Versailles asks Midway to pay $173,674 a year for police, up from $100K; committee meets 2:30 Wed.

UPDATE: The committee will meet at 2:30 Wednesday at City Hall for further discussion of the issue.

By Tre Lyerly

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Versailles wants Midway to pay 73.7 percent more for police services next year.

Versailles Mayor Brian Traugott and Police Chief James Fugate proposed a revision of the cities’ police contract to the Midway City Council’s Public Works and Services Committee at a meeting Thursday. If approved, the new contract would bring Midway’s $100,000 payment up by another $73,674.

The number came as a surprise to the committee, who expected the revised costs to be in the $150,000 range. Council Member Bruce Southworth, chair of the committee, called the proposal “a hard sell,” saying that he liked the idea of paying $150,000 “a lot better.”

Council Member John McDaniel listened as committee chair Bruce
Southworth, center, talked with Versailles Mayor Brian Traugott.

Traugott told the committee that Midway could not form an independent police force for less than their presented cost, and that relying on the state police “would be a big disappointment” due to the possibility of increased response times.

Southworth agreed, but still felt that the proposed cost would be “a lot for Midway.” He and City Clerk Phyllis Hudson said the city should receive improved service from the police department in return for the higher costs.

“I can’t promise you they’ll be 73 percent better,” Traugott said.

Hudson said after the Versailles officials left, “I could see it if it was a gradual increase per year.” The new contract would go into effect July 1, 2018. It could be for four years or longer.

Versailles’ police budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year is $3.86 million, not including state incentives for salaries. Traugott multiplied this by 4.5 percent to get the $173,674 figure presented to the committee.

Traugott didn’t say why he used that percentage, calling it “semi-arbitrary,” but noted that it was more favorable to Midway than using the city’s share of Woodford County’s population, 7 percent, which would be “overkill;” or 9.5 percent, the share of service calls made to the Midway area between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30.

Later in the meeting, Southworth noted that County Judge-Executive John “Bear” Coyle wanted to require Midway to pay a lot more in the three-way deal among the governments, to help reduce the county’s costs.

“It’s a heck of a lot better than $400,000 … four and a half percent is not bad,” he said.

The other committee member present, Council Member John McDaniel, said, “It’s going to be hard to sell that amount of money, but proportionally . . .” He didn’t finish the thought, but said he thought the percentage would be a bit higher. McDaniel is a former Midway and Versailles police officer.

Beyond the financial part of the contract, the committee considered a renegotiation of the shifts officers would work while providing service to Midway, a possibility Traugott and Fugate were open to.

The current contract calls for the police department to provide “daily, around-the-clock” service to Midway, which it currently fulfills by using two eight-hour shifts and having officers on call for the remaining eight hours.

Council Member Kaye Nita Gallagher, who also serves on the committee, didn’t arrive in time for the committee’s discussions with Traugott and Fugate, but supported the revision of the shift terms if it would result in more comprehensive service for the city.

A view of the lot from above its side fence on Cross Street

Land-use dispute: The committee also discussed a land-use issue at 120 S. Winter Street, continuing a conversation opened during the full council meeting on Sept. 4 about a gravel parking area laid from the lot’s backyard to Cross Street without the city’s permission.

The owner of the lot, Emmajo Pulley Gray, applied for an encroachment permit to allow access to and from Cross Street, but only after the work was completed and she got a letter from the city attorney asking her to.

Gray has not appeared before the council to explain the rationale for the work, but her neighbor Charles Logan speculated at the previous meeting that installation of blacktop on the lot could result in damage to his property from water runoff.

Council Member Steve Simoff, who was present at Thursday’s meeting but does not serve on the committee, passed along heard additional concerns from Gray’s neighbors, and expressed a need on the council’s part to identify what her plans for the lot were before taking further action.

“Are [they] going to have a business operating out of there, or is it just going to be a place for storage?” Simoff asked.

The committee agreed to recommend that the council deny Gray’s encroachment request.

Lights on North Gratz: Southworth and McDaniel briefly discussed the committee’s plans to contact Kentucky Utilities about the cost of installing new streetlights on North Gratz Street.

The lights would be placed to help navigation to and from Walter Bradley Park, which saw a host of improvements last year, as well as the businesses in the area, including the new Brown Barrel restaurant and Darlin Jean’s Apple Cobbler Café.

Southworth asked Deputy Clark Sonya Conner to check with Kentucky Utilities about the cost of lights.