Minutes December 14, 2020
CITY OF WINDY HILLS
Minutes of Regular Council Meeting
December 14, 2020
The Council and Officers of the City of Windy Hills met virtually by Zoom, at 7:00 P.M. Mayor Davis called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL: The following were present:
| MAYOR | COUNCIL MEMBERS | OTHER CITY OFFICIALS |
| Helen M. Davis | Bruce Blue | Lisa Kraft |
| Kate Greer | Steve Teaford | |
| Marcia Myers | ||
| Marianne Rademaker | ||
| Suzanne Spencer | ||
| Laura Trachtenberg |
MINUTES:
Councilwoman Greer moved to approve the minutes of the November 9, 2020, Council meeting; seconded by Councilman Blue. The motion passed unanimously.
FINANCIAL REPORTS, APPROVAL OF BILLS:
The financial reports for November 2020 were moved for approval by Councilwoman Greer, seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg. The motion passed unanimously.
Councilman Blue moved to approve the November bills, totaling $43,432.34, and was seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg. The motion passed unanimously.
RESIDENTS’ COMMENTS/CONCERNS: None
MAYOR’S REPORT:
“Police Report: There were 94.5 hours of Police support. Most of the time was devoted to traffic control radar resulting in no tickets or warnings. There were 4 overnight parking tickets that resulted from my request for stepped-up enforcement in response to residents’ complaints. They responded to a missing child report, criminal mischief on Old Stone, a person running through a resident’s property but police were unable to catch the individual. I will be purchasing $10.00 Gift Cards to the hardware store for each of the 22 officers.
I also continued to work with Rick Grismer and the KYDOT on the newly planted trees. Windy Hills will now be responsible for the maintenance of that section of Westport Road vegetation/grass. Our city beautification/maintenance budget will have to increase to cover this additional expense.
The auditors finished their visit and are working on their report but I have not seen the preliminary document. We will have a 2019-20 surplus was roughly $150,000 but we do not have the details. We have to have the final report in January, because I have to send a report to the State by January 31st of our final numbers, or we will not be in compliance.
As I stated at the November meeting, we have a new attorney, Randy Strobo, whom the Council met at the work session. His partner was supposed to be in on this meeting but is not here. Their contract is for $250 an hour, and this is an increase over our past attorney, but we expect timely reports and timely work. If we have one of the non-partners doing work for the City, we will be billed at $125.00 an hour. They have 7 attorneys within their group. I can file liens and save our office the attorney fees. Steve will be working with them on some of our ongoing issues.
I was on two Zoom meetings with Governor Beshear, KLC officers, Kentucky Mayors, and County Executives discussing COVID, the rise in cases, etc. Lisa Kraft posted the Governor’s documents on our website and I sent a notice to our residents addressing the Governor’s concerns. Finally, as you know the office went back to a partially remote work schedule based on Governor Beshear’s emergency order. The emergency order expired Sunday, December 13, 2020, and we will return to our normal work schedule.
We are back in the office by appointment from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. The Restaurants are back open for in-person dining with 50% capacity. The case with Sandy has been settled with the Unemployment Office and the City has paid the final installment to them.
The Council members have to be sworn in by December 31st and we will conduct it via Zoom. When is everyone available? E-mail me when you are not available and I will come up a couple of options to choose a day and time.
Questions? Discussion”
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Finance/Ordinances: Councilwoman Rademaker no report.
Code Enforcement – Steve Teaford: Mr. Teaford reported the resident at #9 Pin Oak did a good job cleaning up their property. The Pohls at the end of Chelsea are going to redo their fence soon. His main concern was sending out letters to owners of rental homes to get them registered. At the entrance of Foeburn and Westport Road, now that the tall trees have been removed, there are a lot of electrics that have been exposed. He reported this to the Mayor and felt there needs to be some sort of safety barrier put up. The Mayor’s contact advised him that this is not a part of a LG&E transmission line, but part of AT&T. It is low voltage, but can still cause a significant shock. He will reach out to AT&T or the State about replanting some vegetation.
Windy Hills Green/City Maintenance/Newsletter/Tree Board – Councilwoman Greer:
Councilwoman Greer reported on the following items:
There are two new redbuds planted to replace the two dead ones. If you go up to the Green, note the new watering devices attached to the trees. They are called Rain Wells and work better than the water bags according to Mike Hayman. When it rains, the water collects in the wells and the water just runs off the water bags. He got them from Cindi Sullivan. She would not take any money from us for them because she supports tree-planting.
The Holiday Tree looks quite different than it did last year. There are gaps in the tree because the Kentucky Tree men wrapped them incorrectly around the branches. In short, the branches were injured (girded) by the tight wiring. Some were dead and needed to be removed. The tree is in decline. I really preferred the smaller lights, but Caroline Westfall said that they must be wrapped tightly to stay on. The lights they use are put on differently. She recommends that we use a different tree for a few years and give this one a rest. There are two candidates—the Spruce directly behind the current one and a couple of hollies. One is near the spruces. The other is near Rudy II. This is where the estimate comes into the picture. She recommends that we fertilize the existing one seriously to bring it back to a healthy state.
Then there is the issue of the lights that are on in the daytime. Adam said the electronic “eye” is not working and did not work last year either. We just never realized it because the lights were so much smaller. Caroline said that Sav-a-Tree provides a timer for the tree at no extra charge. They didn’t install it because they thought we would use the “eye.” She is going to have a timer installed today. It will go on around 5:00 and go off at 1:00 A.M. It will go on again around 6:00 A.M. for a couple of hours for people going to work. This will have to do until we replace the “eye.”
Also, some of the lights were drooping. Sav-a-tree came and fixed them, but forgot to plug in the cord. Adam Vogelsang discovered it and took care of it. Adam told me that lots of lights were out on the small tree. I took over 1000 lights to him. They will be installed this week.
Newsletter – Councilwoman Myers: Councilwoman Myers reported the November Windy Hills Breeze was sent to 733 residents. 60.6% were opened at least once. This is a very good rate for this type of communication. The issue was opened 1289 separate times. Two addresses were unsubscribed. We do not know the reason for those. This may be duplicate addresses or another preferred e-mail, or rejection of the communication.
By common agreement of the Council, we will send our December Holiday Greeting issue digitally and move the next print issue until January. The December Breeze deadline is noon on Wednesday, December 16th and the deadline for the January print issue will be Wednesday, January 13th. If the Council has ideas for articles for future months or photos that might be used, please feel free to send them to Councilwoman Myers any time as she keeps Dropbox folders for each issue. It would be especially great to have good news stories and affirmations.
Articles for The Breeze must be short and the e-mail format can only take 4 to 5 articles before becoming so large that it takes a long time to load, overwhelms mailboxes, and requires more scrolling than many readers will do. Pictures show well as The Breeze is in color. Our 4 annual print editions are usually 8 pages long, in black and white, and are mailed to every household. Each print edition includes any documents required by law (new ordinances, audit report, etc.).
Community Caring/Health & Fitness/Welcome to Windy Hills – Councilwoman Spencer:
Councilwoman Spencer reported the following items:
- Working with a group of St. X students on a Dare to Care project.
- Windy Hills Green – will talk to Pat Haunz about the plaque for Foster.
- There were 5 new residents in November.
- Would like to thank Cheri Baird, Staci Farris, Mary Jo McDonald, Pam Ritter, Kim Roberts, and Jody Smiley for helping with the light pole bow fluffing. Special thanks to Susie Walser and her company at the Brownsboro Center for storage space.
Public Works – Councilman Blue:
Councilman Blue reported:
- Asked to work on the Old Stone wall. It’s not in very good shape. Need to find people who specialize in these type of walls. Called EcoTech to find out if they have cameras in the back of their trucks. They have not called back.
- Met with someone about security cameras for the Green. We would need an internet connection or we could purchase Deer cameras.
- Reported a light out.
Ordinances/Community Standards – Councilwoman Trachtenberg: Councilwoman Trachtenberg no report.
City Clerk – Lisa Kraft: Ms. Kraft reported checks are coming in for Rental Registration 2021, and still receiving a few property tax payments.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None
NEW BUSINESS: None
Comments/Questions to the Council as a Whole: None
Councilwoman Greer moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:47 P.M., seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg and the motion passed unanimously.
_________________________ _______________________
| Helen M Davis, Mayor | Lisa Kraft, City Clerk |
