Following is the text from the Fall, 2002, City of Indian Hills Newsletter:
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OCTOBERFEST Attached to the front of this newsletter you will find a flyer describing some of the particulars of our ever-popular Indian Hills Octoberfest. This event will take place rain or shine in Sagamore Park beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 6. This year will be our 18th such event, and it gets bigger and better every year. Because it gets bigger and better, we need to do a good job of planning the food and drinks that we'll be serving our residents. YOUR RESERVATIONS ARE IMPERATIVE. At the bottom of the brochure, you will find a reservation form. Please mark and mail this as soon as possible so that we can prepare for all attendees. At last year's Octoberfest our Police Department introduced the Project KidCare photo ID. Many of you took advantage of that opportunity. Again this year we will be providing the same ID program, and we encourage those who did not have their children's pictures and fingerprints recorded last year to do so during Octoberfest of 2002. If you can’t do this on October 6, it can be done by calling for an appointment at our police station on River Road (893-COPS). At the Octoberfest we will also be celebrating Fire Prevention Week, and we will have a number of fire trucks from Harrods Creek and St. Matthews Fire Districts, as well as some privately owned vintage fire trucks which will not only be displayed, but will offer rides to children of all ages. We look forward to seeing you on October 6 !!!! NOVEMBER ELECTION The date of this election is November 5, 2002. The Mayor and City Council of the City of Indian Hills are all running for reelection. For the first time in many years, all incumbents are running unopposed. We are very fortunate in our city to have people represent us who care deeply about our community and who serve as unpaid public servants. This City Council has been together since the merger of the four communities, which made us a 4th Class City; there are representatives on the Council from each area of Indian Hills. Incidentally, there are a number of small cities that have not been able to put together a slate for this election; one of these is our neighboring City of Rolling Fields, where only three of the four people needed have filed for commissioner and no one has filed for the office of mayor. An extremely important issue on this year's ballot is the election of two members to the Metro Council, and we say TWO, because our city is divided into two separate districts: Metro District 7, which is basically from Blankenbaker Lane WEST and Metro District 16 which is from Blankenbaker Lane EAST. Another important race that will affect all of us is the election of our State Representative. As you may or may not know, we have been redistricted, and we will be electing a representative for the first time from House District 43. Please take an interest in this race and review the bios of the candidates. We must be sure that whoever represents us in Frankfort is attuned to the interests and activities in our area of the county. POLITICAL SIGNS We caution residents who will display political signs for the upcoming election that they are not permitted on city rights-of-way. This includes those on private property. Please keep them off of the right-of-way at the edge of city streets. They will be removed if they do not comply with the ordinance. POLICE It was recently decided that it would be beneficial for us to have two defibrillators available in our city cars. We felt that it is an extremely important move to have our officers trained to use these units, because the first four minutes of a heart attack are often crucial to the survival of the victim. Since our average response time to a call is less than four minutes, we felt that this purchase adds a great deal to our resident service. The cost for these two units is approximately $5,000 and, thanks to our Councilman Jim Graven, this cost was underwritten by a grant from Republic Bank and Steepleton Billiard Company. We are in the process of updating our KidCare ID to become part of a national Kids program which is computer driven. We will have more information on this topic in the next newsletter. We think that this is an important project for our police to have because not only can we identify kids, but also senior citizens who may suffer from dementia or Alzheimer's. This would be a cost to the city of approximately $7,500, and we believe that we may have a corporate sponsor for this project. COPS CORNER As you may have already noticed, we have enclosed a magnet with each newsletter that reminds everyone of the Police Department's telephone number. This number can be used for any matter (suspicious activity, house watches, general information requests, etc.) If an officer does not answer from the Police Station, the call will be immediately answered by a dispatcher who will contact a duty officer by radio. House watches can be left with the dispatcher and that information will be relayed to our office. The Indian Hills Police Department operates 24 hours per day, every day of the year. Please call us immediately upon noticing any suspicious activity.
CITY WEBSITE Here is a message from Councilman Frank Pontrich who has done such a good job of establishing our Indian Hills website: The Indian Hills City Website is up and ready for your browsing pleasure. Please visit http://www.indianhillsky.org/ If you have a question about almost anything regarding the city:
? Re: Garbage Pickup, "it's in there! " MORE WASTE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION As you may know, Councilman Bob Murphy and myself are the two City of Indian Hills Council people with primary responsibility for waste. With over 1250 homes in IH, waste management is the second largest budget item (after police protection) in our city. We were both heartened by comments received after our last newsletter article, in which specifics on waste management were detailed for each of the four sections of the city. Below is additional information you may find beneficial:
F.Y.I. UPDATE In our summer newsletter we advised of a proposed plan by Louisville Country Club to build indoor tennis courts that would have been serviced off of Indian Hills Trail. We have been told that this issue was voted down and that these courts will not be built; we consider this as good news for all of us here in our city. We will continue to be vigilant in this regard. We also reported on a residential development on a portion of the Corns property on Country Club Road near Indian Hills Trail. At the July meeting of the City Council, we were visited by a representative of the real estate company that will be marketing these units. We were told that this development will contain six buildings of three units each (18 units) on a 6-1/2 acre tract. These units will be 3,500 to 4,000 square feet and will sell in the range of $550,000 to $750,000 each. Keep in mind that this property is not in the City of Indian Hills. As a City Council we would prefer that this property not be developed; however, after much discussion at our recent Board meeting, it was decided to remain neutral on this issue. These units will be built approximately 200 feet from Indian Hills Trail, and the area between the Trail and the units will be left in a natural state. CITY TAX BILLS Indian Hills tax bills will be mailed to our residents by mid-October, 2002. They are now being prepared by the PVA. Each year we remind you that EACH RESIDENT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS/HER OWN TAX BILL. If your mortgage company or bank pays this bill, you must send them a copy of your tax bill. These taxes are due without penalty by January 1, 2003. There is a discount if paid on or before that date. A return envelope will be enclosed with each tax bill. SEWERS IN COUNTRY CLUB AREA Mayor Eifler and Councilmen Madison and Graven attended the MSD Board meeting on August 26 and presented them with a check for $277,000, which was Indian Hills' portion of the cost of repaving all of the roads after the sewers were installed in the Country Club area. This expense had been funded long before the merger of the four cities in 1999. While this project was mandated by the Jefferson County Health Department and was certainly a divisive issue in the City of Indian Hills Country Club for a number of years, it is now completed and has given us a more healthful place to live. If you have noticed any real estate transactions since the installing of the sewers, we certainly feel that we have received increased property values as a result of this installation. It is fitting for us to express our thanks to Nancy Stablein, a long-standing commissioner of the City of Indian Hills Country Club. She shepherded this project with diligence, working with residents, with MSD and with the Mac and Smith Construction Companies to make certain that the installation was done with as little destruction as possible to the superstructure of Indian Hills. We are all grateful for her work and dedication. Since the merger of our four communities, Councilman Jim Graven has taken much of the responsibility of overseeing sewer work. We express our appreciation for his efforts in completing this project. HOUSE FIRE IN INDIAN HILLS During Labor Day weekend there was a serious fire in our city. It happened about 3:00 a.m. Fortunately all of the home's residents left the burning house in time to avoid terrible tragedy. The fire departments of St. Matthews, Harrods Creek and Lyndon responded quickly. Your mayor was called to the scene and he reports that even the family pets were saved. We spoke earlier in this newsletter that our Octoberfest will take place during Fire Prevention Week. This is a good time to remember to check our smoke detectors and their batteries! CITY/COUNTY MERGER The city/county merger is just a few months away, and the Greater Louisville Merger Transition Office has published a list of frequently asked questions about this merger. We thought you might be interested in the document and have attached it to this newsletter. It includes phone numbers to call if you have any questions of your own. In addition, Mayor Eifler will be happy to address any concerns you might have about this issue.
FREE JUNK DROP-OFF DAY SCHEDULED
The Jefferson County Commissioners will sponsor a "Free Junk Drop-Off Day" at the Waste Management Landfill, 2673 Outer Loop. This event will take place on Sunday, October 20, 2002 from 9:00a.m. to 4:00p.m. The event offers Jefferson County residents an opportunity to dispose of large items and trash at no charge that are not accepted by their waste handlers. Appliances and scraps will be accepted. However, several items will not be accepted at the landfill. These items include yard waste, paints, and hazardous liquids, tires and automobile batteries. Yard waste can be taken to the Outer Loop Recycling and Disposal Facility (located at the landfill) or to Mahoney and Associates Organic Recycling, 12500 Avoca Road for a fee. Tires can be disposed of at the Louisville Waste Reduction Center, 600 Merriweather, or at Tire Shredding Recycling Inc., 1011 Ulrich for a fee. This program is for residential use only. No commercial waste will be accepted. Please note that changes have been made in regard to this event. Instead of having several collection sites throughout the county, the landfill will be the only drop off location. Due to this change, the Jefferson County Commissioners have agreed to sponsor another free drop-off day at the landfill sometime this fall. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact my office at 574-5754. Merger Update: Frequently Asked Questions City/County Merger is only five months away. During the last year this office has received a number of questions and inquiries regarding the changes that will occur on January 6th, 2003. In an effort to make this column as informative as possible, I have included a few of these questions and the answers within this article. I would also like to remind you that should you have any questions regarding the information presented below or if you have a merger question of your own, please contact the Greater Louisville Merger Transition Office at 574-6374 (574-MERG).
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Greater Louisville Merger Transition Office |