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Council Changes
2026 saw City Council say goodbye to a long-serving member and hello to a new face.
In September 2025, Council Member Dave Abeln informed the City that he was stepping away from his position due to work-related commitments. Dave was a dedicated, effective, and valued member of City Council for 13 years and his many contributions to our community will far outlast his tenure! We sincerely appreciate Dave’s commitment to our community, and we wish him well in all his future endeavors.
To fill the vacancy in that seat, City Council interviewed nine individuals who expressed interest in fulfilling Councilman Abeln’s unexpired term of office. After thoughtful and thorough deliberation, City Council unanimously voted to appoint Donna Ross to fill the seat. Donna, endorsed by former Councilman Abeln, has lived in Fort Wright for more than 30 years and credits the fact that she's lived on "both sides" of Fort Wright (east and west of Dixie Highway) for her understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities facing our community. She is a graduate of Notre Dame Academy as well as Northern Kentucky University and her two sons graduated from both St. Agnes Elementary and Covington Catholic High School. Donna is semi-retired from a successful 30-plus year career in medical device sales a fast-paced, high-pressure environment demanding adaptability and problem solving on a daily basis. She has already proven to be a great asset to City Council and to our community and we are thrilled that she was willing to join our team. Including me, the Fort Wright City Council have more than 350 years of combined residency in Fort Wright. You can learn more about Council member Ross and the other members of City Council here.
City Infrastructure
Maintaining and upgrading our infrastructure including our parks, community assets like the South Hills Civic Club, public rights of ways, and approximately 52 miles of roadway is one of City Council’s major responsibilities and it is taken very seriously.
Last year, we allocated nearly $650,000 towards road improvement projects on General Drive, Pickett Drive, Pickett Court, and George Huser Drive. Part of that process is to collaborate and coordinate with local utility companies to ensure that any required repairs and/or upgrades to their infrastructure are completed prior to the City’s work being undertaken. This process yields long-term cost savings, and reduces construction related inconveniences on our residents.
Part of maintaining our infrastructure is ensuring that we have an ongoing and actionable inventory of road conditions. Fort Wright requested a proposal from InfraHub to perform a pavement assessment and provide location markers for such items as signs and trees. The assessment is done with high-definition cameras mounted to vehicles which then drive every street in the City. Specialized software then evaluates the images and assigns a pavement condition rating based on a standardized assessment of pavement defects. They also provide access to a GIS based platform to access pavement conditions, adjust limits of pavement sections and view images of the defects taken during the assessment. This is a more thorough and consistent way to evaluate actual street conditions and is an invaluable tool in creating our 5 year road plan, which with many other Public Works documents, can be viewed here. Additionally, many streets in Fort Wright are state roads, Dixie Highway, Kyle’s Lane, and Highland Pike, for example, which are maintained by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 6 (KYTC). You can use Kenton County’s handy Road Maintenance Map to see who is responsible for any road in the County.
The Fiscal Year 2026 Street Program includes reconstruction of Hazelwood Drive (Redwood to Park Road) and the addition of new pavement to Elder Court (Redwood to the cul-de-sac) at a cost of $499,000. Additionally, the City is planning to resurface Highland Avenue and has secured SNK Resurfacing funds that will offset 80% of the cost. Funds will be available starting in July 2026 and the project must be completed by June 2027.
The City also plans to extend and connect the sidewalk on Dixie Highway in front of the Christ Hospital property. This will require the construction of a retaining wall varying from 2' to 7' in height, as well as the incorporation of a more decorative guardrail and fence system for improved safety and aesthetics. The City secured grant funding from the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) that will cover 60% of the anticipated $1.03 million project cost; the City’s portion is $412,000. Design is scheduled to begin this year, with construction slated for Fiscal Year 2028. Upon completion this will provide for safer pedestrian and bicycle travel along the Dixie Highway Corridor within Fort Wright, as well as improve the main gateway to our community from Fort Mitchell.
Economic Development
For years, the Fort Wright City Council has been working to improve the Dixie Highway corridor in a manner that will bring positive changes and improve the quality of life for our residents. Those efforts bore fruit last year with the purchase and redevelopment of three key parcels by the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family.
The three visible and strategically located contiguous properties include the former sites of Days Inn (1937 Dixie Highway), Atlas Home Gym (1939 Dixie Highway) and Infiniti (1945 Dixie Highway). These property acquisitions mark a significant step in achieving our objective of growth and rejuvenation along this corridor. Wyler intends to redevelop the properties to support future automotive and community-focused initiatives, reinforcing the organization's commitment to strengthening its presence in Northern Kentucky. They are committed to responsible development that enhances the community, supports economic growth through jobs and taxes, and delivers long-term value for our residents and neighbors.
These property purchases were made possible through our collaboration with the Kenton County Fiscal Court, which provided $1.35 million in funding. The City will contribute $150,000 from its Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District Fund, created many years ago to spur redevelopment along the Dixie Highway corridor. State Senator Chris McDaniel, Kenton County Judge-Executive Kris Knochelmann, Former Mayor and now Kenton County Commissioner Joe Neinaber Jr. and the other members of the Kenton County Fiscal Court deserve our enormous appreciation and praise for having the vision to create economic development tools such as this to address under performing properties and for playing a critical role in bringing this deal to fruition. We very much appreciate their partnership and support of our community and our region!
The company has begun cleanup and site preparation efforts as part of its due diligence and planning process. Further details about this exciting project, including future development drawings, will be shared as planning progresses and building and zoning approvals are finalized.
Events
Part of our work at City Hall entails holding events and promotions that provide real value for our residents while fostering a sense of community. Here is just a sampling of what that looked like in 2025.
The Fort Wright Police Department hosted a free Internet Scam Awareness Training designed to help residents learn how to protect themselves and their loved ones from the most common scams used by online predators through the internet, phone calls, and text messages. Officers walked through real-life examples to illustrate how to detect, prevent, and report suspicious activity. Topics included internet and email scams, phone and text message fraud and what residents should do if they think they've been targeted.
The City once again hosted Community Clean-Up Days in both the Spring and Fall to collect litter and other trash to help keep Fort Wright beautiful. Friends and neighbors pitched in to show our community some love as well as fostering a stronger sense of community and camaraderie with their neighbors. Interested in joining the effort? Don’t miss our next Community Clean Up Day on Saturday, April 18, 2026, between the hours of 9 am and noon.
The City continues to host a prescription drug disposal program to maintain resident safety while keeping sanitary sewers free of toxins and potentially dangerous waste, you can drop off unneeded prescription drugs in a drop box in the lobby at City Hall during normal business hours. We also partner with Cincinnati Recycling and Refuse Hub on a program to collect lithium batteries to keep them out of landfill, and Rudler, PSC to protect your identity and personal documents by co-hosting our Annual Community Shred Event every Fall.
And, as always, Fort Wright celebrated the Holidays with a variety of spirited events. These included two “Cram the Cruiser” events to help spread Holiday joy by donating gifts and essential items for less fortunate children, Santa’s Mailbox for children of all ages and neighborhood visits by Jolly St. Nick (thanks to our Police and Fire Departments). Coming up soon, you’ll be able to see the Easter Bunny hop around town for his Annual Neighborhood Visit.
Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Impact
After years of planning, the $4 billion-plus Brent Spence Bridge project is scheduled to begin this spring. Both the construction process and the final product will impact the entire Fort Wright community. City Council is working diligently to mitigate that impact and to advocate for plan designs that enhance our community.
As part of the project, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) District 6 is proposing changes to the bridge and the interchange at Kyles Lane. In addition to aesthetic improvements for the bridge, it is proposing an option where the traditional signalized intersections would be replaced with roundabouts. This improvement would require a new bridge (overpass) constructed next to the existing Kyles overpass, which would allow for maintenance of traffic on the existing bridge/overpass during construction. If a traditional signalized intersection were used, a new bridge would still need to be constructed in the location of the existing bridge, which would make maintenance of traffic much more difficult during the project. Our City Engineer has had several meetings with KYTC to review the proposed changes and to gain an understanding of impacts on the City. We have presented several areas of concern, and the City continues to work with KYTC to resolve them. You can stay abreast of the latest information regarding the Brent Spence Bridge project here.
In closing, I’d like to share some of the following high-level details about our community:
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