Minutes February 10, 2020
CITY OF WINDY HILLS
Minutes of Regular Council Meeting
February 10, 2020
The Council and Officers of the City of Windy Hills met at the Sojourn Community Church, 2501 Rudy Lane, 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 (Absent) | Sandy Moore |
| Kate Greer | Jim Hodge | |
| Marcia Myers (Absent) | Steve Teaford | |
| Marianne Rademaker | ||
| Suzanne Spencer | ||
| Laura Trachtenberg |
MINUTES:
Councilwoman Greer moved to approve the minutes of January 10, 2020, Council meeting; seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg, and approved unanimously.
FINANCIAL REPORTS, APPROVAL OF BILLS:
The financial reports for January 2020 were moved for approval by Councilwoman Trachtenberg, seconded by Councilwoman Greer, and approved unanimously.
Councilwoman Trachtenberg moved to approve the January bills, totaling $38,267.46 and was seconded by Councilwoman Rademaker. The motion passed unanimously.
RESIDENTS’ COMMENTS/CONCERNS: None
MAYOR’S REPORT: The Mayor read her report as follows: “We are still working on collecting the outstanding 2019 property taxes. There are 33 outstanding balances with five accounts dating to 2015, 17, and 18. The total outstanding taxes are $10,442, but this does not include penalties and interest. We have collected about 1/3 of the delinquent taxes. Liens will be filed in March.
Police Report: There were 119 hours of Police support reported during January. There was an increase in house watch to four homes but most of the time was attributable to two of the homes. Police spent 25 hours in checking just one house. Both of these homes have met the annual one month a year patrol. The police had one domestic run backing up Metro police.
Radar monitoring and parking ticket enforcement of 98 hours resulted in 0 parking citations, 2 speeding citations on Ambridge and one on Rudy, and 8 warnings for speeding on Ambridge. I had contacted Grady twice in January because of residents’ complaints about overnight parking issues. I contacted him again this week to let him know that I expected a prompt remedy to my concerns. We continued targeted overnight patrol on Two Springs but have stopped the targeted enforcement since there have been no issues for the last 2 months.
Per last month’s Mayor’s report, we have adopted the updated proposed project form.
Many of our residents may have noticed the water main leak at the entrance of Wexford Place. The signature Wexford Place entrance was built on the water company right-of-way. A major leak was reported in December and the Water Company sent a crew to fix it in mid-January. The crew was getting ready to tear down the brick entrance on the west side of Antrim.
I was able to get the Water company to agree to stop the work and try to find another solution. Thanks to Mark Madison, our city engineer, the WC made a couple of accommodations that were acceptable to the homeowner and the WC agreed to reroute the waterline around the Wexford entrance. The homeowner signed the paperwork to fix the water main break and reroute the line so it will not impact the entrance.
This change has saved Windy Hills tens of thousands of dollars. I am thankful that the situation was resolved so well. We were really lucky since we didn’t have any legal right to force a change in the water line location. I want to thank Bruce Blue, Steve Teaford, and Mark Madison for helping me resolve this issue.
I have been working with the Secretary of State’s office and the City of St. Matthews to clear up boundary discrepancies between the two cities. I spent a lot of time “dumpster” diving through our city files and records, talked to multiple individuals, and I am trying to resolve our boundaries without costing us any money. I have an appointment on Tuesday with the director of the city mapping office.
I filed our 1099s with the IRS and sent copies to the individuals. I reported last month that I prepared and filed our UFIR. I am pleased to say that the 1099 filing through QuickBooks cost only $14.99 and the UFIR was free. Last year we paid our accounting firm $845 to handle this.
A contingent of Windy Hills officials will be going to Frankfort on February 12 to attend the KLC legislative meetings.
The Federal Reserve has updated our First Financial account of Pledged holdings that back up our accounts.”
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Code Enforcement: Steve Teaford was absent and the Mayor reported that he is working on the Rental property registrations.
City Maintenance/Windy Hills Green/Tree Board – Councilwoman Greer: Councilwoman Greer reported on the following items:
Green:
- She is meeting with Mike Hayman to arrange the planting of the two trees (Green Point Juniper and Ogden Zelkova) on Westport Rd. and the planting of the Magnolia Fringe Tree and Parrotia Trees on the Green. She stated Councilman Blue is going to try to pick up the Juniper and Zelkova at River Farm Nursery in Oldham County and the other trees will be delivered by White Hall.
Tree Board:
- Cheri Silvey-Slusher is out of town, therefore there was no Tree Board Report.
- She has emailed Caroline Westfall to evaluate two trees on Wicklow that seem to be in decline. They are located at 719 and 729 Wicklow.
Councilwoman Greer made a motion to approve up to $1,000 for the Green to plant Fringe, Parrotia, and Dogwood trees. Her motion was seconded by Councilwoman Rademaker and passed unanimously.
Newsletter – Councilwoman Myers: Councilwoman Myers was absent, but the Mayor read her report as follows: She reported that the Breeze edition of the newsletter was sent on January 23 and opened by 412 residents which compared to November when we sent 697 newsletters and 357 were opened. Therefore, the number of subscribers and the number opened have both increased. She stated she would like to see an increase in the number of subscribers which will benefit the residents by getting information out to more residents on a timely basis. The next deadline for the print newsletter is March 11 with the goal of having it in homes by March 20.
Community Caring/Welcome to Windy Hills – Councilwoman Spencer: Councilwoman Spencer reported that there are 4 or 5 new residents depending on whether one of the properties (in Kirkwood Glen) is in Windy Hills. She also reported that 152 residents registered for the Apple Watch drawing. Julia Ising’s name was pulled and the watch was sent to her via her husband who was in attendance. She also reported the donors of the Orchid Society bench gave her a check for the City to use as a deposit for a bench on the Green.
Finance – Councilwoman Rademaker: Councilwoman Rademaker reported that the City has been receiving the Municipal Insurance Premium Tax checks.
Public Works – Councilman Blue: Councilman Blue reported that he is:
- Evaluating the 2020 road and sidewalk repairs.
- Evaluating the street signs for reflectivity compliance.
Ordinances/Community Standards – Councilwoman Trachtenberg: Councilwoman Trachtenberg reported that she is updating documents.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None.
NEW BUSINESS:
Bench on the Green: Councilwoman Spencer presented a Project Proposal for a Bench on the Green, donated by the Orchid Society. She stated the anonymous donor has presented the City with a check in the amount of $750 for a deposit of one half of the cost of the bench. Councilwoman Spencer made a motion to accept the $750 check as a down payment for the bench and for the Council to move forward and order the bench. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Greer. During the discussion, Councilwoman Rademaker asked if the donor was aware that the total cost was $4 – $5,000 and whether they had agreed to pay the full amount. Councilwoman Spencer stated that they were aware and would be responsible for the total cost of the bench, delivery fees, plaque, and any other fees that may be associated with this bench. Councilwoman Rademaker stated she would prefer that the donors pay the full amount in advance before the bench is ordered. The motion passed with the following vote: 3 Ayes – Councilwoman Greer, Councilwoman Spencer, and Councilwoman Trachtenberg. 1 Nay – Councilwoman Rademaker. 2 Absent – Councilman Blue and Councilwoman Myers.
Good Neighbor Award: Councilwoman Greer made a motion to present a Good Neighbor Award at the next meeting and was seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg. The motion passed unanimously.
ATTORNEY’S REPORT: No report.
Comments/Questions to the Council as a Whole: None
Councilwoman Greer moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:34 PM., seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg and the motion passed unanimously.
_______ __________________ _______________________
| Helen M Davis, Mayor | Sandy Moore, City Clerk |
