New council meets; Southworth is mayor pro tem, chair of public works committee; Roller heads two panels

The new Midway City Council met for the first time Monday night and organized itself and city government for the new two-year term.

Council Member Bruce Southworth was elected mayor pro tem, and will serve as mayor when new Mayor Grayson Vandegrift is absent. Vandegrift was elected in November for a four-year term as mayor over fellow council member Sharon Turner, who had been mayor pro tem for six years. By tradition, the pro-tem post goes to the council member who got the most votes in the last election.

The council has three new members: Steven Craig, Kaye Nita Gallagher and Libby Warfield. They join Southworth, Dan Roller and Sara Hicks. Vandegrift named Roller to chair two of the four year-round committees he created. He named Southworth, a former Versailles city administrator and Midway sewage-treatment plant operator, to head the Public Works and Services Committee. Vandegrift appointed these members (chairs named first):

• Finance, Ordinance and Policy: Roller, Hicks, Southworth
• Public Works and Services: Southworth, Gallagher, Roller
• Cemetery and City Property: Hicks, Warfield, Craig
• Blighted Property: Roller, Warfield, Hicks

Vandegrift also put Gallagher and Craig on a committee to handle this year's Memorial Day service. The council re-elected Phyllis Hudson as city clerk-treasurer and Diane Shepard as assistant clerk. At the end of the short meeting, the council turned to the Midway Messenger camera:

Left to right: Gallagher, Hicks, Southworth, city attorney Phil Moloney, Vandegrift, Roller, Shepard, Warfield, Craig.