A Fitting Anniversary Year
Your City celebrated its 30th Anniversary year on July 1 and, in many ways, the picture on the left is a capsule of what Prospect was and what it is striving to become. We took delivery of our new “landmark” in mid-November, the beautiful clock which now graces the lawn by City Hall. As I was taking some pictures, it was obvious in the background that a crane was in place just down the road removing the sign at Bill Neff’s liquor store – truly the passing of an era. That these two things would occur literally in the same hour of the same day seemed, at least to me, truly symbolic of the past that we build upon as we plan for the future.

If I had had one of those fancy panorama cameras, I might have shown you this picture in a 180-degree sweep. If I did, you would see behind me that workers were putting the finishing touches on a circle driveway around City Hall and adding more parking spaces. Adding a few parking spaces might not seem like much of a deal, but the truth is that it, indeed, is.

When I first took office as your Mayor in 1994, it was rare that any resident walked in to City Hall. And those who did were usually there to register a protest about something. Today, dozens of you stop by every day – to visit the Reading Center, to take pictures of our Gallapalooza horse, Cannonade (now “wintering” in the warm confines of the Reading Center), to sign up for various programs we offer or to volunteer for various activities.

When I say 2004 was a “fitting” anniversary year, I am thinking mostly about our volunteers.

Probably most visible of all the individuals who volunteered their time and expertise to your City were the members of the Ordinance Review Board. In all, 37 people spent a couple of hours every week for months and months going over every line of every law on the City’s books. It was a massive task and the group’s work will be presented to your City Council right after the first of the year for its consideration of all the changes which have been proposed.

Had the Ordinance Review Board members folded their tent after their many, many meetings were done, we could offer heartfelt thanks for a job well done. But the Board members believed they could continue to offer assistance to Prospect and asked if the Board could be re-constituted to continue the members’ service. Thus was born the Mayor’s Advisory Committee, which, right after the first of the year, will convene quarterly to offer suggestions, recommendations and insight into the future.

We recognized the Mayor’s Advisory Committee would, over the years, need to expand its membership, but the present members, who gained a huge amount of “insider information” on how things work, should not have to sit through those orientation-type explainations over and over again. Thus was born another initative – Leadership Prospect. This group, which is now forming (and if you are interested in being part of it, please call Ann Melton at City Hall to sign up), will meet six times in 2005 and will have sessions with me, members of the City Council, Metro and state officials. When the Leadership Prospect class “graduates,” it will merge with the Mayor’s Advisory Committee. If there is interest a year from now, we will open another class for 2006.

The Reading Center “crew” epitomizes what volunteers are all about. They are helping all the time – sorting books, cataloging books, reading to youngsters and it is the volunteer group which organizes our used book sales. This fall, the Reading Center took in more than $600 at its used book sale: rather impressive since the prices for used books range from 25 cents to a couple dollars each! The dynamics of this volunteerism is impossible to gauge. As but an example, when our longtime Light Up Prospect Elf, Jonda Wiggins, took sick at the last minute, we turned to Reading Center volunteer Ruth O’Daniel and Julie Cundiff, the wife of our City’s Maintence and Technology Director, to fill in. (I promised Ruth I would not run her picture here in her elf costume.) By the way, Jonda still produced the music for the event from her sickbed.

Seven of your neighbors have volunteered to serve as members and alternates on our new Code Enforecement Board, which will meet monthly to hear appeals of citations for violations of local laws; two other residents have committed to put together a group to set a mission statement and goals and objectives for the City; and a committee is hard at work looking at a landscaping plan for the Fox Harbor entrance which will be the basis for a new look for all our subdivisions this spring.

I certainly do not want to forget our youngest “volunteers:” our Mayors-for-the-Day. These youngsters spend a day with me and other City employees learning about Prospect and then attend the City Council meeting that evening. And we’ve asked them to help with some projects, too, where a few extra hands were very welcome.

Whew!

The Bridge and the Highway
If I ever write one of these reports to you without a section on the East End bridge, it will probably be because I will be so far into my dotage I’ll simply forget about it rather than there won’t be something to say. If anyone believes the final Environmental Impact Study brought closure to your City’s massive involvement, that simply is not so.

In December, for instance, there are no less than three plannng sessions scheduled on various issues affecting the bridge and, as I write this, I have a couple of one-on-one sessions with the planners from Lochner, which holds the actual design contract, as well as others.
An important element at this point is your City’s renewed attempt to incorporate needed improvements to U.S. 42 from Harrods Creek to Wolf Pen Branch Road into the bridge project. The Environmental Impact Study planners believed placing a limited interchange on the bridge route in Prospect (something we insisted upon) reduced the need to widen U.S. 42 to provide a turn lane. A great deal of discussion with Lochner, however, has initially been successful in focusing on this problem.

Thanks to a federal appropriation secured by U.S. Rep. Anne Northup, money is available to widen the highway from River Road to Harrods Creek. We have now asked the state to move ahead with this plan, even while the study is again underway for the Harrods Creek-to-Wolf Pen Branch segment. We are hopeful a construction schedule (which could be some time in the future) can be nailed down in 2005. Several meetings with state highway officials, including Transportation Secretary Maxwell Bailey, were held in the past year.

But the ultimate solution to traffic congestion on U.S. 42 remains the construction of a cut-through road in Oldham County from the highway to I-71 to handle commuter traffic. Unfortunately, we do not see much hope for a decision on such a route from Oldham County government in the near future.

Making Community
If I everI do not think there is anything that we do which gives us a better feeling than our community events.
When I think back to our first Fourth of July Community Celebration, which was held in a vacant lot with about 200 residents in attendance, I can only recall that advertising slogan “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!”

This year’s Fourth of July – even with the middle-of-the-day rainshower – brought out the largest crowd we’ve ever had. And, when you count the hundreds of folks who tell us they use the occasion to invite friends and relatives to their homes for Fourth of July parties since the parade and fireworks are so visible, we estimate close to half the people in our City enjoy this special “happening” every year now.

So successful is this quintessential example of what’s wonderful about a living in a place like Prospect, that we’ve taken to inviting some VIPs to share the day with us. Among those whose names you would recognize who were with us this year were U.S. Rep. Anne Northup, State Sen. Ernie Harris and Metro Councilman Kelly Downard. We’re going to continue to invite State, Federal and Metro officials in the coming years. They will be seeing what makes a suburban City into a community.

In fact, each of our three major events were better attended than ever before. The pumpkin patch was almost denuded at the Mayor’s Great Pun’kin’ Paintin’ Contest and Costume Parade (we’ll order more for next year) and we were in a minor panic at Light Up Prospect when Frosty the Snowman’s elves came near the bottom of the basket which had been filled with special light up snowman pens.

One of our long-time residents stopped me at Pun’kin Paintin’ to say she remembered when the Cowley Open Space was nothing more than an empty lot and now it is not only the scene of our community programs, but a “place” in the City. The mini-panorama taken at Pun’kin Paintin’ from the Gazebo on the previous page does seem to show how things have changed in just a short 10 years.

Each of you do need to know these events are made possible by the generous contributions of sponsors whose businesses are in our City. Republic Bank, the Merchants of Prospect Point, McDonald’s, Max & Erma’s, Dairy Queen and Kroger are major contributors, but more than 20 other businesses also participate in sponsorhips. When you see their names on the posters and flyers about these events, a word of thanks is certainly appropriate.

Financial Picture Remains Sound
You will be pleased to know that the City remains in extremely sound financial condition.

As I reported to you last year, our 2003-2004 paving program was late in being implemented – due to our practice of “piggybacking” with Metro government’s paving contract. So, we have to wait our turn. In the last fiscal year, our turn did not come until the books closed for the year, so we reported an addition to the surplus of $412,000 but cautioned that figure was not entirely accurate because approximately $250,000 in paving had not been included by the time the City’s audit was concluded.

That threw that $250,000 into this past year’s accounts and it, coupled with more paving this past year, showed expenditures of close to $300,000. Because of that, our total budget showed a small deficit – as we believed it would – in the current fiscal year.

Of course, had the previous year’s paving been able to have been allicated to the previous year where it belonged, we would have shown an addition to surplus of about $200,000 (although it would have reduced the addition to surplus in the previous year from $400,000 to $200,000).
Despite these complexities in reporting based on when the money is spent, your City has $1.6 million in reserves today.

In addition, we spent approximately $67,000 for drainage repair last year, the final year before joining the MSD storm water system. While we will have to pay about $58,000 a year for the next eight years to catch up with the required MSD payments, it is easy to see your City Council made a wise decision in this area: we saved $9,000 in drainage repair in the past fiscal year alone.

A Highly Rewarding Experience for All
Of all the things that was just plain fun in 2004 was our Mayor-for-the-Day program.

Youngsters are “eligible” to be Mayor-for-the-Day if they are between eight and 12 years old. They have to write a short letter saying why they would like to be Mayor-for-the-Day and then are “scheduled” for the program based on their availability and certain other criteria. Children and grandchildren of residents are eligible.

In 2004, six youngsters served as Mayor-for-the-Day, which begins at noon with a luncheon with ‘their” staff, includes a meeting or two with me and, usually, some non-City people. We take a riding survey of the City, looking at such varied things as street signs, the condition of roads, drainage situations and the commercial areas. They are usually introduced to such words as “swale” and “alligatoring.”

After the tour, our young mayors work for a while in the Reading Center and then spend time in the Police Department, where, among other things, they have a photo ID made. A police officer takes them home. They’re due back at City Hall for a Council Meeting at 7:30 p.m., where they officially open and close the meeting and can participate in debate.

We also called on our Mayors-for-the-Day for assistance on the Fourth, riding their special car in the parade, helping distribute the City’s 30th Birthday Cake and handing out glow necklaces just before the fireworks. They were a big help!

Some spots are open for this program again in 2005. If you have a child or grandchild who would like to be Mayor-for-the-Day, please contact Ann Melton at City Hall.

This year’s mayors, from left to right above, were Alanna Gilbert, Erin Dermody, Adam McClinton, Inge Chen, Megan Leonard and Jacquelyn Brown.

Metro Government: Year Two
I am pleased to be able to say that there have been strides made in interfacing with Metro government as it ends its second year of existance.

There have been disappointments, as well.

Many of the positive things which have happened have been thanks to our Metro Councilman, Kelly Downard, and a number of other “suburban” Council Members, especially Hal Heiner. A most positive step was a resolution passed unanimously by Metro Council, was a statement stating unequivocally that suburban cities such as Prospect are and will continue to be an important part of the government structure under Metro. I was fortunate to be able towork on this project with various Metro council members and Jefferson County League of Cities president Tommy Hewitt in my capacity as a member of the League’s board of directors.

We have made other strides, too, most of them at the behest of Metro Mayor confidant and Prospect resident Stan Curtis. There are a myriad of problems interfacing the zoning process and permitting issues. As the year ends, it appears many of these will be resolved.

It was, however, extremely disappointing that the Metro Mayor decided to sue the City to try to prevent our lawful annexation of an area roughly between the fire station and the Ken Carla subdivision. Every landowner in the area asked the City to annex. At year end, Prospect has won its case in Circuit Court.

You should know this is not an issue of who collects property taxes in the affected area. Metro government will not lose a penny of these taxes since, as you are aware, Prospect property taxes are in addition to Metro taxes. Yet, the Metro mayor has not only spent his own tax dollars (and ours) on this issue, but he has engaged expensive outside counsel. With all the budgetary problems articulated daily by Metro officials, this is difficult to understand.

Saying Thank You
No enterprise as complex and multifaceted as your City can possibly operate efficiently without the help of a huge number of people. Whether elected officials like the members of your City Council, members of the formal City Staff, contractors who make Prospect a priority or volunteers in various capacities, there are dozens and dozens of individuals whose contributions to Prospect make it what it is.

Chief among them are the members of your City Council: Alan Simon, Sandy Tucci, Lee Zimmerman, Harold Smith, Nan Milliman, Charlie Sell and Sandra Leonard. Charlie moved from the City late in the year and was replaced by Sandra, a long-time volunteer at the Reading Center and member of the Ordinance Review Board. I wish I had a penny for every phone call, visit or piece of advice these excellent public servants contributed to the well-being of Prospect.

No group worked harder or more often the the members of the Ordinance Review Board. I have never known a group of this size to work so long and so diligently. So, we all all owe a great debt of gratitude to Betty Adams, Sissey Jenkins, Beverly Anderson, Rose Jones, Bill Bitter, Helene Keeling, Jerry Blandford, Joe Kehlbeck, Olga Booher, Council Member Sandra Leonard, Bill Brace, Chris McCleary, Mary Buckley, Ann McDaniel, Gayle Ciliberti, Nicki O’Brian, Dr. Phil Cochran, Betty Palmer, Doyle Cunningham, Rob Prince, MacArthur Darby, Fred Ricker, Todd Eberle. Janet Rowland. Loretta Ertel, Robert Sanford, Bert Esselman, Council Member Charlie Sell, Vance Fritton, Bill Sherman. Harry Hardin, John Simpson, Jennifer Helm, Ann Simms, Shorty Helmick, Council Member Sandy Tucci, David Yunker, Eve Herzfeld, John Herzfeld and Bill Hindman. As I mentioned before, the group has been re-constituted as the Mayor’s Advisory Committee and will meet quarterly throughout 2005.

I want to say thank you in advance to Steve Pennington, Loretta Ertel, Jerry Blandford, Beverly Anderson and Evan Comer for agreeing to serve on the new Code Enforcement Board, as well as Thersa Glye and Mike Grannan, who will serve as alternates. And, also, to Joe Kehlbeck and Bert Esselman, who have agreed to form a committee – with some other residents, to set up some goals and objectives to guide the City’s future.

Too, there are some special people who the City always knows it can count on when special situations occur. Barry Jenkins, who is not only a resident but an electrician par excellance, seems to always be available on an instant’s noice; Bob Kirzinger, the president of our former landscaping company, could be counted on day or night, rain, shine or snow; David Ely, who solved our computer problems quickly and efficently; Michael Sweeten of Rumpke, who always seems to go out of the way to make sure whatever problems arise in our garbage collecting get fixed; Gary Dickenson, who can always be called on for so many special projects; and, last but not least, my bride, Willo, who always manages to take time out from her travel agency work to attend any and all City functions and is a great representative for Prospect.

When thanks are due, the members of your City’s professional staff and Police Department, led by Ann Simms and Marvin Wilson, respectively, are all can-do people. The City is truly blessed to have Ron Cundiff, Ann Melton, Anne Brunner, Cathie Parrott, Patti Baker and Officers Stacy Bruce, Elgin Price, Harold Proffitt, Pat Timmons, Marianne Haverlin, Larry Johnson, Heather Loeser and Dennis Wine as its valued employees.
But most of all, Prospect is a special place because of each of you, its residents. This City is simply a wonderful and extraordinary place to live and the reason that is so is because of you.

It is an honor and pleasure to be your Mayor.

Lonnie Falk

2005