# Public Arts Commission - August 4, 2026 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Commission · August 4, 2026 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6844 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6844?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2026-08-04 - **Body**: Commission - **Last revised**: August 4, 2026 - **Length**: 16,829 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Commission held a meeting on August 4, 2026. During this meeting, the Commission addressed five agenda items, including the approval of minutes and consideration of several projects. Three motions were voted on during the meeting. No public comments were heard. The meeting included both items requiring Commission action and informational presentations on ongoing projects. ## Votes and Decisions The Commission held three votes during the August 4, 2026 meeting. **Approval of the Minutes** [timestamp: 0:04:54] The Commission approved the minutes by voice vote. The motion passed with 5 ayes and 0 nays. **Approval of the Site for the Distillery District Gateway Sign Project** [timestamp: 0:26:54] The Commission approved the site for the distillery district gateway sign project by voice vote. The motion passed. **Phase One Approval for the Quilt Garden at the Senior Center** [timestamp: 0:51:05] The Commission approved phase one of the quilt garden project at the senior center. The approval includes a condition that phase two will require additional details on donor plaques, lighting, and location before proceeding. ## Approval of the minutes The Commission reviewed and approved the minutes from the previous meeting. [timestamp: 00:04:54] The minutes were approved without noted objections or amendments. ## Distillery District Gateway Sign Project Brian Map presented details on the Distillery District Gateway Sign Project [timestamp: 00:05:25]. The presentation was informational in nature and covered design concepts and funding for the proposed gateway sign. This agenda item provided commissioners with an overview of the project's current status and plans for the distillery district gateway sign initiative. ## Quilt Garden at the Senior Center Mary Beth McCormick and Christy presented a proposal for a quilt garden art installation at the senior center [timestamp: 0:27:27]. The presenters sought phase one approval for the project. The Commission approved the proposal. ## MLK Corridor Project Ryan presented the MLK Corridor Project to the Commission [timestamp: 1:02:21]. The presentation focused on complete streets and public art elements designed to connect neighborhoods along the corridor. This was an informational presentation with no formal action taken by the Commission at this time. ## Gainsway Park Project Alice presented an informational discussion on the Gainsway Park Project [timestamp: 1:11:10], with a focus on community engagement and the distinctive features of the proposed park. **Presentation Overview** The discussion centered on the park's unique aspects and the importance of involving the community in the project's development and implementation. **Outcome** This agenda item was presented for informational purposes, with no formal action taken during the meeting. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (5-0): Approval of the minutes - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the site for the distillery district gateway sign project - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Phase one approval for the quilt garden at the senior center --- ## Full transcript Music Thank you. Commission Bill Farmer is not here, so as co-chair I will call this meeting to order. August 4th, 2026, and the first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes. I'm assuming everyone has had a chance to go over the minutes. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes? Okay. A motion to approve by Roseanne Mingo. Second. By Hannah Kreps. Okay. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Okay. Aye. Anyone disapprove? Aye. Okay. The minutes have been approved. The third item on the agenda is Phase 1 application for the Distillery District Gateway sign. Do we have a representative for that project? Okay. If you will, approach the podium and state your name and present the project. We would certainly appreciate that. Hello, members of the commission. Thank you. My name is Brian Knapp. I'm with Environmental Quality and Public Works. Today I'm here to talk about the Distillery District Gateway sign project. I apologize for the length of these slides. It's probably proportional to how long we've been working on this project, so I'll try to click through them quickly just to get to the parts you're probably most interested in. So the area that we're looking at is the Distillery District. It runs along Manchester Street from the west end being Forbes Road to Oliver Lewis Way on the east end. Inside that zone is almost a mile of roadway. It contains about 25 businesses that are attraction-related, including restaurants, bars, breweries, gyms, music halls, etc. Other attractions in there that are not business-related are the Town Branch Trail that run along the entire length of the distillery district. The James McConnell House is in that zone and is slated to have some restoration and preservation done to it. Thanks to Councilmember Reynolds, about a year and a half ago, we actually installed the first piece of public art in there. The 2020 Blues statue is right outside the distillery district. It's shown there to the right. And then, though it's not in the district itself, the Gatton Park abuts us right on the Oliver Lewis end of the project. Mixed into those attractions or non-attraction businesses, such as the Rock Corrie Recycle Center, fuel stations, and other heavy industrial uses in that district, Even with that mixture of land, the Distillery District is one of the top visited sites and locations in Lexington. Knowing that that was such a pull to the community here, the local businesses got organized, and they created a foundation called the Lexington Distillery District Foundation. They created it in about 2018, set it up as a nonprofit. It consists of local business owners, local landowners, as well as other community leaders, And it's basically like a steering committee to see how they can shape the district there themselves. However, they approached the city government and said, hey, we need some help down here. There are some improvements that could be done, especially in public spaces, and we'd like some help. The city awarded that request and actually set up a $750,000 fund to make public improvements. All these had to be in public spaces for the benefit of the public. It was not to be on private land. And that committee consists of the foundation itself, various council members, I believe Council Member Reynolds was the first council member to serve with that. Visit Lex is a supporting member of that, other district businesses, owners in there, as well as the Environmental and Quality Public Works Office. So once they got together, we started putting together a list of wants and needs. It quickly became apparent that the largest need was a request for a sign that said, hey, here we are, we are the district, come see us, enjoy your time while you're here. But that sign, they wanted it to be more than just a wayfinding sign of saying, hey, it's down here. They wanted to have an arc component to it, and the idea was to have an archway or something over the top of the road, more of a grandiose sign. It was such a pull for this project list that we actually set aside two-thirds of our funding for signs. Actually, they're wanting two signs eventually, one on each end, kind of like brackets. for the district, but that's a pretty big lift. So there's $500,000 set aside for these two signs just so we don't overspend before we move on to other projects. A design team was created consisting of an engineer architect and a structural engineer, and then we started looking at the proposed locations. So where we studied were, of course, both ends since we want to bracket the district. And there's two areas circled on the Forbes Road end because that end was a little bit more challenging trying to find a location due to physical constraints. And on the Oliver Lewis Way end, we basically studied on that one end that's closest from Manchester Music Hall over to Oliver Lewis Way. The road grade increases there. We'll get the sign higher. We'll have a better view from downtown, maybe even from the park. And the farther you got it into the district, the more it would, you know, we wanted to bracket and say this is where it starts. So, once we knew where we were going to look, we had to identify our design constraints, and a whole list of physical constraints came out quickly. So, Manchester Street is actually a state route. It's owned by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, and they do not allow that type of sign to be placed in their right-of-way. However, they would allow us to go over top of their right-of-way. So, that worked with our arch idea that, hey, we want to go over you anyway. We'll just go outside of the right-of-way. So that was a big lift, and I think they gave us a little special attention there and said, we'll work with you on that. And then we became the physical constraints of how far we had to be away from the features that are down there. So there's heavy, high-voltage transmission lines down there for the electric company. We had to stay 25 feet away from their poles horizontally, as well as the line that connects the poles. We had to stay 25 feet radially away from them up in the air. And then ultimately we had to stay 17 feet above the roadway and then meet all site requirements. So trying to apply all those physical requirements to the sites, we decided to put the west end on hold. Also because we thought that was the, we wanted to give more priority to the Oliver Lewis end. And so what I just described in words, here it is in pictures. This next slide is a larger view. So the top view in the right top is the plan view. there's a circle that's actually around the closest utility pole, so we had to stay outside of that circle horizontally. Then if you look at the cross-section, putting all those requirements in a cross-sectional view, you see the large circle that's running top to bottom. That's the zone we had to stay out of to stay clear of their wires. Over the road, we had to be up 17 feet, so basically the grayed-out area is the area where we could put a sign. That's the small area that we have, and you see we really have to thread the needle there under the wire. So it's not really conducive to a true arch, like a circular arch. We just can't get up and over, but you'll see later what we did to combat that. So once we applied all those requirements to this end, we zeroed in on this site and then started looking underground. So we did utility explorations, looking for gas lines, water lines, sewer lines, et cetera, found the area to be acceptable and clear. And finally, we had to check the site distance. So this is more of a profile view looking sideways across the road right in the middle where it says proposed sign. That's the simulation of the sign crossing the road and the objects to the far right is the stoplight at Oliver Lewis Way. We had to make sure that if you've ever come out of a tunnel and you don't know what's ahead of you, though the sign wouldn't be a tunnel, it would block view of the traffic signal. So we had to check all these requirements and we only needed 250 feet for stopping site distance and we exceeded that with no problem. So we knew we were good physically and clearance-wise. So the next step, while all this was happening, we also realized we had to secure the land. We had to have easements since we couldn't be in the right-of-way. And of course, if you don't have a place to put the sign, you have no project. So I want to give a huge thank you to Manchester Realty Company and to SDM Real Estate, who are basically owned by Mr. Potter and his group for granting these easements. He provided these easements to the city at basically no cost. And without that, we would have been dead in the water. We wouldn't have had a place to do this project. So the little red dots are the actual permanent easements where the sign will touch down on his property, the greener construction easement. So he's already pre-authorized us to be able to get in to get to these spots. So simultaneously while all that was happening, we also started looking about the aesthetics of the sign. what's it supposed to look like, what's the appearance, and how are we going to make it stand up. So we quickly realized that when you have a group of people and a board and a committee, everybody's got a different opinion. Surprise, surprise. So we hired a branding service and said, hey, we need some help kind of consolidating our ideas. So we hired a company called Big Echo Creative. They came in, they did a questionnaire of our panels, they distributed it, they visited the site themselves, And these were some of the images that they pulled from our questionnaires and from site visits themselves and saying these are things that you could in some aspect incorporate into your sign design. This wasn't a, hey, you have to use this, but these are things that get you thinking. Distillery district. The idea was we didn't just want to put a bourbon barrel down there and say, hey, look, you're here. You know, we want it to be a little bit more artsy. So from that design palette that they gave us, the architect took it and created four concepts. We passed the four concepts around the committees, and everybody voted and ultimately selected one. But I'll show you the four that were created. So this was the first one. It's not best on the slide here. It looks much better on a monitor. But what that is, it's a steel structure wrapped in a material that's representative of the charred oak staves that make the barrel themselves. There are spaces in between it. It shows up better. So the top line is what it looked like in the daytime and the bottom line is what it looked like at night. So at night it would really pop because it would have internal lighting and the light will shine through showing each individual stave. And they wanted a font that wasn't bubbly. It was more industrial to represent the district. Concept two, basically the same structure but with a different type of font. Those white balls would actually be tubular and represent a barrel without actually placing a wood barrel up there. And through this, of course, we had to be vigilant of maintenance and what type of materials can we use until we get a product that is easy to maintain. This is the one that was closest to an arch. Again, we couldn't do a true arch, so we had towers on each side with an arch. Again, a different font style, but the same idea that you would have staves. These were not the charred staves. These were more what the wood barrel looks like itself before they're charred on the exterior of the barrel. But the light would shine through. And the fourth one, we tried to take advantage of the space we had where we were limited on the left, had higher on the right. The idea, if you've been taking some of the tours, they roll the barrels from barrel house to barrel house. That was the concept there of the barrels rolling from one place to another. But again, it's basically the steel structure with the staves in some form. Ultimately, concept one was the selected alternate. That was the one that everybody chose. This was just a closer zoom in of it. I'll give you some statistics or the characteristics of it is that the steel structure would be influenced by not only the rickhouse but also the water tower. There's a very prevalent water tower that's in the district. Of course, bourbon starts with water. The tower's been down there a long time, and they're fighting to keep it standing. Then the cladding material, as I mentioned before, the charred oak staves, to put you in the mind of that, and the internal lining would really accent that at night. So some of the dimensions, out to out, meaning the farthest limits left to right. It's about a 75-foot structure, so it's pretty significant. It's going to span over the road and the sidewalk areas by about 65 feet. It's a total of 20 foot tall, and the sign itself and the structure that crosses over top of the road, we could only get it to three feet because we had to stay under the wire and above the road. So it's about a three foot tall structure actually crossing the road. So it's not going to look too big. It's not going to look too small. We think it's going to work out and be very proportional. And there's a real bad piece of artwork that clipped it right onto a Google image of what it would look like during the daytime. So, and I apologize for the typo, it's an RFP. Our next step is to advertise an RFP. The second one's right, I just didn't catch it. We're going to put out an RFP, and we're looking for an all-inclusive total package. We want to put the ribbon on it at this point. Sign companies do this as specialty work. we're asking them to do a final design from our concepts, fabricate it, and actually construct it in the field. And that's what sign companies do. I don't think they're going to get as much information from others as we're going to provide them because we're going to provide them our renderings, the easements that are already secured, everything we found out about the utilities, everything we found out about the geotechnical work, how deep bedrock is. We're going to give them our clearance requirements. the civil engineer did a design for the electrical feed. We know how we're getting them the electric and ultimate, and our structural engineers designed the foundation. So they're going to have a whole lot of work already done for them, and we really want them to focus on final design, selecting the material that is easy to maintain, because the city of Lexington does own this sign and has to maintain it perpetually, so we don't want to have to go up there and, you know, re-coat wood every two years. We want a material that withstands. So the design team, I won't run through them again, but we had several local companies, Strand, MKSK, Pogue Engineers, SNME, and Big Echo Creatives out of Versailles. So that design team coordinated with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Kentucky Utilities. We checked with water and sewer with our Division of Water Quality. Visit Lex was very influential in providing input. the two foundations that are set up inside the district and then Heather Lyons who was in place during most of this development worked with us from the Public Arts Commission. So what we know is we have all the clearances required. We have the site secured so we don't need to ask for a site. We have a site. We actually have funding secured and since we're only working on one side technically we have twice the budget for one sign at this point. Once we get this sign done, we'll look at taking the remaining money for a second sign. So we're not looking for funding, and the sign design, at least the concept, is already selected. So we're really asking for your support on the project, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Well, thank you, Brian. This is clearly illustrate all that goes into what looks like a simple little sign that goes over a road, and it's just incredible, all the work that goes into this. So really appreciate that effort. Does anyone have any questions or further comments? I have a question. So when you showed the black sign that you chose, and at night it lights up the letter, but not the side. Just for public safety, like if someone's walking on the street, will they just sometimes, you know, if they're not looking at it, can they just run into it because there's no light? Yeah, actually, so the light will come through. Each one of the staves are not connected, so there will be light emitting kind of, if you can see this, that area. See how the white shines through the horizontal pieces? Okay, so that will be throughout the structure? Yes, all the way up and over. We're trying to highlight that there's a, like, we're not trying to hide the steel structure inside. That's actually part of the artwork, I guess you'd call it. So it's to be highlighted. It's not going to just look like a highway sign that we wrapped in a material. So it will be obvious that there is something there. Absolutely. Thank you. And I think it's three feet off each side of the sidewalk. So you'll have the roadway, the utility strip, the sidewalk, three foot of grass, and then the columns that make the sign up. Thank you. Yes. So you presented them in the order of preference? Yes. This was the top of the last vote? Oh, no, we didn't count second place. We just went for first. We didn't. This was the clear winner. The others had fewer votes by far, and I could look up what second place was, but I don't even recall. It's not done. It's definitely open for that. That was where I said final design comes in. Even the committee themselves said, now this isn't like once we say this is the one we want to advance, we can't make modifications. Absolutely not. We're all in this together. We want everybody to be happy. I just got stuck with being in charge of dealing out the money. I didn't even vote. I said I'm not an artist. I understand numbers and figures, but you don't want my opinion. I think they're all pretty. And they're all nice, and they each have a different aspect. The consensus was don't make it look too bourbon barrel distillery distillery and they liked the font that was more bold and I guess less soft. Again, I don't have those soft skills, but this is the general look that they were wanting. So no, it is not a done deal as far as no changes. Does this body have any voice in that? No. We'll always listen, and I'll pass it on to the committee that makes the decisions. So if there's, you know, anybody who has an eye for it, that's another reason why we're here. We're open to hearing it. We want everybody who we consulted, that's why I showed you that long list, to feel that they were heard and will do the best we can to bring in any comments that we can and take advantage of. Just for clarification to this commission, on our agenda it does state this is a phase one application and that's not so. We are just approving the site. We are not voting on this. We're just approving the site. They're not asking for any funds at all. I have a question. Will the second sign be a duplicate of the first or? That was the original idea, but there's no, well, no, because we don't think we'll be able to cross the road there for sure. There's just too many constraints. If you're familiar with the area, there is a bridge, probably won't get much better than that, but where the right arrow points, there's a bridge where the creek crosses that whole area on the south side of the road or the lower side of the screen is owned by KYTC, so we can't be in there right away. So we really don't have a place to put it. If we move up, we would actually have to attach it to the building that Goodfellas and Pepper Distilleries is in because there's no place to bring down a footing on that side. So we really don't want to attach it to somebody's building. On top of that, it would be right in front of the McConnell House. Everything starts to get, and we just put in a pedestrian crosswalk there. everything would just get really busy. So we've been talking to Vulcan Material, who said, oh, sure, we think we'd be able to secure an easement all the way up at Forbes and secure an easement for a one-sided sign there. So on that side, it would probably be more of a post sign. And I would assume that we would try to work in any of the final design elements that we would get from this first sign. On the side where you're exiting the district? Is there lettering, or is that just blank? It's blank for now. Again, these are the things. We've talked about it. Nobody wanted a thank you for visiting, have a nice day. You know, they wanted a little bit more. So the idea is now that the sign structure itself will speak for itself. Like you're leaving, you'll figure that out, but you see the wood staves, you see the steel structure. But those are the things that are definitely not in stone. Is it implicit that the west end solution would match the east end solution? I think it would be influenced by it. When it started, they were going to match. We were just going to do two of the same things like you've made it, you've made it no matter which end you came from. But that got put on hold so fast we almost don't even talk about it anymore. We've just been holding our breath trying to get through this end. And we really don't have a strong feel for what this sign's going to cost. So we just said, let's set all our funding for two signs on one end. Hopefully, 50% goes to each end, or since that sign would be smaller by definition and not crossing the road, we could actually probably go over 50%. But we're committed to the project, regardless of what it costs, within reason, and so we feel very confident that where we doubled it, we have the funds to get this accomplished. I was asking you not to do that. That's all right. So then do we need to take any action then or no? We are voting on this site for this project. Do you want to make that motion then? I'll make a motion to approve. And I will second this. I'm very excited. I've always thought that this space needed signage, place making and well thank you each appreciate your time other comments all those in favor congratulations well done excellent thank you pleasure thanks for the presentation they are they are and then next on the list here is the phase one application for the quilt garden at the senior center good morning hi i'm mary beth mccormick i am on the friends of the lexington senior center board we're a non-profit we're the non-profit arm of the lexington senior centers we serve the main center on lifeline as well as the satellites and basically we raise money to do things that are not in the city budget or can't be gotten from other means. So we fund a variety of projects at the center. Most recently we helped redo the floors and the multipurpose room at the Lifeline Center. So about a year and a half ago we had a participant who passed away and she left us quite a bit of sum of money. And we had always talked about a way to recognize our donors. Obviously, we're in the business of raising money because we're a nonprofit. And so we decided to set aside a portion of her gift to us to do a donor recognition art piece because we had wanted to do that at the center. If you don't know, the senior center, the one on Life Lane, is turning 10 years old this year in September. and our organization is actually turning 10 at the same time because we were started when the Life Lane facility opened. So we were really hoping to have some kind of art piece as part of our celebration of our 10th anniversary. So we started this project last year. I came to you guys in December with just our preliminary ideas and kind of looking for direction of where to go next. So we've been through the process of going out and doing a call for artists and judging them and then paying two of the artists to do proposals for us. And then the committee chose one of the artists who's with us today, and she'll speak in a few minutes. And so I'm just here to assure you that we have money set aside, but we are also asking the Art Commission for money to support this public art project. And Christy is the director of the center, and she's going to speak to the site. I'm Christy Stampaugh, Director of Aging and Disability Services, and this is the happiest place in Lexington. So I'm thankful for the friends, our nonprofit, who have helped us with countless projects to support our community and our seniors with things that we, the city, can't really do. And some of those are big items and some of them are small. When our participant passed away, oh, this is the old one. He can switch it. He can switch it. What do you need a different slide? Which one do you want? Well, this slide is correct, but imagine this. Imagine, okay, so we can go back. Thanks. So this is the front of the Senior Center, and here that you're seeing is where we're proposing to put this sculpture. And the theme of the Senior Center has always been a quilt, and the history of quilt is bringing people together and crossing all kinds of cultural and educational backgrounds. As you go into the Senior Center, nobody really notices it, except the patterns on our floors are quilt square inspired. The Friends of the Senior Center has chosen a quilt square as their, well, poop. How do I get that? The Friends slide is a quilt square. So we asked our artists when we did the proposal, we said, we like the quilt square theme. And so in this, and the artist that we have selected, Jennifer Hart, she is proposing mosaic tiles that are like quilt squares that she will erect in front of the senior center in a concrete slab so it's easier for us to maintain. And these will be, you can see a little bit at the bottom, you can see there's a place for recognition and a plaque to recognize potential donors moving forward. So imagine these all together like a blanket in the corner of the building. So instead of linearly, our artists didn't realize that these windows are offices. and so the staff would be really happy to be able to see all of this, but the participants will enjoy it far more if it's kind of centered in this location with the 10 quilt squares mosaic tiles to be placed here. So she proposed to us that these are some of the things they may look like, that they're two-sided. So if they're kind of at an angle, depending on where you are in the parking lot, if you're coming in from the west parking lot, you still will be able to see the tiles, and certainly all of the cars drive in a circular motion right past the front of the building. So either you come in and you find a parking space, if you're lucky enough to find a parking space, because we have 400 people a day and 132 parking spots. Bill Farmer, do you remember this conversation? So we wanted... The parking lot flips over every day, but every car has to drive past the front of the building to get out of the parking lot. So it will be in a highly visible area. Then this is what we consider doing is grouping them. So our artists can tell us a little bit more about the product she's planning to use and how she plans to do it. So if you have any questions, I'm going to turn it to Jennifer. Hi, my name is Jennifer Hart. I'm the artist, as you heard, that generated this proposal, this idea. So, do you have any questions? I'll just tell you, the base, even though they're described as tiles, they'll be constructed out of two squares of GoBoard. GoBoard, if you're not familiar with tiling nomenclature, GoBoard is what, let's say that you hire someone to tile your bathroom. They will be smart if they, you know, shower surround. If they're very smart, they'll use GoBoard because GoBoard is wholly and completely waterproof. It's made out of this kind of foam. It's kind of a very, very lightweight foam, but it's coated with fiberglass. And it's meant for tiling. It's meant for shower installations, for pools, for whatever. So it's completely water resistant. And it's completely freeze and thaw resistant. It will never, ever retain any kind of water. So that, the ultimate, whenever I talked about this project at our meeting, I talked about how mosaics can kind of, they live or die by what they're on, which is called the substrate. Like if you have, if like, let's say that you put a mosaic directly on a brick building, the survival of that mosaic is wholly dependent on the sustainability of the brick, which erodes. And it is somewhat, it is not as water resistant as GoBoard. It just isn't. So over time, the grout can crack. Whenever the grout cracks, water infiltrates. And the freeze-thaw cycle here. Now here, we have the freeze-thaw cycle to contend with. If I were in Mexico, I wouldn't have to worry about that in the least. So I could just put anything. I could use any substrate. I could use wood. I could use here. If you use wood, if you use concrete, cement, it will degrade within a very short period of time. But that doesn't happen with GoBoard because there's no infiltration of water, and there's no risk of the freeze-thaw cycle sabotaging the adherence of the tesserae. Tesserae is a fancy word for the little pieces of the mosaic that are glued into the mosaic. So whenever the tesserae become loose and it allows water to infiltrate again, it allows for the freeze-thaw cycle. So whenever I designed this, I specifically had in mind the longevity of this piece. So I chose GoBor as a substrate, which is, you know, it will last hundreds of years. The stained glass is inherently fade resistant. It's glass. It will not fade. the design of the stem upon which the quilt square. So the go board pieces will be glued together, and there will be a steel rod that goes to the middle of the square. I should just... Oops. Okay. So the steel rod that goes to the middle, there's a steel rod that goes into the center of the quilt block. that are, like I said, there's a mosaic on both sides, and they'll be completely different. So it will look different from either side. And there's a steel rod that goes into the center, and then I kind of borrowed from, oops, sorry. I borrowed from the fencing, from aluminum fencing industry, which is, I chose aluminum because aluminum is completely rust-resistant. It's very, very long-lasting without any kind of corrosion. It's very corrosion-resistant. So there's a steel rod that will go through the center, into the center. And also, another thing I need to point out is that GoBoard is very, very lightweight. It's extremely lightweight. So these will weigh a maximum of maybe five pounds a piece whenever they're finished. So the GoBorg pieces, the squares we glued together, and I'll mosaic on every surface. You know, cut out little pieces of tesserae, big pieces of tesserae in the form of the patterns, glue them on there, grout them with a two-part epoxy grout that is also completely freeze-thaw resistant. I don't use cement in any of my mosaics because it's not weather resistant. It's just not permanent. So I'll grout them. Then a steel rod, I'll cut a channel in the go board for the steel rod, put the steel rod into the center and adhere it to the steel rod and put it into a sleeve in the concrete pad that we're planning on pouring. and over the steel rod will be a piece of aluminum fencing, a square piece of aluminum fencing, so that it will protect the steel rod and provide stability. And then there's stay screws that go into the side of the aluminum fencing tube. And there you go. It'll be on the – This is the design that I came up with at first, but they said that for maintenance, because they need to be able to mow around them, they wanted a concrete pad. So I came up with an arrangement that these are all arranged in separate heights on a concrete pad, and they are arranged in a zigzag pattern. Actually, to me, it looks way better than this. We're still working on where that will be, where that concrete pad will be poured. But in this general area, yes. Let's see. I don't know. If you have any questions, just let me know. I can go on and on about mosaics. Believe me. There's another slide that you showed that shows the little circle where... Go to the next one. It's got the... Okay. Not the one. Yes, but the one that is the front of the Senior Center that just shows where you're going to be, that kind of shows your spot, right? Yeah. The grassy area. You could look at this picture to the left. Yeah. And you see three trees there. Yeah. And then you see a rock that's kind of like water. And it's going to be in that big area right at the corner. Where's your slide of the very front of the, I feel like it kind of shows that. That's the first slide. Yeah, your first slide. Are you able to still navigate back, Jennifer? She's, no. Yeah. That very top slide, everybody can see on the left there at the very top, that's kind of that little circular area there. That's where you're going to put it, right? Behind the tree. Behind the tree, yeah. So there's like a little biomorphic. Can you see it here now? Yeah. No, we didn't see it. Yeah, that's the one. That's my understanding of where it was. There we go. Yeah. I have a question. That's really loud. I noticed in the application there was mention of native plantings kind of around it, but that was maybe with the more linear. Is there still going to be some element of that or TBD? No, okay. No, you requested it. I removed that. Ah, because, yeah, maintenance. Maintenance. Totally makes sense. Yeah, okay. I have a question about the plaque itself. So artwork, beautiful, but the plaque is what's going to honor the donors. How big is that? Is that, like, can people see them clearly well because I don't have good eyesight? I have to get so close to look at them, right? So what's... They should be able to see them. They could, it is entirely up to the Senior Center in terms of the size. We didn't discuss the size of the plaques because that was a flexible element from my perspective because they can be, this is essentially very flexible and I designed the entire project to be flexible every turn, which means that if they decide that they want large plaques, they can make them large, they can make them three inches, and the flexible aspect of it is that they don't just have to stick with just recognizing ten donors. They can add another plaque. They can add other plaques. So the plaque will be going down the road like that? Yes. So this is not, you know, they're not just going to have that limit to their ability to recognize donors. This can last, like I said, whenever I design this, I design this specifically for maximum flexibility and maximum longevity. So if in the future, 20, 40 years in the future, they have filled up 10, actually this design requires 11 squares in order to get that last little zigzag. It's 11 squares. So let's say in 50 years in the future, they have filled up those donors. They filled up all of the stems. Then they can commission someone else to do another one. Because I wanted them to have maximum ability to recognize their donors. No, I totally get that. So the size of the artwork, you have the dimensions, but the plaque itself, you haven't decided. Is that correct? That's not been decided yet. Okay, got you. Thank you. Other questions? I have a question. It's hard to tell in here, but are there still 11 posts? Like each tile has its own structure for it? Okay. Yes. And my other question is about the design of each tile. Does it thread a story or do they all be very different from one another? Are the patterns of the mosaics? How do the tiles relate to one another? They'll all be based on vintage, well-known quilt blocks. That's what all of them are based on. They are? Okay. Yes, all of them that I've used. Oh, no. They'd like to start in October. These are vintage. The one on the top left is called Tree of Life. And it's from the first, I think the first publication of that pattern is the 30s, 20s. The one below that is Maple Leaf. All of these, all of them are from, all of the patterns are from the 20s, 30s, or even the late 1800s. I really made a point to look for vintage, truly, truly vintage patterns. Because there's all kinds of patterns today. There's all kinds of quilt patterns you can go to, go get a box, go get a book of quilt patterns. but I'm not, this is a connection to the past and, you know, in looking into the future and the connection of people from the past and people in the future. So, you know, I mean. A bright one is displayed at the Senior Center in our flooring. And I don't even think that the artist caught up. No, I didn't. But I was super excited to see that. That's a, kind of throughout the floor. Yes. A quilter, someone who is well acquainted with quilting would be able to look at all of these and name each and every single one of them. Nice. Thank you. What happens at the base of the installation? Is it just concrete or is it? It'll be a concrete pad. They wanted originally, like I said, the stems, or the, yeah, the stems, I'll just call it The stems went into the ground into a separate concrete footing. However, because of maintenance, we moved to a concrete pad model that would be more maintenance friendly. I think the maintenance part of this is that allows weed eating and mowing and that sort of thing. So that's why that decision was made. Absolutely. The maintenance piece of it is important in the overall picture just because it will have to be maintained by the city. It also protects the artwork because if it were to be the first design, then they would constantly be mowing around that area and endangering the artwork. Which really, it's very, I mean, mosaics, glass are probably the most long-lasting art medium. I mean, it's common to see them survive 2,000 years. I was just reading an article about a cathedral in Bulgaria that has an external mosaic that was finished in the 1300s. And it just went 20 years ago, underwent a restoration. So, you know, it lasts a long, long, long time. Is there any provision for life? I'm not familiar. There's uplighting and downlighting in the vicinity attached to the building and I can't think if there's something right there at the corner. We would have to look into that. That's a great consideration so that we could, even if we just solar spotlights up to it. What the parking lot is so well with that the parking lot lights really take care of the entirety of the front building as well it never feels dark um like i get there at five o'clock in the morning and it's like right it could be but we didn't talk about that yet at this stage I like the grouping I think is going to function maybe more effectively in that space than they might have individually. I was concerned when I saw a 12-inch square in a kind of open space will shrink in that landscape. So seeing them group together, you know, you're going to get it. How much space is in between each of those where they're near each other? I'm just curious. Are they, like, touching, or are you thinking they'll be... They're not touching. They will not be touching. So you'll be spanning at least 12 feet across, and they'll kind of function as a grouping, which I think is a great approach to the installations. I absolutely love the arrangement like this because it takes it from being, you know, something that people may notice to something that is very noticeable and can be, you know, I think that the general public will very much, will honestly fall in love with it. If I may say so myself. Other questions or comments, anyone? So they have 10, they have a budget of 40, they're looking for some help from us. If anyone wants to give voice to that or make a motion of some sort. I would make a motion to approve for phase one and with the stipulation that we come forth with phase two saying thank you with some questions answered. And that would be to be able to show us what material and size the donor plaques would be. And I would be a little bit, I would be aware of the fact of corners, sharp corners and longevity and also to address the lighting concern. I do think it's important to feature the artwork and even if it is with solar panels, just to be able to feature that. I'm opposed to material for the material for the black. Mm-hmm. It was aluminum. Aluminum, okay. Yes. For maximum, again, maximum light. It would be great. Right. They would be, I mean, my thinking was that they would be. And how they would be attached. I mean, just simple things. Just, yeah. And location, just to firm up location. Yeah, I was going to say, can we get a better picture of exactly where they're going, how they're placed, the distance, how they group? I think for phase two, those are three questions that Georgia just outlined that we would love to see in phase two. Yeah. So I make a motion to approve for phase one? I second. And then we have to review on here? On the sheet? Yes, that is the other thing, too. Sorry about that. We really do need to do the third part. So if you guys don't mind, if you guys could step out, we're going to give everyone a chance. We haven't voted. They're going to step out. But there's going to be a motion in a second. Yeah, we haven't voted. We got ahead of ourselves. We have not. We're new at this part, too. You guys don't. We don't have to. You don't have to. You can stay and witness this discussion. Sorry about that. I got ahead of us. Yeah. Okay. So this is, if you guys will vote on your phase one and then hand those over to me. We can't answer this. Well, the site is vague. A quick question. So because the senior center is the public, right, but the friends is nonprofit, so we're giving money to the senior center, not the friends. Otherwise, we can't give money to a private nonprofit. Christy is the representative that will be giving that money. We can give money to a private nonprofit. We just, it just has to be on LFECG property. Okay, gotcha. Thank you. Do you have an extra form? A blank one? Did you not get a package? They were right up to it. I'm freezing, Jill. I can't imagine how cold you are. I'm freezing. I can't imagine how cold you are. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. Their maintenance plan. The city will be maintained. Okay. Yeah, the maintenance plan is part of the document that they provide at the end. Okay. It's very thorough. Oh. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, right. Just make it circuit. Get a fan right here. Okay, so now... My eyes are dry. Okay. Thank you. Maybe. And so do we vote now? I don't understand either. So yeah, do we like vote before we score? This is in my new business. So we just need to say, so it was approved by our. Yes. We just need to formally approve it. We just let this formality. We're not having to vote again. The vote? Part of my new business. Okay. We did approve phase one. High five. Okay. Did she not go? She did not. Oh, okay. Was she just stepping out? Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Lexington. Dad, we need to go ahead and vote. Thank you. Since this portion, it's how we can. Okay, but then we need to step them out. Also, Cindy, I'm in your case, the name is Civic. I think we can move in a motion. The balance out. We're telling you, Richard Young. Richard Young. It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. What are you doing? It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. interesting we're going to turn away our way in here you have to yeah sorry this is but and do they are you you're on the way to doing that you're in conversation okay and is it to be is there resistance okay there can't be because i just i just don't because they're stronger because they're going directly Thank you. you an email outlining our specific questions just as a reminder I know you were making notes but just as a reminder and then our next meeting is the first Tuesday in September and we would love to have your phase two application at that time. Thank you so much for your time. Nathan's contact, okay. Thank you all very much. all right then as we move on looks like next up is our mlk underpass update i'm not sure who's to take that do we need to formally do that again or not what am i doing to do the vote because we didn't formally do the second we do on this one we didn't finish the whole formal vote i didn't I think this is our vote on the phase one. Okay, so we don't need to do another. Okay, so I have, this is, who wants to go first? Okay, Ryan, please introduce yourself. Yes, I'm Ryan Hughes. I'm a transportation engineer and a self-employed consultant, and I'm working on behalf of Civic Lex right now on the Reimagining Civic Commons project. project. And let me just, before you get started, I'm super excited about what you're going to show us, but this is adjacent to our underpass project, so we wanted Ryan to give us this. This is what they're doing up top of all of MLK, well, from 4th Street, right, to campus, so our, the overpass of our underpass is going to be involved in that, so here's that presentation. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Celeste. Thanks for inviting me to come, and thanks for the art commission to have me. More background as well. This is not a phase one application. We hope to come forward with an application in future months. This is just to give you some context of this project. And so I'm going to talk briefly. I'll go through these slides just to get you oriented to our project. The Reimagining the Civic Commons is a national collaboration of civic leaders and communities working on improving public spaces to benefit the communities that they're in. Lexington was chosen as one of the sites or one of the cities, and we have four sites in Lexington. We are talking about the Martin Luther King Boulevard Project site, and this site was chosen in order to test out our new complete streets policy here in the city of Lexington, which was adopted, I believe, in 2022. So we're focusing on complete streets and what a street can mean to the community, and specifically we're talking about quick builds, which is a term that you may have heard before, on a street where we go in and do a quick improvement to beautify the space, slow vehicles down, and some other goals. Within that, we're going to do some placemaking and public art, and that's where the Public Art Commission and the connection with Celeste came up, and we learned of the underpass project and thought there would be some interesting overlap, literally and figuratively, for the two projects. We do hope to ask the Public Art Commission for some funding, as I said, in the future application. This is the corridor that we've selected for the project, looking from Avenue of Champions all the way up to 4th Street along MLK. And as I'll suggest in this slide and the next slide, we're honing in on the viaduct or the bridge over Vine Street in downtown as a central connection and an important part for the first phase of our project. So we have a budget between $50,000 and $100,000 of various sources, $50,000 from the Reimagining the Civic Commons project. And so we didn't want to tackle too much of an area. So we're focusing on the downtown bridge for a variety of reasons. One of them is that a third intent of the project is to connect the University of Kentucky campus community with the downtown neighborhood with the north side residential neighborhoods at the north end of this corridor. The bridge is right smack in the middle of that. We thought this would be a great opportunity to focus our initial investment. The picture on the left is of Alice, actually. She's on our project team. And we were at Phoenix Park a few months ago for the Downtown Master Plan, and they were gracious enough to give us some table space to just ask people what they would like to do with this bridge that we have downtown. Many people would say, what bridge? And we would kind of turn and say, you know the one over there on Vine Street? We do have a bridge downtown. We could make this a really cool spot in downtown, and that's what we're trying to do with this project. These are a few photos of the different segments of the corridor. The first on the left is down at UK at Avenue of Champions looking up at some of the residential complexes. The second is on the bridge looking south, and then the third is up at the Living Arts and Science Center looking at a bus stop and some of the houses on the other side of the street. I mentioned briefly what RCC is. It's all about collaboration and we have a lot of partners on this project, which I'll talk about in a moment. Complete streets. Again, we adopted a policy in 2022 that we need to look at all of our streets through a complete streets lens. That means not just looking at how cars move through a street, but what can a street do to serve the community and for everyone that interacts with the street. People that live on the street, people that are moving through the street as pedestrians or as bicyclists or in wheelchairs, people who are bus riders, but even more so, how can a street be a living space? It's one of our largest public space assets, and so how can we use it to benefit communities in unique and new ways? And then thirdly, neighborhood connections. As I mentioned before, these are three neighborhoods or areas that don't necessarily naturally interact. And we thought this would be a great opportunity to invite the campus community into downtown and have downtown be a centerpiece connection for the Northside neighborhood to also be invited and then have some mingling of different folks. This is kind of a scramble of a project is how I will describe it. There's a lot of different goals and people and neighborhoods, but through a working group in the spring, we came up with this mission statement, which is to envision the Boulevard Corridor as a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable walking path between those three neighborhoods, featuring the MLK Bridge as a defining focal point where people are invited to linger and gather. And so that's really looking at this corridor more as just a way to move people and cars through it, but to invite people to linger and gather and have it be a special place. These are some of the partners. It's being led by the city and the mayor's office. and co-led by Civic Lex. Bluegrass Community Foundation is the financial support or managing the grant. And then we've invited Lex Tran, the University of Kentucky, the MPO, and the Living Arts and Science Center as other key partners who have been at most of our workshops and design meetings. This is where the Public Art Commission comes in, is helping out with the artistic elements that we hope to have along the corridor. I've put up some imagery here of other quick build streets projects where a community has identified an intersection or a corridor that they want to improve or beautify or slow vehicles down and just make it a better space, often with simple temporary materials, paint and flex posts and other materials. Here's some more imagery of public art. The one on the top there, Street Fest, is from our own city of Lexington where we've held Street Fest annually for a few years now, allowing folks to come into the street and reimagine what that space can be. And then I'm not going to get into the weeds of this, but the larger project has some traffic calming elements to it, and that's where we're going to delineate a narrower space for the vehicles to travel. What that's important for you all is that that means that there's more space to paint the asphalt or to add other placemaking elements to it. So highlighted in blue, in the bottom is the bridge, and the blue area is where we could add asphalt art, where we could add benches or we could add vertical art elements, lighting, flowers and trees, and those are the things we're exploring now. And any artistic elements that come out of that are what we hope to ask the Public Art Commission for assistance in funding. This is north of downtown now, looking at the corridor all the way up to Living Arts and Science Center, which has that blue connection piece to it on the bottom right of the screen. That concludes my presentation. I just wanted to give a really quick overview of the project, and we'll be in front of you all soon, hopefully with a Phase I application, to ask for some funding support. I'm open to any questions. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for your presentation. I would just encourage you to remember the namesake as you're designing the artistic pieces for this section of the road. Thank you. That's come up in some of our listening sessions that when you're on the corridor today, you don't actually think about why you're there. There's not a lot calling Martin Luther King's name out other than the name of the street. So that's been a consideration for things we could do either through artwork or through some signage. But I appreciate hearing that. Very good. Anyone else? Excellent. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, so then who's doing Gainesway then? Alice is going to be part of that. So just to, no, no, go ahead, Alice. I'm just going to introduce you. Okay, so as members who've been at the last couple meetings know, we've been talking about the Gainesway thing. And we had two different visits at two different times to go to the park and visit. And both of these were after work. And we met and spent time in the park. So we've had some birthing pains with this project because, and I was explaining this to Alice, we've had ideas, we've changed things. It was going to be in the water, then the maintenance was going to be a nightmare. So the ideas about all of the art that we had planned under the bridge and the lighting and all that, we scrapped that and we went back to another thing. We took another trip out there. We thought about doing an individual piece just freestanding and then we saw the path and so we thought maybe we would incorporate those. And then we have most recently been out there as a small contingency from the Public Art Commission and came up with a third concept. And we were moving forward with that. And I met with Alice and talked to her about it. And as adjacent to another project. and Richard had mentioned that I should meet with them because they were also working in that area on another project and had done a great deal of work to study the park. And after talking with Alice, and she's going to explain this better, what I realized was that, and Roseanne, you've been to both of those where we went to the park, what I realized was we had been there at the same time of day, both times. and both times the park was pretty empty, and we did not really witness the park in the use that it is usually done. And that is a very significant piece of what should go there, is how it's being interacted with and who is using it and how are people moving through the space. So the good news is we're going to have new information about what we should do there. The bad news is we're kind of starting again. And so we're going to take in this new information and perhaps use some of the ideas that we've already come up with that we really like and identified some of the areas. But we need to add this piece that Alice is going to explain, part of which is that she has formed a small group of people that she's working with over and over that use the park, that live there, that go to school there, that are very good representatives of that area. So rather than, to be honest, some of the surveys that we did through the council person did not get a great response. So I think Alice's idea of a much more targeted group that she works with over and over and over has garnered some great information. And I'm anxious for her to share it with everybody. Awesome. Thank you, Celeste. And yeah, thanks to all of you for giving me time to talk and also for considering. I know this has been a really long and drawn-out process, but I think the kind of intentionality around these public art projects, it always pays off kind of in the long run. Yeah, so my name is Alice Hilton. I'm like Ryan. I'm a contractor working on behalf of CivicLEX through the Reimagining the Civic Commons project. So I know Ryan just covered Reimagining the Civic Commons, so I won't go into it too much, but I would just stress that kind of one of the major points of this Reimagining the Civic Commons effort and learning network is collaboration and really trying to kind of work through the silos that often arise in local government. And so also, as Ryan mentioned, there were four different sites selected across Lexington for this grant funding that the city received. And for one of those was the Tates Creek Campus. For that site, we were working with parks, we were working with environmental services and water quality, and then also with whatever kind of place-based community partners and organizations we were able to connect with. And so I have been visiting the Tates Creek Campus, spending time in this area at least once or twice a week, often more than that for about the last eight or nine months and have become very very attached to Gainesway Park. I think it's an incredible place in Lexington. I think just a kind of quick overview of what that engagement has looked like. It's been kind of across three different groups opportunities. The first and the most involved has been the Gainesway leadership team, where we were able to partner with Eli Parham, who's on the rightmost of these photos, and is the Tates Creek Middle School agriculture teacher, and then also work with Dr. Virginia Downing, who is a professor with the Department of Educational Leadership with the University of Kentucky. And we put together a, through applications, we assembled a group of 12 middle school students, who we then met with every Wednesday morning at 7.30 for all of the spring 2026 semester. And that was their idea. I mean, when we got them all together early on and said, how often do you want to meet? When do you want to meet? And then they said 7.30 in the morning every week. And we said, okay. And so that was just, we did a lot of field trips kind of around the community center, the park, all of this connected public space that's on the Tates Creek campus and talked to them about civic engagement, about public space, about how they use the park, and then also about the kind of investments and improvements that they would want to see there. And then this culminated in us taking a group of them to Detroit in June for Placemaking Week, which is an international conference just connecting practitioners and learning opportunities around creative placemaking. And it was great. We had a really great time. This project has been truly a joy. They're a really great group of students. The second opportunity that we've used to engage with is Tates Creek Student Community Outreach, which was started by One Lexington in response to incidents of gun violence in the community and then was picked up and championed by Don Webb with Grace United Church, who has been leading this effort for, I think, at least the past year, possibly longer. And so Lily Bramley and I, Lily with Civic Lux, were there pretty much every Monday and Wednesday while school was in session, helping to pass out food. And basically, the point of it is to provide sort of informal mentoring opportunities, just positive adult interaction and a positive social space for students to gather as they're walking home. and then the third thing was we joined the Tates Creek Community Coalition which is a group of about 20 to 30 place-based organizations and community members who meet at least once a month to share information, share resources and find opportunities to partner and just really uplift this part of town and so that's all to say that I have been spending a lot of time in Gainesway Park. Usually, even if I'm just, even if I'm going to the community center or the school, I would at least pop by and walk through the park. And like I said, I think it's a very special place. And so a few things that I noticed is this is not a comprehensive list and it's just from one vantage point. But the park is very dormant in the afternoon from sort of early afternoon to late afternoon. There's hardly any people. It's a time when the wildlife is the most quiet. Um, it's most active both in terms of kind of the ecosystem and the people in the morning and especially school mornings when kids are walking to school. Um, and then in the evening, I think especially summer evenings. Um, it's hugely diverse. There's a kind of a really great variety of languages and cultures represented there. Um, yeah, just like a really kind of rich social ecosystem. There's fishing and basketball are hugely popular. There's almost always people fishing there in the evening. There's a resident beaver family, so there's at least two adults, or there's two adults and at least two juveniles who live in the pond. And if you go after 8 p.m., you're pretty much guaranteed to see them because the pond is pretty small. There's a huge amount of native river cane, which through this project I've learned is kind of like our, the United States native bamboo, and used to be much more prevalent, but is now pretty rare. And so the river cane was planted as part of an EPA-funded restoration project about 20 years ago, and has really taken off, and is, it's a, you can really nerd out over it, it's a rabbit hole. There's always red-winged blackbird song, that's kind of an omnipresent sound, which is very distinct, and once you learn to recognize it, you hear it all the time there. And then also, it's one of, I think, one of the only wetlands, but certainly kind of the most urban wetland in Lexington, which wetlands are becoming vanishingly rare, are kind of the most rapidly disappearing habitat that we have. And so having one that's kind of in the heart of the city is really interesting. um and so next i have a just a really short video clip that i took um in may it was after it had been so dry for so long and then we got that big rain event it was like i think four inches of rain but up until that point the pond had been looking really sad um but then we got all this rain went to check on it the next evening um and i think that this this video for me captures a lot of what makes the park special because you and the beaver is a pretty big part of the video. But you can also hear red-winged blackbirds. You can hear kids playing. You can hear city sounds, car traffic. You can see the river cane in the foreground near the end. So I think when we, the Reimagining the Civic Commons team reached out to Celeste and just said, you know, asked if we could kind of sit down and compare notes. and sort of our specific requests around this RFP were that kind of at the bare minimum that the artist be asked to visit the park and observe it at different times of day and sort of see some of the rhythms of the park and the different ways that people are interacting with it and the different kind of wildlife that's present. And then also asking that the artist meet with Tates Creek students with sort of community coalition members. and then if possible to incorporate some kind of community engagement or storytelling component or at least be responsive to the ways in which this park is really unique in a variety of different ways. So, yeah, I'm happy to answer any questions or talk more about that. And again, thank you for being in conversation with all of this. Thank you. Thanks, Alice. Yes. We talked about this a little bit when I met with them, and I wanted to just check with the commission and see if you all like this idea that we would move forward with a call for artists, and we would select an artist and get that part done. And then a small group, you know, we would count on Alice and her team to give us the access to some of the neighborhood folks that they've already established a relationship with. And that we would invite the artists to look at the park and talk with these people. But I would like to move forward with the call for artists. I would like to go ahead and get that out there. Because that's going to take some time. and then we would then have that artist have that chance to talk with people. So I have sort of honed in, and I want to also ask you guys if this is comfortable, that rather than the freestanding piece, I think if we would give the artist some parameters, that I feel like the path is maybe the most important part of where the art would maybe be the most utilized utilized and seen. So for the sake of the call for artists to give them some idea of what we are asking, I wanted to just plant the seed in your minds that I would like to have input on the writing of the call for artists, that we would like to focus on the multiple pieces, perhaps one piece that's deconstructed along the path or just something along the path and some interpretation of that, but that we would focus on that as the focus of the art going in the park. There will also be a utility art project out there that's going to be separate, but when I talked to them and talked about the way the park was used, the way the pond is important to it, but yet we can't put the art in it, the path seemed like the thing that made the most sense. You mean as opposed to the initial idea of putting it where the steps are? Yes. Okay. So forget that idea. Not necessarily forget it. I'm not saying that we would hem an artist into anything in particular. But one of the things that came up in our conversation was that Alice had never observed people gathered in that spot. And that was concerning to me, that it was simply not used in the way that we saw it being used. But yet the path is, and the land around it is, and the water area is. So again, we were back to focusing on that part of it. So without making it a directive in the RFP, but just mentioning in the RFP that the area that we are most interested in an artist focusing on is the path. Which would mean that the design would be perhaps multiple pieces of one idea. I think this is a gift that you are there, you exist, and you've already established these relationships. And part of what we're doing is engaging neighborhoods and making these projects outside of the downtown area meaningful for that purpose. And I think we'd be crazy not to take advantage of that. Well, I really appreciate you saying that because I told Alice that my head would be on a pike if I started at zero again with everybody. So thank you. I appreciate that. Okay, so if anyone has an objection now or if you want to talk to me later, I would like to go ahead and begin the writing of the call for artists, and any direction from you all is welcome via email. Are we looking for Kentucky artists or Lexington artists? Are we going to focus in on locale? We have in the past made it a regional. I think we have sort of a regional thing. That's a really good question because I would in this particular case, perhaps it might be easier for the visiting and that sort of thing that we do, someone from the Lexington area, just because we are going to require a little bit more engagement. Yeah, that's what I was curious about. If there's an expectation of community engagement in the design and perhaps even the creation process, which may or may not be the outcome, but at least in the design element, then having somebody from Kentucky may make that easier. Well, I think we're asking not for the same level of what they've done, but what has really impressed me with what you've done out there is the immersion in it. The length of time, the immersion, and of course we're not going to be able to ask an artist to spend nine months observing the park, but I think local artists would be at an advantage because we are going to ask for some engagement in the park with not only the people but the space itself. So I think for this call for artists, we need to make it local to get the best outcome. But anyway, I'm open for any suggestions or any input from everybody if you want to email me about your thoughts on that. Yes, ma'am. Will the Gaines Way subcommittee be putting together the RFP, or will you do it? I'm going to put together the RFP, but I've gotten some input. But I'm also working with Council Member Beasley and her aide in some of their input. And I'm happy to send the RFP to everyone to take a look at and see if anyone has, I mean, because we can certainly create this as a body. Anything else there, anyone? One thing. Yes. I mean, I would just like to say thank you. Obviously, whenever the time comes to vote on this project, I'll have to recuse myself because I'm with Civic Lex as well. But I just want to thank Celeste and the Public Art Commission for being flexible and willing to get pretty close to pushing the button and backing away for a minute to make sure that this piece better represents the community that we'll have to live with every day. I just think it's such a great example of the Public Art Commission modeling what we have asked our applicants to do. And so I just want to express some gratitude for that. Well done. Thanks. Anyone else there? Utility box wraps? Utility box wraps. I think you guys, you don't have to stay if you don't want to, but I know you're busy peeps. You're busy. Utility box wraps. I would like to do another round of those in the fall. Yes, sir. So I will be – I need to just study what it was, the infrastructure that Heather had in place. Thank you, guys. And I'm sort of looking into that to see how we – I have selected some judges that will help us make those decisions. And I asked last time, and I'm just saying the clock is ticking. if anyone has a utility box project that they have seen a sad and lonely utility box that they want to put on the list. Speak now or forever hold your peace because I'm getting ready to pick the 12 that we will select this time, that we will select artists for this time, but then we will do it again next year. So I would like to get to a point where we do this twice a year, but right now I'm just thinking let me just do this once a year. And so I just want to know everybody's input, and then we'll select 12 and start getting art. Are you wanting to refresh old ones or totally new unpainted ones? The sad and lonely gray ones that are out there that have nothing on them. And then just for a quick update, there is a box of three utility boxes in Phoenix Park. And Phoenix Park was so beautifully redone, and then there's this big bank of boxes there. So I have asked Parks and Recreation to do a standalone project there and come up with their own design. They're talking with children. They're talking with people who use that park. And they're going to come up with their own design, and that's going to be a little bit of a standalone, not part of the 12. So we'll be asking for funding for that separately. I love the idea of using children's art. Yeah, that playground is just such a gem. Yeah, it's amazing. So in this summer, it has just been packed. So anyway, they are happily working on that. So that's the utility box. All right. Anyone else? Any old business? Anyone? New business? I have new business. I'm sorry. I know everybody wants to get out of here. But we have a couple of things that have come up that I need very much commission member help on. The Will Hanrahan project, he is in what proved for phase one. But it is complex in that before he can get to phase two, he needs to expend time and money on the community piece, his landscape architect, his construction team. So he is very, being a businessman, very uncomfortable with just charging ahead with no actual notch of whether we are going to approve or not. So I am interested in the commission also thinking about an idea I would like us to think about. We would offer people in this unique situation, and I don't think this is going to happen, but a memo of understanding, a memorandum of understanding on the project that they can have some assurance that we have approved thus far what they're doing, that we are supporting this, and then we would have the ability to, if there was a dramatic change, they would need to report that dramatic change to the commission. But otherwise, they can be assured that they will get the funding they asked for. If the situations that would change would be things that we could not approve. And that would be in the memo. There would be certain areas that did negate the understanding. So I am wondering if, and I've got a meeting with law next week to discuss this part of it. But as a commission, do we think that would be a good idea? Yes. So that would be something we would start to do for complicated projects like that. Then, Gary Bibbs, as everybody knows, if you saw your email, had a question, and we've never really tackled that question. Can members of the art commission who are in the art community apply for their being selected? This is a small town. We have a lot of artists, more than our share here in Lexington. So I feel like we're going to have to really come up with some language that we change things. So what I'm asking is I have a meeting with law coming up. I want to get all that information that I can. And then I would like if we could form a committee of a few people that would work on this particular project. And that would be changing some language, adding some things. Shayla, I'm looking at you. So I really need you to be on this committee. If we could get, I think, five or six people, if we could get four or five, if necessary. But if you guys would let me know who's interested in being on this committee, if you want to raise your hand or email me, we need to form this and have this conversation. We have a lot of things that happen that are a little tiny bit loosey-goosey, and I think we need to tighten up some of these things. But I also want to remind all of us that this is still fairly new, and we haven't had tons and tons of projects to review. So this is the natural growing pain of this commission. Celeste, can I ask a question? On this same working group that's going to look at those sorts of guidelines for members, I know this may be coming up in your new business as well, But I think just like the voting procedure and like when we vote versus when we score, just like all of that, I think having some sort of like clearer sheet around that would be really helpful. We were just talking about that. This is part of what I want to do is look at all of it and what we can't. I mean, new things may come in and we yet have more growing pains to experience. I don't know. But right now, we kind of have an idea of the times that we've stumbled across something that is difficult or questioning. So I think we can take, I have a running list. So if we could take that list and just, you know, come up with a solid structure for each one of those things, then I think we'll make a big move forward. And then if new things come up, we do that again. So you think this would be the same body that would be focusing, the same sort of subgroup that would be focusing on just like rules of procedure? In the sake of expediency, I would like one group to kind of talk about all of it. I have a question. So what about other commissions? Do they have any documents like that? Can we borrow, look at them? Yes, they do. We are really unique in what we are examining. But what I have done is started to look at other cities, and there are commissions, and see what they're doing. I haven't really been able to ferret out solid, you know, here's how you do in this situation. But I do think they have all, I actually plan to make some phone calls and then just say, here's what we've run into. And it's not in your documents, but how do you handle this? You know, that sort of thing. But I don't want to make anybody be on the committee that doesn't want to. But honestly, Yuha and Council Member Lynch, you could both be really helpful on this. I'm going to be glad to have you. Okay, great. And Georgia. Okay, great. All right. I'm going to jot that down. Okay, so Georgia and Richard and Councilmember Lynch and Hannah, you want to be on there? Okay, Hannah. And who have I forgotten? Richard. All right. You have to play ball? What? Do you have enough to play ball? I do have enough to play ball, I do believe. That's six of us. I think that's good. Is that good? Okay. Great. Anybody else want to jump in? Okay. Terrific, you guys. Thank you very much for doing that. And I'll email you guys about we'll come up with some dates. So we'll do a poll or something. Okay. That is it for my new business. Thank you, guys. You were full. Any other new business? Anyone? I'll make a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn is always in order. Second. All those in favor. Excellent meeting. Thank you all very much. Nominate Kim. piano plays softly I'm sorry. No pretense And still I feel I said too much My silence is We are here to celebrate an exciting new chapter in Lex Tran's art shelter program. I'm at Lex Tran. Our mission is to serve people in our community with mobility solutions. We know our service connects people to jobs, to health care, to education, and other quality of life activities. We also know it connects neighborhoods and builds communities. Today, we are proud to launch our 2026 Call for Artists and announce the addition of four new shelters that's enhancing bus stops along the Vercels Road corridor that serves Route 8 Vercels Road. Through the partnership we have with Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds and the Lexington Corridors Commission, we found a way to help make those spaces more vibrant, more colorful, more welcoming, and we are grateful for the shared vision and commitment to enhancing the Versailles Road Corridor. Research has shown that public art can improve perceptions for safety, strengthen community identity, and help make public spaces feel more welcoming for all. While a bus stop is first and foremost to catch a ride, it can also reflect the character of the neighborhood that it serves. So today we're opening the door for artists to help us shape that vision. We're inviting artists of all ages and backgrounds to submit original designs for these four bus stops. Up to four artists will be selected. Each artist will receive a $2,500 honorarium. the artwork will be reproduced on vinyl panels that will become a visible part of Lexington's public landscape. While the opportunity is open for everyone we are especially excited to encourage artists with meaningful ties to district 11 to participate. We want these shelters to tell stories that reflect the vibrancy of the community and create a sense of connection for the people who use them every day. With that I am pleased to turn it over to council member Jennifer Reynolds. good morning everybody thank you for those of you that could join us today i represent the area where the versales road corridor is located on the urban county council and i am so excited to be here standing with lextran to announce the expansion of these art shelters. Years ago, I had a conversation with the manager, general manager of Lex Tran at the time, about my dream to transform all the bus shelters on Versailles Road, to turn them into something beautiful, into works of art. The Versailles Road corridor, as you know, is a main corridor in and out of Lexington, out of Keeneland, out of the airport, to and from downtown. And I envisioned these public art shelters that represent the area's vibrant culture. And I hoped that this would be something durable and also fairly easy to maintain. And I'm incredibly grateful for Lexington and for the artists that have showed interest. and for Lex Tran's willingness to work with myself, other council members, and the community to participate in bringing beauty and art to our districts. So you might not know this, but Lex Tran gets a lot of requests about their bus shelters. They have to focus a lot of times on ridership and routes, but people contact them all the time about their shelters. And so I think that this is a really unique partnership that we can do something that is making a difference. The first shelter of this type that we collaborated on was one in front of Global Lex on Versailles Road. And it was right here with the beautiful art of Mercedes-Harn. And it was transformed, if you see the pictures over here, into the bus shelter. these decals that they use are something that take the original art piece and put it on the shelter and then this is a way that Lex Tran can have a practical bus shelter but also a beautiful one and I'm thrilled that this program is growing and we're adding more and more bus shelters it's an opportunity to highlight local artists while enhancing important routes in our city. I hope, as Mr. Combs said, I hope that these designs will inspire a sense of pride and connection to everyone that travels Versailles Road. Once again, I want to thank Lex Tran for working with my office, as well as the Corridors Commission and all my council member colleagues. This project was a very large group effort and I'm thrilled to see it come to fruition. I hope this project will inspire other council members, I have some in the room here today, to replicate this work and other people in the community as well. I hope we can take pride in our corridors. I'm a huge believer that art helps us be able to find connection and belonging. And these shelters will stand as a practical and visual gift to all of those who use Lex Tran buses and travel and live on the corridor. So please encourage all the artists that you know in the area to apply to be able to be picked for to be these four artists for these shelters. You can go to lextran.com slash public art to find more information, and you can share that with your friends. You can also email artcontest at lextran.com, and the deadline will be to submit original pieces or examples of your work by July 10th. Thank you so much, and thank you again. Thank you. Hey y'all, it's your Vice Mayor Dan Wu. And I'm Dave Savigny, the Council Member for the 10th District and we are here in the Music Capital of Lexington. Well Dave, that's a pretty big claim. Can you back that up? I sure can! We are here at the Moondance Amphitheater in Beaumont, home to a whole slew of musical activities, including big on Tuesday nights through got Southland Jamboree on September 3rd and we've g suburbia every other frid 18th. All of these events the public. Wow, that's a one place. But wait, Dan We even have tall sound, takes place behind Olika Shrine on Southland Drive, and it's generally on the fourth Sunday of the month. I think you've almost convinced me. There's even more, Dan. We actually have Woodsong's Old Time Radio Hour, which takes place on Rosemont Garden at the old Scottish Rite Building on most Mondays. Okay, that settles it. The 10th District is definitely Lexington's music capital. Thank you. So we are out at Cooliff and Park, but we're in the Smithtown neighborhood looking to hear from the neighbors of Smithtown, both those that currently live here, that used to live here in the past, but then those that are connected to Smithtown. And our main goal today is to take steps towards preserving the history and the culture of Smithtown through many different efforts. One, through policy. Two, through making sure that we can try to bring some type of capital investment that actually preserves the history and culture of Smithtown. But then three, I'm trying to make sure that we get input towards what resources needed so that folks can live comfortably in the homes and in the places that they live here in Smithtown. So multi multi function solutions we're looking to do here at Smithtown. But at the end of the day, we're looking to preserve the history and culture of Smithtown. And the first step, what we want to do is listen to neighbors here in Smithtown and those that have been connected to Smithtown. So this all started first, you know, actually in February 2025, where I initiated the legislative item anti-displacement and vulnerable neighborhood preservation. And that item was initiated because we've seen a lot of our vulnerable neighborhoods here in the city of Lexington are facing pressures of growth. So we wanted to dive into the issue of how we can preserve the history and culture of some of our neighborhoods, but then also how we can make sure that we can address that challenge of displacement, making sure that folks have resources to live comfortably where they are. So in that process, my office worked with Council Member James Brown's office in the Office of Planning, and we dived into the challenge. And we realized that a lot of the tools in the toolbox to combat gentrification, to combat displacement, and just to combat trying to preserve, you know, different neighborhoods just don't work for some of our undervalued neighborhoods. So we wanted to come up with a solution. So we started at square one, and that's listening to the community, listening to the neighbors, listening to what do you want to preserve? What is important? What is historic about this neighborhood? all the great things and then trying to get that input and then putting that into action, whether that be through capital investments, whether that be through expanding resources, or whether that be through creating policies so that we know in the future if growth comes, when growth comes, those developers have access to community input, have access to information and context of how this neighborhood, how these neighbors want to grow in the future. So, yeah, today we're having a community event here in the Smithtown neighborhood, and it's part of the Neighborhood Voices Project that the Division of Planning, alongside the offices of Council Members Morton and Brown, are working on to basically uplift the history of neighborhoods and do a little bit of proactive community engagement in neighborhoods, especially those that are experiencing development pressure. So the Outreach and Strategic Planning section of the Division of Planning is the newest section. And so we've only been around for a little over a year. And this is exactly the type of work that we want to be doing, is like meeting people where they're at, out in the community, talking to people, trying to get as many people as possible engaged in the planning process because we really believe that, you know, the planning process works best when, you know, folks have a voice and, you know, just really trying to engage as many people as possible. So that's why we're out here in Smithtown today. I think today's event is kind of follow through on the work that we did with Neighborhoods in Transition, the Mayor's Commission on Racial Justice and Equality, the Subcommittee on Housing and Gentrification. When you're talking about neighborhoods that are vulnerable and are seeing a lot of change, it's good to hear from the folks that have historically lived in the neighborhood, have a tie to the neighborhood and have grown up in the neighborhood to tell us what the neighborhood used to be, the history, it shares some of that insight. then also talk about what the neighborhood could be going forward for the future and how it can adjust and absorb some of the change that's happening. So I can see this being a model that's going to go throughout the city and being something that we can do in other neighborhoods to empower the neighborhoods to tell the city, developers, or whoever else coming into the neighborhood on what their neighborhood used to be, what it is, the history, and what it could be for the future. I'll just give a shout out to Councilmember Morton on the back for this initiative. And then also the planning department. Our planning department came to the table with him and myself and actually brainstormed and worked together to create this initiative. So I just want to give him some credit for this and give our planning department a lot of credit. Hang on, hang on to your heart. Hang on, hang on, hang on to your heart. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Are you getting the spirit in the dark? Are you getting the spirit in the dark? People moving Tell me we're grooving Just getting the spirit In the dark Tell me, sister, how do you feel? Tell me, my brother, my brother, how do you feel? Do you feel like dancing? Get up there and let's go dancing Start getting in the spirit Getting in the dark Just like Sally Walker Sitting in a slouch That's how you do it Just go on, get on up to it Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh I wanna know, are you getting the spirit? In the spirit! In the dark. Are you getting the moment? In the spirit! Oh, hey, we're working and improved, So I'm getting the spirit! Get the spirit! In the dark! In the dark! Let me do it one more time! Let's just relax, I want the... Sittin' at that big big flying saucer Hey, that's how you do it Get on and get on up to it Come on, get it Put your hand on your hip Hover your ass and move Move with the spirit I'm telling you to move Move with the spirit Move with the spirit Oh, boy. Move like a spirit. Move like a spirit. Move like a spirit. Oh, God! Help me! Help me! Hey! Move! Move! Move! Hey! Move! Give it up! Give it up! Give it up! You got it, you got it, you got it You got it, you got it I got it, baby Yeah, yeah, yeah I got it, baby I got it, baby I got it, baby I got it, baby I got it, baby Yeah! I got it, baby I got it, baby I feel it, baby. Do you know what I mean, baby? Yes, I do. You got to feel the motivation. I feel it, honey. I feel it. I feel it. Let's double it. Little spirit. Yeah. Little spirit. Little spirit. I feel it. In the dark. Yes, I do. In the dark. In the dark. In the dark. In the dark. I feel it. I feel it. I feel it. I feel it. I feel it. Get ready.