Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Nicholasville City Commission met for its last meeting of the month on Monday, April 28.

At this meeting, the commission approved a change in the Lake Mingo dam classification, a capital budget amendment for the Nicholasville Police Department (NPD), the Parks and Recreation budget, and more.

Anessa Snowden, Director of Nicholasville-Jessamine County Parks and Recreation, presented the Parks and Rec budget to the commission. 

Her request is for $411,200, consisting of Parks and Rec revenue, and the rest that Nicholasville and Jessamine County would split. “At our board meeting last week, I presented a budget for Riney B. and one for the general budget. We went through each line item. I tried to break it down and be as descriptive as possible.” 

In previous years, Parks and Recreation requested less but would return throughout the year to the City Commission and the Fiscal Court to ask for more in their budget. “There were some discrepancies with what was requested in previous years. It had a lot to do with personnel and paying out people their vacation time; it was never budgeted. So we tried to be really clear with what we were asking for,” Snowden said. 

The budget includes $800 a month for concessions, $15,000 for last year’s splash pad renovation, and high-quality cameras for parks throughout the county. 

Commissioner Bethany Brown said the cameras have facial recognition, will be connected to the NPD, and this year’s payment will pay for the cameras for three years. Snowden said these cameras are also used by Lexington Parks and Recreation and Georgetown. Commissioner Patty Teater said, “These cameras are essential. We can’t just tear down bathrooms because we’re worried they’re gonna get vandalized.”

The budget includes the price of hiring the management facility, Bluegrass Pools, at the Riney B. Pool, the price of hiring a deputy manager, and more full-time staff. Snowden also included the replacement of mowers, a tractor, and a new playground for City-County Park. The playground is more than 30 years old, and parts are no longer being made for the playground set.

Snowden said she’s tried to organize program events for the community, but it’s hard when she’s also managing the whole department. The deputy director would help with this. She’s also asking for three full-time maintenance employees outside of the deputy director position. A study Snowden cited said municipalities should have 7.4 staff for every 10,000 residents. Jessamine County and Nicholasville have about 50,000 residents combined and 10 full-time staff on their Parks and Recreation team.

“We wanted to shoot big this year, so Anessa had a budget to work with, and she doesn’t have to come back and ask for things. There were several things, payroll taxes and retirement contributions that were very underestimated. It’s better, accurate,” Commissioner Brown said. 

Mayor Alex Carter said that the city’s budget would include the Parks and Recreation budget.

The commission briefly discussed community partnership with local businesses who may want to donate to Parks and Recreation in exchange for dedicated park benches for example. 

Public Utilities Director Bob Amato began the discussion for the Lake Mingo dam with updates for the commission. 

For 8 or 10 years, Amato said the city has been in discussion with the Dam Safety Division of Water. The issue is the dam is too small to be considered a dam at only 17 feet. Amato said he had done a lot of different engineering studies on the dam and the lake and found a solution. Solutions came up, such as draining the lake, but Amato decided to bring down the dam to 15 feet high and change it to be defined as an impoundment. Throughout the recent flooding in April and the flooding of Second Street near Lake Mingo, the lake has never gotten close to breaching the dam next to the sidewalk, according to Amato, General Government Director Doug Blackford, and commissioners. The commissioners and Mayor approved this solution, but Amato will still need to submit engineering and construction plans to alter the dam. 

The commission also approved a capital amendment to the general budget fund by NPD Police Chief Michael Fleming. He told the commissioners he was notified of two copiers in the department that are now obsolete. “If anything breaks on them, they don’t make the parts anymore,” Fleming said. The copiers are $8,996 a piece to replace, and Director Blackford told Chief Fleming that due to tariffs, the price is likely only good until the end of the month. 

The commission also authorized the mayor to sign resolution 2025-007: A resolution by the city of Nicholasville adopting the implementation plan set forth by the Bluegrass Area Development District for Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

The commission also approved a new service from Catalis that allows people to pay property taxes online through credit, debit, digital wallets, and E-checks. “It also makes it easier for these payments to be processed,” said Laurie Young, Nicholasville’s finance officer. Although Young said it would cost $5,000 for the city as an overestimate, she said this system through Catalis will also save money. 

Upcoming events

The Burke is a 5.74K race in honor of the late Officer Burke Rhoads, whose badge number was 574. This race will take place on Saturday, May 3 at 8 a.m. at East Jessamine Middle School on 901 Union Mill Road in Nicholasville, KY. You can sign up or donate at theburke.com