Independence City Council is partnering with Kenton County to fix the intersection at Independence Station road and Kimberly Drive. The partnership was discussed at this week’s Independence city council meeting.
According to Mayor Christopher Reinersman, the intersection has been dangerous for some time, especially for the school buses. The Kenton County School district has discontinued having their buses travel down Kimberly and a side street, Elizabeth, which runs off Kimberly, and students on those streets have to come to the end of Kimberly to be picked up.
The county’s engineer, Nick Hendrix, has estimated the project’s cost at $750,000, but other projects are coming in with bids over the engineer’s estimate, so council was thinking about that when the amount of the project was announced, and the resolution specified that the city would be responsible for half of the cost.
But councilman Tom Brinker wanted to know, “where is the money coming from?”
If they passed the resolution, Brinker asked, would the city be bound to the agreement? He was told, yes, the resolution would bind the city to half the amount.
Several councilmembers talked about how dangerous it is at that intersection during the meeting, and said school buses are just a small piece of the problem.
Councilmember Carol Franzen explained how she would hold her breath before trying to pull out of the street, hoping no one would come flying over the hump in the road. Independence Station road services the Kenton County garage, Lincoln Road Park, Fox road park and hundreds of homes, so the traffic along that road has been becoming increasingly more congested. Franzen said school buses basically brought the problem to a head. Brinker agreed.
“It’s still a lot of money,” Brinker said, but he knows the project is important. “You can’t put a price on safety.”
The repairs have not been decided on yet, but there could be significant regrading and realigning of the intersection. County engineer Hendrix had not firmly decided on a method of repair, but he concluded a worst case scenario cost of $750,000. City Administrator Chris Moriconi said the talks with the county indicated that they would like the project to be wrapped up in the fall.
“Your points are well taken,” Reinersman told Brinker, concerning the cost.
Moriconi said he asked for a special line item in the budget, but that he was pretty sure the money could be taken from the ARPA money, the rescue money from federal funds. Moriconi told council the money would not be taken from the road fund, so they would not take the money from the other streets that need to be fixed.
Council listened to the first reading of an ordinance prohibiting storage units in the Community Commercial zones in the city.
John Huffman, who owns Beechgrove self storage and Buttermilk self storage, had a plan to put more storage units at the Cherokee strip mall.
At the January meeting, Huffman gave a power point presentation on his other storage units, and said he had a purchase sale agreement for the entire property to build storage units in the front of the Cherokee lot and in the back. He said at the time that he was committed to raising the synergy in the area, and bringing life back to the shopping center.
During that meeting, Council agreed to send the text amendment, which would eliminate storage units from the Community Commercial zones in the city to the Kenton County Planning and Zoning for the February meeting. The results from the KCPC meeting showed that the commission recommended for the text amendment to remove storage facilities from all Community Commercial zones.
Huffman submitted another drawing to council before the meeting, but council didn’t have a chance to look at it. He asked if he could meet with anyone from the city to discuss his plan.
The second reading of the ordinance that would limit self storage units is scheduled for a second reading at the April 6 meeting.
Council listened to the first reading of an ordinance changing two positions within the city. The Parks and Recreation Facilitator, Anita Brake, is retiring, so her position, which is currently full time, will be changed to Program Coordinator, and will become a part-time position.
Senior Center Director Julie Callahan’s position will go from part time to full time.
Another ordinance had a first reading which is a text amendment approving family child care for all residential zones in the city. This is for in-home child care where no more than 6 children are being cared for.
A resolution passed which commits the city to $50,000 for the Ky 536 widening project. This is the last piece of the puzzle, fixing the road from Calvary Drive, which is just past the Cain farm, all the way down to Ky 17. Kenton County has applied for the federal money, but cities along the corridor put in some money for the project. Independence has already put in money for the first two phases, and this will be phase 3, but there are no firm start and finish dates yet.
Council voted to award the bid for the pickle ball court project to Riegler Blacktop for $292,000. Riegler was the only bidder, and the bid was 30 percent higher than the engineer’s estimate, due to rising costs. The project will cover 3 pickle ball courts, a half basketball court, fencing and lighting, and it will be installed next to the basketball courts.
Reinersman talked about the city’s annual festival around the July 4th holiday. This year it will be back to pre-pandemic splendor, a two-day event on July 1 and 2 with everything it had previously.
He said there will be rides, booths, and food, and fireworks at the end. He explained that Gary Holland, from One Holland, has once again agreed to be a title sponsor, and signed a four year contract to supply $15,000 the first year, and a thousand more each year. This covers the cost for half the fireworks, and other sponsors make up the rest of the cost.
Reinersman also said that John Vince, from Hand in Hand realty, committed to sponsor 4 concerts in the park this summer.
In a related matter, council agreed to push back the amphitheater project until next year. Moriconi said he would like to see the project bid out later this fall and then the work started next spring.
