COMMISSION RECAP: 29 MAY - PART ONE

THE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE

| 

by Michael Monks 

Email Michael

| 

FACEBOOK: The River City News

@theRCnews on Twitter  
|

One of the longest city commission agendas in recent memory included the termination of the police chief, another step toward a methadone clinic opening in Midtown, and the first moves in acting on the Center City Action Plan. Additionally, streets are crumbling at the City Heights housing project and a plan to salvage them appears to have evaporated in another apparent communication lapse between the City and the Housing Authority of Covington. The two-and-a-half hour, dry, and sometimes emotional meeting at City Hall Tuesday evening was dominated, however, by talk of necessary layoffs in the coming weeks as the City of Covington attempts to balance another lean budget. 

|
BUDGET REDUCTIONS WILL LIKELY RESULT IN LAYOFFS

More than $1.5 million must be cut from public safety while another $700,000 must be cut from other city departments according to the city manager and finance director. That likely means layoffs are coming to Covington. Click the link for the full story. 

Long Night at City Hall Includes More Talk of Layoffs 

|

RUSSO OUT, JONES IN AS INTERIM POLICE CHIEF

"It was no easy task to move he and his family here from halfway across the country, but we're glad that he did," said Spike Jones of outgoing Covington Police Chief Lee Russo, whose termination was accepted unanimously (4-0, because Commissioner Shawn Masters is out of town). Jones was unanimously named interim chief. "Over the past five years public safety had improved," said Mayor Chuck Scheper. "We are a very safe city and we have Chief Russo in part to thank for that." The commission approved an exit agreement with Russo that was not publicly explained but it is possible that the full results of an internal review of the police department by an outside firm will not be fully accessible to the public. 

|
As for Jones, who hopes to become chief permanently, he expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to serve as interim chief once again. "I can think of no other (police department) finer than the one we have in Covington," he said. 

|

ALSO: One of Jones's first acts as interim chief also came Tuesday night at City Hall as he recommended Justin Schmidt to be hired as a new police officer. The commission approved the hire unanimously. Schmidt is currently employed at the Kenton County Police Department and is a 2003 graduate of Simon Kenton High School. 

|

Newly named interim Police Chief Spike Jones (R)
introduces newly hired police officer Justin Schmidt

|

STREETS OF CITY HEIGHTS ARE CRUMBLING, BUT WHO'S RESPONSIBLE?

Following a presentation by Covington's engineering department that detailed which city streets are slated to be repaved and resurfaced this summer, City Heights resident Melissa Sherill expressed her surprise and disappointment that no streets that surround the housing project made the list. Sherill lamented that City Heights streets are practically undriveable with gaping potholes littered throughout. It turns out that those streets were originally included on the list of resurface projects but removed following a resolution passed in December that would turn those streets into private ones managed by the Housing Authority of Covington. The goal of that move was to ensure that HAC could keep out undesirable or criminal people from the crime-plagued neighborhood, something that could not happen were the streets to remain publicly owned. In the agreement, Covington agreed to resurface the streets one more time before HAC took full control. 

|
After Sherill's remarks, however, City Manager Larry Klein noted that HAC has since applied for a federal grant that would allow for the redevelopment of the City Heights site and that the organization is rethinking private ownership of the streets if they are going to be removed in the near future. The City operates its street resurfacing plans on a three-year cycle in which the city is divided into three areas with one of those areas being treated each year. City Heights is not in this year's area. 

|
"To take them off the list for another year, that's absurd," said Eastisde resident Michelle Williams to the city commission. Williams works for OASIS, Inc, an Eastside social service agency and is also a candidate for the city commission, finishing second in last week's primary election. "It's not fair. People living in public housing are being pushed aside. Those streets are not driveable now." Klein and the city commission voiced their agreement with Williams while City Commissioner Sherry Carran said she hopes for a joint meeting between the City and HAC soon. 

|

Streets to be resurfaced with funds from community development block grant (CDBG)

A bid of $301,312.40 was awarded to Eaton Asphalt to resurface the streets listed on the slide below (click to enlarge):

|
Streets to be resurfaced with capital improvement funds (directly from the City's budget)
A bid of $319,926.30 was awarded to Bluegrass Paving, Inc to resurface the streets listed on the slide below (click to enlarge):

|

Conditions of roads continue to be worry for commission

"We don't have enough funds," said Commissioner Steve Frank as part of his familiar lament that the City of Covington spent years balancing its budget by not investing in its infrastructure needs. "This is a band-aid, a much-needed band-aid." Frank asked assistant city engineer Mike Yeager if this work is enough. 

|
"I'd like to bring some kind of preventive maintenance to all the streets," Yeager replied.
|
"We've kicked that can down the road and now the roads are eroding," said Mayor Scheper. We need to find a way to accelerate that funding." Covington's street are repaired and maintained through funding from the state gas tax and federal dollars. 

|
"Both of which are shrinking and will continue to," Frank barked, noting that four-fifths of gas tax funds go to rural areas and that the increase in cars with better gas mileage are lessening the gas tax funds. "Fuel-efficient vehicles do not eliminate road miles. What we have today is totally inadequate."

|
One positive infrastructure development

The long-awaited reconstruction of West Southern Avenue and the Caroline Underpass (that railroad underpass that motorists use to escape delays on Decoursey caused by passing trains) in Latonia is now closer than ever. Commissioner Carran noted that the City has applied for a grant from the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana (OKI) regional council of governments and Yeager noted that applicants for such grants were less than the amount of money that will be awarded. "We have design plans for both," Yeager said. "We are very optimistic." The grants would be an eighty percent match while the city's cost would be just twenty percent of the entire project.

|

PART TWO OF THE COMMISSION RECAP

Coming up later... The police department needs new radios as the current ones are from 1998 and obsolete (the manufacturer no longer produces them, and there's not enough to go around in the department). Also, the City takes its first steps to adopting parts of the Center City Action Plan with the exploration of new zoning that could allow for micro-distilleries, vintage clothing stores, mobile food trucks, and more. But that decision did not come without a little heated debate. Plus, an emotional goodbye to a member of the city staff. Part two of the recap will be posted here later this morning at The River City News - More Covington News Than Any Other Source.

COVINGTON RAISES VOICE IN BRIDGE BATTLE

|

THE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE

| 

by Michael Monks 

Email Michael

FACEBOOK: The River City News

@theRCnews on Twitter 

|

Additional seating was required to accommodate the
oversize crowd

The turnout Wednesday evening at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center dwarfed the crowd reports from the same presentation the night before at Longworth Hall in Cincinnati. The concern on the Kentucky side of the river has reason to be much higher as the preferred design for the Brent Spence Bridge corridor project favors its neighbors to the north. The presentation by transportation officials from both states demonstrates plans to make access to Covington and several of the city's features more difficult and leaders of Covington past and present pleaded for changes, promising catastrophe otherwise.

|

"Without access, Covington would be wounded a second time, maybe mortally," said City Commissioner Steve Casper, referencing the original Interstate 75 that divided West Covington (now Botany Hills) from the rest of the city. Casper's deadly prognosis for Covington without the city's desired changes to the bridge's plans was echoed multiple times by members of the 350-person crowd. 

|
"These are vital requests concerning the economic vitality of Northern Kentucky's largest city," said Brent Cooper, chairman of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and owner of C-Forward on Madison Avenue. 

|

"The best real estate location in the world doesn't mean a thing if you can't get to it," said Chris Penn, co-owner of Cock & Bull restaurant in Mainstrasse. 

|
"Cincinnati has raised objection to Covington's access to the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge," said City Commissioner Steve Frank of of that city's plans for its streetcar. "I don't care what they want with their toy train!"

|

Citizens check out the various aspects of the plans

The stakes really are that high, Covington leaders argue. Transportation officials recommend what is called Plan I for the new bridge which eliminates direct access to 5th Street when traveling northbound on the interstate. Drivers would be forced to exit at 12th Street and then travel on a city street with three stop lights before arriving at 5th. The City wants direct access to 5th from a collector distributor. While southbound travelers would have direct access to 5th and 9th Streets, those drivers would have to make their decision to exit in Covington one mile north of the river near the Cincinnati Museum Center. The City wants a direct ramp to 9th Street from the interstate. 

|

Additionally, Plan I closes the connection from Pike Street to Lewis Street, eliminating important access to Devou Park and makes Goebel Park Pool in Mainstrasse unusable. The bridge's threat to Covington's vitality is concerning to those who lived through the first time that the interstate harmed the city. "We suffered a blow when Florence Mall was opened," said former City Commissioner Jerry Stricker. With this bridge plan, "more businesses will shut down, more residents will move out and Covington will become a ghost town. Covington will no longer be Northern Kentucky's largest city. It will set the city back and it will never recover."

|
"The federal government, they view this as an interstate only but this affects us," said City Commissioner Sherry Carran. "Everything we ask for is feasible, it's not pie in the sky."

|

"Covington is special, it has a charm," said Mayor Chuck Scheper. "You don't see Covington's charm until you get to the bridge."

|
One such charming landmark is the Carroll Chimes Bell Tower in Goebel Park adjacent to Designs Direct, a business that redeveloped and expanded the former Northern Kentucky Visitors and Convention Bureau building. "Businesses (in Mainstrasse) are fragile and any loss of income could put those businesses under," said Dave Meyer of Designs Direct. 

|

"We know once they see the river, the church spires, the businesses, they're going to want to get off here but by then it will be too late," warned City Manager Larry Klein. 

|

The bridge itself is only 4% of the entire length of the corridor project but the immediate area most impacted by it is almost entirely in Covington, which would create a ripple effect up and down Northern Kentucky's river cities. "Anything that disenfranchises Covington, disenfranchises every city on the riverfront," said Jack Moreland, President of Southbank Partners, an organization that spearheads development activities in the river cities. 

|
At least one speaker did not view the plan as all gloom and doom. Retired Covington police officer and 2012 city commission candidate Neil Gilreath suggested that the $2.5 billion price tag on the entire project could be narrowed down by spending some money on work on the I-471 bridge between Newport and Cincinnati and shifting some highway traffic flow for suburban drivers seeking access to I-275 that way, which, he says, would also increase east-to-west traffic in the cities. 

|

That $2.5 billion price tag is still a long way from the $100 million currently on hand to fund the bridge project but while the actual completion could still be many years away, the fear for Covington's future is here now. "I am fearful that we are going to see this city die," said Candance Witte, a resident of the Riverside Plaza in Licking Riverside who referenced the Covington riverfront's recent history as a parking lot that now boasts of multiple small skyscrapers. "I have one question for the people from Frankfort. Did you get off at 5th Street (to get to the Convention Center) or did you come down 9th Street? And when you go back will you go to 5th Street or up 9th?"

|

LOTS OF PHOTOS FROM THE MEETING ARE BELOW, JUST CLICK THE LINK!

|

CUL-DE-SAC GARDEN PAVING HALTED FOR NOW

by Michael Monks 

Email Michael

FACEBOOK: The River City News

@theRCnews on Twitter 

|   

THE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE

|

For the original report, click here. 

|

UPDATE: (11:27AM) Covington City Commissioner Steve Frank posted this to his Facebook page: 

We had a morning meeting in the Mayor's office in re the Cul de Sacs. There was a communication issue. DPI, the agency in charge of road repair in Covington and SD1 discussed among themselves engineering the roads when they were due for rework such that they were up todays standards. One of the issues was water entering the bulb then undermining the the integrity of the road bed behind them. That said no one alerted Commission or upper city management. Even if this was required, which it is not, the bulbs are grandfathered. You could not have them today on a new Cul de Sac. Bottom line, all demolition is stopped. we will meet with those affected. If they want there bulb back....they will be put back. This was checked out with the Mayor, Legal, and the Fire Department this morning to make sure this was not a legal or safety issue.

|

South Covington resident Lisa Placke

The City of Covington authorized the paving of the gardens that sit in the middle of several South Covington cul-de-sacs engineer Mike Yeager tells The River City News. While the process has been halted for now, two have already been fully removed while another is in the middle of being taken out and two others are on the chopping block. Yeager says the decision came about during a city infrastructure committee meeting that discussed parking and other vehicle issues in the cul-de-sacs. While city commissioners are invited to attend the infrastructure committee meetings, none was present and no vote was ever made by the commission to support the removal of the gardens. 

|

City Manager Larry Klein is out of the office this week but sent an email last night in which he wrote that he forwarded emails from concerned residents to the engineering department. No commissioner was aware of the plans to remove some of South Covington's signature landmarks. Even the president of the neighborhood association, Bill Wells, was unaware. 

|

The cul-de-sac gardens are a centerpiece of multiple streets and a place for the community to come together for a common cause as demonstrated by these photos submitted to The River City News by South Covington Community Action Association president Bill Wells: 

SEE ALSO: The River City News broke this story last night. To see the original report, click here.

COMMISSION RECAP: 20 MAR 2012

by Michael Monks 

Email Michael

FACEBOOK: The River City News

@theRCnews on Twitter 

|   

THE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE

| 

Here's what happened at the Tuesday night meeting of the Covington City Commission: 

|

$1.4 million in industrial building revenue bonds approved for the Diocese of Covington

This allows the Diocese to borrow from a bank at a lower interest rate as expansion continues at Covington Latin School. Passed by a vote of 4-0 (Commissioner Steve Frank did not vote as he is an alumnus of Latin School and a donor.)

|

Animal control services outsourced to Kenton County

The final vote on this issue happened Tuesday night and passed unanimously.

|

How Devou Park will spend its money

Of the revenue earned at Devou Park by the Drees Pavillion Barbara Drees Jones asked the commission to approve $50,000 for new wayfinding signage, $75,000 for road improvements, and $15,000 for new structures. The full request for expenditures was not complete as the Park's board hopes to have a clearer picture on which roads need to be repaired. They will return to ask for specific funding at a later date. The motion passed unanimously. 

Also, it was noted that the new concessions/bathroom facility will be ready in time for the first performance of the season by the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra at the Devou Park bandshell. 

|

COVINGTON'S ROAD PRIORITIES

The General Assembly is considering its $3.5 billion roads bill that includes several projects in Covington. The bill already passed the house and is now in the senate. Covington city engineer Mike Yeager spoke on the ceremonial resolutions before the commission that would demonstrate support for Covington's road priorities: 

• Hands Pike realignment This dangerous South Covington road is due for some serious work. There are two options on the table, one that would keep the same alignment while adding new curbs and bringing the road to current design and speed standards, and another that would realign the road. In the second option, the City would assume responsibility for a portion of Hands that is currently maintained by the state. Before that transition takes place, however, the state would have to replace a failing retaining wall. Currently, the project is slated to begin in 2015 with one year's time expected for design work and another year predicted for construction. 
• Taylor Mill Road (KY 16) and Madison Pike (KY 17) The important strip of Taylor Mill Road near the entrance/exit ramps for I-275 is due for widening. Originally, funding for this project was not expected until 2015, but the House moved it up to 2013. As for KY 17, the priority is to add sidewalks to part of the road near its intersection with Hands Pike. 
• Other Covington road priorities The top priorities for Covington, as unanimously approved by the commission, are Church Street in front of Holy Cross, the Caroline underpass in Latonia, Southern & Latonia avenues reconstruction, and the Pike Street triangle (where Pike intersects with Craig Street). "Half of them are reconstruction," said Mayor Chuck Scheper. "The cost of reconstruction goes from $13,000 a lane mile to $500,000 a lane mile. By the time it gets to be reconstruction it's a significant cost to the city, so we need to be mindful of the need to invest when it's at the earlier stages of disrepair."
• Yeager noted that some of the reconstruction projects may be a cost to the city but there is the possibility for state or federal funding and the city will seek that route first.
• Commissioner Sherry Carran thanked state senator Jack Westood and state representative Arnold Simpson for the work on the roads bill that includes sidewalks for Highway Avenue in Botany Hills. "Many of our residents walk down there to the stores on Crescent," she said. "Botany Hills has been working on this for a long time."

|

Funding expenditures approves for fire department

Unanimous approval was granted for four expenditures: Ten cardiac monitors (Cost: $319,000 Funding: $287,100 from a grant and $31,900 from general fund)), a training simulator (Cost: $16,740 Funding: $15,066 from a grant and $1,674 from capital improvements fund), training materials and equipment (Cost: $21,404 Funding: $19,264 from a grant and $2,140 capital improvements fund), nine 4-Gas monitor kits (Cost: $29,444 Funding: $26,503 from a grant and $2,944 from capital improvements fund). "Anyone with a heart condition should consider moving to Covington because we have state-of-the-art monitors that are best of class and we'll take care of you," joked Mayor Scheper. 

|

Fire Chief Chuck Norris explained that the fire simulator allows firefighters to fight fake fires on real Covington properties through a sort of virtual reality scenario. Commissioner Steve Casper suggested that the city investigate which of its three-hundred properties that it owns could be used for real firefighting practice, which Chief Norris said that the department prefers. "It's the best training we can do but it's very costly aqnd very time consuming," Norris said. "There is testing that needs to be done for asbestos, shingles have to be removed, siding has to be removed, there are many steps that have to be followed. We would love to be able to do that more, it's just very difficult to do. It takes a lot of time, energy and money to get that done. (The simulator)is not the same either but it is a step up from what we are able to do now." 

|

QUICK NOTES: 

|

The City will enter into a programmatic agreement with the Kentucky Heritage Council and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation on how to excavate the ground around the former Jacob Price housing project. The reason one building still stands there is because of possible historically significant items underneath the earth. 

|

Arbor Day will be recognized in Covington as Saturday, April 28.

|

Employment matters: a Devou Park ranger was hired as a part-time employee, two interns were hired for the community development department, a police officer got a raise, and an employee in the finance department and one in the public improvements department resigned. 

CHURCH STREET'S ONE-WAY STATUS EXPLORED

by Michael Monks 
NEW ADDRESS: Email Michael

Find us on Facebook: The River City News @ Facebook

@theRCnews on Twitter  

|

Temporary bump-outs on Church Stret

When the plan originally surfaced, City Hall was packed with parents from Holy Cross concerned with the fate of Church Street in front of the school and the dangers presented by the two-way traffic when students would be dropped off and picked up. Instead of permanently changing the Latonia street to a one-way, the commission voted to implement a 90-day trial. The effects of that trial were discussed at a public meeting Wednesday at Holy Cross. "We feel the 90-day trial worked," said assistant city engineer Mike Yeager. "It created a safe environment for kids and didn't cause too much heartache for traffic flow."

|

In recommending that Church Street be one-way permanently, Yeager pointed to statistics that showed average speed on the street reduced by 5 miles per hour, there was less traffic in front of the school because of the temporary bump-outs installed, and students use the mid-street crosswalk more frequently. "Children were crossing at all areas of the street, there was no organization and we were afraid that kids were going to get hit," Yeager said. The plans for Church Street emerged during the Latonia small area study and during the 90-day trial the City monitored traffic patterns for one week, twenty-four hours a day counting cars at the corner of 36th & Church and Lincoln and Decoursey, watching the directions of the traffic flow. There was increased traffic on Lincoln and Decoursey but not enough to create significant congestion, Yeager said.

|

Fire Chief Chuck Norris and assistant city
engineer Mike Yeager address the crowd

"I know the safety of the kids is more important but it would be cheaper for us to close the street at both ends," said Vickie Adams who works at Bunter & Associates accounting firm in the area and she thinks kids would not be protected on side streets were traffic has increased. Adams's suggestion was part of a chorus of questions for the permanent plans. Rick Kennedy, former chairman of the board at Sanitation District #1, the organization that would foot the bill for permanent changes to Church Street's infrastructure, was concerned with the overall cost. "It's our money whether it's SD1 or the City, it's not falling out the sky," Kennedy said. "With what I'm looking at, that'd be seven figures." Kennedy was on the SD1 board for twenty-one years, serving ten as chairman. The City did not have a cost estimate with Yeager saying that that would be determined by SD1.

|

Plans that would be implemented to adopt a permanent one-way traffic flow include parking on both sides of the street, bump-outs at both ends with greenery and more green infrastructure including a rain garden and storm water runoff. "The only cost to the City would be re-striping the road," Yeager said. Currently, temporary structures reflect what would be built should the one-way idea be adopted full-time. 

|

One Holy Cross employee whose grandchildren attend the grade school is satisfied with the change. "It's much safer for all of our students," said Judy Borchers, an officer worker at the high school. "Traffic moves faster, students adhere to crossing in the crosswalk. It just works so much easier. I have grandchildren that I now allow to go to the Indian Hut. Even if you can't afford it you've achieved better safety for the school."

|

While the topic was Church Street, one resident of Lincoln Avenue east of Church, raised questions about the fire department's ability to navigate the new pattern. "Lincoln Avenue is not wide enough for two-way traffic (if a fire truck is involved)," he said. "I'm concerned that the fire department would need to eliminate parking on one side."

|
"I don't think you'll have to worry about the City taking away parking," Fire Chief Chuck Norris said. "We have streets all over town narrower than Lincoln where we have challenges." Norris said the change on Church Street as increased response time in the neighborhood by only a few seconds. Assistant City Manager Larisa Sims said that the feedback from the discussion would be present to the commission at a legislative meeting on February 7.