By Julia Myers
New City Council Member Grayson Vandegrift has high hopes for what he can help accomplish in the city of Midway. Vandegrift, one the three new council members elected in November 2012, says he’s excited about the opportunity to make improvements to the city.
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications
One of a series of looks at new City Council members.
One of a series of looks at new City Council members.
New City Council Member Grayson Vandegrift has high hopes for what he can help accomplish in the city of Midway. Vandegrift, one the three new council members elected in November 2012, says he’s excited about the opportunity to make improvements to the city.
Vandegrift said he is involved in a handful of exciting
projects that will have an impact on the community. He heads a committee studying a possible
Midway chamber of commerce and tourist commission, but says the debate
regarding the future of the city’s water and sewer system is his primary focus.
“I think this is a really, really important topic for the future
of our town,” he said. “And of all the
things we will do, this might be the thing that affects us the most in the
future.”
The council will decide whether to refurbish the system and
keep ownership, or sell it to Kentucky-American Water Co., the city’s water
supplier. Vandegrift voiced his
uncertainty in an interview, saying he needs more information before he can
make his decision.
“I think if you’d ask all six of us right now, I think we’d
all say the same thing – that we don’t have enough information yet,” he
said. “The information we need is slowly
starting to trickle in but there is going to be a lot more information to
gather over the next couple of months.”
Some of that information came out last week during a public
hearing on the issue. Engineers working
for the Midway Water and Sewer Task Force estimated that to fully repair the
current system would cost $8.4 million, and would add $26 to the average
resident’s monthly bill.
But Vandegrift says that there is still more to learn before
they vote on the issue. One of his
biggest concerns is the opinion of the people of Midway. He asks that residents attend the public
hearings, and share their opinions with the council. The first hearing drew
about 35 people, which disappointed at least some council members.
“I’m definitely going to encourage residents to call us and
email us and stop us on the street and let us know what they think,” said
Vandegrift, “because the council is
going to have to vote on it and it’s certainly going to help our decision to
know what the residents think, going forward.”
The council member says about half of the residents he has
heard from so far believe that the city should sell the system, while half are
in favor of keeping ownership a little bit longer. The majority response, he says, is that
residents want to learn more about each option.
Last week’s public hearing was one of three. The next one will be held March 12, and will
feature a presentation by Kentucky American outlining the option of selling the
system.
Vandegrift is also busy putting together a tourism
committee. During the first council
meeting this year, Mayor Tom Bozarth said he wanted to study creating a Midway
chamber of commerce and tourist commission, separate from Woodford County’s. He asked Vandegrift to lead the effort.
This is the latest of several leadership roles Vandegrift
has held in Midway. He has been
president of the Midway Merchants Association and chairman of the Woodford
County Tourist Commission, and is general manager of his family’s restaurant,
815 Prime, on Main Street.
This project is still very much in the “fact-finding phase,”
according to Vandegrift. He has been
working with the Kentucky League of Cities to understand what it would take to
create a chamber of commerce and tourist commission.
Bozarth asked Vandegrift to lead a committee of other
business owners. Kenny Smith, who is the
president of the merchants association this year, and Clare McCarthy, owner of
Celtic Trends, have both joined the committee. Vandegrift plans on adding one more person to the group.
The committee will speak to people in other towns similar to
Midway about the benefits and drawbacks of having its own tourist
commission. They plan to speak to cities
such as Morehead, Bardstown and Harrodsburg over the next few months.
The council member says that there is still a lot of
research to be done. “It’s very
complicated,” he said. “It’s not
something that’s going to happen tomorrow in any way, but I’m interested in
it. At the end of the day, if it’s
something that’s going to be beneficial to the entire city, I’m certainly going
to recommend that we do it. “
The tourism committee will meet for the first time in the
next few weeks. Vandegrift’s plan is to
present ideas to the City Council by April.
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