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July’s second Nicholasville City Meeting started with Commissioner Bethany Brown welcoming Annessa Snowden as the new Parks and Recreation Director beginning on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

Darren Sammons, Nicholasville City Attorney said to Snowden, “Welcome aboard.  I’m the city attorney, but also, I’m going to be working more closely with [Nicholasville Jessamine County Parks & Recreation] as their attorney as well. We got some stuff to work on but I look forward to working with you. I’m excited.”

Commission Announcements

Commissioner Brown thanked the Police and Fire Departments for “a great car show this weekend, and thanks to both of them for help with the concert at Hayden Park, and…the Brotherhood Ride over the weekend. I appreciate all of [your] efforts, so thank you so much.” 

Ordinances, municipal orders

The city approved Municipal Order 2024-015, which establishes guidelines for the operation and maintenance of the Fire Department’s Safe Haven Baby Box, including procedures for an incident when a child younger than 31 days of age is surrendered through the Fire Department in a safe haven baby box. 

Billy King and Gary Resor were hired as temporary full-time officers effective August 4, 2024. 

Ordinance 161-2024: An ordinance amending the city of Nicholasville, Kentucky, annual budget for the general government for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025, by estimating revenues and resources appropriating funds for the operation of city government. [This Ordinance amends the budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, for the City of Nicholasville’s operation of city government].

A motion was made to approve the Ordinance, and the Commission approved its first reading. 

According to Mayor Alex Carter, this amendment to the city’s new fiscal year budget incorporates an adjustment for wages for public safety including the Police and Fire departments. This pay scale “pretty much reflects an average increase of about 8 percent across the board for wages, salaries, and benefits, for Police and Fire,” Mayor Carter said. 

Cm Bethany Brown has worked on this pay scale with city staff. It is the result of a Kentucky League of Cities study and a separate study from Nicholasville staff surveying commonwealth police departments.

Cm Brown said they landed on a “starting point and an endpoint” and then “incorporated a 1.5 percent [raise] in between each year and then that goes from 1 to 25 years and then some lighter steps…as the grades change…just to kind of keep consistent with years of service.” Brown said this change will make Nicholasville “very competitive with the surrounding areas. Richmond…is a very big competitor and it puts us right even with them.”

The city has been working on studies on and off for three years to implement changes to its public safety departments, Mayor Carter said. Commissioner Patty Teater thanked Brown, city staff, and the current and former Police Chiefs ”I think it helps [the city] with budgeting and it helps employees to know what their future has in stake for them so thank you for all the work you put into this.”

The city also approved a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for Ashgrove Woods. 

Christopher Horne of Horne Engineering was at the city meeting on behalf of the Ashgrove Homeowners Association. According to Horne, the HOA requested a zone change for a plot of land on Lauderdale Drive to allow the construction of townhomes, which is in line with the surrounding properties. The HOA is also requesting the MOA to include a decrease in the required livable space for the townhomes and take out the requirement of a garage from the original guidelines for the property in 2005. The MOA will bring the required livable space from 1000 square feet to 620 square feet.

This now nearly 9-acre plot was initially donated to Jessamine County Schools as a school site in 2005. When the school refused the site in 2007, it was converted into a nature park. The city of Nicholasville elected not to accept the site as a park in 2014, and it was transferred to the Ashgrove Woods HOA in 2017. Horne said the new owners “came to realizethat they would then be required to maintain and take care of the detention basin and almost nine full acres of land.” That’s when the HOA went to Horne, asking him to divide one acre off the property to build nine proposed townhomes. 

In response to the MOA request, Commissioner Patty Teater said “I would much rather see a smaller living space and have a garage than have all those cars parking on the street.” In response, Commissioner Brown said, “the people who live there are okay with it. I feel like we should be okay with it. They’re requesting this and they’re part of a Homeowners Association and there would have to be a majority vote on that.” Commissioner Teater made the motion to accept the MOA.