Five takeaways from Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton’s annual State of the City speech
Delivering her second annual State of the City speech Tuesday, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton touted a dramatic drop in the number of opioid overdoses, asked for citizens’ patience as workers undertake messy and disruptive sewer replacement projects, and hinted the city may soon resume recycling paper.
Gorton, who is completing her first year in office as Lexington’s top elected official, also gave updates on several key projects, including the citywide installation of fiber-optic cable and efforts to lure more businesses to Kentucky’s second-largest city.
“Strong financial management makes it possible for me to report to you today that the state of our city and county is strong,” Gorton said. “We’re moving forward, tackling our challenges and celebrating our successes. Our city is growing and vibrant.”
The first-term mayor laid out few new initiatives in her speech at the Hyatt Regency in front of the Lexington Forum, a civic group that traditionally hosts the speech.
Here’s five things she highlighted.
Big, messy sewer projects set to begin
The city has completed roughly half of the 116 storm and sewer upgrade projects it agreed to undertake as part of a court-ordered agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency.
So far, the projects are coming in under budget.
“We are today $83 million under original cost estimates,” Gorton said.
But the remaining projects involve cutting up and digging under major streets.
A sewer line replacement project that involves digging under key streets around the University of Kentucky campus will begin in coming weeks. It will mean street closures in one of the busiest areas in Lexington. The estimated $10 million project will take nearly two years to complete.
The two-mile sewer line replacement will run from Oliver Lewis Way at South Broadway, down Bolivar Street, Winslow Street, Avenue of Champions and the length of Euclid Avenue to its intersection with High Street. It’s one of the projects the city must complete as part of the $590 million Environmental Protection Agency consent decree.
City working to attract new businesses, jobs
Last year, A&W Restaurants became the first company to announce it will move to the city’s newest industrial park — approximately 50 acres of shovel-ready land near the Coldstream Research Park. In addition, the University of Kentucky has deeded to the city another 250 acres of land that is currently a dairy farm operation.
The city is working to attract new businesses to the shovel-ready 50 acres, Gorton said.
“Our development plan for the Coldstream property includes high-tech agriculture, headquarter operations, small manufacturing operations and biotech industries,” Gorton said.
Gorton said her administration is working with UK, Alltech and state Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles to position the city as a “high-tech agricultural hub.”
Lexington will soon become a gigabit city
Former Mayor Jim Gray announced in November 2017 that MetroNet, an Evansville-based technology company, was selected to install fiber-optic cable inside the urban service boundary, creating higher speed internet and a competitor for cable giant Time Warner.
After nearly three years, the installation of fiber-optic cable citywide is nearing completion, she said.
“Our gigabit fiber build-out for the entire urban service area will be complete this summer ahead of schedule,” Gorton said. “MetroNet has installed more than 1,000 total miles of fiber, an investment of $80 million in permanently installed infrastructure.”
Overdose deaths are down
“We have a very long way to go, but we have made some progress here over the past year, fatal overdoses are on the decline,” Gorton said.
In 2017, there were 187 overdose deaths in Fayette County. In 2019, there were 112, she said. That’s a 40 percent drop over two years.
“And firefighters report that opioid-related emergency runs fell just over 25 percent in 2019, compared to 2018,” Gorton said.
Gorton said many credit the decrease to the increased availability of naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses. The city received a $2 million grant in 2018 that has helped provide 1,900 naloxone kits across Lexington.
Gorton, a nurse, pledged during her 2018 mayoral campaign to tackle opioids and substance abuse. She pledged in 2019 to create a multidisciplinary team to come up with a broad-based plan to address addiction. Gorton said during Tuesday’s speech she will appoint that multidisciplinary team in coming weeks.
Announcement soon on future of paper recycling
In May, the city announced it would no longer recycle paper after it could not find a buyer for the material. Cities and counties across the country have struggled to find buyers after the Chinese government announced it would no longer take the dirtier paper produced by single-stream recycling centers such as Lexington’s. Chinese businesses were the largest paper buyers in the recycling industry.
Attempts last year to find a buyer were not successful, but Gorton said Tuesday she has been working on a solution for months. An announcement is expected Wednesday.
“People frequently ask me about paper recycling, and I’m excited to have an answer for them,” Gorton said. “For those of you who have been stockpiling paper recyclables for months, it’s almost time to clean out the garage.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 12:29 PM.
