Live from the Kenton County Fair - SRI, Development the Peoples Voice

The Blue Dot Podcast broadcasts live from the heart of the county at the Kenton County Fair - Brian and Natalie sit down with Ben Bach, Candidate for Commissioner District 2 to discuss issues facing Southern Kenton, the SRI Initiative and the Power of the People. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey everybody, we are coming to you live from the campaign headquarters for the Kenton County Democrats at the Kenton County Fair in Independence. And today we have Ben Bach with us. Going to talk to us a little bit about uh the SRI and South Kenton. Thanks for joining. I'm Natalie McDonald.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

And I'm Brian Cale. Welcome to the Kenton County Fair. All I need is a corn dog and a beer, and we're off and rolling. But before we get to that, let's talk to our old buddy Ben about some of the topics that are hot in Kenton County. And I think one of the first ones we want to talk about for sure is uh, you know, Site Readiness Initiative, SRI, a big topic that Ben has done a lot of study on, a lot of research, and knows a lot about.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yeah, uh, yeah, my name is Ben Bach. Uh, thanks for having me. Uh happy to be here and talk and spread the good news. Um, yeah, so I got I've been involved with the South Kenton Citizens Group for a little over two years now, I think. Um, the SRI is what pulled me into this. And it was an initiative uh started over two years ago um by BNKY, Port, Northern Kentucky Port Authority, Kenton County Fiscal Court, and some other players to isolate and prepare rezone, develop central and south Kenton County to put things in motion. And the not everyone likes that idea because it was not done in a way that listened to the community. Um they there's been a long South Kenton citizens group, and it has been in existence for many over a decade, um, several decades almost, I think now. Um, and they've had lots of good working relationships with planning and zoning and the fiscal court saying, okay, this is our farmland. How do we zone and develop to preserve the rural character, help our farmers, while also preserving economic development and having a balance? Um 2024, these initiatives came in and they just ignored all that. Uh, they did a big announcement, had a big meeting in uh January of February of 25, and tons of crowds. They had a piner, they had to close down, they had to escort people out. There were so many people pushing back on it out of the school. Um and they but they held these so that they didn't have to be official on the record. They want people to uh have all the fiscal court present so no one could be held accountable for anything. And so the the South Kenton citizens group has been meeting, champing. I've been an active member of uh in their leadership piece before getting involved with all this and running for office and things. Um, since I announced running for office, I uh excused myself from that leadership position because I it is a citizen's ran, grassroots, what you want is good government. It is the community speaking out and mobilizing themselves to champion their issue. And I didn't want to clutter that with any kind of like, well, he's a Democrat or he, she's a Democrat, or they're not. Right, right. It's it's about the issue and about helping the farmers and preserving the city. It is 100%.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

And and full disclosure, you are running for Kenton County Commissioner in District Three, and we're gonna have you on two.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

One, two, three. Three. That always confuses me because it should be one, two, you know, three quick fit. So it's a county race. Uh the only piece that the district matters is the person who's running. Do they live in that area? We it's a everyone in the entire county votes on it. I think it's a fabulous name or um they they should call it um the district seat or the county commissioner seat one, county commissioner seat two, and get rid of that district stuff because people just get confused by that so easily. You're like, I can't vote outside of my district, you're right. Yeah, no, it uh my district is Kenton County. And that's why, like for myself, I I've grown up in South Part of Kenton County uh my whole life. Uh worked on dairy farms, cattle farms, thoroughbred farms. I'm the last person in my family to work tobacco. Um but I went to school in Covington, I went to college at Thomas More. I've traveled, uh I've always lived in Kenton County, and I feel like my I have a foot firmly in the north. I can understand that. I have my foot in the south. I understand the 275 divide of what is a is a different county, but my heart is definitely in the south part, and I can understand that. And there's they are two sides of the same coin. What benefits one doesn't have to exclude the other. And it's a it's a false dichotomy that I think our leadership and the county government have had of well, either you're you have to sell your farm to the developers or you're never going to get anything for it. And there's a that is so far from the truth. There's a whole different world that they could be presenting out there of if the same effort that the BNKYs put to put factories and warehouses on top of farmland that you're never going to get back, if that same effort was put into energizing the agricultural and farming communities here, it'd be a completely different story. Um, the the farming communities, the economic development from them, it's slower, but it's more robust. They're consumers before producers. They're those those profits, those incomes, they stay in the community, they slowly build out warehouses. It goes to California, it goes to New York City, wherever the private equity is that's buying up the land. And it doesn't feed back into the county anymore. Like it doesn't help. And I'm all for stronger communities and doing things to support that. And like the South Kenton citizens group, they're four, four, four, four booths down. So if you're seeing this while the county school come down, talk to Suzanne. She'll be here every night. They're foul fired up. Um, come talk to them. They got great information. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

I I had a question because the South Kenton Citizens Group, I did some research and I looked back as far as, and this is SRI has been like around a long time. Yeah. But in 2020, I think there was a letter that went out to the judge executive, and I saw some feedback where it seemed like the they were engaging the citizens group, and and you know, it was going to be kind of like uh, you know, residents and and constituents were gonna have some say, but it seems like that shifted then just recently over the last couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, in around 2016, I think it was, they of South Canada Citizens Group with the County Extension Office and UK did their own survey to to collect information. They they like to provide tools to have conversations with leadership in the county about if what do we want? What could work, what does what's not going to work? And the fiscal court has hijacked that and misrepresented it and passed it off as if the fiscal court is leading us. The fiscal court is saying, well, they want industrialization here and they say we can do it here. Like, that's not what that question was. The question organizer of that survey, Dr. Laurie from UK, wonderful, wonderful professor, retired, super still active down around um around Lexington, Georgetown area. She even wrote a letter to the fiscal court saying, you are misrepresenting what this survey was to suit your own purposes. And that is just that is just typical what we're seeing out of this fiscal court of misrepresentation to curtail whatever the message that they want to do of development, development, development outside extractive forces coming in and ignoring the communities. Because it what we're seeing in South Kenton can be seen in Covington. All the development, and all we don't have to go into it right now, but all the stuff of not listening to communities, the re resectioning of districts, so that we don't have good representation, so the community is losing its voice. It's just a common pattern that is built up over time, and people are saying heck with this. They they want to push back.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yeah, it looks like there's a misrepresentation coming from the fiscal court as well as not a lot of transparency.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

No.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

And that's what's getting people fired up. And I think another thing that's getting people confused is you hear about, oh, wait, I thought they entered the SRI.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Right. Uh they recently just put out a new resolution uh that some individuals were quick to say, oh, they've canceled it. Here, here, here, peace in our times. Um, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you read the details, my understanding of it, they repealed the 2024 resolution of the SRI's public engagement forcement.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

They repealed the PR piece.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

In an attempt, because they know how much of an issue this is, and they want to take it off the take it off the plate from being an election issue. The South Canada Citizens Group put put out for the primary the list of if you if you support our issues, vote for these people. Both sides of the aisle, vote for this, vote for this. 100% resolved. Every single person they endorsed won. And so the the powers that be understand, like, oops, we overplayed our hand, trying to take too much, and the people don't like that. And that was that for me, that was the story of the primary on both sides of the aisle of the the citizens of Kenton County want their voice and don't like to be told what to do. Right. They will they want to collaborate, they want to have development, they want to have growth, but they want to be a part of this.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

And they are being brought brought to the table. Right. It also depends on the type of development, right? Because I I saw a lot of warehouse versus manufacturing facility. Warehouses take up more space, they employ less people, it drives more truck traffic, big truck traffic, you know, record more, you know, infrastructure just because of that versus manufacture, which employs more factors are usually smaller footprint, less truck traffic. They, you know, they even add a graph and a number of you know average trucks per day in and out. So it's not only is it development versus no development, but if there is development, it needs to be the right kind of cleveland.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Sure. And the uh particularly there's there's always the looming threat of data hypers hyperscale data centers coming in. Right. Now just and right and I've been watching just as a bit, like I've been watching uh the South, the South Centon state senator, uh Jay Gex, uh, he's on the I IT committees. Yeah, that's his area. Ulack Penn Water District is his area. I've been watching that water district. They've recently been raising their levels, they've been downplaying it, saying, Oh, we need to do way more. Uh our our candidate, Stella Holler,'s been watching it as well. And there are all the telltale signs that he is angle shooting to get a hyperscale data center somehow lined up down there, setting the foundations for it. So we always have to be on guard and watch out for that as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Well, and talk about a facility that doesn't employ many people. No, not actually. Because uh, my former IT background, you'd see these huge data centers. In fact, the company I work for actually built one, and that was one of the services we provided. And they would have like four or five people manning that thing. Correct. You know, and three shifts, you know, 24-7, but you're employing with management, I think a total of maybe 20, 25 people. And this is a pretty large data center. So again, we're back to the pitch of bringing jobs, keeping your kids here, because you know, to grow up here and stay here once they, you know, get out of high school and college because there are jobs to do, doesn't really ring true when you're looking at some of the types of facilities and and uh you know the true amount of jobs that could be generated on those.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah. And and you know, it's the the South Can Sissy group in their own survey, they did say, okay, if we're gonna have manufacturing, let's do it in these places. But in their in the whole SRI and their focus areas, they completely overran those. So they just cast it aside and used that little thing. They took their they took their inch and and and went with it. Give them an inch, they take a mile. Yep. Plus. So it's just it was it's just unfortunate because they talk about leadership and like, oh, we need to do planning. And that's true. We do need to do planning. We need to plan out so we don't have uncontrolled sprawl, we have sustainable roads, right? All that's important, right? But they didn't even conclude like that's the whole whole point of having conversations. Okay, we present an idea, get feedback, okay. Let's pivot. You're no it's just saying this. How about this? Does this work? None of that's taking place. And the leaderships have put out papers where their plant, their playbook is that that what they did was announce a big announcement, get all get capture all that fur, and have meetings where nothing can be bound and be held accountable, and let people spend all their energy and then try to get it out. But the South Kenton citizens group has kept up the march and kept up the energy of like we aren't letting go of this site, and neither have I. So and now I'm trying to push back and now I'm pushing it out to the rest of the Kenton County, talking to the whole Democratic Party. I got them coming into the fair, I got all the candidates talking about it. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's about relationships and just making sure, you know, championing the voice, making sure that you're in the room where it happens, and that's what I'm trying to get to. Right. Seat at the table.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

We're gonna keep doing that. And thanks for coming to explain that to us because I think there's a lot of things that people don't understand, especially with the Moets it's ending and things like that. Um, is there anything else you think uh you can let us know about these issues? Otherwise, we're gonna have you back to talk about your campaign because we want to talk about just about that. But anything else you want to add here?

SPEAKER_00 13:05

I think the best thing is come out to the fair. Uh it's a good time, get some food, get some drinks, see some, see the livestock, see the shows, see the 4-H. Come talk to the South Canada Citizens Group, get it from a horse's mouth. A little bit. Uh they have they have they have all sorts of giveaways that they're doing. Put they have a big map so you can put down where you are in the county and where they're talking to you. Um, and then for more information, we'll we'll we'll catch that up in the next session. But come out to the fair this week, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

So, do you think he earned his corn dog and beer for this?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

I think it's a corndog and beer. No beer. LA, please. LA.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

LA CONDER ASCREAT.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

True Kentuckian. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, Ben, thanks a lot for joining us, man. We really appreciate it. And your insights are very valuable to us. Glad to be here. And to all of our listeners and viewers. Thank you again.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

See y'all. See y'all. Peace out.