CITY OF WINDY HILLS

Minutes of Regular Council Meeting

June 14, 2021

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	Lisa Kraft
	Kate Greer	Attorney David Spenard
	Marcia Myers	Steve Teaford
	Marianne Rademaker
	Suzanne Spencer
	Laura Trachtenberg

MINUTES:

Councilwoman Myers moved to approve the minutes of the May 10, 2021, Council meeting; seconded by Councilwoman Greer. The motion passed unanimously.

FINANCIAL REPORTS, APPROVAL OF BILLS:

The financial reports for May 2021 were moved for approval by Councilwoman Rademaker, seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg. The motion passed unanimously.

Councilwoman Myers moved to approve the May bills, totaling $37,137.64, and was seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg.  The motion passed unanimously.

RESIDENTS’ COMMENTS/CONCERNS:  

 Martha Davis:  2411 Rudy Lane there is a hole in the sidewalk that is getting larger.

Jim Ising:  Would first like to compliment the Council on keeping the City running smoothly during the last year. A question for the City Attorney about the size of outbuildings in Windy Hills. Mayor Davis answered the question stating that at last month’s Planning Commission meeting, the JCLC took a stand against automatically granting building permits for outbuildings.  JCLC believes that the current practice of requiring a variance hearing before granting a building permit should continue as the standard procedure.

Issue for Kate Greer – Shrubs at Westport and Ambridge are covering the Windy Hills sign.

Money question from Mike Skelton via Jim Ising – “Are the Windy Hills funds secure?” Mayor Davis explained the funds are guaranteed by securities pledged by First Financial Bank at the Federal Reserve.

 MAYOR’S REPORT:

“I have spent lots of hours on the computer participating in virtual meetings with KLC and JCLC discussing the American Rescue Plan Act. I have signed and returned ALL of the required documents to the State. The process is lengthy and has many layers of built-in accountability. I have read and reread all of the documents since my name and signature are on same. Two weeks ago, we set up a separate account in anticipation of receiving the funds. It technically is not required but it certainly makes the documentation and verification process much easier.

The funds and uses are VERY specific. This list includes grants for small business development to help mitigate the costs of business interruption. In February, I asked Marianne Rademaker and Suzanne Spencer to work with the retail stores in the Brownsboro Center to ascertain their losses so we could develop a plan to provide business grants to them. As a team, they will only be dealing with one portion of the funds, business interruption.

Not all of the retail stores will be eligible – only those businesses that actually suffered lost sales/revenues. Thus some of the stores will be ineligible. We will also add the funds that we would have spent with Haywood Dairy. Documentation will be required to show past revenue using a date of January 24, 2020, compared to revenue covering the Covid period.

Marianne Rademaker and I will be handling ALL of the documentation and Federal financial requirements for this piece of the funds. I will be working on a document that outlines the requirements and all pertinent information for the businesses to receive the funds. Additional signed documents will be required that meet the Federal compliance guidelines.

I am appointing Marianne Rademaker as chair of a committee with Marcia Myers, and Bruce Blue serving on said committee to recommend how the City should disperse the remaining funds. That committee will not begin working until approximately January 2022. Council members and residents will be asked by the committee to share their ideas on expending the remaining funds.

As I stated at previous Council meetings, we will receive the funds over two years. We should receive the first funds in June or July 2021 and the remaining funds in June 2022. We have until 2024 to spend and account for the funds. Additionally, our funds cannot be used for infrastructure.

Police Report: There were a total of 102.8 hours in April. Radar= 23 hours evenly divided between Ambridge and Rudy resulting in one warning and no tickets. Based on residents’ complaints, our police have been doing “targeted” parking enforcement and wrote 18 tickets for illegal overnight parking. We had had some “repeat” offenders and I hope that the increased enforcement will relieve the situation.

There were a total of 99.9 hours in May. Radar= 12 hours evenly divided between Ambridge and Rudy resulting in no warnings or tickets. The “targeted” parking enforcement continued and resulted in 9 tickets for illegal overnight parking. We had had less “repeat” offenders. We have only received 4 paid fines so I will be sending follow-up letters regarding the violations.

Someone told them to patrol the shopping center during the two-month period and the police conducted business checks. There was one shoplifting incident but the perpetrator had fled before the police arrived.

I want to thank everyone for your help during Lisa’s leave. I especially want to thank Kate and Laura for staffing the office for the three days that I was out of town.

I will discuss the taxes and budget under unfinished business and the council will vote on the two ordinances.”

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Finance/Ordinances:  Councilwoman Rademaker reported we are now earning .25% interest on our market account.

Code Enforcement:  Steve Teaford reported he has been busy with rental and vacant housing inspections.

Windy Hills Green/City Maintenance/Newsletter/Tree Board – Councilwoman Greer:

Councilwoman Greer reported The Tree Board has not met since February but is going to meet in July to discuss an educational activity for the September event. Cornerstone will mulch the 4 trees on Ambridge. We need to advertise for a new Grounds Maintenance person. Some of the trees replaced by LG&E on Westport Road have died. She talked to Rick Grismer from LG&E and told him they need to be replaced with something hardier.

Newsletter – Councilwoman Myers:  Councilwoman Myers reported an issue of The Windy Hills Breeze was sent on May 14th. Only about half were opened. Two additional info e-mails were sent – a waste schedule holiday change and a food truck reminder.

The June print issue is in process. The deadline will be next Wednesday, June 16th at noon. That will be a hard deadline and it will be greatly appreciated if articles can be submitted earlier. In order to improve our newsletter appearance and give a KCTC design student an opportunity, we will be utilizing the services of Kyle Shook. Kyle will prepare the issue to be print-ready, then it will be sent to Minuteman Press for printing and mailing. This change should not impact our newsletter costs substantially and we hope will create a better product. Our arrangement with Kyle is a one-issue commitment at this point.

Thinking ahead – We rely on a print newsletter to publicize our annual 4th of July event. With the change of date this year, our regular newsletter schedule would get the September issue into homes the day before the Fall Festival. In light of that, I propose that we move our publishing schedule to very early September BEFORE OUR COUNCIL MEETING, to get the issue in homes no later than 2 weeks before the event. Our deadline for articles would then need to be Wednesday, September 1st at noon.

With that change, I suggest that we plan 1 Breeze issue if needed in late July so our schedule would be:

June 16th deadline for the print issue to be in homes is around June 26th

July 28th deadline for Breeze to be sent by July 30th

Sept 1 deadline for the print issue to be in homes by September 11th.

Fall Festival Report:  The festival will be held on September 25th at Sojourn Church. It will be an Arbor Day event featuring the “Moon Dogs”, great food, and Heywood Dairy

Community Caring/Health & Fitness/Welcome to Windy Hills – Councilwoman Spencer:

Councilwoman Spencer reported the following items:

• “Welcome to Windy Hills – We had 3 new residents in May.
• Community Caring – No report
• Windy Hills Green Amenities – The Waters family was in town from Florida and we met regarding their purchase of a memorial bench with a plaque naming their parents who were long-time residents of Windy Hills. They understand they will be paying for the bench itself and for all materials and labor to install it.

 Public Works – Councilman Blue:

Councilman Blue reported:

• Old Stone wall is repaired.
• Will try to put another hidden entrance sign and possibly a mirror at the entrance of Old Stone Road.
• Working on the sinkhole on Copperfield Road.
• Working on getting a shredder for the September Festival.
• Will need to place an ad in the Courier for bids for snow removal.
• The bridge is overgrown again.

Ordinances/Community Standards – Councilwoman Trachtenberg:  Councilwoman Trachtenberg reported about the Food Truck turnout in May. Everyone really liked the Lobster Truck.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Ordinance No. 1, Series 2021/2022 – Ad Valorem Taxes – 2nd Reading

Councilwoman Rademaker made a motion to have the 2nd reading of the Ordinance and was seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg.  A roll call vote was held, and the motion passed unanimously. Mayor Davis read Ordinance No. 1 into the record.

Ordinance No. 2, Series 2021/2022 Budget – 2nd Reading

A roll call vote was held, and the motion passed unanimously. Mayor Davis read Ordinance No. 2 into the record.

NEW BUSINESS:

ATTORNEYS COMMENTS:  Attorney Dave Spenard responded to the following issues:  drainage, American Recovery Act, and following up with LG&E on trees.

Comments/Questions to the Council as a Whole:

Cherie Baird and Stacie Farris both residents of Windsong Way asked about the drainage problem on their street. The Mayor assured them the City Engineer’s plan includes Windsong Way.

 

Councilwoman Greer moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:28 P.M., seconded by Councilwoman Trachtenberg and the motion passed unanimously.

 

 

__­_____          __________________                                                ­­­­­_______________________

Helen M Davis, Mayor

Lisa Kraft, City Clerk