Burnisde may soon move to fourth-class status

Burnside —

When you’re a fifth-class city, being called fourth-class doesn’t sound too bad.

That’s the spirit behind the City of Burnside’s plans to launch a bid to move up in the classification world.

At the upcoming meeting of the Burnside City Council on February 13, Mayor Ron Jones is expected to introduce a resolution that would request that the state’s General Assembly approve a move up to fourth-class city status for “the only town on Lake Cumberland.”

As of the 2010 census, Burnside had a population of close to 990 people. That may not sound like many, but it’s a significant jump from the census 10 years earlier, where the numbers were only a little over 600.

In the summer, however, Burnside is a very different place, noted Jones.

“We’re a vacation community,” said Jones. “I think the U.S. Corps of Engineers made the statement that on any given weekend (during tourism season), there are 250,000 visitors to the Lake Cumberland area, from Jamestown (in Russell County) over to us.

“Even at that, it still puts a tremendously greater number of people in Burnside to utilize our services, buy from our stores, and so on.”

Not to mention live there. Numerous people keep houses in Burnside that they primarily use during the summer season, but live out of town the rest of the year. In other words, when it comes to a place like Burnside, the numbers lie.

That’s important, as it could be the key to getting Kentucky’s legislators to approve Burnside’s petition to move up in the world.

“They could decide that the potential impact (of the transient population) would be reason to move us up to a fourth-class city,” observed Jones.

The advantages to a larger class size are varied, but perhaps the most notable is the greater opportunity to seek grants and programs to promote economic development. Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler referenced this reason in championing that city’s recent annexation efforts to try and gain a wider population base. Simply put, the bigger the city, the higher it is on the economic and governmental food chain.

As such, Burnside — which has already grown substantially in area and commercial accessibility in the last few months by annexing north along U.S. 27 up to Somerset’s own borders — would likely benefit further from moving up in the classification ranks.

It was a story out of Junction City, in nearby Boyle County, that inspired Jones to look into this possibility. Junction City made statewide headlines last month when a lawsuit was filed seeking to nullify the town’s reclassification from a fifth- to fourth-class city in 2011. The point of contention involved alcohol sales, including package sales in grocery and convenience-type stores — legally, the option election that would allow that kind of “wet” status is only available to fourth-class cities, not fifth-class as Junction City was previously.

That brought the issue of city reclassification to Burnside’s notice. Technically, a fourth-class city is one with between 3,000 and 7,999 residents. Junction City only has 2,241, as of the 2010 census.

Jones, however, believed he found a loophole of sorts.

“(The legislature) repealed the population requirement; it no longer applies,” he said. “They deemed themselves as the controlling factor for classification.”

Burnside City Attorney Bruce Orwin told the Commonwealth Journal that the Kentucky Constitution used to set up city classification based on their population size, but that section was repealed in 1994, and the legislature was given the authority to assign city-size classifications.

However, “apparently, the legislature never actually adopted the guidelines,” said Orwin. “The statute kind of defaults back to the population criteria.” This was Orwin’s understanding after speaking to Lexington attorney Bruce Simpson, who represents the plaintiffs in the Junction City case.

Nevertheless, reclassification of cities under the official numbers happens. According to information provided by the state’s Legislative Research Commission, four cities made the jump from fifth- to fourth-class last year: Junction City Greensburg, Guthrie, and Midway. All of them have populations under 3,000 — the largest is Junction City, the smallest is Guthrie at 1,419 citizens.

Laura Ross, legal services counsel for the Kentucky League of Cities, said that classification in Kentucky is still based on population — “nothing about that has changed” — but it’s “not automatic” based on the numbers.

“You still have to go to the General Assembly with a resolution, and certain standards have to be put in the resolution,” said Ross. “If you don’t do that, you can’t be reclassified. ... If a city has a resolution that shows population (growth) due to things like recent annexation, development, things like that, the legislature looks at all that and decides at its discretion whether or not to add that city to a class. It’s completely up to the General Assembly to decide whether or not to reclassify.”

According to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s website (sos.ky.gov), Sections 156a and 156b of the Kentucky Constitution were created after an amendment was ratified repealing Section 156 in 1994.

Sec. 156a states that “(t)he General Assembly shall create such classifications of cities as it deems necessary based on population, tax base, form of government, geography, or any other reasonable basis and enact legislation relating to the classifications. All legislation relating to cities of a certain classification shall apply equally to all cities within the same classification.”

However, the same section on the website also echoes Simpson’s words to Orwin, saying that “(t)o date, the Kentucky General Assembly has not passed legislation that establishes a new process for classifying Kentucky Cities. As Section 156, approved in 1891, has not been superseded, the original requirements prevail.”

If it sounds confusing, that’s probably because it is — but to Jones, the idea is simple. Much like seeking a date with one’s object of affection, you’ll never know unless you ask.

“Unless something comes up, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t ask the legislature,” said Jones. “(Reclassification) has taken place with other towns our size.

“We thought we definitely would not get (the reclassification) unless we ask for it, so we might as well go ahead and ask for it.”

Jones had originally planned on bringing the issue up at the January city council meeting, but opted to hold off and wait for developments in the Junction City case. At a workshop session held late last month, however, the council decided it would be best to go ahead and throw the city’s collective hat into the reclassification ring, and let the legislature make the call. Thus, expect to see the resolution on the Burnside City Council agenda very soon, suggested Jones.

“I think it would be good for our town,” said Jones. “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want to get their town up a notch from whatever class it is.”

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