Commission adopts updated strategic plan, advance opioid and infrastructure programs

By: John Chaney | The Winchester Sun

WINCHESTER — The Winchester Board of Commissioners reviewed an updat­ed 2026 strate­gic work plan Tuesday evening, cred­it­ing the Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) for its assis­tance in shap­ing the city’s pri­or­i­ties for the next three years.

KLC rep­re­sen­ta­tive John Stoll pre­sent­ed the doc­u­ment, prais­ing the commission’s partnership.

“We real­ly do appre­ci­ate and want to rec­og­nize the work that the com­mis­sion has done in help­ing us to cre­ate this updat­ed strate­gic work plan for the city,” stat­ed Stoll.

He high­light­ed suc­cess­es from the 2023 plan, includ­ing the Fulton Road exten­sion, the cre­ation of a down­town enter­tain­ment dis­trict, the removal of the Jackson Street bridge, and the des­ig­na­tion of Juneteenth and Veterans Day as city holidays.

The refreshed plan iden­ti­fies four top goals for 2026: qual­i­ty of life, hous­ing, parks and recre­ation, and infra­struc­ture. It orga­nizes efforts into sev­en strate­gic areas — infra­struc­ture, qual­i­ty of life, com­mu­ni­ty events, parks and recre­ation, hous­ing, safe city, and
education/workforce train­ing — rank­ing items as crit­i­cal, impor­tant, or wish­list with asso­ci­at­ed bud­get needs.

Notable pri­or­i­ties include a city­wide stormwa­ter needs inven­to­ry and replace­ment pro­gram; main­tain­ing attrac­tive pub­lic spaces and explor­ing youth recre­ation options; eval­u­at­ing city fes­ti­vals for improve­ments; con­duct­ing fea­si­bil­i­ty stud­ies for an out­door swim­ming pool or sports com­plex; con­vert­ing blight­ed prop­er­ties into afford­able hous­ing; sup­port­ing first respon­ders with salaries, equip­ment, and staffing; and pro­mot­ing entre­pre­neur­ship, along with schol­ar­ships and internships.

Commissioners voiced sat­is­fac­tion with recent progress. Mayor JoEllen Reed remarked, “The com­plet­ed projects, all we’ve com­plet­ed in the last two years, (are) pret­ty out­stand­ing. So very proud of that.” One hun­dred copies of the strate­gic plan and the KLC City Magazine — spot­light­ing Winchester’s $12 mil­lion invest­ment in com­mu­ni­ty projects — were made avail­able to the public.

City Manager Mike Flynn out­lined a request for pro­pos­als to dis­trib­ute rough­ly $470,000 in opi­oid set­tle­ment funds back into the com­mu­ni­ty. The process mir­rors Clark County’s for con­sis­ten­cy, fea­tur­ing adjust­ed appli­ca­tion win­dows, 15% indi­rect cost allowance, quar­ter­ly and annu­al report­ing, and a selec­tion com­mit­tee of three ASAP board vot­ing mem­bers plus two city commissioners.

A cen­ter­piece rec­om­men­da­tion is fund­ing a com­mu­ni­ty para­med­i­cine pro­gram, esti­mat­ed at $200,000 total, to deliv­er in-home care, med­ica­tion com­pli­ance checks, and chron­ic patient fol­low-ups. Fire Chief Chris Whiteley explained its val­ue: “Community para­med­i­cine can part­ner with the emer­gency room. We can be the follow-up.”

In the infra­struc­ture action, com­mis­sion­ers approved a $25,000 scope of work (the city pay­ing half and Clark County Schools pay­ing the oth­er half) to install con­duit and about 10–12 street lights along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from Shoppers Drive, prepar­ing for future con­nec­tiv­i­ty and devel­op­ment. “It’s going to be cheap­er now,” Flynn noted.

The board also dis­cussed park­ing adjust­ments near the Veterans Memorial on East Broadway that add a hand­i­capped spot with no net loss of spaces. Additional approvals includ­ed a joint res­o­lu­tion sup­port­ing America’s 250^th birth­day, con­tracts for EMS units and William Street streetscape improve­ments (pend­ing grant), per­son­nel mat­ters, and the appoint­ment of Lucy Jenkins to the Winchester Historic Preservation Commission.

The meet­ing demon­strat­ed the commission’s com­mit­ment to strate­gic growth, pub­lic safe­ty, and qual­i­ty-of-life improve­ments. The new strate­gic plan is avail­able at City Hall.