... Council Member Ellinger to approve the summary from November 18th. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. The motion carries. We have no budget amendments. We do have some items of new business. Council Member Hinson, I understand, has a motion. Mayor, I move to remove item B from today's new business items, as the existing accounting in the resolution is correct. So- Have a motion from Council Member Hinson to remove item B from the items of new business, and a second from Council Member James. Is there any discussion? All- all I'm... Council Member Hinson, uh, I think you said the accounting was correct. Is that- That's correct. The- this just needs to be removed because what's currently on there is correct. All right. If there's no further discussion, those in favor for removing item B, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. Make a motion to approve new business as amended. Second. Have a motion from Council Member Decamp and a second by Council Member Gordon to approve the items from new business as amended. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no? Motion carries. We're ready now for a planning committee report. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. The planning committee met November 18th, and we had discussion on several agenda items. The first was development plan adherence, and the main issues which were discussed, uh, had to do mostly with a process and having a master checklist and implementation. Uh, Joe Kelly of the administration is going to continue work on this and bring us some recommendations at either our January or February, uh, meeting. The second issue we discussed was the land bank, and Harold Tate gave this presentation, and is in the process of getting the inter-local agreements signed with the University of Kentucky and the Fayette County Public Schools for the land bank, and will be bringing that back to us in January. We hope those agreements are signed by then. The third item was, uh, the H-1 overlay process, and, um, uh, this issue will stay in committee and the- the questions surrounding it had to do with streamlining the process. Uh, fourth item was zoning violation fines. Um, Chris King of Planning and Dewey Crow of Building Inspection, uh, brought this back to us, and our, uh, the committee wants, um, us to be working with the state legislature to change the laws, because the zoning violation fines are s- set at the state level, and this is where we will be working. The New Town Pike Design Ordinance was postponed until January. The electrical inspector fee schedule, um, will be brought to us in January with a packet of comparative information, and we received an extensive update from Commissioner Marlene Helm and Lisa Berman, uh, on the day treatment facility. And there are no motions to come before the council, and that concludes my report, Mayor. Are there any questions for Council Member Gordon? All right, Council Member Stevens, do you have a report from the Corridors Committee? Uh, thank you, Mayor. The Corridors Committee met in its usual, uh, meeting last, uh, Tuesday, and I have several items to bring forward to you. The first, uh, was the Richmond Road project, and if you can put up that first image, uh, we have had on the- in the Corridors Committee a plan to, uh, clean out the creek on Richmond Road that runs in front of the Shriner's Hospital down to, uh, the firehouse, which is across from the new Applebee's. And we, uh, uh, need to d- to clean it out completely and get rid of the- the unnecessary foliage and replant, protect the creek. We'll need to do some, uh, more work on conservation easements and other things, but last Saturday morning, we arranged to- through some local Boy Scouts to, uh, clean out the creek and de-litter the area. And this is a picture of one community volunteer, Phyllis Hasbrook, helping clean out the, uh, litter along road, and that litter that we could see and not covered by snow, we picked out. And then we had about, uh, 25 Boy Scouts, and if you'll show us the second one, please. Uh, actually, uh, and these were primarily from Troop 421, which is in Georgetown and Stamping Ground, and we're very grateful to that- those scouts for coming to Lexington to help us clean out that creek. The Scout Master is in the back row there on the right. Uh, and if you'll show us the next picture, please. The solid waste was kind enough to place a dumpster next to the firehouse, which we filled up with, uh, debris and litter of various kinds, but included, uh, and we found eight shopping carts in the creek, and those are lined up there in front of the dumpster that you can see. ... uh, and the scout-- and the other Scoutmaster's standing there, and he brought along his truck, which we were able to use to transport the stuff for along Richmond Road and throw in the dumpster. So that w- turned out to be okay. Uh, I was afraid it might be too cold, but after we got started, it kinda warmed up. Uh, I did have a pair of boots and I was able to walk in the creek and I found a large number of amber bottles of various ages, which looked like they may have contained an emalted beverage of some kind in the past. But we cleaned 'em all out and it'll be waiting for us to get back there next spring when we d- finish the job. The second thing, and you can take those down if you would, please. Uh, last, uh, a week ago yesterday, we had a, a very stirring public meeting at Emmanuel Baptist Church when 150 or so citizens came to talk about placing sidewalks on Tates Creek Pike. As you know, uh, we have, uh, received a grant and Kenzie Gleason would like to speak a little bit about that. Kenzie? Kenzie's on vacation this week, but she was kind enough to come in today. She is an advocate for sidewalks in Lexington. She works in the planning division, she'll tell us some of the information. Good afternoon. Uh, Dr. Stephens asked that I speak just a minute about, uh, some of the history behind this project. Um, it has been discussed at the, from the Corridors Committee for a number of years, I think starting in 2001. But the city also went through a major planning process for bike and pedestrian facilities in 2006 and 2007, which, um, also influenced the, the status of this project. Um, that planning process included a community-wide survey and extensive public outreach. Um, one of the major concerns that we heard from our citizens was that major corridors in and out of Lexington that lack sidewalks are a major barrier to, um, improving the walkability of our city. Uh, there was a prioritization process developed and, uh, implemented through that process. Tates Creek Road received a very high priority, um, ranking in our prioritization process and that was based on connectivity to existing facilities, safety, and proximity to d- destinations such as schools, shopping centers and, uh, public parks. And, um, like I mentioned before, the, the citizen im- im- input process, there was a, a survey and Tates Creek Road received the largest number of requests for sidewalk installation of all of our major arterials, uh, during that process. The scope of the project is to install five to six foot sidewalks on both sides of Tates Creek in what we believe to be existing 10 to 12 foot right of ways. Um, it begins approximately at Monclair Drive near the Enclave on the west side of Tates Creek and, uh, Lakewood Drive on the east side and extends all the way to Dun- Dove Run Road and the Landsdown Shopping Center. It also connects some existing sidewalks, um, that are located along that section of the roadway. Uh, it will also connect the stub sidewalks to the neighborhood. Currently the streets that em- empty out into Tates Creek, there are sidewalks leading from the neighborhoods, but then, um, terminate there at Tates Creek Road. Uh, the funding source for this grant is congestion mitigation and air quality improvement funds. These are federal funds that are administered through the tr- State Transportation Cabinet. Um, local governments compete for these fundings through a grant application process. Um, these funds cannot be used for any projects that are related or not related to transportation, I should say, and, uh, those projects also cannot be used for those that ar- improve any single vehicle occupancy use, so they must be used to improve or, um, enhance alternative transportation or, or other, um, vehicular reduction remedies. The amount of the grant is approximately one million total, 200 of which is local funds, 800,000 of which is federal grant funds. And once these funds are in place and contracted with the state, we'll begin a design process. That's all that I had to add, Dr. Stephens. Thank you. Are there any questions that, uh, Kenzie might answer for you? Thank you very much. Coun- Council Member Tenant. Thank you, Mayor. J- j- just a quick question, Kenzie. Um, you mentioned a priori- a priority list. Do you have a copy of that list that you can get to all the council members as well as the criteria that you used to prioritize each of the roads? Sure. And you mentioned one of the criteria was the number of responses back or the feedback from the public. Is that one of the main criteria to use to prioritize the list? Actually, in the planning process, um, we did not use public requests as the main criteria. It was more quantitative in terms of, um, safety, connectivity, and number of destinations that it would serve. Um, one of the reasons why we didn't place the highest emphasis on public input was that the survey we conducted was self-selective, so there were certain areas of town that were represented more greatly in that survey than others. Um, what we have used the public input process for is to help us, um, identify areas of support for particular projects and, um, move certain projects forward. So if we get a lot of requests from the public that they would like, um, a grant application, for instance, submitted on a project, we'll consider that. Um, the high, medium and low priority projects, there are many projects within that category. There may be 15 projects within a high, um, priority category, and we have some leeway within that, um, as to which projects we move forward. So that is where our public input process often, um, weighs in the, the most. So I assume the, the Corridors Committee chose the survey areas. You said w- you picked selected areas to survey to determine the need. Um, the survey that we conducted was- ... distributed by the web and by email versus various listservs that we're aware of, for instance, neighborhood associations. Um, I don't believe it was distributed directly through any corridors committee outreach process. And what's the plan going forward? Assume we approve this one, what's next step? Are you, uh, do you all plan on asking another 200,000 every year from this money, to go towards new sidewalks each year? Is that what- We would like to submit a grant request for sidewalks on at leach- at least one major corridor each year, yes. So we're currently considering those projects that we might like to bring forward in this grant application cyc- cycle. All right. I look forward to your list. Thank you. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Dr. Stephens, thank you for this report, and Kenzie, thank you. Uh, as you remember, the, one of the concerns that several people raised was the safety issue, and I wondered how, how you're going to go about answering the safety questions that they've- Yes, ma'am. ... asked of you. I've, uh, asked Lieutenant Holman in the police department to review and document all the pedestrian fatalities that we've had in Lexington, uh, over the last several years. He couldn't remember one on a sidewalk that had occurred. Any place? That's right. Uh, uh, there may have been one, some, many years ago, where somebody, uh, uh, lost control of the car and went on a sidewalk, but it's very unusual. Most of the pedestrian fatalities have been on people walking in the road or along, say along New Circle Road where there's no sidewalk. And, uh, but where there's a pedestrian access even on Versailles Road, where the sidewalk's right next to the sidewalk, I mean, to the street, uh, there have been no recorded fatalities. He is working on that report now, but, and will have the facts in a, in a short while. And then my second question was about, I, I realize this is very preliminary, which you did bring out at the meeting, and that there's no design yet, but I do want to be sure that in that phase, um, that we're kept apprised of that area where old Mount Tabor, uh, ends at Tates Creek and where the, um, right of way is full of bushes and trees, and they come almost right up to the edge of Tates Creek Road. And, uh, that concern was brought forward by citizens who live back there, and because that serves as screening for them, and so as the process moves forward, I'm hopeful that we can, um, b- be apprised of how to deal with that particular area which is different from the rest of Tates Creek where the, the growth of bushes and things is farther back off the right of way. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Stephens. Okay, on the, on the 17th, we did have this public meeting, and as I mentioned, there were a large number of people here. There is opposition to this sidewalk issue, and, uh, of the 32 people who testified at our public meeting, uh, 10 were opposed and 22 supported the project. And since then, uh, I have gotten a lot of emails, as has Kenzie, and letters supporting the project. There have been a few still who are opposed. Uh, the Carter's Committee thought it was, would like to move this project along and to answer the pending questions such as you ask, we have to do some inve- eng- engineering and environmental work before those can be answered. So, uh, I've sent all the council a proposed resolution that the counsi- the Carter's Committee passed. It's also been passed by the Town & Gun Commission or approved, uh, and I asked and I distributed to you this, uh, resolution today which says after several whereas, it's that the Carter's Committee requests the Urban County Council to approve the necessary actions to answer the pending questions regarding the project and reaffirm the council's support of the project. So I so move. Second. Heard the motion. Is there any discussion? Council Member Beard? Thank you, Mayor. Um, two or three things. Um, it's probably no secret to anybody up here and maybe a lot of folks back there that I've been in opposition to the, uh, these sidewalks. Uh, the original survey that was mentioned, I don't believe any of the occupants of homes along Tates Creek Pike were surveyed. Um, I find that somewhat strange from a, a, uh, a, uh, sampling point of view. Um, there is, and I believe you all have, Kenzie, a, um, a copy of the petition, 61 people primarily from the Fourth District, uh, oppose this, um, which is not all of them came to the meeting that night, Dr. Stephens, but, uh, that, that, um, petitioned, uh, somewhat outweighs the, uh, the 22 that, uh, you mentioned that spoken at that, uh, that meeting. Um, real concerns which, uh, Council Member Gordon, uh, brought up concerning safety, uh, the unanswered question of, uh, whether we actually have 10 to 12 feet of right of way. Either, I believe that, um, it was mentioned by, uh, uh, one of the engineers that, uh, it, it narrowed at some points along there. ... which case, if you put a five or six-foot sidewalk in the middle, their elbows are gonna be brushing cars as they, uh, as they're walking along, uh, at least the, well, either side for that matter, that ar-area that you mentioned, um, Council Member, uh, Gordon, con, uh, where the vegetation somewhat would push people out. We have a, a couple on, uh, the west side also. Um, ve-vegetation that's been used as, as, um, a s-a sound barrier or buffer. Um, and then, uh, some stronger or crisper estimation of what it's actually gonna cost to do this. Um, right now, we're talking about a million dollars, but, um, um, the, uh, there, there is some sentiment to think that it might f-far exceed that. Um, and I just want the rest of the council to be aware of that, also. Uh, so, uh, I would like to see those questions answered, as would, I'm sure, most everybody else u-up here, but I'm not going to be able to support this today. Council Member Blevins. Thank you, Mayor. I serve on the Ser-Quarters Committee and I supported this motion on the Co-Quarters Committee for the following reasons, which pretty much address your points, Council Member Beard. Much of the opposition at the public meeting, and present at our Quarters Committee meeting, had to do with questions about the infrastructure impact if we lay the sidewalks, uh, changes to the streetscape and the trees and which trees would be in and which trees would be out, are we gonna move utilities? All sorts of questions that can only be answered by literally the next step in the project, which is to go ahead and do the engineering work. And that's what the intent behind this proposal was, "Let's go ahead and do the engineering work, let's do the, uh, environmental impact, so that when we meet with the neighbors again, we will have the answers to many of the questions." And I believe a lot of the opposition will f-will fall away as we see e-exactly where the, the sidewalk will go, and what the exact impacts are. One other further point is included in the grant, as I understand it, is allocated money for landscaping to be replaced if there are trees or bushes or what have you that need to be moved or replaced. So I, again, I support this motion. I think it's time to go ahead and take that next step and do the engineering work and see where we stand, so that we have a concrete proposal in front of us all to discuss. Thanks, Mayor. Council Member DeCamp. Uh, thank you, Mayor. I am, just to follow up on that, I am assuming that after the engineering study is done and, uh, they find out that maybe this isn't enough money, then we'll go back to square one, um, Dr. Stephens and, um- Well, we'll be in the dead duck land then, so I'm not sure- Because I think that it has been an issue that's been brought up by several of the people. I mean, th-there are some major engineering, uh, feats there that need to be done and, uh, so just so the public knows that, um, this is what we'd be looking at and, uh, they aren't gonna be starting to pour concrete in the spring, so. Vice Mayor Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Um, my comments really are, are, are reflecting some that others have made already. Um, but there does seem to, at least from the conversations that I've had from some of the residents, um, some of the pushback has been associated with the questions that Council Member Blevins, um, just introduced in terms of communicating well what it is we're doing and when. Um, th-what that, that is to say that there seems to be confusion about whether the trees and when that, those decisions will be m-made, um, and that that is a part of this phase of the project, right? Uh, yes. The, uh, engineers have, have looked at it, but they haven't done the studies necessary to- The detailed- ... answer those questions. The detailed studies of where the sidewalk would go, how they would, uh- That's correct and, uh- ... adjust to any existing *** and so forth. ... this, uh, resolution that I've offered would not make... it's not a final decision. Those, that decision will be pending this e-evaluation investigation. Any further questions or discussion? I suppose the motion would be to put this resolution on the docket for the next, uh, council meeting for approval, right? Yes, sir. All right. Uh, is there any, any further discussion? Council Member Gordon has seconded. All in favor of adding this resolution to the docket for the December 4th meeting, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. No. Motion carries with, uh, Council Member Beard voting no. Anything further, Dr. Stephens? No. Thank you very much. Then we're ready to move on and it's my pleasure to welcome Tom Webb from, uh, our Department of Environmental Quality to the podium. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council Members. My name's Tom Webb. I'm the Environmental Compliance Coordinator for the Division of Environmental Policy and I also have the honor of chairing the LFUCG Energy Management Team and I'm here today to present the LFU-UCG Annual Energy Efficiency Award. We established this award in 2005 to recognize divisions that have taken steps to become more energy efficient. The Energy Management Team, made up of representatives from the Divisions of Facilities and Fleet Management, Central Purchasing, General Services, Law, Fire and Emergency Services, Budgeting, Community Corrections, Parks and Recreation, and Division of Environmental Policy reviewed the nominations that we received this year and selected Parks and Recreation to receive this awar- this year's awards. Parks and Recreation will receive this plaque recognizing their efforts that they have made, that they can display at their location at the division. And they'll also have their name placed in a plaque at the government center lobby, next to elevators, the perpetual plaque you guys have seen down there. Director Jerry Hancock is here to accept this award for Parks and Recreation. And I'd actually like to read th- the language from the award, so you guys will know what it's for, the, the specific steps. But this 2008 Energy Efficiency Award is being presented to the Division of Parks and Recreation for undertaking numerous projects in 2008 to reduce the amount of energy used at their facilities. This in- includes replacing in- inefficient incandescent fixtures at Dunbar Community Center and Castlewood Community Center with energy efficient T8 lighting fixtures, as well as replacing inefficient lamps with T8 fixtures at Kenwood Community Center. They also installed energy efficient T8 lighting fixtures at Oakwood, Whitney Young, Middlethorpe, and Woodhill Neighborhood Centers, as well as Camp Kearney and in 22 restroom facilities. Additionally, Parks and Recreation continued to use energy efficient LED lighting for holiday displays. They also purchased energy efficient LED scoreboards, programmable thermostats, and LED exit signs for the facilities. In addition to saving money, installing this equipment helps protect the environment, reduce our carbon footprint, and conserve our natural resources. Here, would you like to say a word? Thanks, Tom. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Mayor and Council. There are three people that made this happen. I was not one of those. They're here. I'd like them to rise, so they could accept your applause as well. Mr. Ed Chaney, our Operations Manager at Madison... at Madison, at Masterson Station Park, Anthony Kelly, the head of our electricians team, and John Mangione, who may or may not be here. Those three people made it happen and they're the ones that deserve this award. So thank you all. Thank you very much and congratulations to everybody in Parks and Recreation. Um, Renee Jackson, if you'll step to the podium please. Mayor Newberry, Vice Mayor Gray, and members of council, thank you for allowing us to come back today. When we presented our survey with Preston Osborne a few months ago, several of you asked, "What are you supposed to do with all this information that you get from the various studies that are conducted?" So several of us that are in this room here today have been working over the last several months to cross-reference the different information that's been, uh, gathered on downtown. And our intention is not to say that anyone is not doing their job, but to simply say that we have got to do a better job, a more efficient job. So first I'm gonna ask Linda Hollenbeck, she's the Vice President of Customer Services at Lexmark, to come up and briefly talk about the minority recruiting and retention study that Lexmark conducted along with, um, Toyota. And these are two very large and important employers here in our community, and they contribute greatly to the economic vitality of our community. And then Randy Lisk of Lisk and Associates is gonna come up and connect the dots for us. So Linda, if you could please come up. Madam Clerk, could you start the timer for us please? Thank you, Renee. Good afternoon, Mayor Newberry, Vice Mayor Gray, and distinguished members of the council. I'm honored to be here today to tell you about the findings of the important working group that I've been working with and associated with over the past year. The focus of this group was minority recruitment and retention. While the work of this group is still ongoing, we have some findings that support the conclusions of the Downtown Entertainment and Development Task Force and other important efforts that Randy Lisk will discuss in more detail later today. Given the time constraints, I'll give you a brief background on our effort, but I won't go into great detail. Please let me know if you'd like any additional information and I'd be happy to provide it offline. This effort, as Renee mentioned, was primarily driven by Lexmark and Toyota, both major employers in the area, along with the guidance and participation of distinguished community representatives, including two people well-known in this chamber, Jim Gray and Artie Green. It was started because Lexmark and Toyota recognized that we face a challenge in both recruiting and retaining minority talent. We recognize that diversity is fundamental to our long-term success. Our customers are not homogeneous, so having diverse creative talent is critical to our ability to meet the wants and needs of our diverse customer base. In short, we viewed having a more diverse workforce as a competitive advantage, a competitive necessity. We're asking Lexington to consider thinking about it in the same way. All these points apply to our community as well. While we began this effort with a premise that our challenges in getting and keeping minority professionals in our organizations were due to Lexington area not being particularly welcoming of minorities, we started there, but we approached our problem not as a social issue, but as a clear business issue for us. As part of our work, we felt it was important to talk with these young professionals who represented the target group from within our organizations. The results of these discussions from young professionals from both Lexmark and Toyota were quite, were quite surprising. Not one, not a single one mentioned racial issues as the top factor in their views of the Lexington community. It was clearly not what we expected when we started talking to them. However, all of them mentioned the need for more entertainment opportunities, more cultural programs, live music, festivals. The list of ideas and activities went on and on as we talked to them. They asked for more cultural programs, and they looked for a more vibrant and welcoming downtown area, including more affordable and appropriate housing. In their words, they were not looking to continue in substandard campus housing or, um, housing wi- married with children in the 'burbs. They were looking for something more vital that's what was important to them. And they were also looking for better sources of information about where to eat, music, and art. Any of this sound familiar? When we heard this, we realized that our original premise may have been a bit off, but that the concerns raised clearly supported some of the findings of the group that Randy will speak to you next. We're gonna continue working on these issues related to minority recruitment and retention because we know there's more to do. We're gonna continue to support the efforts of the Urban League, Commerce Lexington, and others, but we thought it was very important to share with this council these findings and how our findings support the conclusions of the Downtown Entertainment Task Force, Infill and Redevelopment Task Force, et cetera. We also felt important to demonstrate these issues we're discussing, entertainment, festivals, restaurants, cultural events are no longer social luxuries. They are economic imperatives. Companies like ours need young, diverse talent to effectively compete in our global marketplace. These young professionals we're trying to recruit no longer go where the job is. They pick a place they wanna live and then they find a job. And we heard it over and over as we interviewed them. One of their primary ri- requirements is for a vibrant d- downtown and appropriate entertainment options. We need, as Lexington, as the City of Lexington, to recognize that meeting these requirements isn't just important social issue but a business-critical economic development issue. For this reason, we began a new way of recruiting young professionals to Lexington. In October, we launched a new technical rotation program to lure the best, brightest, and most diverse college grads to Lexmark. Surprising, you might find it interesting, we weren't looking for people or couldn't actually attract people starting in December of this year. We had to look for May of '09 graduates because the December grads are already snatched up. In rolling out the red carpet to this diverse group of young professionals, we listened to our own young professionals and decided to showcase the progress that's already been made in our downtown since our return from Commerce Lexington's leadership visit in Austin. We put candidates in downtown hotels. We hosted a reception at the Main & Rose Loft Apartments and let, and let them experience the downtown nightlife with our own young professionals. We had help from community leaders, including Vice Mayor Gray and Councilman Jay McCord, who shared with these young professionals that they can impact and move this community immediately through engagement. What better time than now to come to this town as, as they see and we see the landscape changing and have leaders like those who spoke to them make a difference in our community? What a difference these stories made to the people who came to visit us. Enhancing the downtown area with better entertainment and dining options and information sources will help us make Lexington far more attractive to these young professionals that we're working so hard to recruit and, more importantly, retain. I know there's a lot of talk and a lot of study about the things to do in the downtown area for development, but currently, we don't believe that we're, uh, enough is being done fast enough in the eyes of the young professionals as we heard from them. We're asking to consider something to change, and we urge you from a leadership perspective to recognize the need to invest and foster an environment more attractive to these young professionals of all races, thus increasing the city's diversity and making it easier for Lexmark and Toyota, as well as other companies in the area to get the talent we need to remain successful in the challenging markets we, in which we compete. I'd like to show you just a very brief video showcasing a number of the folks that we, that we interviewed as well as our task force. So if you could roll that video. Hang on a second. Okay. I love it. I love it. There you go. Nice. There you go. All right, cut. Cut. So since we're not having much success here, what I'd like to do is just close with the last few comments, because I, I don't think we're gonna be able to hear the video. As I left the office today, I just wanted to let you know, our Vice President of Development, and a leader in the National Society for Women Engineers approached me as I was leaving, and shared with me that we need to make Lexington an exciting and vital city. It would be the best thing we could do to attract these very, very necessary and very critical talent to our organization. So, I thank you for your time and interest in this matter, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. All right. Did you have Randy? Mayor Newberry, Vice Mayor Gray, council members, thank you for having us here this afternoon. Um, Linda's pretty powerfully made the first point that we want to make is that this idea of a vibrant downtown's not particularly a social issue or nice-to-have issue. It's a must-have for the future of, uh, of our economy. Thank you. Left, please. This is the slide that makes that point, and I'm gonna go through it, past it because Linda's made it well. So my, yeah, then we look at, so what have we been doing downtown recently? This slide shows 10 studies that have been done in the last few years. It's not important particularly to know what each one is. We've got the background down to the nitty-gritty detail if you need it. The point of this slide is that all these 10 studies have said pretty much the same thing, that we have a need for a vibrant downtown. Now, this eye test down in the lower right is just there not for you to read the details, but to say, if you look across these 10 recent studies, and you'll see those gray areas where four or five or six blocks are checked on any given row, that says that four or five or six of those studies agreed and told us the same thing. So two points to take from this slide. Point one, we've done a lot of studying. And point two, these studies all are telling us pretty much the same thing about what is required to move forward in a vibrant downtown. In particular, there were four key areas that came up a lot, and this slide illustrates those. The one on the left says downtown marketing and branding, to get the word out even more. Second one is about the permitting and zoning process. The third one is about the bricks and mortar itself, the streetscape. And on the right is the financial help that we need. The arrows going up from the bottom illustrate number of projects, strategies, suggestions, roadmaps that have come out of these 10 studies, and there are literally hundreds of ideas. So my point on this slide is, there's, uh, four key things that we need to look at, and we have a lot of ideas about how to move forward. Now, you might ask, "So with all this stuff, how are we doing?" And it depends on who you ask. I mean, some people say great, and some people say lousy. And we have made progress downtown, and I think most people would say that we still have a lot to do. So we say, "What's going on? Why haven't we made better progress?" This slide is easier than it looks. If you'll walk through it with me starting in the middle, it says a vibrant downtown. The title of this slide is translating all these recommendations into results. Now, this is not just about a vibrant downtown. This applies to anything that you're trying to accomplish. If you want to lose 20 pounds in the new year, this same thing is gonna apply. When Lexmark brings a product online, this same thing applies. So the way you read it is, anytime we're trying to create something new, like a vibrant downtown, the accelerator, the loop on the left, is dominant first. And so we've had a lot of action in that left-hand loop. We've had studies and task forces and projects, and many recommendations, and all that supports us moving forward. So we feel like we're moving forward. And then as we start into the implementation, this right-hand loop comes in, and sooner or later, any project hits some challenges. We've listed some of those there, turf issues, lack of collaboration, lack of process. You may have your own favorite one you'd like to list. But the point is that when we hit these things on the right, the brake, then that goes counter to creating the vibrant downtown. We get stuck. We get stymied. And anybody that's driven a car knows if somebody's got their foot on the brake, pushing on the gas, it doesn't get you anywhere, and it annoys the car. So the takeaway of this slide and the way it's used for me is, where's the leverage in this system? The leverage is not on trying to do more with an accelerator. We don't need any more studies. What we need to do is get our foot off the brake. I hope this conclusion and recommendation slide gets me labeled Mr. Obvious at the end of it. A vibrant downtown's vital to Lexington's prosperity. It is not an economic development issue, it's an economic survival issue. And the clock is ticking. This is sort of the perfect example of the boiled frog that you've all heard about, they gradually raise the water and cook the frog. The water's heating up for us downtown. Every day, if Lexmark and Toyota are finding it harder to recruit, it's gonna be harder for them to stay in the game here. And every day, there's another company that's looking at Lexmark and other cities, Austin and Greenville and so forth, about where to set up their next shop. And if we're not on that short list, then our finances are gonna be a lot worse in the future than they are now, because this is what contributes, as you well know, to the tax base and to spending downtown. We have two recommendations and one is to agree that we aren't moving fast enough in developing a vibrant downtown, and number two is to implement ways to get off the brake as soon as possible. Um, tw- twenty seconds to say I'm here because I'm a community volunteer. Um, I've done some facilitation for this Downtown Educa- En- Entertainment Task Force, and it was interesting when we first met, we met around Smiley Pete's conference table and in about two meetings, we outgrew that and moved into Bob Quick's conference room and pretty soon, we had almost standing room only on those meetings. There was tremendous interest, energy, we had a diverse group of players. We literally had the whole system in the room. And so for me, as a Lexingtonian, I have a lot of faith that we have the potential here to accomplish this if we have the will to do it. Thank you. Thanks, Randy and Linda and, uh, Renee. We appreciate your, your insights today. I think you all were here because Council Member Crosby had expressed some interest in a little more detail about the discussions that had been taking place, and I appreciate your, your making the effort to provide that. Um, Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. And I wanna thank you all, um, because earlier today, uh, we were in a Council, the whole meeting, and I had mentioned to all of my colleagues up here that, uh, there are people in our community that are tired of talk. They're tired of task force, they're tired of task force that don't get created, that drag on forever and they don't implement. And what you're seeing is a result of that. That what, what we have in our community are a lot of people very interested, and Mr., as Mr. List said, you get standing room only for something that we wanna see this done and then nothing gets done. Well, what's at stake there is the investment of, of people's time, which is a whole lot more important than their money. And if they lose interest, then, then that will, that interest and that energy will go somewhere else and it's just that much harder to get it, uh, refocused. Um, there was a Creative Cities Conference in Detroit a few weeks ago that a number of folks attended from our, our city. And this, the glaring stat that everybody in here needs to absorb is, is that in 1980, 80 plus percent of young professionals made their decision of where they would live solely based on job. So if your job moves you to Akron, Ohio, that's where you lived. Today, 77% of young professionals find a city based on quality of life and then they find a job. The three years, uh, in the late '90s when the dot-com bust happened, around 1999, 2000, Austin, Texas lost 30,000 jobs overnight. In a three-year period, they lost 30,000 jobs, but those people did not move. They waited tables, they, they, uh, bartended. You had PhDs bartending and driving taxi cabs because of the place and what it had to offer and the fact that they had confidence that it was gonna rebound. And what, what drives me crazy is somebody who is very invested in this, as was mentioned, I spent a lot of time talking to young professionals about, "Why Lexington?" And what we're not doing is we're not reaching down and giving a compelling story. We're not saying to young professionals why they should be here. It's kind of an assumed answer. You know, "Well, it's great," you know, and so forth, and, and that's not really the case. Um, what, what we need to recognize, and I appreciate y'all bringing this, is what are the immediate steps that this body can take? What are the immediate places we need to put money, uh, and, and, uh, shrinking resources, where can we put that for maximum effect? And that's what it, why a group like yours is so important and why I would encourage people not to be discouraged, uh, and to keep pushing on. But one of the most simple things that we can do for a vital downtown that this body has the power to do, is to change the sign ordinance today. I mean, we're not gonna do it today, but we could do that today. When urban renewal happened, it whitewashed our downtown, and what you have is you have flat buildings that you zip on by and you have no idea. Rosenberg's moved, uh, the, the jewelry store moved. Most people know it's on Main Street, but couldn't tell you exactly where it is. In the 1970s, he had a phenomenal sign that was out there that was taken off by urban renewal. He's still got the sign. We could put that up. The only thing that has character in our downtown right now is the Kentucky Theater 'cause it's the only thing that sticks out. So what we're saying is if you're, if we're gonna take these people at their word, at what the work they've been doing for two years now really, then we as a body need to recognize this is something within our power, we can do that today. And I would encourage this body to go in and look at, at the sign ordinance and moving forward on that. But it's also about us investing our money and taxpayer money in the downtown as well, and that's a piece that we haven't done as a government. The headlines of the Herald-Leader should constantly read that tens and hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment have been put into our downtown during some of the worst economic times. Think about that for a second. We're not talking about one developer, we're talking about multiple developers putting tens and hundreds of millions of dollars into our downtown, risking that. ... and what have we done for them? What are we as a body, what is we as a government, and we as a people doing for those people that have gone into some significant risk? Those are the types of things that we really need to do and address as it relates to these folks. And again, I appreciate what you're saying and you certainly have my ear and my full, uh, energies on this. And I would encourage my council colleagues to let- let's start with a signed ordinance and then go from there. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Other comments from the council? Yeah, Vice Mayor Gray. Thanks, Mayor. Council Member McCord has done a good job of illustrating sentiments that I suspect many of us share here on the council. Um, I personally just want to thank the people that are here today and that have worked so hard and, um, spent hundreds and thousands of hours literally in not just needing, but really examining and chasing not just symptoms, but root causes. And that was what was a remarkable outcome that Linda was describing. The initial hypothesis, the initial idea was that Lexington was an oppressive environment, was unwelcoming, and this was influencing the ab- the la- the, uh, lack of retention or the le- the diminished ability to recruit minorities. And what was discovered unexpectedly through actually talking to people was it wasn't that. It was that we're just not... The place is just a little bit too boring. We're just not getting it. I tried to find another way to say that, but I couldn't. I'm sorry. And that's what, but that's what we were, that's what we were all hearing. And then connecting the dots, which is what Randy illustrated, through so many of these initiatives that have been undertaken in the last several years was critically important and so for us now today, we're hearing, you know, some might say, "Couldn't be a worse time to hear this message." But some others might say, "Couldn't be a better time." Sometimes when you're at the bottom, you know, it's nowhere e- nowhere else to go but up. And we can believe that we can manage this toward opportunity. That's our opportunity. That's what we have the inspiring opportunity to- to today look for. Thank you, Mayor. Any other comments by members of the council? I have, uh, been advised that there are four individuals who wishes to, who are here who wish to speak to, uh, this particular issue and if there'd be no objection, I thought now might be appropriate time to let them speak. Um, first on the list is Jamie Millard. I don't see Jamie. There he is. All right, if you'll step forward, Jamie. You'll, you'll have three minutes. I'll be as brief as I can and, and council and mayor and vice mayor, appreciate the opportunity to, to talk with you for just a minute or two. I'd like to piggyback on something that Council Member McCord said about the investment that's being made in downtown by developers. While we now know that if you're in development, you're in for a profit motive, I'd like to talk about some other investment that's being made in downtown Lexington by the nonprofit sector that is creating an infrastructure of attraction to downtown and it's creating a network of places to go, we talk about... And I, I speak for only one of those nonprofits. I don't pretend to speak for any of the others. But we have what we call the Museums on Short Street, and that is the Explorium, Arts Place, and the Lexington History Museum. The Explorium has undergone new management. Some great exciting ideas are coming that are attracting families with children downtown. Arts Place has taken on some initiatives that have international, national implications for Lexington. The History Museum, uh, and we are doing a lot of heavy lifting as you well know, and I won't go in, into any more detail there, but we are seeing, uh, a vast increase, uh, in visitors to the History Museum, in families with children at the History Museum. Anchoring on either end of Main Street is the Henry Clay Estate and the Mary Todd Lincoln home, and within that corridor, you have the story of Lincoln in Lexington and how this city contributed to national growth in the early days of the Republic. To the north you have Gratz Park, uh, the, uh, Literacy Center to the sa- and of course Transylvania University, uh, and then to the south you have the University of Kentucky. So you have this, this framework to work in, but when you go from one to the next, as Renee's pointed out more than once, that's where you get into the hodgepodge. That's where you get into is this city alive and vibrant or am I just sit- hitting a couple of high spots in the middle of all this empty storefronts? Uh, and, and signage may be part of that, uh, Council Member McCord, but I think there's a lot more that needs to lead people who are already downtown, they're staying at the hotels, but they come out of the hotel and they're looking for something to do and they're not seeing the, the total picture. When I have a family of four ask me, "Where can we buy a can of Coke and some bottled water?" I can't tell them where to go. I can tell them there are a couple of soda fountains, uh, downtown, but there's no vending opportunities downtown. And that's just part of the experience that people expect to have when they come into an entertainment area where they can see that they're going to be entertained. Right now, the, we bring them into what I believe is a blighted area and then we try to point to them where to go to be entertained. So we want to be part of that accelerator. We don't want to be a break. Uh, but the nonprofits can't do it at all because we're dependent in a very difficult situation in finding that extra change in somebody's pocket that they're willing to give to us so that we can continue our o- our operations. So thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Next I have Griffin Van Meter, and after Griffin, Van Pettit, if you'd, uh, stand by. Hello. Thank you, council members, mayor, and vice mayor for letting me come up and speak. Uh, I speak to you, one, as a volunteer on a lot of these task forces, um, and also as a downtown business owner. And, um, and I guess I'd like to say, one, I support all of the studies that have come out of, um, or the conclusions that have come out of these studies, uh, via the DLC, uh, what Randy talked about in the Lexmark, um, Toyota study. And also to support what Jay McCord, uh, spoke about, that we do need to create a quality of place fund, uh, and a group that oversees this fund to, um, to implement, uh, to implement these changes and these, um, these suggestions that have been suggested to us through, um, all these studies. So thank you. And I know, uh, my cousin Van Meter can be a little long-winded, so I'd like to give him my, uh, my extra two minutes. Well, wa- with that duly noted, Mr., uh- Petit. ... Pettit, you'll have five minutes. Uh, Van Meter, pet- thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. He knows me too well. Um, you know, what I, I would like to speak to, and thank everybody that has been working on these task forces and, and it's true, it's kind of dizzying the number of master plans that we've done and task forces that we've done and there is no end to good, positive energy that we've exercised. And so, you know, I ... If you look at Lexington, Kentucky, we are, you know, a flagship university town nested in a world heritage monument landscape, and we have the bourbon industry and the horse industry as global signifiers to who we are. And yet, when you compare us to other university cities around the country and other small cities around the country, and now as a, as a blessing of having a company, the chamber all over the, the country look into these cities, it's glaringly obvious now that we are a day late and a dollar short in competing with the great cities, the great small cities of America. And there's no other way to say it. We've studied it to death and we are 20 years and multiples of 100 millions dollars behind our competition. And it's not just signage. It's everything. I, when I first got civically active in Lexington, I, I sat on a parks, uh, advisory or, or, uh, I forget what the exact term was, but we had a, a national survey done, a national surveyor who said we were $80 million in the hole on facilities and maintenance. Well, we're still there. It's a decade later. We did the study. We didn't implement what was necessary. And that was in the very, you know, nascent time for trails and we now understand that trails are a critical component of, of a city attracting people. And our downtown urban spaces, we've had $200 million invested in private risk and where is the public investment to match that? It's not there. It's not, it's not adequately there. And I'm not trying to impugn anybody or any particular leadership. It's more that I think we need to motivate our community and bring awareness to the community at large that despite our best efforts thus far, uh, we just simply have to raise the bar. And, you know, any company, like these companies that have spoken to us, any company that fails to invest in its infrastructure will not long compete. And as we have learned from the EPA consent decree, we kind of looked the other way for a matter of decades and under-invested in our infrastructure. And we're sort of being punished for that and we're having to come up with money quickly to solve it, but no one's gonna punish us for having a l- a lame downtown. And nobody's gonna punish us for having a parks, a park system that is under the, the, the national average and various other amenities. We have to do that to ourselves. We have to see that like we have been with sewers, we've also been that way with a lot of amenities that create quality of life. And, you know, as I think it's now abundantly clear from all these, uh, civic, active task forces and leadership, we've got to just forge a consensus and make an action plan and execute it. And if that is very likely gonna take resources that we don't currently have, we've gotta have a heart-to-heart with the community that no investment, no progress. Quality of life is, is the future of our prosperity. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the list is Tom Martin. I understand Bobby Clark wishes to speak. Is there anyone else? All right. Uh, all right. Bobby, then Tom. Thank you very much. Um, it's really great, uh, to follow so many people who've covered all the ground that I wanted to cover 'cause it makes it very easy. Um, but I just wanted to just take a second as, as, uh, the person who's chaired the Downtown Entertainment Development Task Force, uh, over the past months to reiterate what Councilman McCord has been saying, what Vice Mayor Gray has been saying, what everybody else has been saying, that, uh, we're at a point now where I think we, we want to see less talk and more walk. We want to see implementation. What specifically are we talking about? We -- we would like to see, uh, an aggressive effort made to recruit entrepreneurial activity downtown. Uh, perhaps that should take the form of incentives, although we are very well-aware of the environment that we're in now and the even greater challenges that are presented economically to this city, uh, in light of that. Uh, I would just like to offer that as we enter these times that are apparently ahead of us, that the idea that we need to be all the more inventive, because this whole thing started with one imperative. What really got this going was the World Equestrian Games. That's what really sparked, uh, uh, our call to action. It's coming in 2010, and we all know it. But what also is going to come eventually is recovery from this economic situation that we're in, and we need to be positioned as a community and a city to take full advantage of that. And that also is what this is all about. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Mr. Clark, then Mr. Mars, then Mr. Cobb. Uh, thank you, uh, Council, Mayor, Vice-Mayor. I appreciate the opportunity to come today and speak. Uh, my name's Bobby Clark. I'm a local publisher, but I also work with a technology firm out of Covington, called Tier 1 Performance Solutions. Uh, Tier 1 and Preston Osborne, I saw Phil back there, he didn't know I was coming in to speak today, have partnered with, uh, the Lincoln Trail Area Development District and the, uh, uh, the Wired 65 Initiative. Wired is the Workforce Innovation Regional Economic Development, and this is not a very, uh, good chart, but it's an important chart to, to show, uh, that this is the number of worker shortage, uh, shortages predicted in this country. As you see, in 2010, we're not growing enough young people or bodies to serve in all the jobs that our economy is creating. I know we're having some challenges with those jobs right now. Uh, however, as you see the workforce shortage continuing to go down, every community in this country is facing a serious shortfall of workers due to the baby boomers getting older and getting ready to retire. And, uh, Lincoln Trail, uh, and the Wired 65 Initiative, uh, spent a half a million dollars studying and doing much of the things that this task force has done, probably with a lot less money, uh, to find out that, that our community's being challenged because we're not reaching out to, to young people and, and creating an environment to where they want to come and live and work. In fact, uh, we heard a speaker on November 7th, uh, Rebecca Ryan, who wrote the book Live First, Work Second. Uh, very dynamic speaker, uh, and her whole premise is related to this issue of re- attracting young people. Uh, she said in her book, three out of four Americans under the age of 28 said that a cool city is more important than a good job. Uh, the work life calculus for the next generation has shifted. Their parents may have followed a job or a promotion or corporate marching orders, but the next generation will not be following their bliss, choosing cool cities and then finding ways to work. I heard, uh, uh, futurist, uh, Ed Barlow speak a couple of years ago, and he predicts that within five years, and that's three years from now if his prediction's correct, that the average, uh, worker will have to retrain in their jobs every three to three and a half years to deal with the jobs of the current employer that they're working with. And so I just want to echo today what I, I heard on TV before coming here today, some of the other speakers, Randy Lisk and others, uh, that ha- you, you're already ahead of the game. You, you recognize the problem, but it's gonna take some investment. It's gonna take some creative ways of investing in young people to keep them here and keep them working in the jobs as me and others get older and, and start looking to, to retirement. Uh, Richard Florida wrote the f- uh, wrote the forward to this book, and he, he talks about the same message that... Regardless of zip code, their native language, or their vocation, members of the creative class, this young- younger group, place as much emphasis on where and how they live as where they work. So, since I've got three seconds left, I'll close with that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Clark. Mr. Mars. I wasn't going to speak today, but, uh, Renee's presentation was really good, so I wanna try to be coherent. Sometimes I get scattered, I'm sorry. I really love this diagram right here. Uh, the break, this is fascinating stuff. On the r- if you can... Can you zoom in on that? On the right-hand side, especially, the break part. If you can scoot over to your left maybe a little bit. The break, look at all those things, not allowed, No Because, Turf Issues, Collaboration, Process, Accountability. It's leadership. In meetings I go to, time and time again, no matter who it is, who's involved, who's talking, the conversation always come, comes back to that break right there. Sometimes people, all of us, we can't always put our finger on where is this break? Where is this black hole almost? All these ideas everywhere. One lady yesterday at a meeting said there are 700 websites about Lexington and what to do and all these things. Where is the break? Where is this gap? It's my opinion, from all of my studies over 10 plus years and then living in Ann Arbor in the auto industry, watching Toyota's system, again, I always repeat myself, versus the big three system, which we see what they're going through now, it is always about leadership. It's always about who has the courage to see into the future and go and take off the break, even maybe at personal risk sometimes. And it's my opinion... How much time do I have left? Maybe a minute or two. When it all comes down to it, we have non-profits out the wazoo in this city, and that's great. We have all kinds of task forces, and that's great, but it always comes back, I think, to this horseshoe right here. It always seems like things either go through mainly, m- maybe, or they get stuck right here. And it's not a personal thing, it's, I think it's an historical Lexington mojo that something gets stuck right here, and I am just imploring you guys on this council, former council members who'd done a great job, and, and the Mayor's office especially, 'cause I think that holds a lot of power in the city. Got a month left. Uh- Got a month left. Yeah, one month left, that's right. I'm sure you use it to the best of your ability. But one example I will give, I had a great conversation with Dr. Iannarella at UK a couple weeks ago, and he used Vancouver as a, as a study. He studied Vancouver a lot, and I'm gonna quote him without asking him if I can. But back in the day, Vancouver was sort of like Lexington. No downtown, nobody really wanted to go there, just kind of a forgotten city. Uh, from the '30s into the '70s, he said 30 to 40 people made all the decisions for Vancouver, and all the other citizens were on the outside. I... And then in the '70s to the '80s, went through this transition period, and now, Vancouver's a very alive, very engaged city. And I think Lexington is like Vancouver back, was in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. It's a very centralized, very behind the, the Berlin Wall-esque leadership system, and that's the break right there, and that's where the engagement and the energy falls apart, falls off the cliff right there. And there's your economic slowdown, there's your stagnation, there's your boringness, there's your, uh, behind the times city right there, maybe 30 or 40 years behind the time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Marrs. Mr. Cobb, and is there anyone else who wishes to address the Council? Okay. Peace and love to the Council. Uh, thank you, ma'am for providing the opportunity to speak. Grateful for my life today. The great... A lot of discussions going on down about Lexington and its future. I think we've had a fundamental urgency, all of us in thinking that we can, uh, survive without one another. I think we would have failed our mission as human beings if we can go to the moon and find a cure for medicines and can't find love in our hearts for one another 'cause we look different. I think one of the things that Lexington needs to do is search for her identity. Uh, it's beyond the basketball team, it's beyond the football team, it's beyond UK. It's in the grassroots are the people that paved the ways before we even came here. We are the recipients of what they left for us. And if we want to leave our children anything, we got to leave them with a contagious type of love that overpowers hatred, that overpowers racism, that overpowers sexism. So what we need to be focusing in on is being grateful for what we do have and implement everybody's ideas. I've been talking about the shine, and it's, it's something that is happening on its own. And it's gonna take all of us. I can't stop your shine, you can't stop my shine, but we can shine together. Lexington has a great opportunity for us to come together irregardless of what we individually believe and just love one another. Give the men the chance to shine, give the women the chance to wash their clothes or do whatever. We gotta change our whole concepts. Money's gonna be made on doing the humble things of life, like washing cars, shining shoes, folding clothes. That's economic development. And when people come to Lexington, they coming to see a shoe shine. You feel me? People call me from out of town, "Where you at? How come you ain't downtown?" They want to get their shine on. We need to open up the gates for everybody in Lexington. It ain't just for one class of people. I love everybody. I need everybody's shoes. And we gonna make some money. We gonna do some things that we ain't never thought we can do before if we can come together. I can't make it without y'all, and y'all can't make it without me. We need each other. Peace and love. Thank you. Ms. Taylor, and then Ms. McBrayer. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members. Um, appreciate the opportunity to speak very briefly, uh, in support of, uh, what the DLC has, is trying to bring to y'all's attention. Um, uh, my name is Fran Taylor, and I've served on the Tourism Commission and, um, the Bluegrass Hospitality Association, and I'm a resident of downtown. And, um, my personal feelings after being involved in numerous, countless advisory committees and involved in studies is, there is a sense of inactivity or of, um, that we've kind of... And, and maybe there's a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't see, but you, as a citizen, you just feel like we've got to get behind certain things and see some forward progress. I know that Van Meter has carried, and I've said this before, Town Branch on his back for how many years, eight years, ten years. We've gotta see public money, public support, government help making projects happen. What we see in our community is that things happen if you have developers doing it, but not so much if you have the city behind it. I think there are, are missed opportunities related to collecting revenues from ordinances that are not enforced. Um, we know that there are issues related to, for example, the EPA, because of litter in downtown, and, uh, uh, litter in our community, period, clogging the sewers and, and, uh, basically making the system not work to its capacity. We don't seem to be proactive on enforcement of -- of sign ordinances that are -- that are not in compliance. We don't seem to be active on litter ordinances. We don't seem to have an active program where we can actually collect revenues. Um, I -- I live on a street where people exceed the speed limit by probably 20 miles an hour at least 20 times an hour. Why aren't we collecting revenues there to help with the issues that you all have of, um, and that you face of funding pensions, funding, um, salaries of city employees? Um, all this to say, we just have to put a stake in the sand, uh, and like Jay McCord, like Council McCord said, it -- it's a -- it's -- it's an -- a matter of multiple issues that have to be addressed, signage, um, the -- the distillery district is a brilliant idea waiting to happen. Um, I would just urge you to put your heads together and do what you can to truly move us forward in time to, uh, meet the, uh, obligations the city has undertaken with, um, upcoming, uh, critical events. Thank you so much. Vice Mayor Gray. This is a very quick footnote, uh, again, thanking all of those who have been here today. Uh, oh. Ann McBrayer, l- let -- go ahead. No, that's quite all right. Please. Don't let me stop you. I'm gonna do a footnote. You -- you -- you need to go first. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, I appreciate y'all letting me speak today. Ann McBrayer with the Chamber, or Commerce Section, I should say. You know, we are a very blessed community. There's not another city in Kentucky or any place else in the United States that the Four Seasons at Austin has seen bring that many people into a city to study it. 274 people came from our city, and you all were among -- among the group, to study what Austin could show us. And that speaks volumes. You know, you got the people. You got the commitment. We've shown you. We -- we're here for you. We're here to do anything that we can. But we just need to have some of the things, the blocks out of the way. One thing that I'd like to speak to, and I think that this might be hopefully kinda simple, I don't know, but when s- when businesses do open downtown or wherever, I hear time after time after time again all the problems that the owners have getting certain permits for this or that or this or that, and the time that is lost, and the time that it costs them money, because they can't get their doors open. So if we could just streamline some of those things, that would be a great first step in my book. So anyway, thank you for all you do. Don't think that we don't appreciate you, 'cause we do. We just wanna let you all know that we're here to help, and we just wanna get going. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. Um, thanks, Ann, and again, thanks to everybody who's been here today. The footnote that I wanted to -- to -- to add was simply this, that th- this meeting wasn't billed as a -- w- on the -- on our agenda as a meeting of our Economic Development Task Force, but I, in, at least in my view, we've had about as good a meeting of the Economic Development Task Force of the Council as we've had yet. I don't know that we will ever see a company the size of Lexmark actually come before us publicly and say, "We've got a problem, and we need your help." That is a very big deal, and I just hope as we continue and go down this path, and cont- and we got lots of issues that we need to deal with, but this was a very big moment. And thank you all for being here. Does anyone else wish to address the Council? Just by way of an update, uh, Council Member McCord, we, the sign ordinance should be coming forward in the spring, and, um, thanks to your all's approval of some funding for design, the streetscape projects are, uh, currently being designed and hopefully will be in a position to move forward next spring on those. Looks as though we're ready to move forward then to, uh, council reports. Thank you, Renee, and everyone who was here. Um, Council Member Blevins. Thank you, Mayor, I have an easy one. I just wanna move approval of this week's NDF. Second. Council Member Blevins has moved and Council Member Gordon has seconded a motion to the effect that we'd approve the NDF. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Oppose, no. Motion carries. Council Member McCord. Uh, I just overlooked it. My apologies. That's what happened to short - that's what happened to short timers, isn't it? No, I'd -- I'd like to take a -- a minute, uh, at this Thanksgiving time, I think it's appropriate to be thankful for present-day heroes, and I would like to especially just make a remark about a Kentucky hero. Uh, his name is Tom Gish, and, uh, he's from Whitesburg, and he owned the newspaper, The Mountain Eagle. He's always said, "The Mountain Eagle, it screams." And in the 1950, Tom and his wife went to Whitesburg, Kentucky and purchased this weekly newspaper. Tom did more for Eastern Kentucky than has been done in generations. He took on the coal companies who were doing business. ... with fru-- with, uh, few restrictions on polluting water and land and roads. Um, Tom brought to the attention, not only of Kentucky, but the world of the problems of poverty and health that existed in our state. His newspaper was bombed out. In spite of that, the Whitesburg Eagle was published that week. The Gishes' cabin in the mountains was burned to the ground. These things never stopped Tom and Pat Gish to continue their efforts for Eastern Kentucky. Uh, Tom died last week. He was a real Kentucky hero and will be missed for all his passion to improve life in Eastern Kentucky. Thank you. Thanks, Council Member DeCamp. Well said. Council Member McCord? Thank you, Mayor. Just, uh, one brief, um, announcement or, or just a, a notice of appreciation, uh, to our, uh, police officers. Uh, again, we, uh, they do so many different things for our community and I wanna call out a couple of very specific folks. Uh, two weeks ago, uh, an event that we're involved in, my wife and I, called the Jesus Prom, uh, is a event that's held at Southland Christian Church once a year and, eh, we hosted 2,500 special needs folks, uh, in a prom and over 2,000 volunteers and, uh, it's just a phenomenal thing. Uh, Brewster McLeod is the author and architect of that and, and just an incredible outreach, but one of the neat things, uh, that happens every year is, is that some of our police officers give up a Friday night and volunteer their time to come and, and, uh, be security and be on, on, uh, on site. And Officer Josh Brees is really the one who goes out and recruits these guys and does this every year and my personal thanks to him, but I, I wanna recognize, uh, the officers that were there that night, uh, publicly, and certainly appreciate, uh, if you would pass that along to the Chief, and there will be a letter of recommendation for each one of these gentlemen coming from my office of thanks. But Officers Brees, Officer Blank, uh, Officer Broyles, Officer Evans, Officer Howard, uh, Officer Linton, Officer Wallace, Officil- Officer Terry, Officer Har- Harkins, and, uh, Sergeant Ashford and Sergeant Metcalf all were on, uh, premises that night and I am very, very deeply appreciative of them giving up a Friday night, uh, to come out and, and volunteer their time. And again, these are just some fine folks and, and they're exemplary of, of the type of people that we have on our police department. So please, if you wouldn't mind passing that along, I'd appreciate that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Council Member Stevens? Uh, just a brief word, uh, s- I had gotten an email from Lieutenant Holman, who tracked back pedestrian fatalities and from 1998 through 1908, I mean, 2008, this year, there have been 47 pedestrian fatalities and none happened on a sidewalk. Three were off the road, one was in a driveway, one was in a yard and he listed one on the shoulder of I-75, which I think is a pretty dangerous place to walk. And 36 of the 47 were thought to be secondary to the pedestrian who veered in the way of traffic, or in some way contributed to that event and five were hit-and-run. But I wanted to thank Lieutenant Holman for getting back so quickly and, uh, with this information. I'm sorry I didn't have it before. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Blues? Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'd like to revisit just a, a, a couple of things from, uh, from Thursday night's council meeting. First of all, uh, I really wanna commend, uh, Council Member Lane for bringing forward the, uh, the, the, the question of council participation in negotiated contracts. Uh, I, I know that issue has been, um, has been tabled, uh, and I hope it hi- it simply hasn't been shelved because while it's been set aside for now, uh, the, the questions which, which prompted, uh, its, its, uh, uh, its, its, uh, discussion have not been, been resolved. So I do hope at some future date that the, uh, that the resolution that Council Member Lane, uh, introduced will be, uh, will be reconsidered and that we complete the, complete the discussion and really resolve what our authority is and what our responsibilities are. So thank you for, for bringing that, uh, to us. Uh, I'd also like to comment, uh, briefly on a couple of things that were said. Uh, after the, uh, uh, after the formal, formal meeting, uh, first of all, with reference to, uh, what the mayor said, uh, regarding the, the, uh, uh, the demand for what many of us see is could be a very crippling increase in the government's contribution to the police/fire pension fund. The, the mayor has never, so far as I know, proposed layoffs. He did speak to the realities of the, the, the coming budget year and I think he would've been irresponsible if he had not. We face some very, very difficult times, uh, and this entire government, uh, the administration and the council, uh, are quite aware of, uh- ... uh, of the constraints that are going to be, uh, on our ability to provide the essential services that any responsible government must provide. We - We, of course, we- we- we value the in- indispensable service of- of- of police and fire, the corrections folks, but also, the folks who collect the garbage. All of those in waste management. The people who work day and night in streets and roads to keep our streets in serviceable condition. The code enforcement officers, uh, who respond to the complaints of our citizens. The- The- The folks who work in building inspection, in traffic engineering, in water quality, in parks and recreation, maintaining the parks and the recreational facilities for all of our citizens and the list goes on. So , we're all gonna have to share in whatever sacrifices we are gonna have to make, and I think it's important that we, all of us, no matter what- what particular service of government we participate in, uh, need to remember that. I just wanted to comment on those issues, Mayor. That's my report. Thank you very much. Council Member Lane. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, first Council Member Belizs, I'd like to thank you for your comment regarding the, uh, the police issue and I thank you very much for your support. Uh, this- today, um, I'm here to speak on behalf of Gainesway Farm, which is located at 3750 Paris Pike and it's been at that location for almost a century. Um, as y'all are aware, uh, Paris Pike was made into a divided roadway and then, uh, subsequent to that, there was a change in the curb cuts there going into, uh, Gainesway Farm and then additionally, uh, 911 went through the process of assigning all of the b- buildings located on Gainesway Farm, and I think there's 80 to 100 of the buildings out there, and there's about 1200 acres on the farm. In the process of doing that, the street address for Gainesway Farm was changed, uh, by GIS from 3750 Paris Pike, which has been their business address for almost a century and is recognized around the world as one of the leading, uh, addresses for horse farms to 275 Mahmoud Lane. And now, um, there's- Uh, let me just say that the GIS issue is very complex because, and I've learned a lot by working on this and I just shared this with my council members, is that there's a lot of technical issues about how to route emergency, uh, vehicles and with today's, uh, you know, navigation systems that are available on cars, there's a lot of tech- technical issues involved there. However, um, you know, I think everybody would agree that the farm should retain its current address. So through the, um, working with the farm owners and with, uh, 911 and public safety, uh, this has been, uh, resolved and approved. Uh, it was totally reviewed by, uh, 911. It's been approved by them and public- public safety. So I would like today to, you know, put on the docket the resolution that I provided you, uh, for the next council meeting. So at this point, I'd like to, uh, hereby move to place on the docket for the December 4, 2008 council meeting, a resolution changing the street name and property address number of 275 Mahmoud Lane to 3750 Paris Pike, effective 30 days from the date of passage. Second. So moved. I have a motion by Council Member Lane and a second by Council Member Beard to put the resolution Council Member Lane described on the docket for December 4th. Is there any discussion? Council Member La- uh, James. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Council Member Lane, I just have a question as, um, the- a little bit more of the background on, don't the name changes come before through council? Would this have come forward before? Uh, yes, it did, and the, uh, before, um, this came to council, there was just a farm and they had farm roads there with about 80 buildings on the property. In order to improve the emergency response by EMS or fire or police, each of the buildings, uh, on the property was given a number and each of the streets was given a name. So in the process, uh, there was a misunderstanding about the, uh, street address for the main office, which was supposed to, uh, remain at 3750 Paris Pike. So we're only changing the number and the name on only one building on the property so it would align with, uh, Paris Pike and I noticed that, uh, the head of 911, Mr. Lucas is here, and he- he could address any specific question you may have, if you want to ask one. Yes, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lucas. I- I know that, um, you know, I've contacted y- I've contacted you once regarding a street naming issue, and I know there's a lot of work that goes into determining names with the GIS, with the E-911. Are- Are you in support of this change? Yes, I- I missed your question on my way down. Um, usually we do changes quarterly, try to bring them together. Um, this one we've been working on for several months, and so we went ahead and moved forward with it individually instead of grouping it in with our usual quarter submissions. Um, we worked extensively with the, um, farm owners. ... for over two years actually doing all their facil- all their buildings on that campus, and this is one we went back and did change, yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a quick question, David. Um, so this process is no different than any other, uh, name change would go through? Did this follow the exact same, uh, guidelines? Yes, it did. It ... Being an existing address, it's a lot harder to do than our new ones, but it's gone through the same process as all the other existing address changes we did on New Circle, or Nicklesville Road, or some that's come before you before. Okay. And then what year did it become, uh, 275 Mahmoud Lane? That was actually last year. They chose that street name, um, and through some confusion and miscommunications, they didn't realize it was actually a change to the office, so at that point, we went back and had further discussions and came up with the change that you have here. And it will only affect one structure on the farm. Um, a, a previous proposal actually changed several, so we thought this was the most, uh, or least intrusive, and actually fit everyone's needs. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions? Yeah. Council Member Lane. Uh, Mayor, could ... May I speak for a second more? Sure. Thank you. Yeah, I would like to say that, uh, if you have ... Any persons that have farms with multiple buildings on it that have not, um, had them renumbered and renamed to comply with the new standards we have for, uh, GIS and 9 ... E911, I would recommend that they do get in contact with Mr. Lucas, because pre-planning of this is, uh, a really valuable approach. As I said, I've learned a lot in working on this particular one, and I'm already suggesting to a couple of the, the farms out in the 12th district that they consider moving forward with this, uh, and plan ahead with ... So we don't have these little glitches come up at the end. And, and I'd like to compliment, um, public safety and, uh, E911 and GIS for their help in, in straightening this out. Thank y'all very much. I appreciate your work. Thank you. Is there any further discussion? Then those in favor of Council Man Lane's ... Council Member Lane's motion to add this resolution to the December 4th docket, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Does any other council, council member have a report? All right, seeing none, I have no report. That takes us down to public comment on issues not on the agenda. Does anyone wish to address the council? Seeing none, a motion to adjourn would be noble- Uh, Mayor, I, I have a motion. Pardon? For closed session. I have a motion for closed session. All right. Thank you. Uh, Mayor, I move that we go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101B for the purpose of discussing the possible acquisition of real property. A closed session is necessary because, uh, publicity at this stage would likely ... Would, would be likely to affect the value of the property in question. So moved. Second. You've heard the motion. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Motion carries. We'll recess to go into closed session. Like three.