James Mayse
Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
(TNS)

Jan. 18—Owensboro city commissioners are moving ahead with several major projects, including construction of a fire training center and a downtown indoor sports complex.

Tuesday night, commissioners approved bonds to finance construction of the complex. In December, city officials approved purchasing two lots in the 500 block of West Fifth Street and the 500 block of West Fourth Street to build an 88,000-square-foot sportsplex.

The $35.350 million bond ordinance also includes funds for construction of a fire training center, renovation and redesign of Fire Station 3 and new light poles at Jack C. Fisher Park. The bond also includes $3 million for design work and to accommodate for possible increases in construction costs.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the bonds.

“We are very excited” about the sports complex, Mayor Tom Watson said after Tuesday’s meeting. “It makes us competitive with other communities.”

Officials said previously the sportsplex will be open during the week for use by city residents. On weekends, the goal is to book the sportsplex with tournaments that will bring visitors to town.

A consultant who has worked on multiple similar facilities told commissioners in July a “sportsplex” would generate about $1.3 million a year in hotel room rentals and $3.1 million annually in other sales, if the facility was booked for tournaments 50% of weekends.

Watson said Owensboro will have a competitive advantage in attracting tournaments compared to other cities with indoor sports complexes.

“Our community is so much better than other communities to be in,” Watson said.

Commissioner Pam Smith-Wright, who was elected after discussions about the various projects had taken place, said she supports the OFD fire training center and the renovations to Fire Station 3.

“We need that fire department stuff, so that’s how I voted,” Smith-Wright said.

The property selected for the sportsplex is valuable in helping develop downtown, Smith-Wright said.

“We need that piece of property where the sportsplex will be. That’s a vital piece of property downtown,” she said. “If it’s a sportsplex (on the site), so be it.”

Commissioner Larry Maglinger said the sportsplex could be an asset, but noted the Owensboro Convention Center is already attracting sports tournaments with its sports floors.

“I hope that (the sportsplex) will produce over 12,000 room nights like the consultant says,” Maglinger said. “That’s a lot of room nights and a lot of tournaments.”

Maglinger said he supported funding the OFD projects and replacing the light poles at Fisher Park.

“The way it was packaged, you have to vote for them all,” Maglinger said.

Mayor Pro Tem Mark Castlen said of the bonds, “I feel a little more comfortable since it has been trimmed down a little bit.”

Plans to build a transient boat dock on the riverfront were removed from the bond ordinance, after the previous commission, which ended in December, didn’t have the votes to approve the bonds with the boat dock project included.

“The consensus from our constituents is they wanted the sportsplex,” Castlen said. “I’m looking forward to getting it up and running and working with the convention center to fill (hotel) beds and restaurants.”

Castlen said the sportsplex and convention center could work together to bring large indoor tournaments to town.

“It’s going to be a couple years, but seeing the progress m

Editor’s Opinion Ed Ballam

It’s January, and by now, most municipalities are deep into their budget cycles, planning for expenditures to come up in the 2023/2024 fiscal year.

It’s a process that takes up to six months and culminates with either the voters or the city councilors voting to approve funding for anticipated expenses into the near and often far future. Oh, and for those who might not know, the fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. It doesn’t follow the calendar year. Many municipalities follow fiscal year budgeting.

One thing to be certain about is those making the decisions on fire department budgets had better put in more than they think they’ll need and then a little more on top of that, because everything connected with the fire service industry has gotten even more expensive.

As we learned from a variety of fire industry leaders in last month’s issue, the fire service is not immune from all the influences that affect the economy, including inflation and labor and supply chain issues. Together, those all make for more expensive products and longer wait times.

To compensate for those increases in prices and delivery times, government types will have to budget more money to accommodate those factors. Coming up short of funds when it’s time to place an order for anything from a pair of gloves to a $2 million aerial will make for a bad day, to say the least.

Let’s not forget paid/career fire departments. It’s a fact that up to 90 percent of a career department’s budget goes toward payroll. And, like all workers in every sector of the economy, firefighters and EMS providers are not immune from inflation. They’ll need increasingly larger cost of living adjustments just to maintain their present status. That will increase the bottom line of the budget in a hurry.

Much of any public service budget is nondiscretionary, such as payroll. But there are lots of other factors that fire and emergency medical services (EMS) officers can’t do much about either, like cost of diesel fuel, which at the time of this writing is hovering around $6 per gallon, and insurance costs. Add to that list building maintenance and heating and cooling costs, vehicle upgrades and repairs, replenishing of essential goods and equipment, as well as debt services for payments on previous purchases.

Factoring in inflation has always been part of any budgetary exercise, but it seems even more pressing this year than ever. Government officials from selectboard members to city council presidents to the mayors all have an obligation to strike a balance between a balanced budget with a reasonable tax rate and ensuring firefighters and EMS providers have what they need to do their jobs safely.

Given all the signs that are out there, it would behoove those budget builders and those crunching municipal numbers to boost the budgets for emergency services. It will be a challenge to accommodate those almost certain increases without driving the tax rates through the roofs.

Helping to make any tax increase more palatable is the fact that most fire departments nationwide enjoy a 95 percent favorable rating among those populations served. Firefighters and EMS workers have achieved almost universal hero status, and whatever they need they usually get. Before you start writing letters in disagreement, I get that it’s not like that everywhere. There are some tyrannical mayors and selectboard members who chronically stick things in the wheel spokes to derail public fire service; from my experience, those are the excep

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Video shows a firefighter stepping out of a Warwick Fire Department ladder truck on Monday and leading a dog on a leash toward the address of a dog grooming business called Ahead of the Pack, BostonGlobe.com reported.

Rob Cote, a Warwick resident who has been an outspoken critic of payments for unused Warwick firefighter sick time, said he took the video at 12:52 p.m. on Samuel Gorton Avenue, the report said.

He said he’d previously seen Warwick fire trucks idling and unattended for long periods of time outside the Presto Strange O Cafe, a coffee shop on Warwick Neck Avenue, according to the report. So when he spotted a ladder truck on Monday he decided to follow it to see if it would go to that coffee shop, the report said.

In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, Fire Chief Peter K. McMichael said, “Upon reviewing the report of inappropriate use of a department vehicle on 1/16/2023, it has been determined that there was a violation of department policy and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”

McMichael said the violation involves “the approved shopping policy, enacted by the Board of Public Safety in January 2016, to govern the use of fire apparatus for stores, pharmacies, and other businesses.” He said the dog is not owned by the department, and the names of firefighters involved in personnel matters are not made public.