Committee to discuss snow removal at 9 Monday; Bozarth, Coyle, others to meet at 2 p.m.

By Lauren Conrad
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

Local officials are moving to resolve questions about snow removal in Midway.

The city council’s streets committee will meet at 9 a.m. Monday at City Hall to discuss the subject, and Woodford County Judge-Executive John Coyle says he and Mayor Tom Bozarth have agreed to meet that afternoon at 2 at the courthouse.

              
The meeting was scheduled after several emails between Coyle and Bozarth and will take place in Coyle’s office. Midway Council Member Aaron Hamilton, Midway Magistrate Larry Craig and the Woodford County engineer will also be in attendance.

Coyle said he has a list of roads in Midway that would need snow removal. The county engineer is to bring his mileage estimate and width of the roads to the meeting to discuss appropriate snow removal action.

"We want to make sure the roads are suitable for plowing and that we [Woodford county and Midway] get off on the right foot," Coyle said.

At this week’s Fiscal Court meeting, there were questions about whether the county serviced all the streets earlier this month and whether Bozarth had provided a complete list.

Asked about that Wednesday, Bozarth said, “There is a priority road list that was put together by a previous council and given to the county. It is ranked by priority. This is one of the things that needed to be worked out. If we are going to enter into an agreement all street should be clean. They have missed streets before.”

When Midway officials learned Jan. 11, as snow was forecast, that the county would no longer provide snow removal in Midway, they and Coyle made a temporary agreement that the county would continue the service and the city would cover the county’s costs.

This week the Fiscal Court voted to forgive the initial bill of $1,233 for the county’s service, but called on Coyle to quickly forge a memorandum of understanding with Bozarth, and then an interlocal agreement that would require state approval.

Coyle said his meeting with Midway officials should ensure the county engineer has all of the information he needs to move forward. He said it will not be open to the public. State law requires official meetings to be open only if a quorum of a public agency is present.

The 9 a.m. Streets and Lights Committee meeting at Midway City Hall (see item below) will be open. Bozarth said that the meeting is to discuss how the city moves forward with its future snow removal needs.

“We have three options,” said Bozarth: “Do it ourselves, hire an outside contractor or continue with the county.”

Information for this story was also gathered by Martha Groppo of UK.