization, One Legs Gun Violence and stuff. I've been able to put my life on hold and help with his gun violence camp. Volunteered, no money and nothing. I've also been able to go into the schools and stuff. I've also been able to go into the community. This organization doesn't sit behind a desk. This organization doesn't sit in this building and try to take care of their business. They're out in the community. We did one thing that was a double murder. We went and knocked on all the doors and stuff. And the passion and love that One Legs have, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but the passion and love that Mr. Devine has is remarkable. It took me a long time to commend another man because I come from the streets. I come from roughness. But what this organization does is remarkable. Thank you very much. Next is Mick Miller followed by Dwan Hooten. Welcome. Hello, Council. Hang on one second. We want to restart the timer so you have your full three minutes. Thank you. Hello, Council. I'm Mick Miller from District 1, and I want to talk to you about the noise ordinance. You guys clearly have much more important things to do than worry about noise ordinances. So I'll just speak real quick. I'll try to keep it brief. The existing noise ordinance we have addresses noisy animals. I read the proposal for this ordinance resolution, and it's got some hypocrisy in it that I want to point out, first being that it states that roosters are dangerous, but then you turn around and allow us to have one rooster. So if, like, for example, if tigers were dangerous, why would you let us have one of those? Also, you know, dogs that are 60 pounds and over can be noisy. They've got really loud barks, but we're allowed to have multiples of those as well. So first, the noise ordinance is hypocritical, and then it's also not equitable. I'm going to out myself. I recently did an addition to my house. I knew that it was going to be over the building limit, so I went ahead and I built it with no permits. I went six feet out over the building line. I got caught, and it was, to me, literally a slap on the wrist. It was over $40,000 to do the addition, and I paid $300. So you're really only hurting the people at the bottom that can't afford your increase from $15 to $100. That's only going to affect the people on the bottom. So I don't understand why you think it's a good idea to go after those people. The people that you're affecting are the minorities and the poor that need food security. We've already gone over why you need more than one rooster in a flock. We've already talked about how they're not the noisiest animals. The hens themselves are the noisy animals. Also, we're still allowed to have turkey. We're still allowed to have ducks. Those animals are louder than roosters. So, in a nutshell, the ordinance that you're proposing doesn't make any sense, and you should have done some homework before proposing it. Thank you. Thank you. Next is DeJuanne Hooten, followed by Sherry Murphy. Welcome. Hello. My name is DeJuanne Warren Hooten. I believe my district is Amy Beasley, if I'm doing that correctly. I'm so sorry. Hello. My name is DeJuanne Warren Hooten. I'm an educator with a degree in social work, and I've seen firsthand the challenges our youth, families, and neighborhoods face because of gun violence. To me, lives have been altered by trauma, loss, and brokenness, and yet I have also seen the power of resilience, healing, and hope when communities come together. That is why I believe in the mission and impact of One Lexington. This program is dedicated to reducing youth gun violence by addressing root causes, strengthening families, and creating pathways for young people to thrive. One Lexington works alongside schools, faith leaders, community partners, and families to build safer neighborhoods and open doors to opportunity, mentorship, and healing. The work being done is not just about prevention. It is about transformation. It is about showing young people that they have a voice, that their lives matter, and that there is a future worth fighting for by walking with families through grief, guiding youth forward, better choices, and uniting communities. One Lexington is planting seeds of change that will impact generations to come. As an educator, a mother, and community member, I wholeheartedly support the work of One Lexington. I believe this program is a vital resource, and I'm confident that its continued growth and reach will bring lasting change to our city. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you very much. Now, I need to ask a couple questions here. Is Bethany Walker here? Okay. And are you giving your three minutes to Kelly Wheeler? All right. And then Field Lad, are you here? I have that you would like to yield your time to someone, but I don't know who. Do you want to speak? Okay. I'll call on you in just a moment. Thank you. All right. Next is Sherry Murphy, and you'll be followed by Kelly Wheeler. Kelly will have six minutes. Welcome. My name is Sherry Murphy, and I'm from District 10. Thank you, City Council members, Vice Mayor, and Mayor, for allowing me to voice my concerns on the proposed ordinance to limit rooster ownership to one rooster and to increase the fines drastically to $100. I personally do not own roosters, but I love animals, and I know the owners of roosters, and I know owners of roosters that are very responsible. Their roosters are their family pets, and they work diligently to care for them. These owners should not be penalized for the actions of irresponsible owners. They make no attempts to limit the times that their roosters crow and allow them to be a nuisance to others. Roosters are very protective of their flock and will crow more when they feel unsafe or feel threatened. Since many predators are nocturnal, they will crow more at night if left outside. When a safe coop is provided, however, they will direct their flock into the coop at dusk, and they will remain in the coop until they are left out. And then when their owners let them out, they will come out. Any irresponsible owners that leave them outside and are violating the noise ordinance should be penalized. Any owners that are keeping roosters for cockfighting should also be penalized for animal cruelty. We have ordinances and laws, and we should enforce those. Roosters can be family pets, and there are various breeds and sizes of roosters that many people do not know about. Not all roosters are large, and not all roosters crow loudly. Some are very small. As someone who loves animals, I know it will be extremely difficult for a current owner of a rooster to be forced to get rid of a rooster that they have raised and cared for personally for months or possibly years. My other concern is, I have, where will these roosters go? And what is the plan in place for these roosters if the owners are asked to get rid of them if this ordinance is passed? The Lexington Humane Society will accept roosters, but I do not believe they can accommodate so many birds if they are all surrendered. Finally, please address the issue of local roosters, of vocal roosters with owners that are violating the noise ordinances or are being disrespectful to their owners. But please do not penalize owners that care for their roosters responsibly. As a responsible owner of three dogs, I am very aware that dogs can also be loud and very disruptive if not cared for properly. My three dogs are family members, and I would be heartbroken if asked or forced to give up two of my dogs due to an irresponsible owner that allowed their dogs to bark or, even worse, are promoting dog fighting. This is the situation our new ordinance would create for many responsible rooster owners. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next is Kelly Wheeler, who will have six minutes, followed by Field Ladd. Welcome. Thank you, Council Members and Mayor Gordon. My name is Kelly Wheeler, and I'm in District 9. I've recently been informed of the new ordinance that has been proposed regarding banning all but one rooster per household. I would like to share concerns about this topic, as I feel rooster owners have been misrepresented entirely through some news articles written. I have friends and family who own roosters as well as hens and who are responsible for caring for them. Most experienced chicken owners understand the importance of roosters. For many, roosters are pets with the same importance as dogs, cats, etc. They may not be everyone's ideal pet, but to many people they are beloved, valued pets. How upsetting would it be for some rooster owners to have to get rid of their pets being limited to just one? It would be very disheartening, since there has never been an ordinance like this, then going to the extreme as restricting owners to solely one rooster. I would like to clarify that not all roosters are aggressive. Some make great pets, and our responsible rooster owners would not keep aggressive roosters, as mentioned. If roosters are escaping from yards or wandering onto others' property, this should be dealt with like an unleashed roaming dog, etc. There are owners that are irresponsible and do not manage their flocks appropriately. These owners may very well leave their chickens and roosters out at all hours and don't utilize coops. Responsible flock owners do not allow their flocks to roam about and do utilize coops for appropriate care and nightly roosting. It was mentioned in an article that roosters need acres upon acres and should not be kept in a city, which I strongly disagree with. There are specific spatial guidelines for roosters' needs, and if these are met, chickens live very happily, whether in the city or the country. Roosters do crow, but dogs and cats and other animals make noise as well. Has any one of you ever been awakened in the middle of the night to two male cats fighting outside your bedroom window? I have. Or a barking dog that's been left out too long to go potty and the owner has fallen back asleep and forgotten them? I have. I have been around and lived by dogs that bark relentlessly at everything and everyone, just being dogs. Will dog owners have to be told that they are limited to just one dog if their dogs are too noisy? It is the dog owner's responsibility to ensure dogs follow noise ordinance regulations just as a rooster owner. Not all roosters crow any more than a dog barks. If there are roosters crowing relentlessly, then the owner should remove it. Cats are allowed to roam free within the city limits without any ordination or regulation related to them. I happen to love cats but don't own any, but I must tolerate cat feces in my landscaping and cat hair covering my patio furniture where they come and sleep at night or lounge during the day. The bottom line is that there are many cases to compare noise nuisances and other annoyances among many animals and pets within the city of Lexington. If there are owners with a huge number of roosters causing noise issues or roosters crowing in all hours of the night, then I do agree that these instances should be addressed. Roosters who are placed in their coops at night and are quiet well after daylight should not be punished because of others being inconsiderate to their neighbors. These birds are trainable. I believe it is wrong that everyone must be punished and penalized for others' actions. Please consider acting with the neighborhoods and individuals receiving complaints, not those that are not at fault. As a tax-paying citizen of Lexington, I was pretty blown away with the steep fines being proposed in enforcing removal of these pets from their properties. Are you aware that not all chickens, roosters are full-sized, standard-sized chickens? Many flocks here in Lexington are multi-bred flocks. These flocks include full-stock, full-sized chickens, bantams, which are basically a miniature chicken or rooster, and ceramas and other breeds that are considered to be micro chickens, little bitty ones. With the exception to the full-sized chickens, these others are much smaller in size and do not carry the same crowing level as a standard chicken. But as mentioned before, responsible ownership of any of these birds are key. If owners aren't responsible, then appropriate steps should be taken to ensure noise ordinances are addressed. Please know that there are more arguments to this ordinance than just the one side, and there are many who will be affected by it negatively. Since there has never been an ordinance like this in the past, how would responsible rooster owners choose? How would they choose which animals that they would keep and the ones that they would have to part with? I mean, they are part of their family. This would not be fair, and I ask you to take all of this information into consideration when you cast your vote today. I appreciate your time and consideration to the opposition of this proposed ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Field Lab, followed by Brian Babbage. Welcome. Thank you, Council. Field Little Sheba is here to talk about this with some of the weighty things that are going on in such a weighty day. So I'm going to make it as brief as possible. I'm here to talk about residential parking permits. I'm sorry to interrupt, Field, but would you please state your name and your council district field record? Yes, ma'am. Field Lab, District 5. Thank you. Excuse me. Essentially, you have before you the study. You've all been sent the numbers. If you look at it, 10 out of 12 times when parking enforcement came by to look at this, 10 out of 12, it didn't even meet the threshold to have the study. 10 out of 12 times, it didn't even meet the 75% that it needed. On the other two, there was one car parked by neighbors, and there were still two empty spots. So we're talking an 84% this is a non-issue. So what I don't really understand is if you've averaged one car every single time they came, there was never more than one car. There were always spaces. Never more than one car for my neighbors to park. I would like them to have their space to park. But never once did a neighbor try and find a spot. According to this study, if you look at it, and this is after going through pretty serious efforts to get to the neighborhood to skew this study in their favor. Never once did they come by and say, oh, there's zero parking spots for the neighbor. I would also like to say you're going to hear from people that we're talking about, you know, how they never have space to park. The study doesn't bear it out. Every single one of those people has a driveway. Four of the five of them have two or three car garages. That's the reason why you see when you look at this study. You all have this. It's been emailed to you. You've all seen it. When you look at it, not one time did they come by and say all ten spots on this block are full. The other thing that was conveniently done is there's a multifamily unit there in the middle of this block that was sort of cut out of this study, which has, I think, 30-plus units in it. So of these cars that were perhaps on the street, they were never looked at. I know it seems trivial. If you look at the numbers, 10 out of 12, 85% of the time that they came, 85% of the times that Lexpark came by, it was a nonissue. They couldn't even do the study. It has to be 75% occupancy. It was a nonissue. And of the two times that they did come, there was one neighborhood car and zero neighborhood cars parked there, and there were still empty spots to be had. What's going to happen, I met with Henry Harrison of the Good Shepherd and two of their members today. If you read the Facebook message that was passed around to try and skew this study, they say we're going to roll block by block because of Camel Club. This, I mean, just look at the numbers. It's a nonissue. But what could happen is other people that need to park on that block, they move. What happens then? Henry Harrison feels, many Good Shepherd parishioners feel, that it's going to impact their ability to, and the city as well, the Bell House, is going to impact their parking ability. And that's a death knell for the church. It's a death knell for the Bell House. And if you look at the numbers, it's a nonissue. Thank you guys for my time. Sorry for speaking on this with such weighty issues at hand. Thank you. Next is Brian Babbage followed by Corey Dunn. Welcome. I'm Brian Babbage. I'm in the Fifth District. So, same issue that Phil just spoke on. And just to kind of be clear here, we've made this very clear, I hope, but this has not been an issue on this street. We have the study, the data has clearly been manipulated, the Facebook message you guys have all seen, right? The study was failed the first time. It was paused the second time because they were made aware that it was being manipulated. And then if you're trying to manipulate a study, even if they pause it, when they come back, it's not that hard to see Lexpark outside of your house conducting a study and get your neighbors to come by. And to Phil's point, so when Lexpark comes by, right, there was at the highest point, there's ten spots, there's one neighbor car in those ten spots, okay? I'm wondering where those cars could have been. There's probably two options, right? They want to use their cars. My guess is their cars were in their garage and in their driveways, where they can always be. They always have access to parking, every time. I have a driveway, that's where I put my car. I could park on the street, but I don't. So there's ample parking for them in their own private areas. This isn't a high-density area, right? This isn't Park Avenue on campus that has an RPPP, right, that has six students living that have maybe one driveway spot and two street spots, right? That leaves three cars in the lurch. So I hope we can think about that, and I hope we can think about the precedent that sets. I'm a huge fan of Kennewick Table. I'm a huge fan of a lot of other restaurants. And I'm a huge fan of this mixed-use development that we have going on in town. I think we kind of all are. I mean, it's a vibrant way to have a town expand. And what we're not in favor of is having these massive parking lots and parking garages all over town. So if this precedent is set, again, this is the easiest study to fake, in my opinion, in the world. I mean, all you need is three friends. If you have a sleepover, you could have these numbers. So I'm just – I'm begging you. If you redo this study and you don't tell the dates, that would be my hope that you do. Just let's not have it be manipulated. Let's do it again. We just did the yellow lines, right? So the idea that there was illegal parking or driveways being blocked, now it's fully enforceable. These yellow lines are freshly painted, and they're three to five feet across the driveway on either side. So this is clear as day. There's not a parking problem. So I just hope you look at the numbers. And just the final thing, my business – we employ 25 people, okay? The Wall Street Journal is at the business right now doing a profile about small social clubs in cities. I think that's pretty cool. I hope you guys do too. And, like, that's what we're trying to do. And it's taken three and a half years and just an insane amount of time and effort. And we're still in a lot of city processes that I won't bog you down with. But please, we're just asking for a little help here. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. We have two Corrie Dunns signed up. So next is Corrie with a C-O-R-R-I. And following Corrie will be Neo Jackson. Welcome. Hi. My name is Corrie Dunn. I'm from the First District. And my father, Corrie Dunn, works for a violence prevention program. And I know that his job is dangerous, and it makes me worry about him. But I don't like thinking about those things. I like thinking about all the things he does to help the community. And I know that that's his main goal. And he always wants to give back to people, no matter what the time of day is, no matter what he's doing, the situation, the phone call, he always goes to help people. And I think that's really something that I admire from him. And even though it's really dangerous, I look up to him because I know he cares about others. And I know all the people that he works with does too. And he's brave. Everyone's brave to go do what they do. So I think that that's really important, and I think that's something that I look up to them for. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Neo Jackson. And following Neo will be Corey Dunn. Welcome. Good evening. Neo Jackson, District 1. I'm just here on behalf of Winn-Lexington. About a month ago, I got in contact with Winn-Lexington. And it was really a good thing for me. Because years ago, I had lost friends to gun violence. And there was no program or anything like this that I could talk to somebody about. And once I got to talk to them, Mr. Larry Johnson, Mr. Kenneth Payne, and Mr. Divine Karama, it was very impactful, and it's been very impactful on my life. And it's only been a month. And within that month, they have helped me with counseling and hooking me up with a therapist so I can work on my mental health. And I just want to say just in the month, they have actually helped me, like, so much. And I just want to just give them thanks and just want to say I'm thankful for everything that they've done for me. And that was about it. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Now, I need to ask, Frank Butler, are you here? There you are. Are you giving your time to Marcy Deaton? Yes. Okay, thank you. So next is Corey Dunn, followed by Marcy Deaton, who will have six minutes. Welcome. Hello. My name is Corey Dunn. I'm in the first district. We've heard a lot about One Lexington and what they do, but a lot of people don't understand why those of us who work on the crisis response team do it. I personally do it because I've lived a very wild life, I'm just going to be honest. I was one of the people that we now serve. I was in the streets. I've been shot. People talk about, oh, survivors, and I'm a survivor. I've got two bullet holes that will permanently be on my body because of a lifestyle that I lived. I have a prison number. I'm not proud of it, but I made mistakes, I did wrong, and now I'm living to correct it. And I would just like to thank y'all. I mean, shout out to One Lexington, don't get me wrong. But through the Lexington city government, we have the ability, people like me have the ability to right our wrongs. I get to work with, and not only that, use my negative experiences as a positive. I've been shot at on this job, but that's not going to stop me from doing this job. When I was in the streets engaging in foolishness and violence, there was no One Lexington. There was a few people here and there, but it weren't people reaching out and saying, hey, let me show you a different way. We couldn't carry on conversations the way we do now. I can teach a young dude who is involved in gun violence and then say, hey, look, you don't have to go get retaliation. And I know what it feels like to want to get retaliation because I've been shot. I know what it's like to go get retaliation because somebody told on you and you got sent to jail or this, that, and the other. But we can use our experiences to teach everybody that there's a better way. And I have to thank you all for that because you're the ones that are responsible for giving us that opportunity. You're the ones that make me a hero in front of my little girl. So I would honestly just like to thank you all for giving us the opportunity to do what we do and to make Lexington a safer place for you, for us, and most importantly for the children that we raise. Because at the end of the day, that's what it's about. It's not about anything outside of life and love. And when I was in the street, I never thought about God and religion, spirituality, none of that stuff. But I like to consider myself a Christian today. And there's this dude in this little book called the Bible that said that there's no greater love than for a man to surrender his life for his friends. And that's why we do what we do, because we can. Everybody can do it. But it's work that needs to be done, and we're going to keep doing it until we can't no more. So thank you all. Thank you. Next is Marcy Deaton, who will have six minutes, followed by Yasir Rahman. Welcome. Hi, council members. I'm Marcy Deaton, 3rd District. I live on Forest Avenue, so I'm here to talk about parking. I've got a handout, but I'll get to that in a few minutes. I'm kind of going to go off my script. I am confused why the owners of the club are so intensely against nine or ten parking spots getting resident permit parking. I can't think of any reason other than they want them to be available for their employees, members, and guests, because that is who's taking up all of our parking spaces. And I will show you some pictures when I get to my presentation. And so far, they have not given that as a reason, nor have they said, oh, if the block gets resident parking, it's going to terribly negatively impact our business. They're not even saying that. They're attacking Lex Park. They're attacking the study. They're attacking Lex Park's processes. They've attacked individual residents of our block and people in our neighborhood. They brought in an apartment building that's not even on our street. It's just like this myriad of reasons that I think are not the fundamental reason. I think they really want their members and guests and employees to be able to park there. It's very convenient. It's more convenient than the off-site lots they have. Okay, so another thing, they have not yet brought it up, but I assume there's a member here, and I think he might bring it up. He's also a member of the Board of Adjustment. Sometime in the last few days since we were here for the first reading, he was working and he got or working to get the curbs painted on our street. That was done yesterday. It is not a solution. If you would turn to, if you've got my handout, these were painted yesterday. They think this is some kind of solution to blocked driveways. If you look at the first page of the images, this is the morning after the curbs were painted. This is my driveway. This beverage delivery truck was blocking my driveway while it unloaded to the club. And then if you turn to the next page, a few minutes later, another beverage delivery truck pulled up, and it parked on the no parking, no standing, no stopping zone that's also now painted bright yellow. And this is what happens on our street regularly. And in those, these pictures on the second page, the red car and the black car that you can see are, I think, club employees. They're not residents. On the third image, it is an aerial of our street and our block, and I've, like, shown where the blue dots are, where cars and a delivery truck might be. You can see how narrow Forest Avenue is, so narrow. Our driveways are so narrow. If I stop in the middle of my driveway between my house and the wall, I can't open the door. So us using our driveways and not needing residential parking is just, again, another diversion from the real issue. And then the last page, because I keep going back to the study and I don't even know when that was done in the spring. These photos were all taken on various days since August 20th, just in the last two to three weeks. These, and every car in here, I've seen most of them walk into the club. In one picture, I can see my husband's car. But other than that, this is what our street looks like every day. So I urge you, please approve resident parking for just these ten spots. It would make our lives a whole lot easier, and I think it would go a long way, maybe helping us and the club get along better. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Yasir Rahman, followed by Asher Snedeker. Welcome. Hello, council members. My name is Yasir Rahman, and I am from Council District 3. And I'm here to support the 11th resolution on the docket, which is Resolution 0764-25, and that's to support crisis response mediators with One Lexington. Now, I am a graduate of Henry Clay High School, and when I was a freshman in 2018, a student brought a firearm onto our campus. And this was just three weeks after the Parkland shooting. And so, reasonably, we were all really scared, and students left en masse. And it sparked this huge investment, in spite of the fact that there was no shots fired that day, a huge investment, over $13 million into school hardening at FCPS. And we still have instances where students bring guns onto school at Lafayette, Crawford, Henry Clay, and the years since. What we all ignored from that day was the motive. Why would a student, why would, like, a 15-year-old kid feel the need to bring a firearm onto campus? We know, and he reported, it wasn't because he wanted to commit mass violence. He never committed any acts against any students. It's because he reported that he felt unsafe in his community. He felt like he needed to have that gun to protect himself because the folks in this room weren't doing enough to do that. And now we have this office, One Lexington, that's been able to fill in that role and really support things. You know, most gun violence involves interpersonal and intergroup conflict between folks. You know, they know each other. It's driven by a small number of individuals. And it looks like domestic disputes or, you know, street beefs that spill over into the community. And the more violence that students see in their communities, and this is according to the CDC, the more likely they are to feel like they need to arm themselves. It's a rational response. Self-defense is the reason that most gun owners, regardless of age, pick up a gun. And so, you know, it increases the risk of accidents happening, of students bringing guns onto school and they get mishandled. Suicide rates increase 300% if you have access to a firearm. And to prevent these violent spillovers, we have to invest in de-escalating conflicts before they happen, not responding when the damage is done or when the gun is already on the steps of the school, it's going through the metal detectors. This resolution supports crisis response mediators for One Lexington. It supports this violence interruption model, which cultivates community connections where individuals can reach out to, you know, these adult mentors and actually forge connections, because that's what keeps people safe. They're associated with 63% reductions in shooting victimization in the South Bronx and New York and a 43% reduction in firearms deaths and assaults in Richmond, California. And, you know, very importantly, too, Georgetown University researchers found that the societal costs, you know, from gunshot wounds, not even getting killed, is a million dollars. And every gun death costs more than $5 million. This includes hospitalization, funeral costs, lost employment, lower property values. I could go on, but if we can save one life with a measly $50,000 investment from this resolution, that's a ten-hundred-fold impact on the community. And the price we pay for inaction is much bigger. It's mothers without children, children without fathers, lost friends. So I urge you to support this resolution and support this group that has already made such an impact on the community. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Asher Snedeker, followed by Hegel Banjadi. Asher, are you here? All right. Hegel Banjadi. And you will be followed by Sierra Dixon. Welcome. Good evening, council members. My name is Hegel Banjadi, a senior at Henry Clay High School, co-leader of Team Enough Lexington, and a member of District 7. I'm here to support the 14th resolution on the docket, Resolution 0786-25, Support a Contract Agreement for a Survivor Liaison for One Lexington. Look, it's clear to see that federal and state government has failed to address the issues of gun violence. So as time continues on, the victims of gun violence will continue to grow. Thus, as a community, we need to provide support to survivors of these atrocities. With the recent media landscape, it is clear to see that gun violence is not a selective thing. It affects all of us. So services akin to the one mentioned in the resolution are hugely important. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Sierra Dixon, followed by Mae Oh. Sierra, welcome. Hi. My name is Sierra Dixon. I'm sorry, I'm really shy, so this is different. What is your name and your council district? Are you Council District 1? Yes. We actually moved here from Kalamazoo, Michigan, kind of running from violence. I have teenagers. I'm sorry. I'm nervous. But I have teenagers who lost friends to guns, and I've been seeing it. But since we've been here, 1 Lexington—I'm sorry, you guys, this is embarrassing. It's all right. It's all right. Go ahead. Okay. I came here because I've been seeing people die, and my kids have been seeing people die. I've been here for two months, and 1 Lexington have really made us feel loved. We don't know anybody here, and they made us feel like family. They've helped us with homelessness. When we came here, we just came with what we had in our car, like whatever we can fit in our car. And we just started over. Literally, the last time I saw somebody die right in front of me was the 4th of July, and we left July 14th. When we came here, we were at hotels, and my son, my 15-year-old, he went to school. And your guys' school, everybody here, I've never seen so much love and support. Like they asked my son, who none of us are ever—we never ask for help or anything. And they asked why, what brought us here. And my son, my 15-year-old, was like, my mom's—and we're just tired of seeing people die. And they had Kenneth, Divine, Larry get a hold of us. And literally since that very first email from Kenneth, they're always checking on us. They helped us out of homelessness with food, clothing. They actually just—yesterday was my birthday, and they helped us get into an apartment. And on my birthday, they came, and they did most of the work helping us get furniture into our house. They make us feel loved. Divine actually tells us that he loves us. And like I said, we don't have family here. We don't know anyone. But we feel like we're a part of the family. And we just thank you guys for supporting One Lexington. And I just want to say once we are more here, we would like to be more involved in helping the community as One Lexington does. So thanks, and sorry for being a crybaby. It's okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Next is Mei O followed by Tara Dunn. Welcome. Good evening, council members. My name is Mei O, and I am from District 8. I am a senior from Henry Clay High School, co-leader of Team Enough Lexington. I'm here today to speak in full support of Resolution 0787-25. This agreement is to fund survivor liaison for One Lexington. According to Brady United, 327 people are shot every single day in America. 117 of them die, and 23 of them are minors. These aren't just numbers. These are neighbors. They are classmates, and they are parents, friends, and people we love. When the headlines fade, survivors are left to pick up the pieces, often alone. A survivor liaison provides something essential, connection. They offer immediate, informed, compassionate support to people who have just experienced the worst day of their lives. This isn't optional. It's urgent. By supporting this resolution, we're not just acknowledging the harm. We're investing in healing. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Tara Dunn. And I want to ask one more time, is Asher Snedeker here? All right. Tara? Welcome. Hello. My name is Tara Dunn, and I'm in District 1. And I just wanted to speak on the importance of the One Lexington Violence Prevention Program. My husband is a part of that program, and it's not a 9-to-5 job. It calls, texts, emails all day, night, sometimes in the middle of the night, which causes them to have to go beyond the scenes and be there for these families and the children that are affected by the gun violence. I do know it used to be worse years ago, and since the program has been in place, it has gotten better. They do a lot of work, boots on the ground. They're always there, always calls. They have missed out on a lot of stuff with their own families and their own children to be parents to the children in the community. And that can cause problems within the home as well when they put other children first instead of their own. So these men and women, I feel, are very beneficial to the community. They can walk around. Children engage with them. A lot of the youth engage with them because they know who they are and they respect them. For instance, my husband's been in the streets, so a lot of the kids talk to him and they respect and they trust him. And I just wanted to ask if you all will continue to support the program and fund the program because I do feel it's very beneficial for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now, is, let's see, Alyssa Hairston, are you here? Alyssa Hairston, yes. Yes. And are you giving your time to Tanya Lindsey? All right. Thank you. And then is Rolanda Woolfolk here? Oh, there you are. Okay. Rolanda, are you giving your time to Cheryl Burke? I'm sorry? She already spoke. Oh, she already spoke. Okay. Do you want to speak? No. Okay. All right. So next we have Tanya Lindsey, who will have six minutes. And is Caroline Bromagin here? And are you giving your time to Ross Boggess? Okay. So after Tanya will be Ross Boggess, who will also have six minutes. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. First of all, I want to thank all those people who have spoke today and put victims at the forefront, and that would be me. My name is Tanya Lindsey. I am the mother of Ezavion Lindsey, who lost his life here in Lexington at the age of 16 in 2013. I want to thank you all for giving me this opportunity to speak today on an issue that directly affects safety, trust, and healing in some of our community's most vulnerable residents, victims and survivors of gun violence. When someone survives gun violence, their sense of safety has already been shattered and destroyed. They are navigating through trauma and grief. In these moments, the people who step forward as volunteers, whether they're paid or unpaid, they carry an enormous amount of responsibility. That is why I'm asking and urging this council to implement a vetting process for all the volunteers that will be working with gun violence victims. This process is not about creating barriers for volunteers. It's about protecting those we serve, victims and survivors. A simple vetting process, which includes reference checks, clear ethical guidelines, trainings, et cetera, ensures that the people that we put in these places, trustworthy, trauma-informed, and these individuals, because they are entering into a sensitive area, doing a sensitive role. Without such safeguards, we risk unintentionally exposing victims and causing further harm. Imagine the outcome if you sent someone that has a history of violence, abuse, exploiting people, and causing harms to others, were put in close place in contact with grieving victims, victims' families, or even a survivor. Not only would this re-traumatize that victim, it would destroy the trust in the organizations that are sent there with city services meant to protect and help them. There is also a matter of accountability and responsibility. The community and taxpayers expects the city to uphold the highest standards when handling our tax dollars work to improve and better the quality of life for those who pay. By putting this process in place, we demonstrate that our city values transparency, responsibility, and above all, the safety of all residents. Finally, I want to be clear, this is not a costly or complicated request. In closing, I ask you, the voting body, to join us, the voices of victims, in protecting us by adopting a vetting process before voting on funding positions that is going to have an impact on our well-being. We don't feel that the services that people have spoken about are not needed. We just feel like these services need to protect the people that they were intended to protect. This is simple, it's a common sense step that would help restore trust, prevent further harm, and show survivors that their safety, their dignity, truly matters to this city and to the council. Vetting matters to victims and survivors. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Ross Boggess, and you'll have six minutes. Welcome. Hey there, my name is Ross Boggess, I live in the 3rd District. The 4th Avenue section doesn't need a RPPP. They need a good block party where everybody can be friends again. There's just too much infighting. I've tried to be the one that says, I appreciate getting to park on the street. I don't live there. I go there, I pay to use his co-working space. I was trying to help. I hear, at the last open hearing, it said, blocked by landscape and delivery vehicles. 311 doesn't respond, Lexpark doesn't respond, a driver pulled out in front of the speaker, and it's only a handful of residents. The blocking of the driveway, RPPP isn't going to solve that. Clear markings are, and that got done. The others aren't. Tent spaces will not affect downtown. Load shifting does. So what's happening right now is, Forest is 28 feet wide. Lexington's traffic engineering standards say that it can be one way going this way, one way going the other, and a car parked there. The state controls Main Street, 35 miles an hour, can't park there. There's multifamily that does. That's why there's a gravitational pull to the south side of Forest. It's because people park on Forest when they're having a sleepover with their girlfriend, and they go over to the multifamily there. That's why there's that gravitational pull there. It's also because there's condominium complexes that are right on the line of the RPPP that's in the proposed district. There was right-of-way work done by Kentucky American Water sometime in the past year or so, and they removed the central line of, it's a double yellow, where you can have signal queuing and clearance. So as we heard on Monday, there's a 300-foot minimum to prohibit small factions of neighbors saying I need a RPPP. I feel entitled because I have a proper Forest Avenue address. I am going to say there's no relief for the person that lives on Main Street in the multifamily that only has one parking space per apartment, but it's a two-bedroom apartment. That's where this service is at. It's going to shift it onto Sayre. The 300-foot isn't met. It's 225. I marked it right now. I went to make sure that it was absolutely accurate. I went yellow to yellow, excluded the driveways, and it's 225. So it shouldn't be even called a question. Also, you look at the handout that I've supplied with you all, the parking table, there's only two hours of the 12 that were observed where it meets the two qualifications of the 75 and 25. Why it exceeds the 25% of non-residents is because of that gravitational pull of the proximal parking, and the service area that is sculpted by the petitioners did not include any of the Main Street people, and that's why it is. So all you're going to do is you're going to upset the Good Shepherd folks. It's going to push them over. It's about a halfway walk. There's a lot of people that I see playing Frogger across Main Street that park on Kentucky. It's not going to be a good look when somebody that used to park, and I see a server guy that walks pretty regularly around the corner. When he has to start parking, they complain, and if you keep on showing this precedent of you can have these small little blocks that keep on doing it, yes, the load is going to shift, and that's it. So there's larger need for RPP reform. That's very clear in the studying that I've done up on all of this. And yeah, I don't think the study was valid. So the measurements are not qualifying, as Ms. Boyson testified on Tuesday. Thank you. Thank you. I want to go back to, is Cheryl Birch still here? Do you, so there was a little bit of a mix-up. So Rolanda wanted you to have three minutes. Do you want three more minutes, or you're okay? Okay. Thank you. Next is Luann Cavaney, and then Maureen Peters. Luann? Welcome. Luann Cavaney, and I've just moved into District 5 in July. Lifelong member, I mean lifelong resident of Lexington for many decades. I'm here to support 1 Lexington. I remember when Mayor Gorton created the position, or the department, and Mr. Karamba is not the first director. There was another person there who was a fine person, but just did not have the street experience and the background experience to move this forward to where we are now. I've also brought my grandson that's in the red over there, down here. He has been in the, it takes the village camp since its inception, and as a matter of fact, this year, he's a junior now, and so he started when he was almost in seventh grade. I thought, oh, he's probably tired of it now, and so I kind of delayed signing him up, and he comes to me, and he's like, what do you mean? He goes, yes, I want to go. He gets a whole lot of confidence building from this program, from the guys he deals with, the guys and the women that he deals with in this program. The one thing that's, with this type of work, is the key thing is relationship building. You can do all kinds of stuff from your desk, but unless you're willing to actually go to the person, to the problem, it's really not going to be solved. So I'm supporting that we go ahead and, you know, okay these two positions. The vetting that was talked about, that's fine. Has everything been done correctly from day one in one Lexington? Probably not, because it's a brand new position, brand new person. And we've got to give people grace in what we're talking about. My grandson is a victim of gun violence, and my son before that, he had a friend that was killed right after graduation, and there was nothing for him there. This has helped my grandson so much with all the offerings that Divine brings to us, the information that otherwise would not be available to us. I think that's about it. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Maureen Peters, followed by Justin Stanley. Welcome. Thank you. My name is Maureen Peters, and I'm in Council District 3. My husband and I have lived in Belcourt for over 30 years. I followed the process closely on the zone change that happened on the Main Street property. They promised the neighbors many times that they would not have a negative impact on the neighborhood parking. We do, a lot of us have to park on the street. We have very narrow driveways. Our neighborhood was developed, Forest Avenue, prior to the advent of automobiles, and the rest of Belcourt right around the time automobiles became popular. Many of us have shared driveways because of that. So we do need to park on our street. I think it's important to go ahead and permit this one block. I think the whole argument about the old Barkley East needing to park on Forest Avenue, I've known lots of people who have lived in that apartment complex. They're going to park on Belcourt. It's a wider street, it has parking on both sides, and there's not a single dwelling that actually faces the street. We deal with lots of cars in our neighborhood. The church has the daycare. The drop-off is conflicting terribly with all of the delivery vehicles on Forest Avenue. I've even stopped using Forest Avenue. I'll try another route because there's just too much conflict. I mean, we deal with the Bell House and their events and, you know, the senior citizen programs and the Carriage House. We're used to having cars coming up to our neighborhood, but the increased parking on Forest Avenue has just been really unbearable for those residents. So I'd like you to consider permitting those few spots. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Justin Stanley followed by Shakira Syed. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Justin Stanley. I'm in District 3, and I think I just wanted to echo what Ms. Peters just said. I'm on the Belcourt Neighborhood Association, and we've been keeping up with neighbors that live on the first block of Forest. I don't really have anything new to add, but we do support Resolution 803. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Shakira Syed followed by Sarah Cornelius. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Councilmembers. My name is Shakira Syed. I'm in the 5th District. There are many new faces here. I've stood here before, several times in the last 705 days, urging this Council to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. I'm here tonight, again, because silence is no longer an option. As our city proudly claims to be progressive, inclusive, and justice-driven, we have to ask, where is that progress when it comes to Palestine? Right now in Gaza, entire families are being wiped out, wiped off of the face of this earth. Hospitals, schools, universities, homes have been flattened by Israel's IDF army. Israel has cut off food, water, medicine. The famine that I warned this Council of has been put into place by Israel. I'm not a soothsayer. Israel told us that they would starve them, and they're doing it. This is not war. This is not self-defense. This is the systemic destruction of a people. This is genocide against the Palestinians being committed by Israel. And yet, this Council remains silent. That silence is not neutral. It is complicity. When our city refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza, we become part of Israel's machinery, and it allows it to continue. We send the message that some lives are more valuable than others, that our moral clarity ends at borders, that progressiveness is a brand, not a principle. Lexington has taken bold stances before on racial justice, on LGBTQ rights, on climate change. We've said that we stand on the side of justice, but justice is not selective. It doesn't stop when it's inconvenient. If we truly believe in human rights, then we must stand with Palestinians facing annihilation. I'm urging this Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the blockade, and support for international investigation into war crimes and genocides committed by Israel. Let history show that our city did not stay silent. Let us be remembered not for our comfort, but for our courage. Thank you. And with the 28 seconds that I have left, I'd like to address what was an issue on the agenda on the gun violence, and I do work as a community advocate with the organizations that have been mentioned here, but we have to think about the way we invest in our community. It's through investment, being proactive, that we'll see less violence in the streets. Thank you. Councilmembers, our final speaker is Sarah Cornelius. Welcome. Okay. Good evening. My name is Sarah Cornelius, and I am here representing Team Enough in support of the 11th Resolution 0764-25. As an American, it's very sad to hear that gun violence is such a prominent issue in our country, a country promoted as the land of the free and home of the great, when it doesn't feel very free or great. Within the past two years, two Henry Clay students have died at the hands of gun violence. This past Tuesday, Henry Clay High School had a lockdown drill. It was devastating to see how some students reacted, not knowing that it was a drill, as it came as a shock to them, leaving them feeling hopeless and such devastation. It is a shame that we have to walk around with such fear hanging over our heads. When our main priority should be learning, as a young advocate and member of District 1, I pray for a safer future and a better tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Councilmembers, that concludes this first portion of public comment. Thank you to those of you in the public who came. And so now it is time for second reading of ordinances. Number one ordinance, amending the Lexington-Fayette County Zoning Ordinance by creating Article 31, solar energy systems, in order to provide guidance on facilitating the siting, development, construction, installation, and decommissioning of solar energy systems. Number two, an ordinance changing the zone from a planned neighborhood residential R3 zone in a neighborhood business B1 zone to a commercial center B6P zone, and to remove existing conditional zoning restrictions with the property's neighborhood business B1 zone for 32.30 net, 34.28 gross acres for property located at 1811 Winchester Road, a portion of RD Property Group, LLC, Council District 6. Number three, an ordinance changing the zone from a planned neighborhood residential R3 zone to a neighborhood business B1 zone for 0.0402 net, 0.0993 gross acre for property located at 400 Chestnut Street on the Block, LLC, Council District 1. Number four, an ordinance amending certain of the budgets of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government to reflect current requirements for municipal expenditures and appropriate and reappropriating funds, fiscal year 2026, schedule number six. Number five, an ordinance amending certain of the budgets of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government to correct funds for purchase orders rolled from fiscal year 2025 into fiscal year 2026 and appropriate and reappropriating funds, schedule number seven. Number six, an ordinance creating subsection 6-53B10 of the Code of Ordinances relating to pensions other than police and firemen, specifically pensions on retirement, to provide for an increase of 3% to each retiree's base annuity on the annuity paid to the retiree's widow or dependent children effective January 1st, 2026. Number seven, an ordinance amending the authorized rank by abolishing one classified position of vehicle and equipment technician grade 517 and in the Division of Facilities and Fleet Management effective upon Batchelor's Council. Number eight, an ordinance amending Section 4 of the Code of Ordinances of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government relating to the keeping of certain animals as follows. Amending Section 4-11A to prohibit the keeping of more than one rooster within any area of the urban county except those zoned agricultural, amending Section 4-11B to increase the penalty amount not to more than $100, and amending Section 4-12B to increase the penalty amount for the keeping of noisy animals to not more than $100, all effective November 1st, 2025. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger and seconded by Council Member Reynolds. And when you are ready, if you'll take a roll call vote, please. Council Member Elliott-Baxter? No on number eight. Yes on the rest. Thank you. Council Member Hale? No. Council Member Higgins-Horde? No. Council Member Legree? Yes. Council Member Lynch? Yes. Council Member Morton? Yes. Council Member Reynolds? Yes. Council Member Savigny? Yes. Council Member Sheen? Yes. Vice Mayor Wu? Yes. Council Member Beasley? Yes, ma'am. Council Member Curtis? No on 8. Yes on the rest. And Council Member Ellinger? Yes, ma'am. All right. Thank you. Those items all pass. And now it's time for first reading of ordinances. Number 9. In ordinance of any certain of the budgets of the elected and favored urban county government to reflect current requirements from published expenditures and appropriating and reappropriating funds for the fiscal year 2020-26 scheduled number 8. Number 10. In ordinance of any certain of the budgets of the elected and favored urban county government to reflect current requirements funds for purchased and expensive agricultural land to reflect current requirements from published expenditures and appropriating and reappropriating funds for fiscal year 2020-26 scheduled number 8. Number 11. An ordinance venging a certainty of the budgeteled of the elected and favored urban county government to reflect current requirements funds for the fiscal year 2020-26. Thank you. Are there any walk-ons, council members? All right. Okay. We only have items with budget amendments, so there will be no suspensions. So it's time for the second reading of the resolutions. Resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a partial release of easement, releasing a portion of sanitary sewer easement on the property located at 1504 Winter Circle. Number two, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Kentucky Division of Forestry to provide wildland fire training to Lexington Fire Department personnel. Number three, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute amendment number two to the agreement with Blue Grass Area Development District to reduce the recognized revenue to $45,291 to the federal fund award and $102,160 for the state award for the operation of Lexington Senior Center in fiscal year 2025, which obligates the Urban County Government to the fund to provide an increase in match of $6,613.27. Number four, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a release of easement, releasing a portion of utility easement on a property located at 1120 Commercial Drive and 1245 Eastland Drive. Number five, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute agreement related to the Council Capital Project Dispensatures with the Young Men's Christian Association of Central Kentucky, $9,549.10 for the Office of the Urban County Council to cost the constituency that's unstated. Number six, a resolution establishing a residential parking permit program for the first block of Forest Avenue, including 116 Forest Avenue through 124 Forest Avenue and 505 East Main Street, 24 hours per day, Monday through Sunday. Number seven, a resolution ratifying the permanent classified civil service appointments of Jordan Rogers, heavy equipment technician, grade 519 and 28.221 hourly in the Division of Facilities and Fleet Management, effective August 10th, 2025. Felina Wingate, telecommunicator senior, grade 523 and 38.269 hourly in the Division of Enhanced 911, effective August 10th, 2025. Number eight, a resolution approving the Fayette County Sheriff's Settlement 2024 property taxes for taxes collected as of April 15th, 2025 and granting the Sheriff's Acquitus. Number nine, a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute change order number one to the Stormwater Quality Projects Incentive Grant with Rob Prop LLC for Stormwater Quality Projects, increasing the grant award by the sum of $43,800.12 from $173,103.56 to $216,903.68. Number ten, a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the Lexington-Fay Urban County Government to execute change order number one to the Stormwater Quality Projects Incentive Grant with the Parton Lex Acquisitions LLC for Stormwater Quality Projects, increasing the grant by the award of $86,960.64 from $186,983.63 to $273,900.27. Number eleven, a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement with Nestor Gomez, Terry Dunford, and Tori Dunn, Stephen Overstreet, Ebony Honey Romero to serve as crisis response mediators for one Lexington at a total cost not to exceed $50,000. Number twelve, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to authorize additional payments under the Memorandum of Agreement with the Stonewall Equestrian Estates Association, Inc., and various property owners within said association, extending the period in which the horses shall be relocated and boarded for the Blenheim Sanitary Sewer Trunk Project for the Division of Water Quality at a cost not to exceed $19,178.32. Number thirteen, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement with the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences, College of Nursing, and College of Pharmacy to formalize an educational partnership for the placement of students within the Division of Aging and Disability Services. Number fourteen, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Lexington Bay Urban County Government to execute an independent contractor agreement with Kenya Ballard to serve as survivor liaison to act as a point of contact for those seeking gun-bound survivor support from One Lexington and for referral services at a cost not to exceed $20,000. Number fifteen, a resolution authorizing the Division of Police to purchase support services from the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network from Forensic Technology, Inc., a sole source provider, and authorizing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an annual necessary agreement with Forensic Technology, Inc. related to the procurement at a cost not to exceed $41,758. Number sixteen, a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute change order number one to the agreement with Banks Engineering, Inc. for the Armstrong Mills Shared Use Path Project, increasing the contract price by the sum of $50,000 from $199,325 to $249,325. Number seventeen, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to accept a grant from the Kentucky Transportation Cadets Office of Highway Safety of $225,430 in federal funds from the participation in the Traffic Safety Program, no local matches required, and authorizing the mayor to transfer unencumbered funds within the grant budget. Number eighteen, a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the Lexington Bay Urban County Government to execute change order number one to the agreement with JF Acquisitions, LLC, DBA, JF Petroleum Group, for the Kearney Hill Golf Course and Piccadome Golf Course above ground storage tank replacement project for the Division of Water Quality, increasing the contract price by $18,910 and raising the total contract price from $56,424.70 to $75,334.70. Number nineteen, a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a plan renewal agreement with Anthem for the Medicare Advantage Plan for police and fire retirement for the period beginning January 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2026. Number twenty, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a memorandum of understanding with NextGen Communications, Inc., for the integration between Central Kentucky and the State 9-1-1 systems. Number twenty-one, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a memorandum of understanding with Greenhouse 17 Children's Advocacy Center of the Bluegrass and the State Commonwealth Attorneys to assist the sexual and physical assault survivors for the Division of Police Sentinel across the Urban County Government. Number twenty-two, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an encroachment agreement with Columbia Gas of Kentucky, Inc., the final form of which shall be subject to the approval of the Department of Law to place bank racks, benches, and educational signage on the easement of Loudoun Avenue Detention Basin Greenway property. And number twenty-three, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement related to the Council Copyright Project expenditure funds with the LFUCG Division of Traffic Engineering, $10,000 for the office of the Urban County Council to cost them to exceed the sum stated. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. There are a few. Let's see. I heard a second from Council Member Higgins-Hort. Who made the motion? Council Member Reynolds. Thank you. When you're ready, if you'll take a roll call vote, please. Council Member Elliott-Baxter. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Hale. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Higgins-Hort. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Legree. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Lynch. Recused from item five. Yes to the rest. Council Member Morton. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Reynolds. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Savigny. No on six. Yes on the rest. All right. Council Member Hinkle. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Hickens. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Reynolds. Yes. Council Member Savigny. No on six. Yes on the rest. Council Member Sheehan. Vice Mayor Wu. Yes. Council Member Beasley. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Curtis. Yes, ma'am. And Council Member Ellinger. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. Those all pass. And now, when you're ready, it's time for first reading of resolutions. Number 24, resolution accepting the bid of SUNY's construction company in the amount of $2,287,100 for the St. Martin pump station. I'm sorry. We're looking at our quorum and you can, yes, we now have exactly a quorum. Number 24, resolution accepting the bid of SUNY's construction company in the amount of $2,287,100 for the St. Martin pump station elimination for the Division of Water Quality and authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to accede in agreement with SUNY's construction company related to the bid. Number 25, a resolution ratifying the permanent classified civil service appointments of Patricia Pinnell, telecommunicator senior grade 519 and 29.522 hourly in the Division of Enhanced 911 effective September 3, 2025. John Withrow, telecommunicator grade 517 and 26.446 hourly in the Division of Enhanced 911 effective September 10, 2025. Rebecca Longo, telecommunicator senior grade 519 and 28.737 hourly in the Division of Enhanced 911 effective August 10, 2025. Number 26, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to accede in agreement with Urban League of Lexington Fayette County, Inc. in order to support additional personnel for the Urban League of Lexington Fayette County, Inc. and to assist in a quicker turnaround for vacant units and units compliance at a cost of $250,000. Number 27, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to accede in agreement with You Matter Kentucky, Inc. to maintain and support the juvenile treatment court program at a cost of $250,000. Number 28, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an addendum to contract 274-2021 with the Ambulance Medical Building for a hardware refresh. Number 29, a resolution authorizing the Division of Community Corrections to purchase a cell monitoring system from Reassurance Solutions LLC, a social service provider, and authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute any necessary agreement with the Reassurance Solutions LLC related to the procurement at a cost to exceed $216,000. Number 30, a resolution authorizing the Division of Water Quality on behalf of the Urban County Government to purchase a replacement UTEC head cell grit concentrator for the West Hickman Wastewater Treatment Plant from Hydro International, a social service provider, and authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute any necessary agreement with Hydro International related to the procurement at a cost to exceed $205,445.20. Number 31, a resolution of the Lexington-Fay Urban County Government requesting that the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority issue revenue bonds in the amount of up to $72,500,000, the proceeds of which will provide for the financing and refinancing of certain St. Joseph Health System projects in the geographic territory of the Lexington-Fay Urban County Government. Number 32, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute the First Amendment to the agreement with CHSTX, Inc., DBI Yes Care for the Inmate Medical and Mental Health Services at the Division of Community Corrections to amend the staffing plan, reduce the number of forensic psychiatry hours, and amend the staff vacancy rates for a reduction in the annual contract value of $65,000, resulting in the total cost of the agreement for fiscal year 2026 in the amount of $10,278,132. Number 33, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement awarded pursuant to RFP No. 18-2025 with Palmer Engineering for Design and Construction Administration Services with Greenbrier II Pump Station Replacement for the Consent Decree, RMP Project NE-4 at a cost not to exceed $497,530. Number 34, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a change order to increase a purchase order LF00209552 to Bowman Engineering for additional professional services on the LF-UCG Coldstream Disc Golf Parking Design and Construction for an increase of $3,500 and a new purchase order total of $43,450. Number 35, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a memorandum of understanding with Naomi Lexington, Inc. related to the operation of the Fayette County Mental Health Court at a cost not to exceed $270,000, using funds allocated from the fiscal year 2026 general fund. Number 36, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement with Fayette County Public Schools FCPS for the Division of Youth Services to provide school-based mental health services and targeted case management when applicable for the agreed-upon number of hours per week for the identified FCPS schools at no cost to the Urban County Government. Number 37, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute and submit an application to the Kentucky Department of Education for the provision of preschool education services at the Family Care Center for the 2025-2026 school year. Number 38, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an Engineering Services Agreement awarded pursuant to RFP No. 20-2025 with West Point Engineers, PLLC, to perform full architectural services for the replacement of the exterior windows at the administration building at a cost not to exceed $34,000. Number 39, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement and accept federal funds in the amount of $280,000 from the Kentucky Transportation Academy for the Winchester Road Study, the acceptance of which obligates LFUCG to $70,000 in local match, and authorizing the Mayor to transfer unencumbered funds within the grant budget. Number 40, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute and submit a grant application to the Kentucky Justice Cabinet under the Violence Against Women Act program for the continuation of the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program to provide any additional information in connection with this grant application and to accept this grant if awarded, which grant funds in the amount of $65,000 in federal funds and $12,000 in state funds, the acceptance of which obligates the Urban County Government to the expenditure of $24,667 as a local match, and authorizing the Mayor to transfer unencumbered funds within the grant budget. Number 41, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government or the Chief Information Officer as the Mayor's designee to execute a renewal agreement with Benevate Inc. for Neighborly Software for the Department of Housing Advocacy and Community Development at a cost estimated now to exceed $64,750, and further authorizing the Mayor or the Chief Information Officer as the Mayor's designee to execute any other documents, including future renewals necessary for the continued implementation, operation, support, or maintenance of the same subject to annual increases in the amount not to exceed 10% and contingent upon the appropriation of sufficient funds in future fiscal years. Number 42, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute change order number 7, which is the agreement with Hare Construction LLC for the Phoenix Park Reimagined Project, increasing the contract price by $31,648 and raising the total contract price from $3,387,046.91. Number 43, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement and accept additional federal funds in the amount of $991 from the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet for the Street Sales Drug Enforcement Project with no local matches required, and authorizing the Mayor to transfer unencumbered funds within the grant budget. Number 44, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a second amendment to the agreement with Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, Inc., DBA, Goodwill, Inc., Kentucky, extending the period of performance through December 31, 2026. Number 45, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to renew the Data License Agreement with Streetlight Data, Inc., pursuant to RFP number 11-2022 to provide an online transportation analytics platform to monitor multimodal travel within Lexington and Fayette County at a cost not to exceed $148,918 in fiscal year 2026. Number 46, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement with EDS Holdco, LLC, the final form of which shall be subject to the approval of the Department of Housing Advocacy and Community Development and the Department of Law to provide rental installation and removal of structures at 1306 Versailles Road to be utilized for a temporary winter shelter for persons experiencing homelessness to operate between November 1, 2025 and April 1, 2026 at a total cost not to exceed $688,824. Number 47, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an agreement with EDS Holdco, the final form of which shall be subject to the approval of the Department of Housing Advocacy and the Department of Law for the operation of temporary winter shelter serving persons experiencing homelessness at 1306 Versailles Road between November 1, 2025 and April 1, 2026 at a total cost not to exceed $1,782,000. Number 48, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Transit Authority of Lexington and Fayette County Government, LexTran, to provide funding for the downtown circulator pilot project at a cost not to exceed $250,000. And number 49, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an amendment to the agreement authorized by Resolution No. 618-2023 to replace references to LSC Stadium Company LLC with LSC Holdings LLC and to tie the incentives to the employment at the project site at no additional cost to the Urban County Government. Thank you. All right. Council Members, thank you. Are there any walk-ons? Are there any motions to suspend the rules and give second reading? Council Member LaGrie. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. On behalf of the Administration, I move to give second reading to item number 42. This has to do with Phoenix Park, which opens next week. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wu seconds. Are there questions? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that passes. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. On behalf of the Administration, I move to suspend the rules and give second reading to item 34, which is the parking design and construction for the disc golf course that's happening in Cold Stream Park. Second. Thank you. Council Member LaGrie seconds. Are there questions? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Mayor. As co-chair of the Street Safety Task Force, I'd like to get a second reading on item number 45, which is one of the items that we've been working on. So moved. Second. I'm sorry, who seconded? Council Member Beasley. Thank you. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Are there any other motions to suspend the rules? All right, so we have 34, 42, and 45. All right. When you're ready, if you'll give those second reading, please. Resolution number 34. Resolution authorizing the Mayor, on behalf of the Urban County Government, to execute a change order for an increase in purchase order LF00209552 to Bowman Engineering for additional professional services on LFUCG Coldstream Disc Golf parking design and construction for an increase of $3,500 and a new purchase order total of $43,450. Number 42. A resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor, on behalf of the Urban County Government, to exchange order number 7 to the agreement with Harrod Construction LLC for the Phoenix Park Reimagined Project, increasing the contract price by $31,648 and raising the total contract price to $3,387,046.91. And number 45. A resolution authorizing the Mayor, on behalf of the Urban County Government, to renew the data license agreement with Streetlight Data Inc. pursuant to RFP number 11-2022 to provide online transportation analytics platform to monitor multimodal travel within Fayette County at a cost not to exceed $148,918 in fiscal year 2026. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there a motion to approve? Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Second by Council Member Sviggany. And when you're ready, if you'll take a roll call vote, please. Council Member Elliott-Baxter. Council Member Joseph Hale. Council Member Higgins-Horne. Council Member LaGre. Council Member Lynch. Yes. Council Member Morton. Yes. Council Member Reynolds. Yes. Council Member Sviggany. Yes. Council Member Sheehan. Vice Mayor Wu. Yes. Council Member Beasley. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Curtis. Yes, ma'am. And Council Member Ellinger. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right, thank you. Those all pass. And now it's time for the vote. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Is there a second? Council Member Beasley seconds. Are there any questions? Council Member Hale. Thank you, ma'am. I need to recuse myself from the vote. All right, thank you very much. All right, all those in favor, please say, Aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Oh, I suppose so. Next. All right, thank you, with one recusal. Next is communications from the Mayor Procurements. Could I have a motion? Moved by Council Member McGee and a second by Council Member Curtis. Are there any questions? All right, all those in favor please say, Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Do we have any? Council Member LeGre. That was a hopeful moment for a minute there, Mayor. Nobody's logged in. You all, I would like to just take a moment to acknowledge that my legislative aide, Hannah Iden, will be leaving for a new opportunity at the end of this week. And despite the potential for confusion with our names, we've worked together closely as Team Hannah for over two and a half years. I've got to keep it together. I'm going to keep it together. All right. And in that time, Hannah Iden has, I can't stand this, okay, it's very heartfelt, it's hard for me to read, has proven herself to be a model public servant. Okay. She's always organized, unfailingly polite, highly ethical, and dependable without exception. She has been critically helpful to me as well as to other council members and their staff. And she's had a big positive impact as a result. She's worked really hard on many projects, too many to list, and has been especially critical in developing our Lex Grow Trees grant program and our Phoenix Park Reimagined Project. While I'm very excited, and I know my composure is not showing that, but while I'm very excited for her next steps, her departure is a big loss for LFUCG. But through her tenure, we have seen the impacts of holding oneself to a higher standard, of working selflessly and collaborating with others to help the residents of the district and the city. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Hannah, for your enthusiasm and your work. It's been an honor to work alongside you. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. That was very nice. How will I ever remember your new aide's name? The two Hannahs. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. I'll second everything that Council Member Legree said. I've gotten to work a little bit with Hannah Aydin through the street task force and public input subcommittee and other efforts. I'll also say she seems very hard to rattle, like she's always very even keeled, and not that I'm trying to rattle her, but she is hard to rattle. And so we'll all miss her here doing this work, and I know Tori will miss her as a colleague. One other announcement. I just wanted to remind everyone, the public and the Council, that Lexington's Preservation and Growth Management Program will hold our public forum next Tuesday the 16th at 6 p.m. here in Chamber. So I would encourage all of our community members to come out and give their feedback. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few pictures while we wait for those. I will, too, miss Hannah. She was a great aide, and you were right, consummate polite. She never was cross. So hey, the Summer of Love, we could all use a little bit of this. This concert series ends, the summer concert series at Moondance ends next Friday, Summer of Love 1972, where your bell bottoms, where your pretty beads in your hair, all that kind of good stuff. So it's got two great bands, and I hope you will join us starting at 6.30. It's a benefit for the Moondance Foundation. And the next one, the Southland Street Fair is back. It's going to be a great afternoon. It's Sunday afternoon, September 28th, and I hope you guys can put this on your calendar. We've got great entertainment, we've got great fun, and we got the street closed off, so it will be, it's always a good time, it's a great neighborhood to come hang out in. That's all I got. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Dig out your bell bottoms. Okay. Council Member, I'm sure you have some, right? Council Member Reynolds. Thank you. I wanted to just let everyone know that last night we had a really good meeting at Hope Springs Church about the seasonal shelter that will be on Versailles Road. It has been a challenge to deal with it and people's expectations, et cetera, but I do want to thank Commissioner Lanter and Director Heron for being at that meeting and answering questions, and then today we got some positive news, and I want to thank them and the CAO's office and the Mayor for this, that the entrance to the shelter will officially be on Versailles Road instead of Nancy Hanks, and I know it was an effort to try to figure out how that would happen, and I just really appreciate everybody working together to make that happen. It really means a lot to myself, my constituents, and the surrounding businesses, and I do think it will in the end be a better option. I know that there's still going to be some challenges, but I think that will serve the community better, so thank you for that. I did want to mention that I think tonight some folks were concerned that Council was considering cutting programs or somehow taking away programs to 1 Lexington, and I just wanted to say that that was not a consideration at all in this whole process, that our last consideration for a second vote was honestly just a desire to get more information before we made that vote, and that's what we did, and so I just wanted to reassure everybody that as far as I know, none of us ever had the desire to cut 1 Lexington or their programs, so I just wanted to make that clear because there were a lot of people here tonight, and I didn't want them to think that that was something we were considering, so thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Morton. Thank you. Thank you. I was actually going to give that same sentiment, so I just wanted to say, first of all, I really appreciate everyone that came out and gave public comment on every topic. I think it's important, as always, community input should help drive the decision-making of this Council, but with that being said, and I'll wait on these pictures. That's some fun things to talk about, but I just want to be crystal clear that that was never once a consideration when it came to getting rid of a program or anything like that. It was a procedural vote, one vote that basically states that, as you know, you get two different reasons. The first reading is the first part of the process, the second reading puts it into stone. That was merely just a procedural vote for us to get more information, to get more time to gain information, and through that time, we've come up with solutions, so it all worked out, but with that being said, as always, I will continue to emphasize that we do have to invest in our community, and gun violence is a true challenge, meaning that we need to invest in our youth, we need to invest in our undervalued communities, we need to invest in communities that are poverished, but most importantly, we need to invest in the root causes of poverty. That is what's going to drive down our gun violence. But with that, I'll go on to my announcements. So I was excited to attend a new initiative with the K-PAW that is engaging men and young men in our community and to mentor boys and young men. That kind of investment in our young people is powerful, and I'm proud to stand with the K-PAW group as we work to build a stronger future together for our youth, and this is just the first meeting. We had a great time in the 8th District at Taste Creek, and then moving on, I wanted to remind everyone that the Elkhorn Community Picnic is this Sunday at 1.30 p.m. on Palmyra Drive. Bring a chair, a drink, and a side dish, and don't forget a dessert for the cake walk. It's always a wonderful time to gather as neighbors, celebrate community, and enjoy each other's company. And then lastly, we have two neighborhood associations this upcoming Monday. The Windburn Neighborhood Association, Monday, September 15th at 6 p.m., and the engineering department will be out there to discuss the new opening of Windburn. So we know it's one way in, one way out. We've got to get that neighborhood open, and they will be discussing that process. And then also, the same day at 6.30 p.m., the Northside Neighborhood Association will be meeting at the Calgary Center for Business and Economic Education. I look forward to seeing all my great neighbors there, and that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Curtis. Thank you, Mayor. Colleagues, like a lot of folks, my heart has been very heavy today. I've spent a lot of time struggling to find the right words to try to appropriately navigate this subject and debated whether I'd speak on it at all. But I think we have a responsibility as elected officials to have difficult conversations and acknowledge difficult realities. So as you all heard tonight from the dozens of directly impacted neighbors who came to speak to us, the way that we respond to gun violence, to political violence, and to violence of all kinds matters, both in the direct actions that we take to support survivors and in the work that we do as political leaders to prevent violence. My generation has spent our entire lives watching our country descend further into this violent politics of hatred and division, where violence towards those who are different from us or whom we disagree with. It's been encouraged by some elected officials and leaders in our politics. Whether hearing those stories tonight, watching the Twin Towers fall 24 years ago today, or watching as students in Utah and Colorado fled in shelter from active shooters at their schools yesterday, this has just been our lives, and all too often we've been told that it's normal or even good. We've been told by some political leaders that deaths from gun violence are, quote, worth it and that we, quote, cannot allow mass shooting victims to emotionally hijack the narrative because, quote, empathy is a made up new age term. They told us that the murder of innocent children, whether in our schools and churches here in America or halfway across the world in Gaza, is, quote, inevitable and a, quote, cost of liberty. They've told their followers that people like me who are gay or trans are, quote, a throbbing middle finger to God and that we should be, quote, stoned in the streets and, quote, just taken care of the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and 60s. None of those things are true. Those are all also direct quotes from Charlie Kirk, who lost his life yesterday to a targeted and tragic act of gun violence. And I've watched in deep pain as some political leaders and elected officials from across our commonwealth and our country have called for an end to political violence and to gun violence while in the same breath calling for the amplification of that rhetoric. We all can and must call to an end to violence without whitewashing the culture that enables it. It is hypocritical, divisive and deeply, deeply dangerous for elected officials and political leaders to call for an end to political violence while simultaneously espousing and escalating this violent rhetoric or even openly calling for violence against marginalized communities to score political points. And so that every elected official doing so, I have a simple message and a plea, which is that we have all got to do better. This is the type of behavior that directly leads to violence. It puts our neighbors and ourselves in danger, and it tears at the very fabric of who we are as human beings. This type of violence and the rhetoric that seeks to normalize it are never acceptable, even when those who spend their lives fighting to make it acceptable become victims of it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Hale? Yeah, well, we're having a fall district meeting and... No snow. No snow. On a brighter note, so it will be Monday, October the 13th. It will be from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Edith J. Hayes. We'll have an opportunity for questions and answers. We'll have representatives from planning to answer questions about development in the area. KYTC, they're going to be there to give an update on the Richmond Road Improvement Project. And then we'll have neighborhood resource officers for each sector to answer questions and hear concerns regarding public safety in the district. So, I encourage our neighbors of District 7 to come out to our fall district meeting and, yeah, come out, ask questions, and we'll be there. I encourage everyone to come out. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Thank you. We do, of course, have announcements. I would like to take just a point of privilege to thank our Division of Fire and Emergency Services for the meaningful ceremony this morning to remember 9-11 and the tragedy that happened to our country that day. Many of you were children when it happened, but some of us have very personal connections. And it is a very emotional day for me personally because of that, and I just want to thank all of our first responders because, as we know, when they go out each day, they do not ever know what may happen. And yet, they give their all to serve our community. So, with that, we have totally finished our public comment, and I'll ask for a motion to adjourn. All those in favor, say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Dream weaver. Dream weaver. My love, there's only you in my life, the only thing that's right. My first love, you're every breath that I take, you're every step I make. No one else will do. And your eyes, your eyes, your eyes, they tell me how much you care. Oh, yes, you will always be my endless love. Two hearts, two hearts that beat as one, our lives have just begun. Forever, I'll hold you close in my arms, I can't resist your charms. And, love, I'll be a fool for you, I'm sure, you know I don't mind. Because of you, you mean the world to me. Oh, I know, I know, I found in you my endless love. Oh, oh. Oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. And love, oh love, I'll be there for you, I'm sure. You know I don't mind. Oh, you know I don't mind. Yeah. I'll be there for you. You'll be the only one. Cause no one can deny this love I have inside. And I'll give it all to you. My love. My love. My love. My endless love. You call and wake me up the way you always do. Say you miss me and you're sorry. Deja vu. You push the button in the heart you know so well. The wall starts coming down and I remind myself. Every time I think you might have changed, put aside the anger and the blame. Make myself believe that there's a way to work it out. Every time you say let's try again, begging me to let you back in. Every time I do, every time you lie, every time I cry. If only promises could just erase the past. I could. Hey it's Baja Nicole with another episode of Your LexPD. We are out here at the Roy H. Martis K9 Center, the new facility for the Lexington Police Department K9 unit. So we try to visit a lot of our specialized units. The K9 unit is part of the Special Operations Bureau. And they do some fantastic work and everybody wants to know about the dogs. So let's go in, have a talk with some of the handlers, and see how the K9 unit operates. Hey, we are here with K9 Supervisor Sergeant Rob Frazier and K9 Raya. Thank you for joining us today. And we're going to talk a little bit about the K9 unit here at the Lexington Police Department. I think you've already made a friend. I did. You did. So Sergeant Frazier, you have inherited quite a bit of history when you came to this unit. How long have you been out here? Four years. Four years. And Lexington was one of the very first K9 units in the country in this particular region. Back in 1962, then it was the Chief E.C. Hale chartered the first K9 unit. That's when it was Lexington City Police Department. And he had sent an officer out to Missouri to receive weeks and weeks of training and came back and started the unit with about six officers, I think, at the time. They built the first facility in 64, second one in 68. How long have you been in this particular building? This kennel was opened in 2020. Okay. And this is state of the art, probably a little bit different from where you came from. We'd like to think so. Okay. All right. So you've got all the dogs are housed here? Yes. Okay. All right. So we're going to spend some time today talking with a couple of your officers. Can you tell us a little bit about who they are and what they do? Sure. I've got Officer Chas Grider, who's our head trainer right now. He also can deploy in the street, and he operates a bomb K9, so he can also run events and that kind of stuff. We've also got Officer Pat Murray, who used to be a trainer here, but he is also an officer on the street and handles a narcotics K9. All right. We're looking forward to it. We are here with K9 Officers Chas Grider and Pat Murray. Thank you all for joining us today. Thanks for having us. Could you all tell us a little bit about how you came to be in the K9 unit? Sure. Yeah, I came in in 2011 after I had been on the street for about five years, and I'm coming up on year 14 on my second dog, who's had a good, long career, and it's been great. Yeah, I came to the police department in 2012. When I got here, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. It was K9. So I spent four years on patrol, went to K9, and I've been here for, I don't know, probably ten years now. All right. So Sergeant mentioned how many dogs we have. So how do we use the dogs? What are the purposes, and what do we have? Patrol dogs, we have different types of dogs. What do we have? Yeah, so our primary three things are going to be patrol dogs, narcotic dogs, and bomb dogs. Obviously, we use dogs because they smell better than us. So the main breeds that you're going to see is, obviously, your typical German Shepherd. That's what everybody thinks about for a police dog. We also have Belgian Malinois. We have a Dutch Shepherd. And then, obviously, you saw Raya. We have lab, floppy ears dogs sometimes for single-purpose use. Okay. What is the difference between the three, the patrol, narcotics, and bomb? So the patrol dogs, they're going to be used primarily whenever we need to find subjects who have committed crimes. Whether it's someone who's broken into a building, they've committed a violent crime, and we need to track their odor and find them for the sake of us and the public. Your explosive dogs, I'm sure Chaz can go into it more. This is going to be for your big events to make sure that we don't have any explosives hidden. And then narcotics is primary use is going to be for vehicles that we suspect there's narcotics inside. So I know we talked about the different types of dogs. Are they multipurpose, or do they just – if that's a narcotics dog, that's just a narcotics dog? Yeah. No, most of our dogs are dual-purpose. I think we have two single-purpose dogs. One was Rhea, who you spoke with earlier. Yeah, I spoke with her. Yeah, I spoke with her. She's an explosives dog. That's her only job. We have another narcotics detection dog, and he's with our narcotics unit. He's only narcotics. All the other dogs are dual-purpose, which means they'll do patrol, which is apprehension, finding people, finding evidence. And they're also either narcotics or explosives. My dog, Kato, is a dual-purpose patrol and bomb dog. So he does both, and we're considered a regional asset. So we go outside the county. We may go to the Derby. This year we helped out with Derby. And anywhere they need us for explosives detection, we'll go when we're called. Well, I think that's a good point, too, to talk about how we assist other agencies because having some of the resources that Lexington has, even with other units as well, that smaller agencies that just don't have those capabilities, we can help out with that. And that's been very beneficial in a lot of different ways. So tell us a little bit about how we get the dogs, how do we select the dogs, how do we train the dogs. And then I guess we've got to select the officers, too. So tell us a little bit about the process. Super important processes. When we look for the dogs, we look for a dog that is environmentally sound. We need to make sure that they're comfortable in every environment because it can be really weird out there in the world, right, and you're dealing with something with the mentality of a toddler. So you want them to be very environmentally sound so they don't get afraid of things. We look for dogs that have great noses. Pat mentioned their best feature for us is their nose. It helps us locate what we need to find, whether it's missing people, criminals, narcotics, explosives. So we always look to make sure that they have a really good hunt drive and that they have really good changes and they can find things. First, it's just the ball because they know what a ball is. It's easy to see. So we make sure they have a lot of ball drive and that they hunt methodically. So they're always checking and looking and hopeful that they're going to discover something because that makes the training take a lot better than if they didn't care. Well, as far as, like, the training process, I know when we talked a little bit about the history of the unit, I know it was at the time it was Patrolman Kenny Watson had gone out to St. Louis and received weeks and weeks of training. He actually retired as assistant chief. But he was the first one that brought a lot of that back from another department. So I'm assuming that we have to train the officers and the dogs. So we do. We have two in-house trainers as of now, myself and Officer Joey Lasardi. Joey has just stepped into that role. I've received training from a place called Tar Heel Canine in North Carolina, a certified trainer there. So we train all the dogs in-house. So we'll go get these dogs green. They don't know their name. They don't know anything. We bring them back and we teach them everything there is to know about how to do their job here for this city. And that's it. It's pretty efficient. It can take a little longer, but sometimes you want a good product, right? You don't want a mass-produced product. So we pride ourselves on that here. We have excellent dogs. We have excellent handlers. We go into the handler selection. We want to see a good cop first. Are they good on the street? Are they active? Do they get along with the community? Are they professional? Do they have a good head on their shoulders? And then we have an interview process by which they come down. They have an interview and a selection, and that's how we select our officers. Awesome. You're obviously getting the right ones because I noticed when we walked in out here, we noticed a lot of trophies and a lot of things that the unit has fared well over the years as far as competitions and things like that. And I know we depend on patrol. Thank you. We depend on K-9 a lot. As a matter of fact, just a few weeks ago, there was an abandoned building that we got an alarm at, and it was empty. We knew no one was in there, but K-9 went in, and they were able to clear it so quick. And I remember years ago when we talked to K-9, they were talking about how quickly a K-9 could clear a building looking for someone compared to multiple officers. And the success rate of them finding suspects that the officers would have missed, spending way more time. The suspects, the officers spend way more time to search, and their success of finding all the suspects is rarely 100%. The K-9s, it's a fraction of the time, and they have almost 100% success rate. So for officers that want to put in for the K-9 unit and get selected, how do you pair the officer with the K-9, like personality-wise? Right. And so typically what we'll do is we'll just say, handle this dog, it works, it's a good dog, and we can just pair it with anyone. If we do see like a personality conflict, we might say, this dog might need a senior handler, somebody that's going to be getting another dog, their second dog or third dog. And so we just kind of play it by ear and just see what works best. But we make sure that everyone gets the most out of the training and that we have a good team that goes on the street to make sure everybody's safe in the community and at the play day, like the dogs and the handler. Outstanding. You all do great work, and I know everybody on the police department appreciates you, and I'm sure the citizens of Lexington certainly appreciate you being there too. And everybody loves to see it. When they see the vehicle pull up, it says K-9 on it. They just don't want to come over and pet you, right, and pet the dog because that's probably not the kind of dog you want to pet. All right, well, thank you all very much for joining us this month and educating the community a little bit about our K-9 unit and what a stellar unit it is and the good work that you do. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. So, Bajie, it was so nice learning more about the K-9 unit here at the Lexington Police Department and what they provide to us on patrol and just the community. Outstanding resource and so much history behind it. And as you mentioned when we first started the episode, we are at the Roy H. Martis K-9 Center. That's the name of the facility. Very sad story. Officer Martis, he was a 13-year veteran with the Lexington Police Department. And the officers earlier had talked about how we help other agencies. And Martis and his bloodhound, he had a bloodhound at the time, her name was Amanda. She was actually pregnant. And they were actually searching and assisting with Amanda for a suspect that had escaped jail and was also a murder suspect. And they actually located the suspect. And unfortunately, they were struck by a gunfire during the event in Mercer County. And that was on August 23, 1985. And it was a very sad day in the history of the Lexington Police Department. But his legacy carries on. And now the building is named after him. And every officer that's ever worked for K-9 certainly is very aware of his contributions and what he did to the unit. And there's also a street named after him where the old facility before this one was built. So join us next month for another episode of Your Lex PD as we continue to explore specialized units here with the Lexington Police Department. Your Lex PD. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Front of my mind And like love A love I know I'll have The girl that I want she'll be mine. She'll be fly and it'll last I see her face that I can't let go. She's in my dreams and my heart. So let me know Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Tell me, have you seen her? I'm looking for that love She's a thought and a vision in my memory. I have it better, but tell me where could she be? Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Tell me, have you seen her? I'm looking for that special love, oh love Love, oh love Love is a feeling Love is a feeling That I need That I have, I definitely need Oh baby Oh yeah Whoa Please be mine Baby be mine I need your love I need your love to make it Be mine So I want you to be mine Baby be mine Oh yes, be mine The search is going on from coast to coast A moment for the man who's popping the most Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Tell me, have you seen her? My heart is beating strong. This love cannot be wrong I need her and I want her. So come on to my home Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Tell me, have you seen her? I'ma keep looking for her At the movies, in my car, on my stereo At a game of different world, on the Cosby show Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Tell me, have you seen her? Yo B.O., tell me what's up At the track, at the club, or out buying dubs If you seen her, then I'll help her, cause I'm in love Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Tell me, have you seen her? My heart is hurting so bad Love, oh love Love is a feeling Love is a feeling That I need That I know I need Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh, please be mine Be mine, baby I need your love I need your love to make it So be mine Why don't you be mine? Baby, be mine Where could she be? In a store around the corner Or wandering at night Or chilling with another brother holding a mic Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Hell, you know I'm looking Calling all my friends all around the place Guy, Laverne, or my homie Rob Bates Have you seen her? Have you seen her? If you peek her, I'll tell you So let me get on the phone Ted, Dre, or any lover Fab 5 Freddy, won't you have a young brother? Have you seen her? Have you seen her? I got a picture in my mind The love is so clear Of the love I need here Like Houdini feed magic And why don't you appear? Oh baby, why don't you appear? I can see your face I'm seeing her face Again and again Come knocking at my door And you know I'll let you in Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Oh my sweet love Search around the world What more can I say? The girl that's hard to see Like an unseen DJ Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Have you seen her? Oh, thinking about our younger years There was only you and me We were young and wild and free Now nothing can take you away from me We've been down that road before But that's over now You keep me coming back for more Baby, you're all that I want When you're lying here in my arms I'm finding it hard to believe We're in heaven And love is all that I need And I found it there in your heart Thinking too hard to see We're in heaven Oh, what's in your life if I'm someone Who will turn your world around Bring you up when you're feeling down Yeah, nothing could change what you mean to me Oh, there's lots that I can say Just hold me now Cause our love will light the way Baby, you're all that I want When you're lying here in my arms ¶¶ Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Jennifer Reynolds, and I am the council member here in Lexington, Kentucky, for the 11th District, and I am joined today by some of my friends from Columbia Gas. First, we have Tim Vaughn. He is the executive director of Kentucky 811, and we also have Lisa Smith, and she is the public affairs manager for Columbia Gas of Kentucky. So welcome, and thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Good to hear her. Hello, Lexington. First, I wanted to ask off, what is the significance of 8-1-1 or August 11th? So, well, it's two different questions. So let's take it. 8-1-1 is call before you dig. It is a vital part of any kind of construction project, and I say that, but when I use the word construction, that could be just somebody digging in their yard. Anytime you're digging, you're moving the ground for any reason, or it could be utilities buried below that. So 8-1-1 is a way that you can contact us. We notify the utilities in the area who come out and locate your stuff so that when you're digging, you know where that stuff's at so that your weekend project doesn't turn into some kind of catastrophe. Right. So if you don't call before you dig, what could happen? Sure, you could get into a utility line. Some of them are enforced by different agencies throughout the state, particularly on the gas side, as the Public Service Commission could issue citations and fines for people who failed to get things located prior to that, prior to digging. But, you know, you could cause an outage. You could get injured, which we certainly don't want that. It could cost you money. I mean, just think, if you take out your own water line and you go inside and you don't have water in your house, how inconvenient would that be? And things like the fiber. Our whole house is run off of internet and fiber now, so if you cut the fiber line to you or to your neighborhood, you don't want to be that person. But just the inconvenience of the outages that could take place. So if somebody's going to do any sort of project at all in their yard, around their house, the first thing they should do is call 8-1-1. And can they report it online or is it just by phone? Yeah, so about 90% of the notifications that come into us now are done online and that's Kentucky811.org. Spelled out, the word Kentucky. Yeah, and we'll take your phone call. We work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days. We're available. Obviously the internet is the same way, but yeah, you can go online to do it. It's very simple and easy to do. That's great. And so should we call 8-1-1 just for small house projects or should big development, excavating projects as well? Anybody and everybody. If you're digging, the law defines digging as moving dirt with any tools or any kind of machinery or hand tools. So you're using a shovel, you need to call. The law requires it. And we're trying to prevent stuff like this from happening. This is a gas line where obviously it looks like a trencher maybe got into this or a bico tooth got into it. I mean, this is what we're trying to prevent. So what'll happen is we work with utilities like Columbia Gas and all the major utilities around the state. They'll come out and above ground, they'll paint with a color code system their line, the color of their lines. And you can determine what that is by going to our website and seeing like blue is water, yellow is gas. Funny that the gas pipe is yellow and that's what they locate it with, is yellow. Right. So they'll locate where it's at. That way when you start your digging project, you move over away from it. That's great. That's great. Once someone, you know, contacts 8-1-1, how long do they have to wait before they can find out if they can dig? Sure. The law requires that you have to wait two full business days excluding the day that you make the request. So if you make that on a Monday, Monday doesn't count, you gotta wait Tuesday, Wednesday, you can dig on Thursday. So will they notify the person, yes, you're clear, or will they just not hear back or what happens? Yes, there's something called positive response which is required by all the utilities who are notified when you call 8-1-1 and they'll send you a notification saying I've located my facility for you, I've marked it in paint or there's something funny about it, I need to meet you there. But it's that communication back and forth so you'll know, you'll hear from all the utilities that are required to do it, you'll know what the status of it is. That's great. That's really wonderful. What is a tolerant zone? Okay, perfect. Good, good. So let's say that this locate, this gas line is located in your yard. Yes. A tolerant zone in Kentucky is 24 inches on each side of that that you can't use any kind of mechanized equipment. You have to use hand tools within that. And that's just a tolerant zone because although this that I'm holding is pretty straight, think of this as a fiber or a piece of cable, it could be snaking like that in the ground. So there's a 24 inches on each side tolerant zone to allow for the movement of that line when it was installed in a ditch. Interesting. And you know, it's really dangerous to hit a gas line so that's why we're emphasizing the importance of calling before you dig. So I just want to re-re-re-emphasize that. Is there anything else, you know, is there a penalty for not making sure where the utilities are before you dig? Yes, there is a penalty. It's outlined in the law and it's a tiered structure based on how many times you've done it. If you're a homeowner, you probably don't do it frequently, but if you're a contractor, you could be involved with it multiple times where it can get pretty expensive. The penalties that you have to pay for not calling 8-1-1 and it results in a damage. And I want to say two more things about this. First one, we talked about 8-1-1 day, that's August the 11th, that's the 8th month, 11th day. Yeah! It's kind of our celebration day across the nation for all the 8-1-1 centers and for the utilities that we bring awareness to to our 8-1-1 facilities, 8-1-1 processes. And the second thing is if you cause a damage, don't try to fix it. Call the people who own that facility. I mean, heaven forbid that you hit this gas line, but if you do, don't try to fix it. Because that could just complicate the matter even more. Sure. So you need to step back and if you hit a gas line, you need to call 9-1-1. But contact the owners of the facilities, whether it's a water line, cable, whatever it is and let them come out and fix it the right way. That's a great word. So we can remember the 8th month, the 11th day, helps remind us the importance of contacting 8-1-1. So Lisa, tell me a little bit, when people mark their utility lines, I know that Tim mentioned a little bit the different colors, but can you help explain that a little bit more? Sure. So red is electric, blue is water, green is sewer. There's a lot of sewer projects going around the city right now. Orange is telecommunications and then yellow is gas. Very good. So if somebody, do you see these cool little flags? A lot of times, my constituents will see flags and they will contact me and say, what big project is going on in our yard, in the front of our yard, or whatever. Can you explain why these show up in some different circumstances? Right. So it could be that a landscaper is doing a project nearby and they've called to have their underground utility lines marked. So we would come out and mark our lines. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a Columbia gas project that's going to be. It could be a city sewer project that's getting ready to start. It could be a landscaping project. It could be any number of things. But the important thing is if you see these flags, don't remove them. Keep them there because they're there for a very important reason. So they might just be marked. Maybe the city is doing some sort of project and we need to know where the gas lines are or any other utility line are to do it. It could be your neighbor. It could be, you know, you're doing something. Right. But we don't want to pull them out. Right. They're there for a reason. Yes. And it doesn't always mean they're going to just start. Someone's going to start digging up your yard. Right. And on our website, we have a search function that they can go to and put in their address and pop it up and they can see who's doing what in their area. Or they can call us at 811. And the life of a locate request in Kentucky is 21 calendar days. So don't remove those lines. For 21 days. Leave them there because that means the work is going to be done sometime within that 21 days. That's great. So I hope everyone heard that. You can contact 811 to find out what project, why utilities are being marked in your area. So I think this is one of the most important things. Lisa, if you smell gas, what do you do? And the odor is added so that people can be aware if there's a problem. That's right. Actually, in its pure state, natural gas doesn't have an odor. But we add an odorant called mercaptan. And it gives it that very familiar sulfur-like, rotten egg kind of smell that's very recognizable. So if you do smell that smell, it's important that you leave the premises immediately. Don't turn on lights. Don't use your cell phone. Don't do anything. Just leave. And then from a safe distance, call 911, as Tim said. And also call Columbia Gas. And we will come out no charge at all. We will come out immediately and investigate that and find the source of that odor. But don't assume that it'll go away. Don't try to ventilate the area. Don't do anything. Just get out and call us. And that's actually happened to me in my house. And then also being on other properties and then, you know, having that strong, strong scent. And so it's important to realize that that could be an emergency. And so please do call and get it checked out. And hopefully, everything is okay. Is there anything else that you all would like to mention that you think is important? Yeah, so I want to make sure everybody understands that 811 is not for large contractors exclusively. It's for anybody. For instance, let's just say that on a weekend project, you want to replace your mailbox. That's about a foot off the edge of the road. Guess what else is a foot off the edge of the road? Could be this gas line. Some utility is about a foot off the edge of the road. So you're out there digging on a Saturday morning to do a project and replace your mailbox. The next thing you know, you've got a big problem on your hands. Call us, and it's free to use us. It's absolutely free of charge to use the 811 system. Call us, and we'll send people out that will locate that so that you know where you're digging. That's a really important reminder. And I don't know, Lisa, do you have something else you think is important for our viewers to know today? No, just again, you know, always call 811 or go online and request the utility lines be marked. And again, if you ever should smell gas, don't even hesitate to call. It doesn't cost a thing. We will come out 365 days a year. No problem. Very, very good. Thank you so much. It's a pretty day. It's not raining. You might want to do some yard work. So before you start digging around, dial 811. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time. She's never out of love. Yes, she's got love. You've got love, I want it. Come on, girl. We all need a human touch. We all need a human touch. I need it. A human touch. We all need a human touch. We all need it. I need it now. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. I'm so scared of isolated in the modern world. We all need We all need a human touch. The human touch. We all need the human touch. I need it. The human touch. We all need the human touch. I need it. The human touch. We're all needed and I need it so. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. We all need the human touch. We all need the human touch. We all need the human touch. I need it. The human touch. We all need the human touch. I need it. The human touch. We're all needed and I need it so. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. Human touch. If you got a problem, don't care what it is, you need a hand, I can assure you this, I can help. I got two strong arms, I can help. It would sure do me good, to do you good, let me help. It's bad that people get lonely, ain't nothing new, but a woman like you babe, should never have the blues, let me help. I got two for me, let me help. It would sure do me good, to do you good, let me help. When I go to sleep at night, you're always a part of my dreams, holding me tight, telling me everything, I wanna hear. Don't forget me babe, all you gotta do is call, you know how I feel about you, I can do anything at all, let me help. If your child needs a dad, I can help. It would sure do me good, to do you good, let me help. When I go to sleep at night, you're always a part of my dreams, holding me tight, telling me everything, I wanna hear. Don't forget me babe, all you gotta do is call, you know how I feel about you, I can do anything at all, let me help. If your child needs a dad, I can help. It would sure do me good, to do you good, let me help. If your child needs a dad, I can help. If your child needs a dad, I can help. If your child needs a dad, I can help. If your child needs a dad, I can help. If your child needs a dad, I can help. I need more of you. Darling, I need more of you. More than anything less would do. We ain't been together too long. Strange, how did our love get so strong? There's nothing to keep us apart. We've got to catch up to our hearts. I need more of you. I need more of you, changing my rain into sun. More of you, putting my blues on the run. I need more of you. Darling, I need more of you. More than anything less wouldn't do. I need more of you. I need more of you, changing my rain into sun. More of you, putting my blues on the run. I need more of you. Darling, I need more of you. More than anything less wouldn't do. I need more of you, changing my rain into sun. At five o'clock she knows I'll soon be home. She don't worry about me running around. Because all of my good times are waiting right there for me. And she knows where I'll be when the sun goes down. I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. Our world turns around a little gold band. And love leads us through life hand in hand. I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. We fall asleep at night thinking ain't love grand. That's why I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. When she's down she knows I'll be beside her. Because I'm not just her lover, I'm her friend. Our love keeps getting better. And I'll gladly spend forever standing by the woman who stands by her man. I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. Our world turns around a little gold band. And love leads us through life hand in hand. I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. We fall asleep at night thinking ain't love grand. That's why I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. We fall asleep at night thinking ain't love grand. That's why I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. That's why I'm a stand-by-my-woman man. Your love is fading. I can feel your love fading. Girl, it's fading away from me. Cause your touch, your touch has blown through. As if someone else controls your very soul. Your love is fading. I can feel your love fading. As if someone else controls your very soul. I fool myself long as I can. Can feel the presence of another man. Yeah, when you speak to me, it's just not the same. Ooh, baby, I'm loving you. It's in the air. It's everywhere. Ooh, baby, I'm losing you. Losing you. And I look into your eyes. A reflection of a face I see. I'm hurt, downhearted, and worried, girl. Cause that face doesn't belong to me. Oh, it's love on your face. The one taking my place. Ooh, baby, I'm losing you. You try hard to hide the emptiness inside. Ooh, I can tell I'm losing you. Losing you. I don't want to lose you. Ooh, I can tell when we kiss. Tells a good time to miss. Ooh, little girl, I'm losing you. Girl, I can feel it in my bones. Any day you'll be gone. Oh, baby, I'm losing you. Oh, my dear, what happened to the love we shared? Oh, baby, I'm losing you. I know it's true. There's someone new. Oh, it's raining again. I know my love's out of hand. I know it's raining again. You know it's hard to pretend. I know it's raining again. Too bad I'm losing a friend. I know it's raining again. Oh, will my heart ever mend? You're old enough, some people say, To read the signs and walk away. It's only time that heals the pain And makes the sun come out again. It's raining again. I know my love's out of hand. I know it's raining again. Too bad I'm losing a friend. Ba, da, da, da, da-daaad-da-daa-daa. Ba, da, da, da, da-daa-daa-daa-daa. Ba, da, da, da, da-daa-daa-daa-daa. Come on, you little fighter. No need to get uptighter. Come on, you little fighter. Couldn't get back up again. It's raining again. I know my love's had an end. I know it's raining again. Too bad I'm losing a friend. Ba, da, da, da, da-daa-daa-daa-daa. Ba, da, da, da, da-daa-daa-daa-daa. Ba, da, da, da, da-daa-daa-daa-daa. Come on, you little fighter, no need to get up tighter. Come on, you little fighter, and get back up again. Oh, get back up again. Oh, through your heart again. Ba, da, da, da, da-daa-daa-daa-daa-daa. The rain is over, the old man is gone. The rain is over, the old man is gone. Born through a party in the county jail. The prison band was there, they began to wail. The band was jumpin' and the drum began to swing. You shoulda heard those knocked-out jailbirds sing, let it rock. Everybody, let it rock. Everybody, don't say a word. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Spider Murphy played us in a saxophone. Little Joe was blowin' on the slide trombone. From the port of Illinois we crashed, boom, bang. The whole rhythm section was a purple gang, let it rock. Everybody, let it rock. Everybody, don't say a word. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Number 47 said to number three, you're the cutest jailbird I ever did see. I sure would be delighted with your company. Come on into the jail, let it rock with me. Let it rock. Everybody, let it rock. Everybody, don't say a word. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock, rock, rock. guitar solo Sad sack was sittin' on a block of stone. We're over in the corner weepin' all alone. The warden said, hey buddy, don't you be no squab. You can't find a partner, use a wooden chair, let it rock. Everybody, let it rock. Everybody, don't say a word. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Shifter Henry said to folks for heaven's sake, no one's lookin' at a chance to make a break. Buckley turned to Shifter and he said, Nix, Nix, I wanna stick around I wanna get my kicks, let it rock. Everybody, let it rock. Everybody, don't say a word. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Put your hands into the jail, let it rock Put your hands into the jail, let it rock. Into the jail, let it rock. Don't go changin' to try to please me You never let me down before Hmm mm Don't imagine you're too familiar And I don't need you anymore I would not leave you in times of trouble We never could have come this far Hmm mm I took the good times I'll take the bad times I'll take you just the way you are Need to know that you will always be The same old someone that I knew Oh, what will it take till you believe in me The way that I believe in you I said I love you That's forever This I promise from the heart Hmm mm I couldn't love you any better I love you just the way you are Oh, baby I don't want clever conversation I never want to work that hard Hmm mm I just want someone that I can talk to I want you just the way you are Oh, baby piano plays Look around you Look up here Take time to make time Make time to be there Look around Be apart Feel for the winter But don't have a cold heart And I love you best You're not like the rest You're there when I need you You're there when I need I'm gonna need you A long time ago I had a lady to love She made me think of things I never thought of Now she's gone and I'm on my own A love song has come into my mind A love song that was there all the time So, lady Let me take a look at you now You're there on the dance floor Making me want you somehow Oh, lady I think it's only fair I should say to you Don't be thinking that I don't want you Cause maybe I do guitar solo Look around you Come to me I have no answers But know where I wanna be I look around Play apart I was born in the winter And cooled by a warm heart And I love you best You're not like the rest You're there when I need you You're there when I need I'm gonna need you So, lady Let me take a look at you now You're there on the dance floor Making me want you somehow Oh, lady I think it's only fair I should say to you Don't be thinking that I don't want you Cause maybe I do Don't be thinking that I don't want you Lady, I do guitar solo guitar solo I'm leaving tonight I'm leaving back home Right! Right! Right! I'm heading back to a South Tallahassee Gonna cross the bridge to my sweet Sassafrassee Can't stand up on my feet in the city Gotta get back to the real nitty gritty Don't come closer, don't come closer My home sweet home can't catch no dose My hotel room thinks he's hot Swear if he makes a fuss I'm a Jay Paul getting his ear With a face and a beer Home sweet home Get out in the field Put the mule in the stater My shoes are cooking Put the eats on the tater My head's in the city And my love's in the meadow My hands on the plow And my feet in the ghetto Stand the shit down Don't do nothin' It ain't no good when boss man's talkin' it down That's what I say for nothin' And baby's how I see it He's a liar to see When you're rockin' the street Home sweet home Home sweet home Home sweet home Home sweet home My, my, baby You're a real sweet home I was a young child I took a bug in the street I was a young child I took a bug in the street I was a young child I took a bug in the street I was a young child I took a bug in the street I remember walkin' round The court square sidewalks Lookin' in the windows For things I couldn't want There's Johnson's hardware And Morgan's jewelry And the old Lee King's A pot to carry They were the little man The little man I go back now The stores are empty Except an old Coke signed dated 1950 Boarded up like they never existed Renovated and called historic distance There goes the little man There goes the little man Now the court square's Just a set of streets And people go around But they seldom think About the little man That built this town Before the big money Shut him down And killed the little man Oh the little man He pumped your gas And he cleaned your glass One cold rainy night He fixed your flat A new store came Where you do it yourself And you buy a lotto ticket And the food off the shelf Forget the little man Forget about that little man He hung on there For a few more years He couldn't sell slurps He wouldn't sell beer Now the bank rents a station To a man down the road And they sell velvet elements And second-hand clothes There goes the little man There goes another little man Now the court square's Just a set of streets And people go around But they seldom think About the little man That built this town Before the big money Shut him down And killed the little man Oh the little man Oh the little man Now the stores are lined up In a concrete strip You can buy the whole world In just one trip Save a penny Cause it's jumbo size They don't even realize They're killing the little man Oh the little man Now the court square's Just a set of streets And people go around But they seldom think About the little man That built this town Before the big money Shut him down And killed the little man Oh the little man It wasn't long ago When I was a child An old black man came With his mule and his plow He broke the ground Where we grew our garden Back before we'd all forgotten About the little man The little man Long lived the little man God bless the little man Would you love me When nights are cold Would you love me When I grow old Would you love me Would you love me Would you love me Would you care Live is not easy Take me by surprise And say you're there Would you love me Give me one more chance Would you love me Try and understand Would you share Life and its music Show me in your eyes That you'll stay with me tonight I'm lost in love I can't live without you I'm lost in love Of all my dreams around you I'm lost in love And it's true I can't live without you Oh no Would you love me When I'm in doubt Would you love me Just to be around Would you share My life and its music Take me in your arms And sing my melody I'm lost in love I can't live without you I'm lost in love Of all my dreams around you And I'm lost in love And it's true I can't live without you Oh no And I'm lost in love Say you really want me Love is a passion You just can't hide And I'm lost in love Time and again it hurts me You'll be my reason For starting again Again I'm lost in love I can't live without you I'm lost in love Of all my dreams around you I'm lost in love I can't live without you I'm lost in love Baby, baby I'm lost in love Baby, I can't live without you I'm lost in love I'm lost in love I'm lost in love I once thought of love as a prison A place I didn't want to be So long ago I made a decision To be footloose and fancy free But here came and I was so tempted To gamble on love just one time I never thought I would get caught It seemed like the perfect crime Baby, you left me defenseless I've only got one plea Lock me away inside of your love Throw away the key I'm guilty of loving the first degree I thought it would be so simple Like a thousand times before I'd take what I wanted and just walk away But I never made it to the door Now, babe, I'm not begging for mercy Go ahead and throw the book at me If loving you's a crime I know that I'm As guilty as a man can be Baby, you left me defenseless I've only got one plea Lock me away inside of your love Throw away the key I'm guilty of loving the first degree Loving the first degree Baby, you left me defenseless I've only got one plea Yeah, baby, you left me defenseless Baby, you left me defenseless I'm guilty of loving the first degree I've only got one plea Lock me away inside of your love I'm guilty of loving the first degree I'm guilty of loving the first degree I'm guilty of loving the first degree I'm Neil Noah and welcome to Lexington Now for the week of September 8th, 2025. Lexington's Hope Center has expanded with the official opening of the Quantrell Jones Center to better serve those in need. The Hope Center has been a long and meaningful history in our community. From its beginning, it has stood as a place of refuge, healing, and transformation for men who were down and out by providing them the opportunity to rebuild their lives. Today, this new facility, the Quantrell Jones Center, is yet another visible sign that the Hope Center will do anything and everything to help people. This building is more than bricks and mortar. It is a place where hope lives. Here, we will find not only shelter, but also the resources, guidance, and encouragement they need to move forward for a brighter future. I would like to thank our donors. I would like to thank our board of directors. Without them, this would not have been possible, so thank you very much. This new building is simply an offshoot of my belief, and fortunately my son's belief, who is now running the dealership for me and providing all the money for this, I'd like to point that out. And I could not be more proud of him, because I think he's doing better than I ever did. But it's the heart of this town. It's the heart of business leaders. It's the heart of average people. It is the love for people of all natures, all genders, all races, all ethnic groups, all religions. We're all created in God's image, and we should respect people for that. And when you look into someone's eyes, you should be able to see God's image in them, because that's what God would have us do. Today is a day of celebration, a day of gratitude. This new facility is a shining example of how deeply our donors believe in our mission. It shows that they value every human life, and that they trust us to do the right things, the things that truly change people's lives. To all of you who gave, who believed, who trusted us, thank you. You are the reason we are cutting the ribbon today, and because of you, countless lives will be transformed within these walls. Thank you. I've been so grateful and humbled for everything that's happening. There's nothing like this building that we've got. It's probably the best homeless facility for veterans in the state of Kentucky. But I appreciate everybody. I appreciate everybody that's helped build this building, and I appreciate everybody here for doing what they're doing. We can't have a better building than what we have, and I thank you for that. We honor and assist our veterans in many ways. Today's announcement, at least in part, is about one of our most important ways of caring for our veterans, helping veterans who are struggling with homelessness. And we are so thankful for those who work every day with our homeless population. So today's announcement will make it easier to continue to meet that goal with 32 of the 72 beds in this transitional housing targeted for veterans, providing them and others with a safe, stable place to live, as well as to start rebuilding their lives. Our community gives great thanks for Reverend Bonnie Quantrell-Jones for her commitment to improving the lives of people in our community who are experiencing homelessness. And we will continue moving forward with the goal of ensuring that everyone has a roof over their head. We're taking a step closer to that goal today. This is helping bring our community closer, I think, to ending homelessness. It's a big challenge. We know that. But the work that you have done here is magnificent. And you have unlocked the key for helping people through the HOPE Center and this new project. Congratulations. The 250 Lacks Equinox Jazz Fest is coming, and there is a lineup of incredible musicians. Today we're here to talk about Equinox Jazz Fest, presented by Origins Jazz Series and 250 Lacks. Equinox Jazz Fest is set to take place September 17th through the 21st, with several events taking place right here at the Kentucky Theater. From intimate showcases to explosive headliner performances, the Jazz Fest embodies the spirit that has driven jazz forward for over a century. The events will offer audiences the chance to witness compelling jazz musicians in settings designed for genuine musical appreciation and community connection. We said we wanted to create events that were interesting, inclusive, and memorable. And I think if you come, and we encourage everybody to get that festival pass, as a matter of fact, so you don't miss a darn thing, you're going to see that. Equinox Jazz Fest, a five-day celebration of world-class jazz concerts, starting on September 17th through September 21st. That's nine events over a five-day period, with the majority of them being presented here in the historic Kentucky Theater. Jazz is this country's most original art form. It is the music that is uniquely American, and its influence on the shaping of American culture is profound and indelible. Given Lex 250's commitment to the authentic telling of the story of our great city, it is only appropriate that jazz music be highlighted and uplifted by way of this wonderful festival. At the Equinox Jazz Fest, you will be able to witness the full spectrum of contemporary jazz, from established legends to rising stars, an amazing array of vocal artistry as well as instrumental virtuosity. You will experience the intimacy of small groups, as well as the explosive dynamism of the big band. Our performing artists will range from musicians of international renown to brilliant, emerging artists who are regional and local favorites. On Wednesday evening, the 17th of September, we have Brandon Meeks and his quintet from Indianapolis, an amazing blend of jazz with hip-hop and neo-soul and blues. Then on Thursday evening is another one that we're really excited about, for its ability to call back to some of the most historic jazz musicians in Lexington. The Auslan Daily Jazz Tete is performing with a vocalist named Rose Colella from Los Angeles. The thing that strikes me about Rose is that she reminds me so much of Gail Winters, who is one of our stalwart jazz musicians here in Lexington, who sadly is no longer with us. On Friday evening is my personal moment to shine as part of the OJS All-Stars. This is our all-star big band that we've performed in this very space in the Kentucky Theater twice now, performing the Duke Ellington Nutcracker. It's an augmentation of musicians from Lexington and the greater region, all folks who have performed as part of Origin's Jazz Series in their careers. This concert is a special one where we're paying homage to the Narcotic Farm, which, for those who are unfamiliar, is what is now the Federal Medical Center on Leestown Road. In 1935, it opened as the Narcotic Farm, and it was the first drug rehab prison in the entire country. As a result of the population they served and jazz's history with narcotics, some of the greatest musicians in jazz history ended up at the Narcotic Farm, including Chet Baker, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Ray Charles. And that history, as well as the complex history of that facility, is something that's really worth telling the history of more often. And I know some people will be very familiar, but many are still in the dark about that. So this big band concert features all compositions that are associated with those performers in one way or another. And we're joined by the amazing Camille Thurman on saxophone and voice for that performance, who had the most audacious press clipping of anyone on the festival. Downbeat said that, imagine if Sarah Vaughan could also play saxophone like Dexter Gordon. And that takes us to Saturday, which is our biggest, fullest day. At 10 a.m. at the Farmer's Market, we'll have a group named Brazucas, who will bring the music of Brazil to us, moving on a collaboration with Outside the Spotlight at 3.30 in the State Theater here at the Kentucky Theater. And Outside the Spotlight is one of our family of musical organizations here in Lexington that focuses on creative, spontaneous, improvised music. And this is an awesome concert with Tim Daisy and Chris Corsano. Then we finish the night off with our two biggest headliners, NEA Jazzmaster Kenny Garrett and drummer, producer, songwriter Nate Smith. And then on Sunday, we finish the festival out with two great performances, the Kentucky State University Generations Jazz Ensemble and Candice Springs, who I'll throw my own audacious press clipping out here now. Imagine if you blended Nora Jones and Alicia Keys into one artist. She's that good as a pianist and as a vocalist, and we're lucky to have her here in Lexington for a second time, and she absolutely blew us away the last time. Oh, oh, oh. ScareFest is back after this. Welcome back to Lexington Now. ScareFest brings the sinister side of Comic-Con back to Lexington next month and, as always, is packed with attractions for facts. My name's Brandon Griffiths. I'm Nicole Griffith. This is Scarlett. And we're the owners of ScareFest. This is 17, and so we've done, this is our seventh one. The add-on events, so every year, in addition to the show itself, you know, there's the after parties and all that stuff, but we start having these launch events on Thursdays, so people come in town and spend like the whole week there. But we've got... Chris Jericho's doing his podcast live. Oh, yeah. That's going to be, a lot of people have really talked about that. We've got Daniel Harris and Scout Taylor Compton. Talk Scary to Me. I love that show. I listen to it all the time. Then we've got Bourbon Tasting with... Killers on the Rocks at Town Branch, which is already sold out. Paranormal Investigations did the VIP parties down at Manchester Music Hall again, which is a great venue. We love it there. Scary-oke, trivia, costume contests. We have Wicked Beard's costume contest. His son has taken over that business, and big prizes. I think usually it's, what, $500? $500 for first place. Yeah, for first place. And, of course, we have the kids' version, too, because Sunday is Kids' Day, and we have lots of add-ons for kids on Sunday. There's a lot of really cool cosplay that goes on, and I've been amazed. Like, every year, it just keeps getting better and better. You know, one thing that we... We have not announced this yet, so we've worked out the particulars of it, but last year, if you saw, we had Matthew Lillard, and we had a special whiskey-tasting event with him, and that went over really well. It was a smaller group of people. It was Sunday after the con was over. And everybody really enjoyed it. Yeah, they got, like, a personalized, like, an autograph that nobody else got. You know, it was a different picture. They got a photo, a selfie with him, and they got to listen to him talk about his bourbon. But this year... So this year, we are working out the particulars still, but it looks like we're good. We're calling it a nightcap on Elm Street with Robert England. So Tattoo has always been a part of Scarefest in some way. We've had, like, you know, started out three or four back in the day, and then it's really grown. And people love tattoos, so we are now taking over the entire first floor for our Tattoo Expo. There'll be some other things down there, but we're in all three levels of the center this year. And the film festival that goes all weekend, you know, Wes, of course, helps with that. And that's taken on a lot. We have submissions from all over the world, and a lot of those guys come in for the show and do, like, limited merch and things like that. So this year, we are October 17th through the 19th. We'll have some events on opening night, which we do on Thursday night. We're actually doing the ticket booth a lot differently this year, so we want to make sure that everyone knows, you know, because there's a lot of people coming to the show. It's good size. And the best way to avoid lines and things like that is to do early check-ins. So this year, we're going to be running the ticket booth for early check-in on Wednesday night, so we're expanding that. So that'll be going from 5 to 9 on Wednesday. Thursday, it'll be open all day. Friday, it'll open that morning at around 9, I believe. And so you can come down and check-in any time before the show starts. Get your lanyards, your bracelets, and then go in the reentry instead of the line to buy tickets. And, yeah. Yeah, so if you were down there last year, yeah, the line was really long, so we've made some changes. We've doubled the number of ticket check-ins we've got. We were in the process of switching over to a new system last year, and now that system is in place and working really well. So we're really excited about getting everyone in quickly, efficiently, so they can have a good time. So where to stay is always a question because there's so many people coming in. Of course, the closest hotels are the Hilton Hyatt and Marriott. But we here at my day job, we serve people with disabilities, and we have a fleet of, like, 30-some vehicles that we use to transport people to here. So those drivers get really excited to help us shuttle at SphereFest. That's all on our website, and that's a free shuttle. So you can stay at one of the hosting hotels and get a free shuttle and, you know, maybe have some nightcaps on Elm Street and then take the shuttle back home. So come out, bring the family, come join us. It's a fantastic experience and event. We love to have you. Our staff are super helpful, so if you need to know how to get around, you just find somebody and ask, and we have 300 volunteers there that will make sure you get to experience the show fully and get what you want out of it. Sunday's Kids Day, come and dress them up. We have a trick-or-treat of all the vendors and lots of good times. The long-awaited Gatton Park next to Rupp Arena opened recently. Here's a look at the ceremony. Welcome to Gatton Park! Applause Gatton Park is nearly 12 acres of new possibilities, over 500 new treats, and 30,000 native plants fill this space. Applause A restored stretch of Town Branch Creek, the body of water Lexington was founded on over 250 years ago, with a historic wall rebuilt with stone from the 1790s. You've got to go see it. A half-mile pedestrian loop, a 35-foot gristmill play tower, and yes, it's been safety inspected. Five public art pieces, countless places to sit and gather, and a dog park for small and large pups. I could go on and on, as you might imagine, but you'll just have to experience it for yourself. I am grateful to be here. I'm honored and privileged to be able to stand here and represent Mr. Gatton. I only wish he were here to see what's happened to this old parking lot. He would be absolutely thrilled. He would be honored and humbled that the park is named after him. The Bill Gatton Foundation, we've already paid about half of our commitment that we promised to give. We still have about $7 million owed on our commitment, which is to be paid between now and December 31, 2030. $3 million of that remaining $7,000 is to go to the Conservancy, an endowment for the Conservancy. That $3 million is not to be paid until 28, 29, and 30. Allison, we're going to pay that now. We're going to pay it immediately. And we're not only going to pay the $3 million, we're going to add $1 billion. You all will remember from Field of Dreams, build it and they will come. We adapted it a bit here and said, build it first for your own people, then others will come. We are building it first for our own people, and yes, then others will come. Great cities have great parks, but first, great cities have generous citizens who are willing to step up and help out, and that's what we're celebrating today. There's an ancient Greek proverb that goes something like this and applies to all of you right here today in this generation. A society becomes great when its people plant trees, in the shade of which they will not sit. In the shade of which they will not sit. Those trees have been planted by so many of you here today, and I want to thank you. Thank you so very much. I just love this effort. It's going to attract not only residents but tourists alike. And I know I am one of thousands of grandmothers around Lexington who can't wait to get her grandchildren down here. Congratulations to everyone who's worked tirelessly on Gatton Park on the town branch. It has been a true labor of love. Two years ago, many of us stood right here at the groundbreaking. Back then, there wasn't any dirt anywhere, just a lot of asphalt. I'll never forget climbing into that bulldozer to break the piece, the first piece, and I about turned the darn thing over. But nothing compares to today. This is the moment we've all been waiting for, the opening of a true community treasure in the heart of our downtown. With the input of more than 16,000 voices and the generosity of so many, we created Lexington's Living Room, a place where everyone will welcome and where our community can gather and thrive for generations to come. Now I'd like to invite those on the stage behind me to come up so we can cut this ribbon. Three, two, one. Woo! There are several live meetings on LexTV and streaming online this week. 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 code. That's all for now, but as always, you can keep up with us on social media. Check out the latest traffic updates. updates on X at LexRex or catch our live traffic cams on LexingtonKY.gov. For all of us at LexTV, I'm Neil Noah and that's it for now. Take a good look around, and if you're looking down, put a little love in your heart. I hope when you decide, kindness will be your guide, put a little love in your heart. And the world will be a better place, and the world will be a better place for you and me. You just wait, and see it now. Put a little love in your heart, each and every day. Put a little love in your heart, there's no other way. Put a little love in your heart, yes I do. Put a little love in your heart. Come on and put a little love in your heart. Put a little love in your heart. Put a little love in your heart. Come now, don't look back, we've drawn the line. Move on, it's no good to go back in time. I'll never find another girl like you. For heaven is empty too. With fire and ice, a dream won't come true. Sarah, Sarah, storms are brewing in your eyes. Sarah, Sarah, no time is a good time for goodbyes. Danger in the game when the stakes are high. Branded, my heart was branded while my senses stood by. I'll never find another girl like you. For heaven is empty too. With fire and ice, a dream won't come true. Sarah, Sarah, storms are brewing in your eyes. Sarah, Sarah, no time is a good time for goodbyes. Sarah, Sarah, storms are brewing in your eyes. Sarah, Sarah, no time is a good time for goodbyes. Love me like no one has ever loved me before. Hurt me like no one could ever hurt me more. Sarah, no one has loved me before. I'll never find another girl like you. With fire and ice, a dream won't come true. Sarah, Sarah, no time is a good time for goodbyes. Hey, it's BiJenico with another episode of Your Lex PD. We are out here at the Roy H. Martis Canine Center, the new facility for the Lexington Police Department Canine Unit. So we try to visit a lot of our specialized units. The Canine Unit is part of the Special Operations Bureau, and they do some fantastic work. And everybody wants to know about the dogs. So let's go in, have a talk with some of the handlers, and see how the Canine Unit operates. Hey, we are here with Canine Supervisor Sergeant Rob Frazier and Canine Raya. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me. And we're going to talk a little bit about the Canine Unit here at the Lexington Police Department. I think you've already made a friend. I did. You did. So, Sergeant Frazier, you have inherited quite a bit of history when you came to this unit. How long have you been out here? Four years. Four years. So, and Lexington was one of the very first canine units in the country in this particular region. Back in 1962, then it was the Chief, E.C. Hale, chartered the first canine unit. And that's when it was Lexington City Police Department. And he had sent an officer out to Missouri to receive weeks and weeks of training and came back and started the unit with about six officers, I think, at the time. They built the first facility in 64, second one in 68. How long have you been in this particular building? This kennel was opened in 2020. Okay. And this is state-of-the-art? Probably a little bit different from where you came from? We like to think so. Okay. All right. So, you've got all the dogs are housed here? Yes. Okay. All right. So, we're going to spend some time today talking with a couple of your officers. Can you tell us a little bit about who they are and what they do? Sure. I've got Officer Chaz Grider, who's our head trainer right now. He also can deploy on the street, and he operates a bomb canine, so he can also run events and that kind of stuff. We've also got Officer Pat Murray, who used to be a trainer here, but he is also an officer on the street and handles a narcotics canine. All right. We're looking forward to it. We are here with canine officers Chaz Grider and Pat Murray. Thank you all for joining us today. Thanks for having us. Could you all tell us a little bit about how you came to be in the canine unit? Sure. Yeah, I came in in 2011 after I had been on the street for about five years, and I'm coming up on year 14 on my second dog, who's had a good long career, and it's been great. Yeah, I came to the police department in 2012. When I got here, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. It was canine. So, I spent four years on patrol, went to canine, and I've been here for, I don't know, probably ten years now. All right. So, Sarge, you mentioned how many dogs we have. So, how do we use the dogs? What are the purposes, and what do we have? Patrol dogs, we have different types of dogs. What do we have? Yeah, so our primary three things are going to be patrol dogs, narcotic dogs, and bomb dogs. Obviously, we use dogs because they smell better than us. So, the main breeds that you're going to see is, obviously, your typical German Shepherd. That's what everybody thinks about for a police dog. We also have Belgian Malinois. We have a Dutch Shepherd. And then, obviously, you saw Raya. We have a Lab Floppy Ears dog sometimes for single-purpose use. Okay. What is the difference between the three, the patrol, narcotics, and bomb? So, the patrol dogs, they're going to be used primarily whenever we need to find subjects who have committed crimes. Whether it's someone who's broken into a building, they've committed a violent crime, and we need to track their odor and find them for the sake of us and the public. Your explosive dogs, I'm sure Chaz can go into it more. This is going to be for your big events to make sure that we don't have any explosives hidden. And then, narcotics, primary use is going to be for vehicles that we suspect there's narcotics inside. So, I know we talked about the different types of dogs. Are they multipurpose, or do they just, if that's a narcotics dog, that's just a narcotics dog? No, most of our dogs are dual-purpose. We'll have, I think we have two single-purpose dogs. One was Rhea, who you spoke with earlier. Yeah, I spoke with her. Yeah, spoke with her. She's an explosives dog. That's her only job. We have another narcotics detection dog, and he's with our narcotics unit. He's only narcotics. All the other dogs are dual-purpose, which means they'll do patrol, which is apprehension, finding people, finding evidence. And they're also either narcotics or explosives. Our dog, Kato, is a dual-purpose patrol and bomb dog. So, he does both, and we're considered a regional asset. So, we go outside the county. We may go to the Derby. This year, we helped out with Derby. And anywhere they need us for explosives detection, we'll go when we're called. Well, I think that's a good point, too, to talk about how we assist other agencies, because having some of the resources that Lexington has, even with other units as well, that smaller agencies that just don't have those capabilities, we can help out with that. And that's been very beneficial in a lot of different ways. So, tell us a little bit about how we get the dogs, how do we select the dogs, how do we train the dogs, and then I guess we've got to select the officers, too. So, tell us a little bit about the process. Super important processes. When we look for the dogs, we look for a dog that is environmentally sound. We need to make sure that they're comfortable in every environment, because it can be really weird out there in the world, right, and you're dealing with something with the mentality of a toddler. So, you want them to be very environmentally sound so they don't get afraid of things. We look for dogs that have great noses. Pat mentioned their best feature for us is their nose. It helps us locate what we need to find, whether it's missing people, criminals, narcotics, explosives. So, we always look to make sure that they have a really good hunt drive and that they hunt and that they have really good changes and they can find things. First, it's just the ball, because they know what a ball is. It's easy to see. So, we make sure they have a lot of ball drive and that they hunt methodically. So, they're always checking and looking and hopeful that they're going to discover something, because that makes the training take a lot better than if they didn't care. Well, as far as the training process, I know when we talked a little bit about the history of the unit, I know it was at the time it was Patrolman Kenny Watson had gone out to St. Louis and received weeks and weeks of training. He actually retired as assistant chief. But he was the first one that brought a lot of that back from another department. So, I'm assuming that we have to train the officers and the dogs. So, we do. We have two in-house trainers as of now, myself and Officer Joey Lasardi. Joey has just stepped into that role. I've received training from a place called Tar Heel Canine in North Carolina, certified trainer there. So, we train all the dogs in-house. So, we'll go get these dogs green. They don't know their name. They don't know anything. We bring them back, and we teach them everything there is to know about how to do their job here for this city. And that's it. It's pretty efficient. It can take a little longer, but sometimes you want a good product, right? You don't want a mass-produced product. So, we pride ourselves on that here. We have excellent dogs, and we have excellent handlers. When we go into the handler selection, we want to see a good cop first. Were they good on the street? Were they active? Did they get along with the community? Are they professional? Did they have a good head on their shoulders? And then we have an interview process by which they come down. They have an interview and a selection, and that's how we select our officers. You're obviously getting the right ones because I noticed when we walked in out here, we noticed a lot of trophies and a lot of things that the unit has fared well over the years as far as competitions and things like that. And I know we depend on patrol. We depend on K-9 a lot. As a matter of fact, just a few weeks ago, there was an abandoned building that we got an alarm at, and it was empty. We knew no one was in there, but K-9 went in, and they were able to clear it so quick. And I remember years ago when we talked to K-9, they were talking about how quickly a K-9 could clear a building looking for someone compared to multiple officers. And the success rate of them finding suspects that the officers would have missed, they're spending way more time. The suspects, the officers spend way more time to search, and their success of finding all the suspects is rarely 100%. The K-9s, it's a fraction of the time, and they have almost 100% success rate. So for officers that want to put in for the K-9 unit and get selected, how do you pair the officer with the K-9, like, personality-wise? Right. And so typically what we'll do is we'll just say, and we can just pair it with anyone. If we do see, like, a personality conflict, we might say, this dog might need a senior handler, somebody that's going to be getting another dog, their second dog or third dog. And so we just kind of play it by ear and just see what works best. But we make sure that everyone gets the most out of the training and that we have a good team that goes on the street to make sure everybody's safe in the community and at the PD, like the dogs and the handler. Outstanding. You all do great work, and I know everybody on the police department appreciates you, and I'm sure the citizens of Lexington certainly appreciate you being there, too. And everybody loves to see it. When they see the vehicle pull up, it says K-9 on it, they just don't want to come over and pet you, right, and pet the dog because that's probably not the kind of dog you want to pet. All right, well, thank you all very much for joining us this month and educating the community a little bit about our K-9 unit and what a stellar unit it is and the good work that you do. Thank you. So, Bajie, it was so nice learning more about the K-9 unit here at the Lexington Police Department and what they provide to us on patrol and just the community. Outstanding resource and so much history behind it. And as you mentioned, when we first started the episode, we are at the Roy H. Martis K-9 Center. That's the name of the facility. A lot of history on that, a very sad story. Officer Martis, he was a 13-year veteran with the Lexington Police Department. And the officers earlier had talked about how we help other agencies. And Martis and his bloodhound, he had a bloodhound at the time. Her name was Amanda. She was actually pregnant. And they were actually searching and assisting with Amanda for a suspect that had escaped jail and was also a murder suspect. And they actually located the suspect. And unfortunately, they were struck by a gunfire during the event in Mercer County. And that was on August 23, 1985. And it was a very sad day in the history of the Lexington Police Department. But his legacy carries on. And now the building is named after him. And every officer that's ever worked for K-9 certainly is very aware of his contributions and what he did to the unit. And there's also a street named after him where the old facility before this one was built. So join us next month for another episode of Your Lex PD as we continue to explore specialized units here with the Lexington Police Department. Your Lex PD. [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ [♪ music playing ♪ Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Jennifer Reynolds, and I'm the council member here in Lexington, Kentucky, for the 11th District. And I am joined today by some of my friends from Columbia Gas. First we have Tim Vaughn. He is the executive director of Kentucky 811. And we also have Lisa Smith, and she is the public affairs manager for Columbia Gas of Kentucky. So welcome, and thank you so much for joining us. Thank you to hear her. Hello, Lexington. First I wanted to ask off, what is the significance of 811 or August 11th? So, well, that's two different questions. So let's take it. 811 is call before you dig. It is a vital part of any kind of construction project. And I say that, but when I use the word construction, that could be just somebody digging in your yard. Anytime you're digging, you're moving the ground for any reason, there could be utilities buried below that. So 811 is a way that you can contact us. We notify the utilities in the area who come out and locate your stuff so that when you're digging, you know where that stuff's at so that your weekend project doesn't turn into some kind of catastrophe. Right. So if you don't call before you dig, what could happen? Sure. You could get into a utility line. Some of them are enforced by different agencies throughout the state, particularly on the gas side, as the Public Service Commission could issue citations and fines for people who failed to get things located prior to that, prior to digging. But, you know, you could cause an outage. You could get injured, which we certainly don't want that. It could cost you money. I mean, just think, if you take out your own water line, that could coincide and you don't have water in your house. And how inconvenient would that be? And things like the fiber. Our whole house is run off of Internet and fiber now, so if you cut the fiber line to you or to your neighborhood, you don't want to be that person. But just the inconvenience of the outages that could take place. So if somebody is going to do any sort of project at all, in their yard, around their house, the first thing they should do is call 811. And can they report it online, or is it just by phone? Yeah, so about 90% of the notifications that come into us now are done online, and that's Kentucky811.org, spelled out the word Kentucky. Yeah, and we'll take your phone call. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days, we're available. Obviously, the Internet is the same way, but, yeah, you can go online to do it. It's very simple and easy to do. That's great. And so should we call 811 just for small house projects, or should big development excavating projects as well? Anybody and everybody. If you're digging, the law defines digging as moving dirt with any tools or by any kind of machinery or hand tools. So you're using a shovel, you need to call. The law requires it. And we're trying to prevent stuff like this from happening. This is a gas line where, obviously, it looks like a trencher maybe got into this or a bicycle tooth got into it. I mean, this is what we're trying to prevent. So what will happen is we work with utilities like Columbia Gas and all the major utilities around the state. They'll come out in an above-ground, they'll paint with a color code system, their line, the color of their lines, and you can determine what that is by going to our website and seeing, like, blue is water, yellow is gas. The gas pipe is yellow, and that's what they locate it with, is yellow. Right. So they'll locate where it's at. That way, when you start your digging project, you move over away from it. That's great. That's great. Once someone, you know, contacts 811, how long do they have to wait before they can find out if they can dig? Sure. The law requires that you have to wait two full business days, excluding the day that you make the request. So if you make that on a Monday, Monday doesn't count. If you wait Tuesday and Wednesday, you can dig on Thursday. So will they notify the person, yes, you're clear, or will they just not hear back, or what happens? Yes, there's something called positive response, which is required by all the utilities who are notified when you call 811, and they'll send you a notification saying, I've located my facility for you, I've marked it in pink, or there's something funny about it, I need to meet you there. But it's that communication back and forth, so you'll know, you'll hear from all the utilities that are required to do it. You'll know what the status of it is. That's great, that's really wonderful. What is a tolerance zone? Okay, perfect, good, good. So let's say that this gas line is located in your yard. A tolerance zone in Kentucky is 24 inches on each side of that that you can't use any kind of mechanized equipment. You have to use hand tools within that. And that's just a tolerance zone because, although this that I'm holding is pretty straight, think of this as a fiber or a piece of table. It could be snaking like that in the ground. So there's a 24 inches on each side tolerance zone to allow for the movement of that line when it was installed in a ditch. Interesting. And, you know, it's really dangerous to hit a gas line, so that's why we're emphasizing the importance of calling before you dig. So I just want to re-re-re-emphasize that. And anything else? You know, is there a penalty for not making sure where the utilities are before you dig? Yes, there is a penalty. It's outlined in the law, and it's a tiered structure based on how many times you've done it. If you're a homeowner, you probably don't do it frequently, but if you're a contractor, you could be involved with it multiple times where it can get pretty expensive, the penalties that you have to pay for not calling 8-1-1, and it results in a damage. And I want to say two more things about this. First one, we talked about 8-1-1 day. That's August the 11th. That's the 8th month, 11th day. It's kind of our celebration day across the nation for all the 8-1-1 centers and for the utilities that we bring awareness to our 8-1-1 facilities, 8-1-1 processes. And the second thing is if you cause a damage, don't try to fix it. Call the people who own that facility. I mean, heaven forbid that you hit this gas line, but if you do, don't try to fix it because that could just complicate the matter even more. So you need to step back, and if you hit a gas line, you need to call 9-1-1. But contact the owners of the facilities, whether it's a water line, cable, whatever it is, and let them come out and fix it the right way. That's a great word. So we can remember the 8th month, the 11th day, helps remind us the importance of contacting 8-1-1. So Lisa, tell me a little bit. When people mark their utility lines, I know that Tim mentioned a little bit the different colors, but can you help explain that a little bit more? Sure. So red is electric, blue is water, green is sewer. There's a lot of sewer projects going around the city right now. Orange is telecommunications, and then yellow is gas. Very good. So if somebody, do you see these cool little flags? A lot of times my constituents will see flags, and they will contact me and say, what big project is going on in our yard, in the front of our yard, or whatever. Can you explain why these show up in some different circumstances? Right. So it could be that a landscaper is doing a project nearby, and they've called to have their underground utility lines marked. So we would come out and mark our lines. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a Columbia Gas project that's going to be. It could be a city sewer project that's getting ready to start. It could be a landscaping project. It could be any number of things. But the important thing is if you see these flags, don't remove them. Keep them there, because they're there for a very important reason. So they might just be marked. Maybe the city is doing some sort of project, and we need to know where the gas lines are or any other utility line are to do it. It could be your neighbor. It could be you're doing something. But we don't want to pull them out. They're there for a reason. And it doesn't always mean they're going to just start. Someone's going to start digging up your yard. And on our website, we have a search function that they can go to and put in their address and pop it up, and they can see who's doing what in their area. Or they can call us at 811. And the life of a locate request in Kentucky is 21 calendar days, so don't remove those lines, those flags when you're marking the lines. Leave them there, because that means the work is going to be done sometime within that 21 days. That's great. So I hope everyone heard that. You can contact 811 to find out what project, why utilities are being marked in your area. So I think this is one of the most important things. Lisa, if you smell gas, what do you do? And the odor is added so that people can be aware if there's a problem. That's right. Actually, in its pure state, natural gas doesn't have an odor, but we add an odorant called mercaptan, and it gives it that very familiar sulfur-like, rotten egg kind of smell that's very recognizable. So if you do smell that smell, it's important that you leave the premises immediately. Don't turn on lights. Don't use your cell phone. Don't do anything. Just leave. From a safe distance, call 911, as Tim said, and also call Columbia Gas, and we will come out no charge at all. We will come out immediately and investigate that and find the source of that odor. But don't assume that it'll go away. Don't try to ventilate the area. Don't do anything. Just get out and call us. And that's actually happened to me in my house, and then also being on other properties and having that strong, strong scent, and so it's important to realize that that could be an emergency, and so please do call and get it checked out, and hopefully everything is okay. Is there anything else that you all would like to mention that you think is important? Yeah, so I want to make sure everybody understands that 811 is not for large contractors exclusively. It's for anybody. Right. Let's just say that on a weekend project you want to replace your mailbox. That's about a foot off the edge of the road. Guess what else is a foot off the edge of the road? It could be this gas line. Some utility is about a foot off the edge of the road. So you're out there digging on a Saturday morning to do a project and replace your mailbox, and the next thing you know you've got a big problem on your hands. Call us, and it's free to use us. It's absolutely free of charge to use the 811 system. Call us, and we'll send people out that'll locate that so that you know where you're digging. That's a really important reminder. And I don't know, Lisa, do you have something else you think is important for our viewers to know today? No, just, again, always call 811 or go online and request the utility lines be marked. And, again, if you ever should smell gas, don't even hesitate to call. It doesn't cost a thing. We will come out 365 days a year, no problem. Very, very good. Thank you so much. It's a pretty day. It's not raining. You might want to do some yard work. So before you start digging around, dial 811. Thank you for joining us. I said, pardon me, y'all. I got to answer the call. Why? Thank you. Well, excuse me, but I think you've got my chair. No, that one's not taken. I don't mind if you sit here. I'll be glad to share. Yeah, it's usually packed here on Friday nights. Oh, if you don't mind, could I talk you out of a line? Well, thank you. Could I drink you a bottle? Oh, listen to me. What I mean is can I buy you a drink? Anything you please. Oh, you're welcome. I don't think I caught your name. Are you waiting for someone to meet you here? Well, that makes two of us glad you came. No, I don't know the name of the band, but they're good. Aren't they? Would you like to dance? Yeah, I like the song, too. It reminds me of you and me, baby. Do you think there's a chance that later on I could drive you home? No, I don't mind at all. Oh, I like you, too, and to tell you the truth, that wasn't my chair after all. Oh, I like you, too, and to tell you the truth, that wasn't my chair after all. I like you, too, and to tell you the truth, that wasn't my chair after all. I like you, too, and to tell you the truth, that wasn't my chair after all. Now, I just found a game that I can't play, and this is where the cowboy rides away. And my heart is sinking like the setting sun. Setting on the things I wish I'd done, it's time to say goodbye to yesterday. And this is where the cowboy rides away. We've been in and out of love and in between. And now we've played the final showdown scene. And as the credits roll, a sad song starts to play. And this is where the cowboy rides away. And my heart is sinking like the setting sun. Setting on the things I wish I'd done. Oh, the last goodbye's the hardest one to say. This is where the cowboy rides away. Oh, the last goodbye's the hardest one to say. This is where the cowboy rides away. This is where the cowboy rides away. The heat is on, on the street. Inside your head, on every beat. And the beat's alive, deep inside. The pressure's high, just to stay alive. Cause the heat is on. Oh, caught up in the action. I'll be looking out for you. Oh, tell me can you feel it? Tell me can you feel it? Tell me can you feel it? The heat is on. The heat is on. The heat is on. Oh, it's on the street. The heat is on. Oh, caught up in the action. I'll be looking out for you. Oh, tell me can you feel it? Tell me can you feel it? Tell me can you feel it? The heat is on. The heat is on. The heat is on. It's on the street. The heat is on. The shadow's high, on the darker side. Behind the doors, it's a wilder ride. You can make or break. You can win or lose. That's a chance you take. When the heat's on you. And the heat is on. Oh, caught up in the action. I'll be looking out for you. Oh, tell me can you feel it? Tell me can you feel it? Tell me can you feel it? The heat is on. The heat is on. The heat is on. It's on the street. The heat is on. The heat is on. The heat is on. It's on the street. The heat is on. The heat is on. The heat is on. Moonlight on canvas Midnight unwind Two shadows starting To softly combine The picture they're painting Is one of the heart And to those who have seen it It's a true work of art Oh, the red stone Passions unkept Thundering moments Of tenderness raged Oh, the red stone Tempered and strong Burning the night like the dawn Steam on the window Salt in the kiss Two hearts have never Pounded like this Inspired by a vision That they can't command Erasing the border With each brush of a hand Oh, the red stone Passions unkept Thundering moments Of tenderness raged Oh, the red stone Tempered and strong Burning the night like the dawn Oh, the blues will be blue And the jealousy's green But when love picks its shade It demands to be seen Oh, the red stone Passions unkept Thundering moments Of tenderness raged Oh, the red stone Passions unkept Thundering moments Of tenderness raged Oh, the red stone Fearlessly drawn Burning the night like the dawn Oh, the red stone Passions unkept Thundering moments Of tenderness raged Oh, the red stone Fearlessly drawn Burning the night like the dawn Steam on the window Salt in the kiss Two hearts have never Been so close Oh, the red stone Passions unkept Thundering moments Of tenderness raged Oh, the red stone Passions unkept Thundering moments Of tenderness raged When the rain's Blowing in your face And the whole world Is on your case I would offer you A warm embrace To make you feel my love To make you feel my love When the evening shatters And the stars appear And there is no one To dry your tear I could hold you For a million years To make you feel my love I know you haven't Made your mind up yet But I would never do you wrong I've known it From the moment that we met There's no doubt in my mind Where you belong I'd go hungry I'd go black and blue I'd go crawling down the aisle There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do To make you feel my love To make you feel my love To make you feel my love Mm Storms are raging On your rolling sea Down the highway of regret Winds of change are blowing Wild and free But you ain't seen Nothing like me yet There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do Go to the ends of the earth for you Make you happy Make your dreams come true To make you feel my love To make you feel my love Love To make you feel my love To make you feel my love To make you feel my love Stare away From my window Stare away From my back door too Disconnect The telephone line Relax baby And draw that line Kick off your shoes And sit right down Loosen up that Pretty French gown Let me pour you A good long drink Oh baby don't you hesitate Tonight's the night It's gonna be alright Cause I love you Ain't nobody gonna Stop us now Come on angel My heart's on fire Don't deny Your man's desire You'd be a fool To stop this time Spread your wings And let me come inside Cause tonight's the night It's gonna be alright Cause I love you Ain't nobody gonna Stop us now Don't say a word My virgin child Just let your inhibitions Run wild The secret is About to unfold Upstairs before The night's too old I'll be waiting For you I'll be waiting For you The night's too old Tonight's the night It's gonna be alright Cause I love you Ain't nobody gonna Stop us now Oh mon dieu Qu'est-ce qu'il va dire mon oignon Mon oignon Viens plus près Embrasse-moi Oh j'adore beaucoup Cette nuit est de la nuit Oh oui Cette nuit est de la nuit Oh je t'aime Je t'aime Je t'aime beaucoup Cette nuit est de la nuit Come on, come on, come on, come on Now touch me babe Can't you see That I am not afraid What was that promise That you made Why won't you tell me What she said What was that promise That you made Now I'm gonna love you Till the heavens Stop the rain I'm gonna love you Gonna love you Till the stars Fall from the sky Oh you and I Come on, come on, come on, come on Now touch me babe Can't you see That I am not afraid What was that promise That you made Why won't you tell me What she said What was that promise That you made I'm gonna love you Till the heavens Stop the rain I'm gonna love you Till the stars Fall from the sky Oh you and I I'm gonna love you Till the heavens Stop the rain I'm gonna love you Till the stars Fall from the sky Oh you and I Till the stars Fall from the sky Oh you and I I'm gonna love you Till the heavens Stop the rain I'm gonna love you Till the stars Fall from the sky Oh you and I I'm gonna love you Till the stars Fall from the sky Stop the rain Just the other night At a hometown football game My wife and I ran into My old high school flame And as I introduced them The past came back to me And I couldn't help but think The way things used to be She was the one That I'd wanted for all times And each night I'd spend praying That God would make her mine And if he'd only grant me This wish I wished back then I'd never ask for anything again Sometimes I thank God For unanswered prayers Remember when you're talking To the man upstairs And just because he doesn't answer Doesn't mean he don't care For some of God's greatest gifts Are unanswered prayers She wasn't quite the angel That I remembered in my dreams And I could tell the time changed me In her eyes to it seemed We tried to talk about the old days Wasn't much we could recall I guess the Lord knows What he's doing after all And as she walked away Well I looked at my wife And then and there I thanked the good Lord For all the gifts in my life Sometimes I thank God For unanswered prayers Remember when you're talking To the man upstairs And just because he may not answer Doesn't mean he don't care For some of God's greatest gifts Are unanswered For some of God's greatest gifts Are all too often unanswered For some of God's greatest gifts Are unanswered prayers Unanswered Prayers Under my thumb The girl who Once had me down Under my thumb The girl who once Pushed me around Is down to me The difference in the flow She wears down to me The change has come She's under my thumb Ain't nothing to fear Under my thumb The squirmy dog Who's just had her day Under my thumb A girl Who has just Changed her ways Is down to me Yes it is The way she does Just what she's told Down to me The change has come She's under my thumb Yes it is so Under my thumb The siren me Cat of a bird Under my thumb She's the sweetest Pet in the world Is down to me The way she talks When she's spoken to Down to me The change has come She's under my thumb I take it Easy way Is down to me Oh yeah The way she talks When she's spoken to Down to me The change has come She's under my thumb Yeah Here we go Under my thumb Her eyes Are just Kept To herself Under my thumb Well I I can't Still look at someone else Is down to me Oh That's what I said The way she talks When she's spoken to Down to me The change has come She's under my thumb Sing the song Sing the song Sing the song Sing the song Sing the song Sing the song Sing the song Sing the song Sing the song Sing the song Hey look at the hoof On your pamphlet you won't dare So say yeah, yeah Say yeah, yeah There ain't never a cat song you gotta do So let's do the Velcro fly Do the Velcro fly You need just enough of that sticky stuff So hold the strings on your fine blue jeans Say yeah, yeah Say yeah, yeah There ain't never a cat song you gotta do So let's do the Velcro fly Do the Velcro fly Do the Velcro fly When you feel so right When you squeeze tight When you reach the end Do it over again Say yeah, yeah Say yeah, yeah There ain't never a cat song you gotta do So let's do the Velcro fly Do the Velcro fly Work it Work it Work it Work it Work it Work it Work it Work it Work it Work it Work it Work it All of the lonely nights waiting for you to come, longing to hold you tight I need you so desperately, waiting for you to come, bringing your love to me But I've had a million years, walked a million miles, cried a million tears I'd swim the deepest sea, climb the highest hill, just to have you near me The toughest reality, when you are near to me, I am your ecstasy I swallow the pain and pride, baby, I just can't hide, falling, I feel you inside And I've had a million years, walked a million miles, cried a million tears I'd swim the deepest sea, climb the highest hill, just to have you near me A million years, I would wait for you A million tears, baby, I would do A million miles, I would follow you A million years, if you want me to Facing the floor to test, but pouring down my chest, still I can't love you, yes Swallow the pain and pride, baby, I just can't hide, falling, I feel you inside And I've had a million years, walked a million miles, cried a million tears I'd swim the deepest sea, climb the highest hill, just to have you near me I'd wait a million years, walked a million miles, cried a million tears I'd swim the deepest sea, climb the highest hill, just to have you near me I'd wait a million years, walked a million miles, cried a million tears I'd wait a million years, walked a million miles, cried a million tears I'd swim the deepest sea, climb the highest hill In this dirty old part of the city Where the sun refuses to shine People tell me it ain't no use in trying My little girl, you're so young and free And one thing I know is true You're gonna die before your time is due See my daddy in bed, he's dying See his hair turning gray He's been working and slaving his life away, I know He's been working, yeah, every day Slaving his life away, he's been working, baby He's been a- We gotta get out of this place If it's the last thing we ever do We gotta get out of this place Girl, there's a better life for me and you My little girl, you're so young and free And one thing I know is true You'll be dead before your time is due, yes you will See my daddy in bed