Work has been completed on a new sidewalk in D9, linking a Clifton neighborhood with Brownsboro Road.  A contractor hired by Metro Public Works built the sidewalk on the eastern side of North Jane Street just north of Sycamore Avenue. The project was funded by Metro funds appropriated by the District 9 office.

A missing sidewalk section had forced many people making their way to and from Brownsboro Road, including the Kroger there, to walk in the street. The project includes a small retaining wall, curbs and a slight expansion of one-way N. Jane Street at that location. Paving work completed the project, making for a smooth transition from the new sidewalk to the street.  

Thanks for your patience while the street was closed to complete this much-needed and long-anticipated project. 

The Clifton Cultural Center has closed its doors and is transitioning to Holy Trinity Clifton Campus.  While some of its programs will continue (see this Courier-Journal story) - other activities there have moved. We're happy to say that many are staying in D9!

This Saturday, January 13, between 3 and 5 pm, the Louisville Folk School will have an open house at its new location, 225 N. Clifton, Suite 4.  That's just behind Kroger on Brownsboro Road.  There will be  demo classes on Banjo, Dulcimer, Ukulele, Mbira, and Harmony Singing; snacks will be generously provided by Rainbow Blossom; and the school will be offering free restringing of guitars, mandolins, and banjos  (while supplies last, limit one instrument per person please) compliments of D'Addario Strings and Music Go Round. January/February classes will be open for registration.  More information is here and in this Great Day Live feature.

The Greater Louisville Sierra Club Chapter is also staying in D9.  Its regular monthly meetings are moving to United Crescent Hill Ministries, at 150 South State Street in Clifton.  The first meeting there is Tuesday, January 16, beginning at 7pm.  It features a presentation by Tom Fitzgerald of the Kentucky Resources Council on environmental issues coming up before the Kentucky General Assembly.  Sierra Club meetings are free and open to the public.

There will be no residential garbage, yard waste or recycling collection on Monday, January 15 in the Urban Services District (former Louisville city limits) in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Residents who normally have garbage/yard waste/recycling collection on Monday will have service instead on Tuesday, January 16, and collections for the rest of the week will be delayed one day. 

Collections in St. Matthews will follow the regular schedule, with no delays.  Residents in other areas normally serviced by private waste haulers should check with those companies for holiday collection schedules.

Louisville Metro offices, including the D9 office, will be closed on Monday, January 15.

For more information visit https://louisvilleky.gov/government/public-works/services/garbage-collection or call MetroCall at 574-5000.

We are always happy to hear from constituents.  To make meeting with us in person more convenient, we’ll be holding office hours at various places around District 9, in addition to our regular, evening D9 Community Conversations.  On Tuesday, January 23, from 10:00 a.m. – Noon, we’ll be at the St. Matthews Branch Library, 3940 Grandview Avenue, in the second floor conference room. Please stop by with any questions or concerns. You can also call anytime at 574-1109 or email me. 

With snow in the forecast, here’s some information about snow removal.

Regarding sidewalks, persons and businesses owning or occupying property abutting a public street are required to clear the sidewalks within 24 hours.  The snow is to be placed either on private property or in the public driveway at a distance not less than 12 inches from the curbing of the sidewalk. In no event shall the snow be so placed as to obstruct the free passage of water in the gutter or in the direction of any sewer or catch basin. Failure to comply can result in a $25 to $100 fine.  Because some folks may need assistance with meeting their obligations, I encourage residents to be aware of neighbors who may need help with snow removal.  Reach out and provide a helping hand. You will benefit your neighbor, pedestrians who use the sidewalk, and yourself as you give service - and keep D9 walkable.

Snow removal on Metro-maintained streets is done by a 300-member snow team which uses 160 pieces of equipment to clear 1,362 miles of road.  Snow routes include arterials,  the major commuting paths through the city, streets that run between and feed traffic onto arterial roads and connections to major local employers, hospitals, schools  and emergency routes. Unfortunately, not all neighborhood streets are cleared.  To see a map and learn more about snow removal on Metro streets, go here.  

Join The Kentucky Center’s ArtsReach program, River City Drum Corp and the Office of Mayor Greg Fischer for Keepers of the Dream, a Community Arts Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Vision. 

The 8th annual Keepers of the Dream, hosted by Ahmaad Edmund, will feature the presentation of the Mayor’s Freedom Award, sponsored by Republic Bank, ArtsReach Living the Vision Awards, Jawan Bowman’s recitation of Dr. King’s speech Where Do We Go From Here, along with dance, music, and spoken word.

The Freedom Award, first presented in 1988, recognizes citizens who have dedicated their lives to promoting justice, peace, freedom, non-violence, racial equality and civic activism. Past recipeints include D9 Resident Suzy Post.  This year's recipient is Rev. Dr. Charles Elliott, Jr., an Alabama native who moved to Louisville in the early 1950s, and has been pastor of King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church since 1961. He has devoted his life to helping the poor, fighting the corrupt and teaching children that education and jobs – and not violence or gangs – are their tickets out of poverty and despair.

The ArtsReach Living the Vision Award will be presented to community artist educators Keith McGill, Joan Brannon, Keith Cook, Troy Bell and Lynn Johnson, Chestnut Street YMCA Director of Black Achievers.

Performances include ArtsReach Dance, Percussion and Violin Studios from Louisville Central Community Centers, Inc., Metro Parks Shawnee Arts and Cultural Center, Metro Parks Newburg Community Center, WESTEC and West End School.  Other featured artists are Belizean Dance Intermix, poet Leen Abozaid, Ty Brown, featured artist Alexis Stix Brown, poet NAM, and the River City Drum Corp.

In addition to the performance and awards ceremony, the lobby will be bustling with activity prior to the event, including pre-show entertainment by Louisville Leopard Percussionists and exhibitors from local organizations. Following the main program, there will be a post-show celebration in the lobby featuring River City Drum Corp. The event is free and open to the public. 

Event Information:

• Location: The Kentucky Center, 501 W Main St 
• Date: Sunday, January 14th @ 5:00 PM
• Pre-show activities in the Main Lobby 4:00 PM-4:45 PM
• All ages welcome
• Price: Free and open to the public, no tickets required.
• Running Time: Approximately 2 hours

Bitter cold temperatures have increased the demand for homeless services this year and you can help. Operation White Flag, the city's program that provides a warm and safe place for Louisville's homeless population during inclement weather conditions, has been activated more days than not during the last month.

The Coalition for the Homeless is reporting that Operation White Flag was activated a record 21 days in December, and has already been activated 7 days in January. During Operation White Flag, which is activated when temperatures drop to 35 degrees or lower with or without wind chill, three local shelters - Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul (for men only), and Wayside Christian Mission - open their doors to make space for everyone. During the last quarter of 2017 (October-December), there were 3073 individual bed stays at the three aforementioned shelters, which is enough to use half of the White Flag allocation funding for the entire year. Of course, the cold weather continued in January.                                 

If anyone sees a homeless individual outside in extreme weather, the public is asked to let them know about Operation White Flag. Anyone can call (502) 637-BEDS (502-637-2337) from 10am-1pm seven days a week to reserve a shelter bed. Individuals can also help fund the city's White Flag program by joining the Coalition for the Homeless' "Five Bucks A Month Club" at www.louhomeless.org. (click "Make a Gift")

My office is partnering with the Louisville Asset Building Coalition (LABC) to provide FREE tax preparation services again in 2017. The service is FREE if you earned $64,000 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) or less in 2017 or if you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Call the office today to see if you qualify and make your appointment! Appointments are available every Friday beginning January 26 through the end of tax season between 9:15 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at United Crescent Hill Ministries, 150 S. State Street, in Clifton. Please call the office at 574-3908 to make an appointment and please share this with anyone you think may be eligible. Click here to view brochure.                                                

Do you instead file your own taxes? Through the LABC website there are two options to self-file online. The “Turbo Tax Freedom Edition” is available if you have $33,000 or less in income. The software has a well-designed interview process that guides you through the process of making decisions about your filing status, inputting your income and making decisions about deductions and tax credits for which you may qualify. The other option is “My Free Taxes”, which is available if you make $64,000 or less. This program is developed by H&R Block and uses an interview process. Please visit, http://labcservices.org/index.php/free-tax-filing-at-labc-services, for more information.

Meet your legislators at the Louisville Free Public Libraries in 2018. The purpose of Café LOUIE is to provide constituents and their elected representatives a chance to engage and “get-to-know” each other in an informal setting. 

From 9:00 am to 10:00 am each Saturday morning from January 20 through April 7, participants are offered refreshments and conversation.  Elected officials will be given a brief time for prepared remarks and to answer a few pre-selected questions submitted by attendees.  The focus of these meetings is engagement through personal conversations.

Mark your calendars for two District 9 opportunities:

• Saturday, January 27 – St. Matthews Library, 3940 Grandview Avenue
• Saturday, March 10 – Crescent Hill Library, 2762 Frankfort Avenue. For a complete listing of Café LOUIE events, please click here.

Information provided by the Louisville Water Company

It's a cold day and you turn on the kitchen faucet but no Louisville pure tap© flows out of the tap! What do you do! Most people pick up the phone to call the Louisville Water Company (LWC) and report what must be a water main break or frozen water line. Either of these scenarios could be true, but 99% of the time, the cause is a frozen water line within your home.  Before calling, here are some suggestions to ensure you do not have a frozen pipe and how to deal with it if you do:

• Check all the water faucets within the home. If you turn on a faucet and no water or only a trickle comes out, suspect a frozen pipe. Likely places for frozen pipes include against exterior walls or where your water service enters your home through the foundation (start by looking close to your water shut off valve).
• Keep a faucet on (as long as you are home the entire time). As you treat the frozen pipe and the frozen area begins to melt, water will begin to flow through the frozen area. Running water through the pipe will help melt ice in the pipe.
• Apply heat to the section of pipe using an electric heating pad wrapped around the pipe, an electric hair dryer (kept a safe distance away from the pipe), a portable space heater (kept away from flammable materials), or by wrapping pipes with towels soaked in hot water. Do not use a blowtorch, kerosene or propane heater, charcoal stove, or other open flame device. Apply heat until full water pressure is restored. 
• Check all other faucets in your home to find out if you have additional frozen pipes. If one pipe freezes, others may freeze, too.
• If you are unable to locate the frozen area, if the frozen area is not accessible, or if you cannot thaw the pipe, call a licensed plumber.

If you have tried the above steps and waited two hours for the pipes to thaw, call 502.583.6610 and ask for LWC to check our pipes.  Here are some additional winter tips to help ensure your pipes don't freeze in the extreme cold.