The law in our Commonwealth requires the mayor of every city to make an annual report to the residents of that city. As my third year as your mayor ends, I consider it both a privilege and a pleasure to be able to abide by this statute and give you this report on what we, as your City officials, have done in 1996.

John Donne wrote (in a less politically correct age) that "No man is an island entire of itself . . ." and that is most certainly true when it comes to running and managing a city such as Prospect. Your City Council members, your City Hall staff, members of the Police Department and the many, many citizen volunteers and attendees at Council and other meetings all made significant contributions to making Prospect a City That Works. Indeed, it was Prospect which was cited many times by the Governance Task Force as one of several perfect examples of how a city can meet the needs of its residents more effectively, economically and representatively than any other form of local government.

I think the thing I like most about being your mayor is that so many of you are truly interested in what goes on in our City. Whether it is a telephone call, a neighbor dropping by to visit, a conversation in the Post Office or at some social function, so many of you truly care about the issues which confront all of us and the things we are trying to do - whether you agree with all the decisions or not - that it makes me feel good about the job we are doing.

One of the major reasons for our being able to accomplish all that we do is your City Administrator, Ann Simms. Ann is a responsive and responsible no-nonsense individual who handles daily routine, major and minor crises with aplomb and class. We are extremely lucky to have her. As you may know, she was selected by the City Council and myself as winner of the Beach Craigmyle Award for this year: no one deserves it more.

Prospect's government is set up as a Mayor-Council form of government. The mayor performs the executive functions and the council the legislative. Without hard-working City Council members, the whole system would be out of whack simply because the executive would dominate the legislative; by the same token, a council unwilling to work with the executive branch could well result in chaos.

The City is fortunate that, by and large, Council members not only work hard, but come to meetings prepared to discuss and debate issues. Only one Council member has missed more than one meeting - regular or special - during the last year. If attending meetings were all members of the Council did (which is their basic function under state law) their preparation for these meetings would be a major contribution to the City. As it is, not a single day went by in the last year when at least one member of your City Council did not call, come by or write to offer help, make a suggestion or point out a problem in the City.

Council Member Alan Simon took charge of the Fourth of July celebration for the third year in a row and did a most outstanding job. I think everyone will agree that our Fourth Community Celebration is a big hit and that everyone enjoys the parade, picnic and fireworks. We have Alan, and his sidekick, Council Member Lee Zimmerman, to thank for the hours and hours to planning which go into this event.

Council Member Nan Milliman's sharp eye for detail has brought many problems to the forefront. Nan can always be counted on to get a special job done efficiently and on time. We are fortunate that Council Member Harold Smith brings us a lifetime of engineering experience to the City. Harold is the one who "checks out" tons of problems involving roads, drainage and sewers. I know our City Engineer, Woody Smither - who, himself, is a major asset to Prospect - appreciates and counts on Harold in many ways.

I wish I had a quarter for every time Council Member Raymond Burse called me to offer a solution to a problem or to suggest a course of action. How Raymond balances a very demanding job, his heavy involvement in City affairs and his other responsibilities with his ever-present sense of humor always amazes me, and we are all fortunate to have him serve.

Sandy Tucci will be joining the Council in 1997, replacing Sandy McLeod, who has started law school. Tucci has attended Council meetings on a regular basis since she filed to run for her new position and will "hit the ground running" on the Council. We look forward to working with her.

The five returning Council Members and Tucci will be sworn in January 1 by State Supreme Court Justice Martin Johnstone, a Prospect resident. Martin was elected to the Court in November. I think it is worth noting that Martin swore in Simon, Milliman,  Smith and me five years ago when he was a Circuit Judge, swore us in again when he was a judge on the State Court of Appeals and will do the honors again as a "Mr. Justice." I know all of us in the City are proud of Martin and his accession to the bench of the state's highest court.

It would be extremely unfair for me not to prominently mention the City' professional staff. Phyllis O'Donnell, our deputy city clerk, can always be counted on to get the job done with great attention to detail and, most importantly, good cheer. Anne Brunner, our City Secretary, is a wonderful new addition to our staff. Her solve-it attitude and concern for residents is just the kind of outlook we wanted when Phyllis was promoted and we looked for a replacement. Nothing like a factoid: maybe you have to be an "Ann" to work for the City - besides Simms and Brunner, Ann is O'Donnell's middle name.

The part-time people who also work for you - Zane Kyser, Woody Smither, John Evans and Debbie Wilson - have all made outstanding contributions in 1996.

Zane can fix almost anything, keeps the City clean and, although part-time, is always there when we need him. Woody has a wealth of knowledge about engineering things in general and drainage and construction in particular; he has more than earned what we pay him in merely overseeing new building in Prospect.

John, as you know, gave up a seat on City Council to serve as Counsel. Not only does he keep us on the straight and narrow, but his efforts have brought the City tax accounts receivable to an all-time low. Debbie, who in her "other life" is general manager of my own business, works for the City from home as part-time bookkeeper. I think the city's auditors paid her the ultimate compliment this fall when they said the audit went more smoothly than it ever had before.

Obviously, the city employees you see most often are the members of our Police Department. Officers Larry Bush, Mike Day, Cody Chapelle, Larry Johnson, and Jack Roberts; Sergeant Bob Kyser and Chief Lew Nugent, as well as Patricia Smith, our Police Clerk, represent the largest investment the City makes in any service it offers its residents. Some special police programs such as the school bus stop watch, the Halloween candy giveaway (with its safety bags) are examples of Community Oriented Policing which we believe to be highly important in a City such as Prospect. We intend to do more of this in 1997.

I wish I could name all the citizen-volunteers who spend so much of their time helping make our City better. To do so would fill these pages. From Cornelia Yankovich, who edits the City Newsletter to fix my grammatical and spelling mistakes, to Bill Sherman, David Stanley and the Board of Directors who secured use of the golf course at the Hunting Creek Country Club for the fireworks. More than 100 people have given their time and contributed their expertise to help all of us. We owe you all our thanks.

The Bridge Was (and is) A Major Issue

Nothing quite dominated the City's attention like the bridge issue. From the sheer unfairness of leaving not only Prospect, but any representative east of the Water Tower, out of the voting process, the ORMIS committee, as expected, recommended an east end bridge in December. That the process has a long way to go is no great consolation at this point.

While Ann Simms sat through countless hours of ORMIS meetings, I met with more than 50 different people, wrote numerous letters, made what seemed like a gazillion telephone calls as well as drafted several petitions and resolutions concerning the bridge itself, the process and the foolishness of the rationale of building a bridge anywhere except downtown.

I believe any bridge in or near Prospect will be a waste of money, will injure the environment for which so many of us moved here in the first place and threatens the foward movement of the only viable solution to the area's real transportation solution: a downtown bridge and the complete rebuild of spaghetti junction. My mail and telephone calls and the several hundred of you who turned out for the special Council meeting on the bridge (it had to be moved twice!) indicate that the overwhelmingly vast majority of our residents support this position. We will continue to work against an eastern bridge through the state and through environmental studies which are federally-mandated; we will use any means at our disposal to do so.

Cornerstone 2020 Success

Our other project involving a great deal of effort "outside" the City was working with the Cornerstone 2020 study of future zoning in Jefferson County. While this process is yet to be complete, the final decision was that Prospect would be zoned as a "village" under the new plan.

We worked hard for this designation, which, essentially, means there would be a village center (as now exists) with other areas being residential. Ultimately, we would like to see the village center expanded in a true village concept where people could walk to additional stores and children would have access to sidewalks; there would be green space and living units, probably condominums, which would be part of the whole area. This last concept could mean that persons who decide large homes are too much to keep up as they grow older could not only remain in Prospect but could walk to shopping and other services.

The whole idea of a village is that the commercial area would serve the needs of the residents of the village but would not be designed to attract large numbers of persons from outside the village itself. Acres of asphalt would be out.

Only three areas of the County have been designated for village zoning. We feel fortunate our work has thus far brought this designation to Prospect and especially thank Council Member Harold Smith, City Administrator Ann Simms and volunteer Lee Tucci who all served on the "village" advisory board.

Police Department Study

The City hired consultants from the University of Louisville to study the Police Department in 1996. Many of these recommendations, a great number of them aimed at a more Community Oriented Policing strategy, are scheduled for implementation in the coming year.

We, frankly, had hoped to have much more of this study in effect this year, but allegations made against Chief Nugent prevented moving ahead with action until that issue was settled. Nugent has returned to work now and is under mandate by myself and the Council to implement the study.

One of the things the study illustrated is that a police department the size of ours (seven persons and a police clerk) is one of the more difficult to run. It is not large enough to have a full-time administrator, yet is not small enough to be effective without promulgating and enforcing written policies.

An example of the direction toward which we would like our police department to head is best illustrated by the purchase of the smart cart by the City Council. By alerting drivers of the speed at which they are travelling, the smart cart helps slow down traffic to the speed limit. No tickets are issued, no warnings are given, no photographs are taken of car license plates. This is because it is not the mission of the police to give tickets, but, rather, to make driving in the city safer for everyone.

We want to employ these activities and others like our house watches, halloween activities and school bus stops to all areas of law enforcement. That effort, combined with the money the City donated as startup costs for the Harrods Creek Fire Protection District to implement EMS quick response service, should make Prospect one of the safest cities in the area.

The Lights Are On

Our street light renovation program is finally almost complete. We have added lights, moved lights and taken out some lights. All of them have been converted to the acorn style, which provides more illumination. They are easier to maintain and, therefore, more attractive.

We took a long time getting this project concluded because we wanted every resident who would be affected by a light to have an opportunity to know what we were planning to do before we did it. That, combined with the damage caused by the tornado in Bullitt County, which tested the resources of LG&E for some time, delayed implementation of what LG&E rightly considered a more pressing need.

Also on the subject of lights, we have completed installation of turning lane lights to all four of our subdivisions on the south side of U.S. 42. This began as a demonstration project at Bridgepointe this past summer and the response was so positive that the City Council appropriated funds to add lights at Hunting Creek, Fox Harbor and The Landings. The turning lane lights were in place just as Daylight Saving Time ended and we hope they will add to safety of all residents who must come home on dark (and snowy) evenings.

Prospect: Looking Good

One area of major emphasis when I became mayor was to spruce up the City and keep it that way. Projects as diverse as our new street signs and enforcement of our mud and weed regulations have been an important part of this continuing program.

Many of these projects have been long-term. We have worked with a large number of contractors to insure that they understood how serious we are about mud and debris on our streets. Now, it is fairly routine to find someone removing loose dirt on a daily basis. Our vacant lot weed control program ran into early snags because many of the vacant lots had debris on them which would wreck a bush hogger. Finally, it appears most of this problem has been solved and we either require lots to be mowed on a regular basis or enter into a mow-and-bill agreement with the owner of vacant property.

How well has this been received by the builders? Your City was praised at the opening ceremonies for the 1996 Homearama as being "strict but fair," followed by a round of applause. It is interesting to note more Homearama's have been held in Prospect than anywhere else in Jefferson County.

We have reassessed the City's policy concerning planting flowers on city property. Previously, except for the daffodil beds, we have avoided planting "posies" because of the cost of replanting every year. Now we are considering planting perennials in some of these areas to see what the costs will be in connection with replacing those which do not survive the winter. We have planted such flowers in the Don Cowley Open Space already as part of this assessment.

While many may argue pro and con about whether it falls in the area of beautification, we have achieved some success in our dog enforcement efforts. Our "Be Like Graycee" leash law information program is probably the most successful effort the City has undertaken to curtail dogs running free.

Finally, residents of Hunting Creek should soon have a new entrance sign that will be easy to read. The Council approved this sign and it has been on order for some time.

Public Works Projects Move Along

For the third year in a row we have had a major paving project, this year on Shadwell Lane and associated streets and Deep Creek Drive. At this point, all of our major arteries into subdivisions which required paving have been paved.

Our drainage control is, of course, an ongoing task. However, steps have been taken to solve or begin to solve most of the major problems in the City over which we have some control. The program we initiated three years ago to have the City Engineer prioritize drainage concerns seems to have worked, both in terms of saving the City money and avoiding the previous helter-skelter approach to drainage.

We have been working all year toward improving traffic conditions on U.S. 42. Unfortunately, it is a state road over which we have no control. We would like to see a turning lane in the commercial area, a stop light at Timber Ridge Drive and the speed limit reduced to 35 miles per hour. The latter two proposals have been turned down "for now" but we will be continuing to work on them.

As you might have guessed, snow removal was a huge cost to the City last year. We kept our roads open, however, and then applied for federal disaster funds to help pay the cost. Officials said our application was so well prepared they doubled, to $14,000, the amount we received.

And Also . . .

...We annexed the remainder of the Sutherland subdivision into the City as well asthe Meadows in Oldham County. Both actions were with the support of 100 percent of the affected property owners. The Meadows action makes Prospect one of only a few cities in the Commonwealth which cross county lines.

...The City site on the World Wide Web, the space for which was donated by MicroTek Internet Services, was successful. It has scored more than 2,000 accesses in the year it has been in operation.

...We produced an extensive Bridge Defense Kit to inform residents about the bridge. The kit has been borrowed by many in surrounding areas as well.

...We renewed our franchise with TKR Cable and work has begun on installing fiber optic lines throughout Prospect. There have been a number of complaints about the installation crews damaging yards, and we have worked with TKR in trying to resolve there problems.

...We upgraded our telephone system in City Hall and the Police Department. You should have an easier time reaching us now.

...We went "Hollywood" when a motion picture company decided to use Prospect as the general setting for a movie called "Lawn Dogs." It generated quite a bit of excitement and a large number of us discovered that movie-making can be a lot of work for the people on location.

Thanks To All

It has been a pleasure serving you as your mayor. The most rewarding part of the job is the opportunity to meet so many people and try to solve problems as they come up. I look forward to working with all of you again in 1997. Thank you for your many comments, suggestions and interest in your City.

It is your interest and your caring that makes it work!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1997