-
City Clerk Susan Bishop, left, swears in new mayor Luke Price at the beginning of a specially called City Council meeting Jan. 9. Price has been an active member of City Council for five years. He replaces Sebastian Ernst and will be up for special election in November. Photo by Brian Reid.
By Carolyn Reid
A unanimous vote at the January 9 special-called meeting placed Councilperson Luke Price as interim mayor of Falmouth. He replaces Sebastian Ernst who was impeached during a Jan. 2 hearing.
Price, who has been on council five years, has been a vocal member since his arrival on the scene. His professional background has given him insights to many infrastructure concerns the city has. He has worked actively especially in the areas of lighting for the bridge and for downtown, something he admits brought caught him a little flack at first.
“People would stop me to say, ‘Hey, we aren’t Ft. Thomas…” he admits.
Today, those lights are enjoyed by nearly everyone who comes to the city at night, especially at festival times.
But now he is in the mayor’s seat, and his vision, while it has always been pretty broad, has expanded, especially in light of the past year and the rough relationships between the former mayor and council.
“We have to bring a more streamlined relationship between council and the mayor. We need to calm the water and get back to business.”
The business includes several areas that have been on the plate but have not been prioritized as they need to be, in Price’s mind. In order to do this, he wants to work with council and city residents to prioritize needs and wants. The needs include infrastructure and 24-hour police coverage, in particular.
“We need to take care of things.”
He wants to be sure the water plant is able to maintain its functions as the discussion continues surrounding the county plant versus a Falmouth plant. He wants the city to get back to working on the fire hydrants, the substation, the pump…
Garbage, though, is a topic he wants “put…to bed.”
“We have to do due diligence with garbage before we do anything with garbage. The cheapest rate isn’t always the correct way to go. We need to weigh out the system itself, the pros and cons of keeping garbage in the city.”
To do that, he wants to bring together a committee of those who deal with it and council member who can be informed: Director of Maintenance Gary Lea, the city clerk who deals with the calls and the system, and others to see if “it is a good idea, in a formal way.”
In the same way, he knows electricity has to be examined. KYMEA is working on information for the city, but Price says, “All aspects need to be looked at.”
When the Outlook asked him about the possibility of each utility being sustainable in itself, something the former mayor referenced often, Price agreed. “It’s hard for me to use one [utility] to bail out another, but,” he continued, “we need to look at garbage first.”
He once again assured the Outlook for its readers that the water is in very good shape, and that information was shared with specifics by the Kentucky Division of Water, the source for all such determinations. “If it isn’t good, they will be here to handle it,” he assured.
Aside from utilities and infrastructure, Price’s other big priority is police coverage for the city. “Our citizens need to have that security,” he insists.
One more big goal he has is restoring the relationship the city has with the county. “The county is affected by Falmouth. Both agencies have to work together,” Price reminds the city. “We may not always agree, but we have to do what we can to work together, to try.”
As a councilperson, Joyce Carson expressed hope for Price’s term as mayor as she stated she was “looking forward to addressing the needs of our city.”
Price will run in a special election this fall, seeking the mayor’s seat for the remainder of the term. Ernst cannot run due to this term being the one where he was impeached. All council seats will also be up for election, and several have already placed their names on the ballot.