Home: Meeting Minutes List: Meeting Minutes

March 27, 2006

Mayor Sohm welcomed and thanked everyone for attending the meeting.

Pastor Robert Stoess, Shepherdsville Church of Nazarene gave the invocation.

The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was said.

Mayor Sohm called the meeting to order at 6:32 p.m.

In attendance were Council members Stacey Cline, Tony Miller, Margaret Moore, Faith Portman, Trina Summers and Alan Wetzel.

Stacey Cline made motion to dispense with reading of 3/13/2006 regular meeting minutes. Trina Summers 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0.

Councilwoman Trina Summers made motion to approve minutes as printed with date correction. Tony Miller 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0.

Mayor Sohm introduced Christopher Tate with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) who explained that this is a program that provides protection for children who are part of the court system. He stated they were looking for members to mentor children and asked anyone with questions to contact his office located in the Wantland Law Office building.

Mayor Sohm stated that Troy Fleming was scheduled to make a presentation on the new web site but he had a family emergency and will be at the next meeting.

Mayor Sohm introduced David Strange with the Bullitt County History Museum who stated that he had received the $6710 grant money to help cover expenses at the cemetery. He also stated that the historic marker had been designed and sent off to be made. Mayor Sohm asked Public Works Foreman Jesse Walls about the fence being put up around the cemetery. PWF Walls stated that most of the fence was up; he needs to dig footers and put up concrete posts for the arch.

Mayor Sohm stated for several years we have discussed possible solutions to the drainage problems we have throughout the City. He stated most of them, granted, happened prior to the Design Criteria that was passed in late 1998 or early 1999. From that date forward developers had to go through plan review. An engineer would have to look at it, sign off on it and make sure that the drainage was going to be right by doing pre and post development flows to make sure they were not going to add water on to property down stream and they were going to hold back the right amount of retention and not cause erosion on the development they were building. But as you well know as Council Members you get phone calls all the time. There are still a lot of issues around town in some of the subdivisions that were built prior to the Design Criteria.  Mayor Sohm stated he would like to look at creating a city-wide comprehensive drainage plan to address these problems. We now have an engineer on staff, somebody with the knowledge and experience that can look at different problems and determine what caused it, what the best solution would be, estimate what the cost of construction would be, how many people would be benefited by the fix that we come up with, is it a safety issue, is it a health issue, is it going to cause anybody else problems down stream. What we would always have to do in the past is hire an engineering firm, pay them an enormous amount of money to answer those questions for us and then still pay the construction costs. He stated too often those types of projects just didn’t get done. He stated what he would like to do is ask for the Council’s support in going forward with this project. Mayor Sohm stated he would like to set up a committee consisting of the engineer, a couple council members, developers and possibly employees that work on drainage or employees who work on sewers; have this committee list all these projects--we’ve got Beech Grove Road we’ve had complaints on, The Pointe subdivision, Cherry Street, Blue Lick Road, and Highway 44. He stated Shepherdsville is flat, the soil is not good, the water stands in it, and it doesn’t soak in like other elevations would. Mayor Sohm stated  we’ve got those problems and we’re going to have to deal with them. He stated he think it’s time that we, as a City, step forward and say we know that we’re not responsible, we didn’t cause the problem, but we owe it to the taxpayers to do what he can to try  to solve some of these problems. He stated if we set this committee up, we list all these projects, prioritize them; we’ll pick the criteria that we want to prioritize them by, maybe it’s how many we can help per $1000 or which is the safety issue first, those come up priority number one; health issue, priority number two. He stated we need to talk about this as a group; then this governing body has to make the decision as to how much money we appropriate for this project each year. He stated we need to work diligently between now and the next budget on how many projects we’re going to have, size of the project, and list those to come up with what we think we can afford to appropriate to this cause. He stated what he would like to do, if everybody is in favor, and thinks this is a good idea, is to put the employees we have talked about hiring to put in the sewer line; who will be on staff within a week or so before we have materials  to start the sewer line is to take this crew and put them on a drainage problem. The engineer would first go over and find out what the best fix would be. He stated he would like the first project to be the ditch that’s in behind The Pointe subdivision; if this project is successful we would move forward and work on some more of these projects. Mayor Sohm stated he would like to hear everybody’s comments. Councilman Alan Wetzel and Councilwoman Faith Portman stated they strongly support this proposal. Councilwoman Margaret Moore stated she has a problem with this already. She stated The Pointe has been here for 10-12 years and that Mr. Wilbur Raymond has been here for years. She stated she thinks we need to take care of this gentleman first in two locations.  Mayor Sohm stated he just made a short list to talk about and that Mr. Raymond was on the list. Ms. Moore stated he should be given priority. Mayor Sohm stated that’s exactly the point, Ms. Moore brings up Wilbur Raymond, and Trina Summers brings up Gaither Flatt (Ms. Summers agreed with Ms. Moore that Mr. Raymond should be a priority). Mayor Sohm stated this is why we need to get a Committee formed that can say okay Wilbur Raymond’s problem is a safety issue for him, so we have to do that one first. The Committee will prioritize these projects and rely on the experience and expertise of the Engineer. Mayor Sohm stated he feels we have an opportunity and we owe it to the community to take care of these types of issues in a professional manner just like we would any other issue. Councilman Alan Wetzel asked how many members we need on this committee. Mayor Sohm asked City Engineer Toby Spalding how many members he would like on the committee. CE Spalding stated possibly three council members but he has no set number in mind, probably six. He stated what the Committee would be for is to determine first, what the criteria for prioritizing will be. If we’re going to spend $5000 and that only helps one person, when we can spend $4000 and help ten. Is this a safety issue where there is a four foot drop off in a back yard versus a health issue where there are mosquitoes or that type of problem. He stated there are so many things you have to list as your criteria in order to make that right decision. City Engineer Toby Spalding stated he thinks that drainage requests could come either directly to his office or through the City Council who could relay the problem to him so that he could go out and research to see first, if it is a problem; if there is anything we can do; and look at the numbers on repair. Mayor Sohm stated that he just mentioned The Pointe, we may have time to do that one and Wilbur Raymond. City Engineer Spalding stated that in regard to Mr. Raymond’s property Louisville Water Company has offered the material to work on his drainage but not the manpower. Mayor Sohm stated that what he wanted to point out was, if we start the first project, there are going to be more that are going to follow. Everyone is going to expect the same treatment. He stated there are a couple things that are going to have to happen. If there is not an easement, the property owners are going to have to agree to sign one; they are also going to have to sign a letter saying they will maintain it once it is there. He stated this is the only way we can do it, we can’t go in every five years and rebuild a ditch line. Councilwoman Trina Summers stated what she would like to see come out of it as well is we have a comprehensive plan and an identification of areas that just should not be developed. She would like to see a identification of those water ways and drainage areas added to the list so when people buy property they can check that. Mayor Sohm stated that was in place now during the plan review process. The developer has to hire a separate engineer, and they do a pre and post development flow to determine how much retention is needed, whether they have to build a pond. City Engineer Spalding stated he thinks what Councilwoman Summers was saying is that she would like to catch it a step earlier where a developer would know going in where houses shouldn’t be built or already has restrictions.

Both Councilwomen Trina Summers and Stacey Cline are in favor. Mayor Sohm stated that if everyone is in support we’ll move forward and start working on the process of getting the information in place, getting the criteria set and then we’ll put together a committee to start meeting relatively soon to start getting priorities set. City Engineer Spalding stated that we’ve been working on a map with the Louisville Water Company and hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll get that and it will give us a perfect model to start documenting these. Then we’ll schedule meetings once a month or every two-three months. He stated that every time he gets a request it will be mapped on the system; marked with a  red line so we know that one has already been looked at and there should be a solution there already. He stated if we start off there we can improve on it as we go.

City Attorney Joe Wantland had second summary reading of Ordinance 006-(number to be assigned) amending Ordinance 005-658 an Ordinance providing Personnel Policies and Procedures for all employees of City Government located in the City of Shepherdsville. Tony Miller made motion to approve. Alan Wetzel 2^nd. After some discussion, motion carried 6-0. (This Ordinance will be numbered 006-689).

City Attorney Wantland had second summary reading of Ordinance 006-(number to be assigned) an Ordinance relating to the establishment of a Civil Service Commission for the employees of the City of Shepherdsville. Mayor Sohm stated that he is in favor of this Ordinance and will support it. He feels it is an opportunity to protect our employees. Councilman Alan Wetzel stated he was very strongly in support of this Ordinance. He stated he feels it is a great opportunity for our employees to have some added protection but he stated he is somewhat concerned with Section 8 under the Membership area. He stated he would like make a motion to change the wording to the effect of the Mayor, by and with the approval of the Legislative Body shall approve …. Faith Portman 2^nd. Councilwoman Portman asked if we could talk about the Ordinance. Mayor Sohm stated we have a motion on the floor and a second to approve the amendment. City Attorney Wantland stated we have a motion to approve the Ordinance as amended with a second. Councilwoman Portman stated no she thought we were going to discuss. CA Wantland stated we have a motion to approve the Ordinance as amended and we are looking for a 2^nd. Trina Summers 2^nd as amended. Councilwoman Portman stated she had been talking with a lot of people in the public and a lot of employees and a lot of them are concerned for different reasons. She asked if this had to be voted on tonight because a lot of employees feel that we should give them the opportunity to let them read this and fill them in a little bit better. Mayor Sohm stated we have been talking about this, before I brought it to this Council, for 2 or 3 years, and originally the thought was to protect the police department and in doing more research on it I thought it would be the best thing to protect all the employees because we didn’t want to leave anyone out. That’s what led us to the point in protecting everyone. We’ve done a lot of leg work, and maybe this will help ease that question. When this passes, our plan will be as it has been in the past to sit up a training course where we will have the employees come in and we will go over and explain the Ordinance in detail. After further discussion, motion carried 6-0. (This Ordinance will be numbered 006-690.)  

City Attorney Wantland had second reading of Ordinance 006-(number to be assigned) amending Ordinance 002-544 revising the compensation of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Shepherdsville for the term beginning January 1, 2007. Councilman Alan Wetzel asked City Attorney Wantland rather than set a dollar amount is there any way to index it somehow. City Attorney Wantland stated Consumer Price Index. He also stated that the only reason he brought it up was that if we don’t do it now we don’t do it. He stated it looks like this was set in 2002 so we’re not going to set it again for the Mayor until 2010 and the Council you might be able to fit it in every two years. City Attorney Wantland stated he basically took the old salary and adjusted to the CPI accordingly but we can put in there that from and after January 2007 the annual base salary of the Mayor of the City of Shepherdsville shall be $49,000 and thereafter be adjusted annually by any increase or decrease in the CPI. And on the Council we’ll use $7200 base and adjusted annually by increase or decrease in the CPI as reported by the Department of Labor of the U.S. Government. Section four will be eliminated. After further discussion Faith Portman made motion to approve as amended. Trina Summers 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0. (This Ordinance will be numbered 006-691.)

Mayor Sohm stated we have talked about the Sewer Committee and we really haven’t had a need to meet with this particular group. He stated what we want to do instead of having a Sewer Committee comprised of individuals from the community is have a Progress Meeting the 4^th Monday of every month at 5:00 and invite the Council to attend if they’d like. He stated if it’s a project we’re farming out that we can’t do with our crew that person would be here to answer questions, City Engineer Spalding would be there to answer questions and give us a progress report on how the project is moving. He stated we would like to set this up at a certain date so that everybody knows when it is and can come by if you’d like. He stated we would like to do it on a meeting night since you are coming to City Hall anyway. Wastewater Treatment Plant Superintendent Mike Schroeder will also be involved for specific sewer plant questions. City Engineer Spalding stated it would be an informative meeting as there will be a lot going on in the next 2 to 3 years. Mayor Sohm stated there will no longer be need for a Sewer Committee Report; we’ll have a report from City Engineer Toby Spalding  on capital projects and WWTPS Mike Schroeder on the sewer plant.

Mayor Sohm introduced Ron Cook from the Governor’s office who stated he has been managing the cemetery preservation grant projects and had a check presentation for $6710 for Shepherdsville’s cemetery preservation project applied for by David Strange of the Bullitt County History Museum. Mayor Sohm stated Mr. Strange was not aware that Mr. Cook would be available tonight for the presentation and had left to attend another meeting.

There was no report from the Transportation/Beautification Committee.

Mayor Sohm asked Public Works Foreman Jesse Walls on the progress of putting in the playground equipment on

City Attorney Wantland read Resolution 06-04; A Resolution for acquisition of property for the all purpose building and the financing of this property by the City of Shepherdsville, Bullitt County, Kentucky. Mayor Sohm stated this was the Resolution for equipment acquisition for the new police/fire building. Trina Summers made motion to approve. Margaret Moore 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0.

City Attorney Wantland read Resolution of Governing Body authorizing the execution and delivery of a Master Lease Agreement, Equipment Schedule No. 01, and Escrow Agreement, and related instruments, and determining other matters in connection therewith. City Attorney Wantland stated this give the Mayor authority to sign documents. Alan Wetzel made motion to approve. Faith Portman 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0.

City Attorney Wantland read Resolution 06-006, Series 2006; A Resolution approving the granting of inducements to GFS Food Service, LLC as an approved affiliate of Institutional Distributors, Inc. pursuant to KRS Chapter 154, Subsection 24. Trina Summers made motion to adopt. Faith Portman 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0.

Discussion followed on request from Ted Korfhage, Heritage Hill, to put up three street signs in Section 2; Gaither Farm Road, John R. Gaither Court, Gaither Woods Court. Mayor Sohm stated we can put street signs up but that does not mean we have accepted the streets. Faith Portman made motion to put up three street signs and three stop signs. Stacey Cline 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0.

Margaret Moore made motion to approve payment of February bills. Tony Miller 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0.

Ted Korfhage was present to address the Council on exit beautification. He stated that if the Council had never been to the 2^nd Bowling Green exit they should drive there and see how great it looks. He will have some information soon on a meeting to be held on how they received funding through the federal government for the beautification. He stated he would like to have all five exits signed up for this beatification program.

Steve Plenge was present to address the Council about the Hamilton rezoning. He stated on the request for information act he received a copy of the Ordinance that was adopted concerning the Hamilton rezoning and he feels there is an error concerning item F concerning the loading dock location. He stated the discussion that night was that, and agreed to by the Hamilton family, the loading docks would be opposite the Heritage Hill property and item F on the Ordinance just says that the parking lots would not be located on the east side of the building. It doesn’t preclude lateral truck docks. Mayor Sohm stated he didn’t think there were any restrictions on cross docking. He stated Mr. Hamilton was not present to ask. Mr. Korfhage stated he signed up to speak on this as well. He stated they had got the tape and on the tape it says loading docks opposite of Heritage Hill properties. It doesn’t say anything about east, west, north or south, it says on the property opposite. At the next meeting the Council voted to put the Ordinance according to what the tape said. We got a copy of the tape and our copy of the tape says that they be opposite of Heritage Hill. Mr. Plenge stated the question asked of Mr. Hamilton … City Attorney Wantland asked Mr. Plenge where we were going with this. He stated we were not going to have another hearing on this. Mr. Korfhage stated it wasn’t written up to what the City Council asked to be written up. The City Council asked that it be written up according to the tape and when you listen to the tape Mayor Sohm said, so you’re agreeing Mr. Hamilton that you run your buildings this direction that you’re going to put your loading docks on the opposite side and Mr. Hamilton said yes. This is not what they agreed to. He stated the Ordinance is incorrect according to the minutes. Mayor Sohm stated he feels we are wasting our time. If the Hamilton family is not here to address the issue and the Hamilton family has said we don’t agree with not putting the docks on both sides of the building if they are not facing that property line, if they’ve already said that’s not what they agreed to we can’t make them agree to that if they don’t want to agree to that. City Attorney Wantland stated to the members of the Council that this is not properly brought before this meeting. He stated if you want to have a discussion on this you have to go back and if you want to invite the Hamilton’s to come invite them to come but we’re not going to go back and discuss this without everyone being here and given public notice and advertised as required by law. Councilman Wetzel asked what the document was that had the error in it. He stated if they knew what the document was and who made the document then we can figure out who needs to make a correction. City Attorney Wantland stated he is the one who worked on the restrictions. Mayor Sohm stated that any time you add restrictions to an Ordinance the person who is requesting the rezoning and has agreed to those restrictions has to sign the restrictions they agreed to.  He stated you can’t just take their word at a meeting. He stated that is why that document exists. It should exist for any Ordinance where there is a rezoning and there are restrictions outside of the normal rezoning process. They are agreed to so that they can belong to that Ordinance and be part of it. Mayor Sohm stated that if there is anything incorrect and Mr. Hamilton didn’t agree with it or anyone else didn’t agree with it, they wouldn’t have signed it.

Kenny Stout,

Planning Commission Appointee Ben Robards had nothing new to report.

Board of Adjustments Appointee Scott Isert was not present at the meeting.

Police Chief Ron Morris thanked the Council for their work and passage of the Civil Service Ordinance.

Major Dannye Allen reported that on April 7^th at 3:30 p.m. Senator Gary Tapp would be at City Hall to make a presentation to the fire department. He stated that Shepherdsville, Zoneton and Fairdale Fire Departments were the only three departments certified in the State to do mine rescue. He stated that will help the department get grant money.

Councilwoman Trina Summers asked about closing the road by St. Aloysius. City Attorney Wantland stated he was waiting on paperwork from Mr. Klosterman. He stated he needs a plat of the right of way.

Councilman Tony Miller stated he had been approached by a few people about needing transportation. He stated several years ago there was a taxi cab service. Mayor Sohm stated there is a TARC bus that comes here but it has a dedicated route back and forth to Louisville. He stated we could address a letter to TARC asking them to amend their route. The problem is they won’t come to an individual’s home. He stated they would have to meet somewhere, right now TARC picks up at the old Shepherdsville High School, but we could ask them to amend their route to pick them up, get on the Interstate, drop them off at the Industrial Park and then get back on. Bob Fouts, Director of the Bullitt County Economic Development Authority, who was in the audience stated he has spoken with TARC about getting a route to the Industrial Park and they are considering it. Mayor Sohm asked The Pioneer News if he could pose the question if public transportation was available, would you use it?

Councilwoman Margaret Moore stated she had received a request about a having a clean up day. Mayor Sohm asked if we should wait after the County completes theirs then we will make plans for a citywide clean up. Ms. Moore also asked about the status of putting the parking meters back up. Mayor Sohm stated that Claude Middleton was going to paint them before we put them up and he has been off on disability and will not return until 4/21. After Claude gets them painted they will be put back up. Ms. Moore also asked about the audit. City Treasurer, Maxine Jeffries, reported the auditors will not be back until after tax season and that it shouldn’t take long to complete after they get back.

Mayor Sohm stated he wanted to thank our City Attorney for being here tonight, he’s been a little under the weather and we appreciate his presence. Mayor Sohm also stated he wanted to thank the Council for believing in our employees in taking steps necessary to protect their jobs and ensure that they are treated fairly in the future. 

Tony Miller made motion to adjourn. Stacey Cline 2^nd. Motion carried 6-0. Meeting adjourned at 9:12 p.m.

ATTEST:                                                                                             APPROVED:

Tammy Owen, City Clerk                                                                     Joseph G. Sohm, Mayor