Council votes 4-1 to cut sewer rates by 25 percent; farewell resolution names John McDaniel 'Mr. Midway'

Council Members Steve Simoff, John McDaniel and Johnny
Wilson, who are leaving the council, posed after the meeting.

The Midway City Council voted 4-1 tonight to cut sewer rates 25 percent, as Mayor Grayson Vandegrift wanted. Barring an unexpected special meeting, the session was the last for half of the council; three new members take office Jan. 1.

Two of the returning council members did not join the majority. Bruce Southworth, who favored a 15 percent cut, abstained, and Kaye Nita Gallagher voted no. Sara Hicks and the three departing members voted yes.

Gallagher had seconded Johnny Wilson's motion to pass the ordinance, which briefly seemed at risk of dying for lack of a second. "If I hadn't seconded it," she explained, "we wouldn't have been able to talk about it."

Later in the meeting, Gallagher suggested that the council could pass neither ordinance and wait to see what happens to the 21.5 percent rate increase Kentucky American Water Co. has proposed to the state Public Service Commission. Sewer fees appear on water bills and are based on water usage.

Vandegrift said the city would probably have to pass on to customers whatever rate hike the PSC approves in about 10 months, but said the increase was in doubt and he would fight it.

He told Gallagher that if the council didn't cut sewer rates at all, "You have to explain to citizens why." He said the long-discussed cut would reflect the city's early payoff of debt for the sewage-treatment plant, and without it, "I'm afraid what it'll do is kill the appetite" of citizens for sewer improvements.

"In a couple of years we may have to raise 'em anyway to do a major project, and people are gonna say, 'Dang it, you all always come back asking for more, and never give it back when you don't need it any more'," the mayor said.

As for the alternative 15 percent cut, "I'm not sure 15 percent makes enough difference to people, in their lives," he said. "Even with a 25 percent cut, we've still got between, on the low side, thirty thousand, on the high side, fifty or sixty thousand dollars in new revenue that's not going toward old debt."

Southworth, who once operated the sewer system, defended the 15 percent cut as "more conservative" and said rates could be lowered again later. Vandegrift said the 25 percent cut "doesn't scare the most conservative person I ever met, Phyllis Hudson, our treasurer."

Vandegrift argued, "Let's put it in people's pockets while we can. It won't change everybody's lives, but I guarantee you it'll have a major effect on a lot of people's lives." Earlier, he said the average annual savings would be about $120 per household.

The only other discussion at the meeting was on departing Council Member John McDaniel's suggestion that the city make "more presentable" the two African American cemeteries it agreed to take over in 1989. Since then, he said, most of the maintenance has been done by Boy Scouts. Vandegrift called it "a great suggestion."

McDaniel lost his bid for a second two-year term last month, placing a close seventh in the nonpartisan eight-candidate race for six council seats. In May, he finished third in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination for Midway-area magistrate on Woodford County Fiscal Court.

The farewell resolution honoring McDaniel called him "Mister Midway," citing his passion for the city, his civic leadership and his honor as Citizen of the Year in 2003. He told his colleagues, "I'll probably be down here harassing you all from the peanut gallery."

Council Member Steve Simoff, who chose not to seek a second term but said he might run again, "showed great care for all public spaces," said the resolution honoring him. He said his term has been fun and educational.

Council Member Johnny Wilson was appointed in March to fill the unexpired term of Libby Warfield after an application process that discouraged people who were interested in a full term. The resolution for him said he has "a great eye for detail, which he shares with his predecessor."

The resolutions approved by the council, with the subject members abstaining, named Dec. 29, 30 and 31, respectively, as Johnny Wilson Day, Steve Simoff Day and John McDaniel Day in Midway.

The newly elected council members, John Holloway, Logan Nance and top election vote-getter Stacy Thurman, attended the meeting and sat in the back row of the audience.