Wes Simpson, chairperson of the Downtown Park Steering Committee of the Glasgow City Council, reviews a proposal to build the park, which was received at Glasgow City Hall Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. Scott, Murphy & Daniel Construction submitted the proposal to design and build the proposed park.
(BRENNAN CRAIN/WCLU NEWS)
GLASGOW — Members of the Glasgow City Council convened for nearly an hour in a closed session during their meeting Monday and it returned void.
Wes Simpson, the chairperson of a committee charged with overseeing the potential development of a park near downtown Glasgow, was slated to update the council regarding the project. His committee recently met to score a proposal they received from Scott, Murphy & Daniel Construction.
Simpson was invited to speak before the council. Upon stepping to a podium at the meeting, he said Jason Halligan, the Downtown Park Steering Committee’s counsel, recommended the council discuss the proposal’s details in a closed session.
KRS 61.810(1)(g) was cited as the exception to holding the discussion before the public gathered inside the council chambers. That specific law allows closed sessions for “…discussions concerning a specific proposal, if open discussions would jeopardize the siting, retention, expansion, or upgrading of the business.”
Patrick Gaunce and James “Happy” Neal made motions to enter closed session and members of the council entered the closed chamber thereafter. But the mayor called members of the council back into the main chambers to suspend the rules, which they voted to do while scattered across the room.
The closed session lasted nearly an hour before the council returned and said they took no action.
Harold Armstrong, Glasgow mayor, said the closed session was “to look at some information about the Downtown Park.” It’s unclear what details were discussed in the session that weren’t already made public in the published proposal.
The committee received only one proposal, which came from Scott, Murphy & Daniel, for the park’s construction. WCLU obtained a copy of the proposal shortly after the city received it Nov. 19, 2021. The details of the costs and specifications were included in the report.
Armstrong said the proposal will go before the city’s finance committee and they will either approve it to come before the council or let it die. He also said it was disclosed in the closed session that the proposal does not include an amphitheater, which was a major part of the original project plan. Find more information about the proposal here.
“We’re better prepared to look at this after it comes from the finance committee,” Armstrong said.
The project was proposed in July 2019. Park supporters tout the public and private funding aspects of the project. Over $1 million has apparently been pledged to the project from the private sector, Simpson said.
Simpson never spoke about the project’s current standing in open session.
In other news, Becky Barrick was reappointed, and Beth Wagner was appointed to the Historic Preservation Commission. Their terms end March 31, 2024.
The council authorized certain surplus items from the Glasgow Parks and Recreation and Glasgow Police Department to be disposed of. Some of those items included an old city bus, fuel tanks, ballfield light fixtures, 12 bicycles, and 72 working older or outdated body cameras, among other items.
A resolution was approved, too, which authorized the city to make application for a Household Hazardous Waste Management grant worth $15,600. The grant will be used to fund a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day in the city limits, if approved. The city must contribute $3,854 to the project’s $19,454 cost.
