Road test for public comment section in its new spot
Plus Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, and Mayor Fraley to be 'arrested' for a good cause
Council Briefs
Public Comments
Council heard public comment at the beginning of its first regularly scheduled meeting of the month, after the agenda and minutes were approved. That’s a new arrangement, thanks to Council breaking its deadlock at the last meeting, where members agreed to let the People speak first rather than last.
Two citizens were quick to let Council know they had thoughts.
First to the mic was Eleanor Workman, who said she had a “Hallelujah” moment upon learning that public comment was moved to the start of the meeting. “It made me think you might really be interested in what the public has to say.” She asked that leadership please extend the limit on public comments from three to four minutes, and to have City Clerk Robin Adams set a timer for each person rather than place the burden on the mayor to look people in the eye and cut them off if they run over the time allotment.
Next was Randy Dickson, who expressed his disapproval of the idea of making public use conditional in the industrial zone where a bike path is located, as the proposed Ordinance 06-2025 would have the City do. He would rather they were separated.
“It seems to me it would be more appropriate that those areas rezoned rather than try and throw those community services in there,” Dickson said. “It’s been talked about, so I wouldn’t think it would be hard. That’s all I got, thank you.”
April Proclamation
Mayor Bruce Fraley proclaimed this month to be Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month in honor of the Hensley family who were at the meeting to share with Council what their work as founders of Kham’s Klub is all about. Kent Hensley described how the family’s journey to becoming advocates for families affected by autism began with their own son’s diagnosis at age 2.
Now, their organization helps other Central Kentucky families impacted by autism to get faster diagnoses and interventions. They also frequently hold events where caretakers are given special treatment so they can catch a break from their round-the-clock duties. To learn more or to donate, visit their website.
Doctor’s Day
March 30 was National Doctors Day but here in Berea, Fraley extended it through the first week of April so he could make a proclamation at the meeting that our doctors matter, and that we have fine ones who take excellent care of us at Saint Joseph’s Berea Hospital. Accepting the proclamation were the hospital’s chief of staff, Daniel Gaspar, MD, and Jackie Maynard, manager of patient quality and safety at the hospital.
Fraley gets ‘arrested’
Next up was Jennifer Lainhart, executive director of Hope’s Wings, a domestic violence shelter and program serving women across Madison County. She asked Chief of Police Jason Hays, seated behind Council, to please put Fraley in handcuffs and haul him away, setting the bail at $1,500 to be paid by friends and supporters of the mayor to bail him out of the Hope’s Wings mock Jail and Bail. It’s all part of Hope’s Wings’ spring fundraising event.
(Hays did not cuff and haul away the mayor, to be clear.)
Faux arrests of city officials and others who call upon their friends and families to “bail them out” are especially important this year, according to Lainhart, who said that federal monies her organization had been expecting to help with their emergency and temporary housing programs have been frozen. She appealed to one and all to help in any way they can. For more details about the event, and to have someone “arrested”, contact Hope’s Wings.
Money talks
The City now has a financial policies and procedures guide that includes checks and balances to ensure the City’s money is used as it was intended, thanks to Municipal Order #03-2025, which, having been presented at a work session last month, Council passed unanimously. Finance committee chair Steve Caudill said the guide is also to ensure continuity across administrations.
Getting salty
The Kentucky League of Cities, a nonprofit that supports municipalities in the state, needs a municipal sponsor to run its annual reverse salt auction. Berea is that sponsor. Fraley will sign off on relevant documents, KLC and a company called eBridge will administer the auction online. This was all explained to Council in a work session last month. What is a reverse salt auction?
From the KLC FAQ sheet (with tweaks):
Reverse auctions place suppliers in a real time, online competition to bid down prices for goods or services. The bids are collected in a sealed bid environment that offers suppliers multiple opportunities to lower their prices. In a traditional paper bid, suppliers respond with only one price. Reverse auctions shows suppliers where their price ranks among other Suppliers, so they can decrease it, if they choose.
So, there you have it.
At no cost to the City, the mayor is doing a solid for the KLC, who will remember Berea fondly while the City and other municipalities around the state enjoy lower salt costs. The salt is for the roads in winter. The arrangement was codified in Resolution 06-2025, which passed unanimously in a voice vote.
Pay stuff
The division of the tourism and business development departments last month means personnel pay grade and scales per department need to be revised and authorized, and Council agreed that this should happen in their unanimous roll call passage in the second reading of Ordinance 04-2025.
The Book of Ordinances
Having all City ordinances passed in the prior year supplemented in print in The Book of Ordinances, published by the American Legal Publishing Corp., could seem like a good idea when Council votes on it next time, but tonight was they first they’d heard of it when Ordinance 05-2025 was read out by Counsel Jerry Gilbert.
‘Conditional’ and ‘light’
Ordinance 06-2025 calls for an amendment to the City’s land use code, making public use of industrial park zones “conditional” (see Dickson, above) while light manufacturing and light warehousing, which are not currently permitted, would be.
Language in the ordinance, which received its first reading at the meeting, claims that these “support businesses” to the industries already in the industrial 1-2 industrial park zones, “operate with little or no emissions, light trespass, or noise pollution and would benefit those facilities in their operations when located nearby” bolding included in the ordinance.
Department head report: finance
The City’s finance director, Susan Helton, told Council she is pleased and grateful for the support she received from leadership for creating the financial policies and procedures guide. She also said her department would be working in tandem with the Utilities Department in the project to update all customer utility meters.
Net profit returns filed to her department by businesses operating in Berea are trickling in, but these typically arrive by the hundreds in April, and she doesn’t expect it to impact the City’s current budget.
All departments have submitted to her their capital budgets for fiscal year 2026, and are working on their operations budgets. Council will be presented with these at the end of May.
The City has $600,000 more in its general fund than it did this time last year, “for a variety of reasons” and that’s not even counting grant monies.
By end of February, only 56% of the non-capital budget had been spent. The capital budget is still largely unspent, pending large capital projects yet to start.
ARPA federal grant monies spent, mostly on the community pool, need to be accounted for in a report by the end of this month.
Alcohol licenses are due for renewal on May 1. In an interview after the meeting, The Edge asked how much these licenses are and how much revenue they bring to the City, but was told by Helton she wasn’t sure and would follow up.
Property valuation rates will be set in August.
And all the rest of the usual “exciting” accounts payable and receivable are happening.
Parks and Rec
Parks director, Priscilla Bloom, also stepped to the mic to tell Council that Parks will be holding an Autism Sensory Day. The free event will be on April 19th from 1 PM to 3 PM at the Acton Folk Center. There will be sensory stimulating activities for persons with autism, as well as “swag bags” and free food.
Mayor and Council comments
The mayor expressed condolences on behalf of everyone at City Hall to city administrator, Shawn Sandlin and his family, on the March 30th passing of Doug Sandlin, Shawn’s father. Doug Sandlin was a retired battalion chief in the Berea Fire Department.
Katie Startzman expressed her gratitude for the mayor’s leadership and involvement with KLC, which she said is what attracted them to want to work with the City for the reverse salt auction.
John Payne announced that the Parks Committee at last has a regularly scheduled meeting time, the fourth Tuesday of every month at 5:30 PM, in the City Annex Building.
City Council meetings are every first and third Tuesday of the month and are held in the City Annex Building at 304 Chestnut Street at 6:30 PM. You can also attend remotely by watching the City’s YouTube channel.