Lawrenceburg City Council members voted unanimously at a April 25 work session to pause funding and stop further work on the citys riverfront project until outstanding contracts, invoices and regulatory questions are resolved.

Council members said the move responds to mounting costs and unclear paperwork. The councils action follows presentations and discussion about signed and unsigned contracts with several consultants and contractors, outstanding invoices from a law firm listed as Frost Brown, and the need to secure a "letter of no objection" from the local sponsoring agency required under the projects permitting process.

The motion on the floor directed staff to freeze the project and stop new bill payments until council members get the answers they seek. Council members said the city has spent roughly $1.2 million on the project to date and that additional invoices appear on claims lists; one line item from Frost Brown totaled $28,618, according to discussion during the meeting. Council members and staff also discussed unpaid balances tied to consultants and contractors identified in meeting comments as Moffett and Nickel, StructurePoint, and Maxwell; speakers said Moffett and Nickel showed an outstanding balance in the low hundreds of thousands.

Council members pressed for clearer contracts before more payments are released. A city official identified in the meeting as the Clerk/Treasurer said the city will not pay a $40,000 StructurePoint invoice tied to the barges until the city receives a signed contract covering that scope. The Clerk/Treasurer also said Maxwell had not been paid on the project as of the meeting and that the city would need signed contracts before releasing further funds.

Council members asked for a joint meeting in which the city's engineers, attorneys and representatives of the conservancy (referred to in the meeting as the LCD) would appear together so council questions can be answered in one session. The mayor said he had scheduled an executive session so council members could meet with attorneys and engineers if litigation issues arise, and agreed to work on scheduling a broader in-person meeting with all stakeholders 2 63 weeks out to allow travel and coordination.

Council members raised two related concerns repeatedly: uncertainty over what fees and services the city is paying (including the Frost Brown line item) and the risk of continued engineering rework that generates additional invoices. One council member said the project has been re-engineered "four or five times" in the previous eight to 10 months, contributing to higher costs; another said the city has been "waiting 18 months" on the project and that delaying another month would not harm the overall timeline if it brought necessary clarity.

Speakers also discussed a regulatory hurdle: the project requires a "letter of no objection" from the local sponsoring agency (mentioned in the meeting as part of the state process), and council members asked whether alternatives have been researched. Meeting remarks said the Army Corps of Engineers and other permitting authorities would review engineering drawings, but that local sign-off remains a key step.

The council passed the motion to freeze funding by voice vote. The meeting closed with members agreeing to set a follow-up meeting date and to try to make outside parties whole for travel or reasonable expenses to attend the joint session.

The work session focused solely on the riverfront project; no other agenda items were discussed at length at this meeting.