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SearchEnd of an Era
Like the Eras Tour, the Bellevue tour has come to an end for Marketing & Communications Director Melissa Morandi. During her time with the city, Bellevue achieved many accomplishments and earned numerous recognitions thanks to her marketing and public relations skills.
From my perspective, the most important statistic is the 7 million views on our city’s social media outlets in 2025. Every major event set new attendance records during the past year. For example, Fall Fest grew from 900 attendees to 2,000 simply by moving the event to the Beach Park and expanding the number of booths.
Bellevue also received over 100 media mentions in 2025, further showcasing the city and helping put our community on the map.
Almost every week, Melissa would call to tell me that another reporter wanted to interview me. She pushed the city to work more closely with organizations such as Meet NKY, Visit Cincy, Everything Cincy, the Covington Business Council, and the Northern Kentucky Chamber.
Melissa also worked tirelessly to promote Bellevue through local news outlets, newspapers, online publications, regional guides, magazines, local contests, national platforms, and in-person appearances. Perhaps most importantly, she built a strong relationship with Campbell Media that helped amplify our city’s voice.
Melissa came up with the idea of having a monthly podcast. Next thing I hear is that we have our own studio for our podcast at Campbell Media thanks to Jennifer Teipel.
Our city’s profile continued to rise, and then the event that truly took us to stardom happened, Bridging Back Business. This collaboration with four other cities brought us to center stage in our region and helped elevate Bellevue’s presence in ways we had never experienced before.
The good news, however, is that we are now at a place on the top of the mountain. We no longer have to climb the mountain again—a journey that took us five years. Instead, we simply have to maintain the progress and keep building on the foundation that Melissa played a major role in creating.
I am happy to announce that Melissa is going to Scooter Media. This firm is one of the top public relation agencies in the tri-state area, if not the top. “We’ve had the opportunity to work alongside Melissa on several community initiatives over the years and have consistently been impressed by her strategic thinking and ability to deliver results,” said Shannan Boyer, President of Scooter Media. “When a position opened up on our team, she was the first person who came to mind, and we’re excited to welcome her to Scooter Media.
Building Bridges
The Fourth Street Bridge demolition was pretty amazing. Thank you, Newport Mayor Guidugli, for inviting me.
First you saw the visual of the bridge exploding into many small pieces, and 1 or 2 seconds later you felt the shock wave and sound from it. Mayor Ron Washington, Mayor Tom Guidugli, and Governor Andy Beshear all had a hand on the vintage plunger like you see in Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
The original suspension bridge built in 1853 collapsed in 1854. Four months later it was repaired and reopened. It was a toll bridge until 1926. The amount of traffic and the usage of the bridge outgrew the size and weight limits, so a new bridge was built in 1936.
Now we have outgrown this bridge 90 years later, which takes us to this event of blowing up the bridge.
The Bellevue pedestrian bridge on VanVoast next to the Callahan Center was built around 1900 to allow students a safe way to cross the railroad tracks and get to school, which is now our city building. I have been told that this bridge is the last remaining example of riveted truss steel pedestrian bridge in our state.
If you have been near this bridge lately, you will see all of the trees on the south end of the bridge have been cut down. The bridge is going to be picked up by a crane and rotated to set it down in this space for renovation. Trees will then be replanted. I am so glad we could get a grant to restore this iconic structure to preserve it for future generations. Many other cities just removed bridges like this when they saw the hefty price tag on restoration. All of the wood decking is being replaced also.
Winter Carnival
The Winter Carnival set new records that will be hard to beat – mostly because we will not always have 62 degrees & sunny.
We rolled out Read Ready Bellevue, a program designed to sign up all children between the ages of 0–5 yr old. The committee purchased Reading Buddies (small stuffed penguins + polar bears). Children put the name of their penguin or bear using a pipe cleaner and alphabet beads. They also choose 1 or 2 books to take home.
This Northern Kentucky initiative is led by Jenny Watson, while Tara Wittrock and I co-chair the Bellevue group. There are many benefits to joining the read ready program. The program is designed to improve Kindergarten readiness in Northern Ky. It includes Footsteps 2 Brilliance, Imagination Library, family fun and much more.
There were many games and free prizes at this event. Everyone left with candy and prizes.
Then there is the chili cook-off contest. This year Matt Whitlock from Prost took home the fancy engraved ladle which is the first place prize. Buckhead Mountain Grill was one vote behind him.