Council endorses Sunday liquor sales, wants more information and support regarding airport ads

Story and photo by Sarah Rayan
UK School of Journalism and Telecommunications

The Midway City Council again put off restaurateur Bill Van Den Dool’s request to fund advertising of the city at the Lexington airport, but endorsed his plea for a letter asking Woodford County Fiscal Court to legalize alcohol sales on Sundays.

Council members unanimously decided at the Dec. 1 meeting that Mayor Tom Bozarth would send a letter to the county, after some uncertainty about what authority they had in the matter.

Van Den Dool (in photo at council meeting) owns The Black Tulip, a restaurant he opened last September. The main reason he gave for his question to serve alcohol on Sundays was competition from nearby towns with Sunday sales. Van Den Dool said he “went to the fiscal court and they were favorable about the idea.”

The members heard a request, again, from Van Den Dool to support funding to advertise the city at the Bluegrass Airport. The council indicated that it would agree after seeing a more detailed plan for the ads and commitment from more members of the merchants’ association.

The council voted unanimously to issue bonds for St. Leo’s Catholic Church to build a school and related facilities just outside Versailles, nine miles from Midway. The council issued the bonds because Versailles and Woodford County did not have enough revenue-bond authority to cover the costs.

Up to $8 million in bonds will be issued to build the facility on Huntertown Road. According to Becky Mayton, an attorney with Frost Brown Todd, it is constitutional for a city to issue bonds for a church, and in another locality as long as the two have “significant ties.” She said 135 residents of Midway are parishioners of St. Leo’s, and several were in the audience. Mayton represents Central Bank, which she said will buy the bonds, and the Lexington Diocese.

Council members also heard first reading of an ordinance setting policies for extending water and sewer services to formerly unserved customers, and passed an ordinance that formally assigned the role of city alcoholic beverage control administrator to the mayor.