My mother used to say that July 4 marked the halfway part of summer and we should start preparing to return to school. That always seemed extreme to me but, with school starting earlier, August 15 for JCPS, now is definitely time to start preparing.

The two community ministries servicing District 9 are doing that – and you can help! Check out the two articles below and let’s help everyone be ready for school.

As we approach the upcoming school year, back-to-school expenses can become a burden for parents. St. Matthews Area Ministries (St. MAM) is hosting its annual Back to School supply drive to assist children in need of school supplies. These items will be distributed throughout the school year to students in need of extra resources. In previous weeks, St. MAM collected pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, markers, crayons, yellow highlighters, colored pencils, red pens, spiral notebooks, solid color pocket folders and loose leaf paper (college and wide rule).

• Week of July 15 – St. MAM is collecting glue sticks, Fiskars blunt tip scissors, small pencil sharpeners, soft and hard pencil cases.
• Week of July 22 – composition notebooks, steno pads, backpacks and lunchboxes.

For pickup or to drop off donations, contact Sarah Banks at 893-0205. Schools supplies will be distributed at St. MAM on Wednesday, August 8. For more information, please visit www.stmam.com.

Work is underway at Breslin Park (located at Lexington Road and Payne Street) for a new shade structure and skatespot. District 9 has committed $5,000 towards the shade structure; the remaining funds are being raised privately by the Louisville Parks Foundation, which needs your help.

Louisville Parks Foundation and Home Skateshop are staging a Breslin Park Fundraiser on Thursday, July 26 at 7:00 p.m. at Headliners Music Hall, 1386 Lexington Road. Tickets are $10 each and the event is for all ages. 

Plan to attend the event and show your support for the shade structure and skatespot. All artists are donating their time and the Louisville Parks Foundation will have raffle and silent auction items. Come out and support Breslin Park, Louisville Parks Foundation and the Irish Hill Neighborhood! Click the link for tickets. 

LG&E is proposing to deploy “smart meters” to its customers over the next five years, at an estimated cost of $350 Million.  LG&E asserts that smart meter investments will pay for themselves and not be paid for by future rate hikes to customers. But consumer advocates, including the Metropolitan Housing Coalition (MHC) and Kentucky’s Attorney General, dispute that and argue that ratepayers will bear the expense.

MHC is urging ratepayers to oppose the proposal because there is no evidence that they will result in savings to rate payers and because of privacy concerns.  More about the issue is in this article from Insider Louisville- https://insiderlouisville.com/government/psc-will-take-public-comments-in-lge-smart-meters-case/.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission held a hearing about the proposal in Louisville on July 9 and is taking public comment on it through July 23.  You can make your voice heard by writing the PSC, referencing Case# 2018-00005, and sending your comment via email to psc.info@ky.gov or by mail to:

Kentucky Public Service Commission
P.O. Box 615
Frankfort, KY 40602

A damaged garbage or recycling cart is bad for multiple reasons. The damaged cart won't hold the garbage or recycling as well as it should, which can lead to litter and attract animals. Broken handles or wheels also make it difficult and potentially dangerous for Metro Solid Waste Tippers to lift and empty carts.

Let Metro Solid Waste know if you have a damaged cart. They will repair or replace it for free once a year if damage is shown. Call MetroCall at 574-5000 and provide them with your name, address and daytime phone number along with the serial number from the cart and a description of the damage, or complete this online form.

This week Metro Public Works is highlighting sections of the Louisville Metro Code of Ordinances that often come as a surprise to residents. They basically require property owners and residents to keep the area around homes clean and free of obstructions, from the center line of the street to the center line of any adjacent alley.

§ 156.051 RESPONSIBILITY OF PERSONS.

  (B)   Sanitary condition.

(1)         Cleanliness.  Every occupant of a structure or part thereof shall keep that part of the structure or premises which that occupant occupies, controls, or uses in a clean, safe and sanitary condition, and in the case of a single-family structure, the owner shall keep the premises free of all weeds...to the center line of such street, easement or alley as are adjacent to or abut the premises.   

That includes that patch of grass between the sidewalk and the curb known as a verge.

What is a Right-of-Way Obstruction?

Any structure that may prevent or impede the full and free use by the public of the entire sidewalk, street, alley, or public way (right of way).  Some examples of right-of-way obstructions:  basketball goals left on the curb line, concrete pyramids, piles of brush, items being sold, political/advertising signs, trees, shrubs, retaining walls, cars parked in the right of way, and any obstructions to cross visibility. 

In June the city released a draft plan for a reimagined Ninth Street. It's an exciting vision for a corridor with huge potential. There's a lot to like about the plan, including:

• Safer, inviting walking environment
• Grade-separated bike lanes
• Green space and trees
• Road design that discourages speeding
• Spaces designed for recreation, neighborhood gathering, and fun

Please take a few minutes to review the plan and comment by submitting feedback online. 

Beginning July 14, 2018, the Kentucky Public Service Commission (“PSC”) will investigate and impose fines on anyone who comes into contact with an underground natural gas line while digging without having contacted 811 to have the lines located before digging.

Contact 811 (call 8-1-1 or submit an online locate request at 811.com) before you dig and make sure that anyone doing excavation on your behalf contacts 811 two working days before they start.

For more information, please visit lge-ku.com/safety/digging 

Following the rainiest February in Louisville in 134 years, Louisville MSD will receive $3 million from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) to identify risks to the city’s flood protection system and develop a repair plan.

The recent flooding in February and March ranks among the 10 worst floods in Louisville as approximately 40 billion gallons of rain fell across the city in five days. Inspections have revealed that MSD lost 17 percent of its flood protection capacity from damages suffered during that recent flood.

The flood protection study will look at the potential failures in the flood protection system, the impact to homes and businesses and options for repair. MSD had already started to identify improvements as part of its Critical Repair & Reinvestment Plan, a 20-year outline of projects for flood protection, wastewater and drainage. However, up to this point, funding the projects has been a challenge. The study will take 18 months for the USACE and MSD to complete, and a list of recommended improvements will be developed.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced last week that the Coalition for the Homeless will receive $3.45 million to support local efforts to reduce, and eventually eliminate, youth and young adult homelessness in Louisville. The Homeless Youth Demonstration Grant is awarded to select communities in order to create comprehensive and innovative plans to address homelessness for unaccompanied youth age 24 and under. Louisville’s Homeless Youth Committee has been working for two years to understand the numbers and needs of homeless youth in the community, develop an extensive plan to address this need, create a by-name list of youth who need assistance with housing and services, and begin accessing resources to implement the plan.

News of the major grant comes almost exactly one year after the Coalition for the Homeless and a team of local service providers launched the 100-Day Challenge on Youth Homelessness on August 1, 2017. The project had an ambitious goal to end homelessness for at least 100 young adults in our community by November 8, 2017. The team achieved and even surpassed that goal, housing 115 young adults, a 560% increase in the rate at which our community had been housing this population. When the 100-Day Challenge launched, there were 220 identified homeless young adults. Today, that number is down to 106, marking a more than 50% reduction in youth homelessness since last summer.

Through the 100-Day Challenge, the Coalition and its many partners have made great strides in improving our system to better serve homeless youth. Local police rescued several victims of sex trafficking, homeless youth received special vouchers to help them with mental health needs for the first time, new employment resources were identified, and JCPS began identifying vulnerable students sleeping in cars who needed to get to a place of stability. The Coalition also raised private dollars to address barriers that prevent young adults from getting housed quickly, like the need to pay for deposits, furniture, and moving expenses.

The Coalition recognizes that it will take the entire Louisville community to achieve the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020 and calls on compassionate neighbors to help. Individuals can help by donating to Rx: Housing to fund deposits and furniture, hiring or mentoring a homeless or disconnected young person, participating in the Host Homes program, and advocating for continued funding for the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund. In addition, landlords can rent housing to a homeless person with a voucher and supportive services (contact John Miles at Metro Louisville at john.miles@louisvilleky.gov).