Leitchfield council appoints Keith Lucas to utilities commission, advances two zoning changes to first reading

The Leitchfield City Council on Jan. 20 appointed Keith Lucas to the city’s utilities commission and handled routine municipal business, including committee appointments and two first readings of zoning ordinances.

Arlene told the council she had completed the utilities-commission interview and recommended action; the council moved to accept Keith Lucas for the vacancy. Clayton moved to approve the appointment, Tootie seconded, and the council approved the appointment by voice vote. The council recorded the term as beginning March 1, 2026, and ending Feb. 28, 2030, and noted Lucas is expected to attend the commission’s first meeting in March.

"I gave a quarterly update on any pending litigation the city's going forth, and there's no need for any votes to be taken at this time," Arlene said after the interview concluded.

Council approved routine items by voice vote: the Jan. 5, 2026 regular-meeting minutes, ratification of bills, and the Nov. 25 financial statement. Billy moved to accept the bills and Clayton seconded; the motions carried with recorded "aye" votes and no objections recorded in the transcript.

Trent Vanmeter presented two recreation items. He deferred approval of the baseball committee to gather additional candidates but asked the council to approve eight softball-committee members. "So I was seeking at this time for the city council to approve these 8 people for the softball committee," Vanmeter said; the council moved, seconded and approved the roster. Vanmeter and others noted roughly five committee members are parents of current players and that Tessa Hinton is likely to serve as softball director.

On land-use business, the council conducted first readings of two zoning-map amendments recommended by the Leitchfield Planning Commission following public hearings on Jan. 12. The first (application RZ-25-138) would rezone a parcel owned by Pat Wilson Construction LLC (PVA numbers 092-00-0040.0R and 092-00-0040.0Q) from R-1 (single-family low density) to C-1 (highway commercial). The Planning Commission vote was unanimous except for Commissioner Clemons, who recused himself for potential conflict of interest; council gave the ordinance its first reading and noted required publication and a later second reading/roll-call vote.

The second rezoning (RZ-25-139) concerns multiple parcels and 109 Maple Street; the request seeks to change zoning from R-6 (manufactured home park) to R-2 (single-family high density). Planning recommended approval and the council read the ordinance for the first time; a second reading with a roll-call vote was indicated as required for final action.

Meeting announcements included a police-department committee meeting set for Feb. 2 at 5 p.m. and a chamber luncheon on Feb. 12 at noon. The council then moved, seconded and approved adjournment.

Next steps: the utilities-commission appointment will take effect March 1 and the rezoning ordinances will return for required second readings and roll-call votes before any zoning map changes become final.