Walton will not construct the joint fire and law enforcement training center proposed by Mayor Gabe Brown last week.
Walton City Council held a special called meeting Tuesday evening and did a second reading of the proposed resolution to construct the training center on a portion of land formerly owned by the late Dr. O’dell Owens.
The motion to approve the resolution died, as no council member seconded the approval to commence with a vote.
The failed motion comes after a packed public hearing held June 20, in which over the course of nearly three hours, Walton residents voiced questions and concerns about the construction of the joint training center.
Brown kicked off this week’s discussion by acknowledging “the biggest concerns” that he said he took away from the previous meeting.
“People ask for plans, cost, benefits to the city, and those are legitimate questions and concerns,” he said. “But this resolution does not agree to everything – it agrees to it in principle. It allows me to go forward and try to work on those and present that information back to the citizens.”
While Brown wouldn’t be able to confirm any economic costs or benefits unless the resolution was passed, he said he believes that the added police presence provided by the training facility would be a significant benefit to public safety.
Brown also listed the research that he’d done on possible noise levels from the indoor gun range and said that sound levels for the range would not “be anywhere near” 40 decibels from outside.
Additionally, Brown shared his plan for water and sewer “to connect an eight-inch main” from Mullen Drive to Percival Road. Brown said that doing so would benefit the city with consistent water flow, less sediment buildup, better water pressure and cleaner water overall.
“I love this town, I absolutely do – I was born and raised here,” Brown said. “And I promise you, I’ve never tried to do anything that I didn’t think was good for this city. Give me a chance on this.”
Amy Long was the sole council member to side with Brown and approve the motion for the resolution.
“Proper police training is more important now than ever,” said Long. “Evolving technologies, changing laws and continually-growing mental health crises proves this. Those in law enforcement need the skills and knowledge required to deal effectively with these issues and more.”
Long argued that since Northern Kentucky is in such close proximity to Cincinnati, it is “the funnel of the next big drug issue” and that the region needs a police force that knows how to de-escalate and handle issues in an “unbiased and equitable manner.”
Further, Long said she approved the motion because the resolution would allow the city to earn grants and learn exactly how constructing the training center would affect Walton, financially or otherwise.
“You can’t get any questions answered if you don’t move forward,” she said. “I just wanted to be able to answer them.”
While council member Dan Martin agreed that law enforcement need a training facility in Northern Kentucky, he felt that it wasn’t Walton’s responsibility to provide it to them.
“Is it the citizens’ responsibility to give up their land?” Martin said. “To me, the answer is a definite no.”
Additionally, Martin said that Walton “only has so much green space” and that he believes the land should remain a park for the time being, especially considering the feedback the City Council received at the previous public forum.
Council member Rose Beach echoed Martin’s sentiments.
“We work for the people – we’re sitting in those chairs because the people put us there and if they want to be able to speak then they speak through us,” she said. “They did not want it. Whether we wanted it or not, it didn’t make a difference. We were working for them.”
Beach also said that she felt there were still many holes in the plan for the training center. One such worry was the additional cost to taxpayers.
“[It] is going to take from our city workers to do it, and that’s going to eat into our budget,” she said. “If we don’t have the money to pay these workers, we are going to have to raise taxes.”
While the various concerns the community produced on financial impacts and community benefit were factors to City Council’s decision, council member Terri Courtney said that the sheer size of the crowd that participated in the public meetings swayed her opinion as well.
“The last two weeks have been the biggest turnout we’ve ever had from our community on an issue,” said Courtney. “That spoke volumes.”