Churches voice concern about half marathon during festival; mayor says Midway Station entering new phase

By Akhira Umar, Korrie Harris, Abbey Huffman and Chadwick George

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Midway’s churches are concerned about problems with moving the Iron Horse Half Marathon to the Sunday morning of the Midway Fall Festival. After hearing complaints at the City Council meeting Monday night, Mayor Grayson Vandegrift said he would set up a meeting between the ministers, the race organizers and the festival.

Also at the meeting, Vandegrift said that with 40 new jobs coming to Midway Station, the city’s new strategy for the industrial park is working, but it may have to resume paying off its debt if the property developer doesn't exercise his option to buy the property, which expires at year's end.

Half marathon: The Rev. Heather McColl of Midway Christian Church, representing the Midway Ministerial Association, presented the council with concerns about traffic, parking and safety during the half marathon, which is scheduled for 7 to 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 22.

McColl said there was lack of communication between race operator John’s Run/Walk Shop, of Lexington, and Midway churches, which will provide volunteers for the race and the festival. She said the church members will likely be exhausted through that busy weekend, and have already decided they can't do breakfast for the runners, as they have in the past.

“A lot of people feel that this is going to overwhelm our town,” McColl told the council.

“We just need more conversation about logistics,” she said. “If we’re asking for anything, we’re asking for better communication and that the churches become partners in this wider conversation and part of wider community conversations.”

X marks the planned finish line of the Iron Horse Half Marathon.

McColl said that if anything is changed, it should be the finish line, "right at the end of Gratz and Bruen [streets], and my church is going to be deeply affected by this." She said other churches also have concerns, and asked why the race was moved.

Vandegrift said the finish line could be moved. “I do wish Iron Horse had spoken to you all before they came to us with an event permit,” he said. “And I wish we had thought to ask that question, but we didn’t, so it’s neither here nor there now.” The council approved the permit in December.

The mayor said he thinks then new date was “an attempt to save the race” because “The Iron Horse numbers are dwindling,” to under 700 last year after some years with more than 1,000 registrants. (Some registrants don't show.)

In the end, Vandegrift issued a warning to the race organizers: “They have a very high bar to meet and they know it. If they screw this up, it ain’t gonna happen next year.”

After the meeting, McCall said she felt that her concerns were handled in the best they could have been by the mayor and council.

Midway Station started as an industrial park 30 years ago, but attracted few employers. In 2008, Dennis Anderson, of Anderson Communities in Lexington, optioned the area for redesign as a commercial and residential development, but after recovery from the Great Recession, the site attracted American Howa, an auto-parts company, and Lakeshore Learning Materials, which built a distribution center.

Shortly after, the city and the Woodford County Economic Development Authority decided against residential construction on the property and Anderson agreed.

There have been two recent real-estate closings on the property. Both are along McKinney Avenue, near the existing employers. Vandegrift said one is a plumbing-supply company that will employ about 10 people and the second company, which wished to remain anonymous for now, will employ about 30.

“It’s 40 new jobs and it’s a great move forward,” Vandegrift said, adding that the closings show the success of the new recruitment strategy for Midway Station, looking for smaller, "owner-occupied" businesses.

The mayor addressed concern about Anderson’s option agreement expiring at the end of the year. Anderson will have to decide if he wants to purchase all the land or step away from the deal, “which he could do at any time,” Vandegrift said. “We don’t know what Dennis’s plans are. I’m not sure he knows.”

If Anderson opts out, the Woodford County Economic Development Authority, which owns the property, would take over its development. Though this would give the city more control over businesses coming into Midway Station, but it would place interest payments on the shoulder of the city and county instead of Anderson.

The city and county would each pay half the interest, an estimated $3,000 a month each. Vandegrift said he would put that in his proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. He said other options could present themselves, but the city would need to work with the EDA to figure this out.

“The clock’s running now,” Vandegrift said. “Probably, likely, one way or another we’re entering a new phase of Midway Station.”

EDA Chair John Soper did not fret about the possibility of Anderson walking away. “You can look at it as a problem or you can look at it as an opportunity,” he told the council. “If we get it back, then we’re gonna make the most of it.”

He said Midway is an opportune destination for many Central Kentucky “contractor-product type” businesses near an interstate highway. Unlike more urban areas like Lexington, Midway has little traffic to impede businesses and plenty of space for these businesses to grow.

Other business: The council also accepted the 2017-18 fiscal year audit that was presented at the last meeting.

Council Member Sara Hicks, chair of the Cemetery Committee, said the panel has “more questions than answers” after meeting Saturday morning about the state of the Saint Rose Tabernacle Cemetery and Sons of Daughters of Relief Cemetery, resting places for African Americans.

Former council member Johnny Wilson donated $1,000 at the last meeting toward repair of headstones in the cemeteries, saying that 71 of the 303 stones need resetting, repair or replacement. Vandegrift said the process would take time.

Vandegrift said he plans to create a task force for affordable housing, with Council Member Stacy Thurman as chair.