More lanes envisioned for Smallhouse

Although work may be many years away, the city is already planning how to relieve traffic stress on Smallhouse Road between Campbell Lane and Scottsville Road. “In order to reap a harvest years from now, we have to start today,” city manager Kevin DeFebbo said. At a nonvoting work session Tuesday afternoon, city commissioners heard an in-house study that recommends building sidewalks and a center turn lane along the narrow, 8,400-foot residential street. Smallhouse Road, with 13 cross-streets and more than 120 driveways in that stretch, has a crash rate more than twice the average for similar roads in Kentucky, Public Works director Emmett Wood said. Most of those accidents are people being rear-ended while waiting for someone in front of them to turn across traffic, something that a center lane should alleviate, he said. Traffic is expected to go up by 22 percent over the next 20 years, so city staff considered a variety of options, from just adding sidewalks and turn lanes at intersections up to five-laning the road with sidewalks, Wood said. Those project costs would range from $8.8 million to $18.8 million, he estimated - and that’s not counting work on the Cave Mill and Smallhouse intersection, a separate project “with its own significant price tag,” he said. Staff settled on the $11 million option of sidewalks and a center turn lane, Wood said. Even that would require some properties to be bought entirely, he said. All options, including the simplest, would require the same. Commissioner Brian “Slim” Nash said he’d rather see sidewalks on just one side, keeping right-of-way purchase to a minimum and more sidewalks built elsewhere in the city. At the average cost per foot of building new sidewalks, that could cut another $1 million off the project. Embezzlement settlement After a brief closed session at their regular evening meeting, commissioners emerged to approve a settlement with local auditors Kirby & Kirby that will give the city $275,000 in damages relating to former city chief financial officer Davis Cooper’s 20 years of embezzlement. He was arrested in March 2005 and confessed to embezzling more than $4 million from city tax funds. Cooper is serving an eight-year federal prison sentence. The city recouped more than $800,000 by auctioning his house and other property and seizing his pension. Attorneys hired by the city negotiated the settlement with Kirby & Kirby. The city’s argument was that auditors should have detected Cooper’s theft, but the agreement specifically states that Kirby admits no fault. The city is still pursuing Cooper’s former wife and their children, arguing that they received money Cooper stole from city taxpayers and spent on jewelry, houses and other items for them. The city has sought $700,000 from his ex-wife and more than $300,000 from their children, based on bank transactions and purchase records. In August 2006, U.S. Bank agreed to give the city $275,000, with part of that specifically related to Cooper’s embezzlement, and the rest a donation to a downtown redevelopment project. In that settlement, the bank accepted no responsibility for any of Cooper’s criminal activity and denied any wrongdoing. SNAP grants Nineteen neighborhood groups shared $55,000 for small projects in this year’s Select Neighborhood Action Plan grants, $5,000 less than last year. The approved awards are:

$895 to the Pine Grove Homeowners Association;

$4,899 to the Bent Tree Homeowners Association;

$2,250 to the Delafield Neighborhood Association;

$1,008.05 to the Dutch Gardens Homeowners Association;

$3,700 to the Briarwood Improvement Group;

$5,000 to the Merrick Place Homeowners Association;

$1,594 to the Northern Heights-Parker Bennett Neighborhood Association;

$1,000 to the Park Place Homeowners Association;

$5,000 to the Cumberland Ridge Homeowners Association;

$1,616 to the Hartland Court Homeowners Association;

$3,483 to the Westside-St. Joseph Neighborhood Association;

$5,000 to the Pleasant Colony Homeowners Association;

$1,000 to the East 11th Avenue Area Neighbors;

$4,970 to the Crossridge Preservation Association;

$2,477 to the Greens at Hartland Condo Association;

$3,281.50 to the Villas at Callaway Gardens Homeowners Association;

$1,060 to the Roselawn Neighborhood Association;

$2,750 to the Magnolia Neighborhood Association; and

$4,016.45 to The Crossings at Cave Mill Homeowners. Condemnation Also after their closed session commissioners voted unanimously to condemn the property at 626 Center St., part of the land they’d agreed to buy for the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center. The use of eminent domain doesn’t stem from a disagreement about price, but rather the inability to otherwise get clear title to the land, city attorney Gene Harmon said. It was owned by a woman named Carrie Lightfoot, who died without a will and left the property to about 10 heirs, some of whom have also apparently died without wills, he said. Some of the heirs haven’t been found, though the few inheritors who live locally have helped the city look for them, Harmon said. Mayor Elaine Walker urged anyone with information on Lightfoot’s heirs to call Harmon at 393-3038, so those heirs can receive their share of the proceeds.
Read Full Story