There will actually be 2 posts today. This is FortThomasMatters.com’s 999th post, which inevitably leads to a big milestone in our website’s history: the 1000th post. 



We’ve been holding back BIG NEWS for this milestone post, which has almost leapt out of me more than a few times.

Post 1000 will publish at noon today. I promise it’ll be a good one. Onto this week’s Van Damme It’s Friday Links. I perused a few of the annual reports put out by city officials over the last few weeks. Here are some interesting tidbits from those reports:

– Fort Thomas was recognized as a Tree City USA Community for the 21st year.

– The following represents figures for new home construction during the previous 8 years:

Year          # of New Homes          Construction Costs

2005                   7                          $2,952,000

2006                   12                        $4,714,650

2007                   19                        $6,651,676

2008                   7                          $3,641,965

2009                   10                        $3,403,266

2010                   21                        $6,368,196

2011                   14                        $3,791,360

2012                   18                        $6,484,837

– Total Valuation of all 2012 Building Permits: $9,511,906

– The Armory Room Rental had 103 paid rentals, which was a new record.

– The Midway Farmer’s Market is now in its 5th year. In its 1st year at Fort Thomas Plaza, the Farmers’ Market vendors said that, “They sold more at this market than (at) Findley, Covington or Independence.”



– The Merchants & Music Festival tripled the number of vendors and the amount of sponsorship dollars.  Here are some figures from the festival:

Total Cost:    $53,695.82

LIFT Grant:  $2,000

Beer Sales:    $4,250

Sponsors:      $31,375

ACTUAL COST: $16,170.82 ($8,829.18 UNDER BUDGET)

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