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Home My WebLink About06/19/07255 JUNE 19, 2007 At a Regular Meeting of the Board of Commissioners, held on Tuesday, June 19, 2007, at 5:30 p.m., Mayor Paxton presided, and upon call of the roll by the City Clerk, the following answered to their names: Commissioners Coleman, Kaler, Smith, and Mayor Paxton (4). Commissioner Watkins was absent (1). PRESENTATION Meri Brooke Cantwell reported to the Commission that she has been chosen to compete in the U.S. National Volleyball Competition in Hawaii. Ms. Cantwell is a student at Paducah Tilghman High School. She will represent the state at the competition. WORKSHOP MAIN STREET MARKETING UPDATE Main Street Director Carol Gault gave an update on marketing efforts and retail recruitment that Main Street began aggressively working on in the last year. The City awarded $40,000 to Main Street to help fund these activities. They have attended several networking trade shows to get the word out about downtown in Paducah. A new website was launched at the end of January 2007 and is receiving about 40,000 hits per month. Right now they are working on about 40 solid leads that include toy stores, lingerie stores, etc. There is about 135,000 square feet of development going on right now. Successful retailers who have come to Paducah in the downtown area looked at the market here for about 2 years before committing to opening shop in Paducah. Condominiums and apartments are being built in each block all the time. There are about 16 market rate apartments full with another approximate 22 ready in next year. MAIN STREET INCENTIVES FOR TARGETED DOWNTOWN RETAIL Packets of information are provided to new businesses that want to open in downtown. The type of information provided to them depends on the type of business it is, such as dining, shopping -retail and so on. Each packet contains information about the small business development center—services it provides, available property check list, advertising information, new business checklist, statistics that show the traffic in the downtown area and information about what is going on in downtown. Each packet is specialized to the type of business showing interest. It is easier to recruit dining businesses than retail (clothing stores) because of the type of businesses that are in the area. Other incentives are necessary to recruit businesses to be in the downtown area instead of in the mall area due to costs and traffic. ACCEPT PROPOSAL FOR MAIN STREET PROJECT Sharon Graves and Brent Lamo have presented a proposal to Main Street to renovate the Arcade property. Their proposal consists of remodeling the property into office/retail space with an investment of approximately $1,442,000. Ms. Graves and Mr. Lamo are requesting incentives. The timeline for the construction of Phase One is approximately 26 weeks. The Commission will take the proposal into consideration. SOLID WASTE BUDGET Earnie Via, Public Works Director and Chris Yarber, Supervisor, gave an overview of the current year budget and FY2008 budget summary, decision items and capital expenditures. The goal is to get the solid waste budget in the black. The Solid Waste Division's projected capital expenditures for FY2008 is $750,000. These expenditures are for the following: paving of a lot and purchases of dumpsters, a front loader, a mini packer, roll out containers, and 2 pick up trucks. Projected revenue is $3,934,500; total expenditures $4,999,000; additional depreciation $50,000 totaling operating cost and depreciation at a loss of $367,000(in the red). In order to balance the budget the recommendations are as listed: Recommendation 1 -Leaf Bags (a) Buy plastic bags instead of biodegradable bags—savings of $100,000 (b) Residents provide bags Commission decision: Buy plastic bags Recommendation 2—Event Service Last year cost $20,000(70% -landfill costs; 30%-overtime)—Requests are steadily growing --need to change Next year consider some charge for events 256 JUNE 19, 2007 Recommendation 3—Rate Increase Raise Rates 7.2% Residential Rates current $14.32 w/increase $15.35 Commercial rates will also increase based upon usage Mayor suggested looking at higher rate of increase so rates don't have to be raised on a yearly basis. Commission decision: Bring recommended rate increase to commission at next meeting for action Recommendation 4—Handicap Service (a) Add $15 service charge — Requests last year increased 50%; Housing Authority wants to add 224 residents (b) Provide low incentive handicap grant—contract with Service Agency to manage grant monies Commission decision: agrees with both recommendations With these changes --revenue is projected to increase to $4,202,000 and expenditures decrease by $100,000—depreciation and capital expenditures staying the same—operating cost & depreciation will total a gain of $500 (in the black). RECYCLING If the City went to a full blown recycling program, according to regulations by the State Department of Waste Management, it would cost $3,000,000. At this time options are being reviewed. CITY MANAGER REPORT • Asst. Police Chief Danny Carroll reported that the Police Department participated in an earthquake response exercise in trying to develop a policy in how to deal with the issue should it occur. Several statewide as well as local agencies were involved. • Mike Hatton, Public Works Superintendent, thanked the City for hiring him and for the opportunities given to him while being employed at the City. He is leaving for a different job. • IAFF has contacted the Human Resources director for negotiations. • Calendar Items • City Manager requested an executive session to discuss a real estate proposal and pending litigation. COMMISSIONER CONCERNS Commissioner Coleman expressed concern with actions that are taking place at the skatepark. Feels that security needs to increase. EXECUTIVE SESSION Commissioner Coleman offered motion, seconded by Commissioner Kaler, that the Board go into closed session for discussion of matters pertaining to the following topics: • Future sale or acquisition of a specific parcel(s) of real estate, as permitted by KRS 61.810(1)(b). • Proposed or pending litigation, as permitted by KRS 61.810(1(c). Adopted on call of the roll, yeas, Commissioners Coleman, Kaler, Smith, and Mayor Paxton (4). Upon motion the meeting adjourned. ADOPTED: July 10 , 2007 City Clerk