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| Amnesty International volunteer Lee Birdwhistell spoke to the city council Monday as about 20 people listened. |
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
The Midway City Council voted Monday evening to table a controversial resolution supporting refugee resettlement in Kentucky and vote on it no later than the June 3 council meeting, following a public forum.
The resolution calls for resettlement to be done without discrimination, and calls on other Kentucky communities to “join them in supporting a stronger national effort to settle refugees around the world in need of a home.”
The council followed the lead of Mayor Grayson Vandegrift, who issued a statement before the meeting in response to social-media comments debating the resolution. “It has clearly begun a discussion in our community that has lighted passions on both sides of the issue,” he wrote.
The passions and “vitriol,” as Vandegrift called it during the meeting, are illustrated by postings on Midway Musings, a closed Facebook group that has almost 700 members. After Karen Martin posted a notice asking the members to attend the council meeting to support the resolution, Angeletta Fields wrote, “I do not want refugees to move into Midway not into Kentucky!” and James Starks wrote, “This is a disgusting idea.”
The resolution does not propose moving refugees to Midway, but some said the council should stick to local business. Cindy Karrick wrote, “Our little town is not the place to address national political issues.” Johnny Wilson, who recently served out an unexpired term on the council, wrote, “Dumb!!! Fix what you were elected to fix. This [is] pure political. Where is the money coming from to house and feed them.”
The resolution drew support from some members of the Facebook group, and Sarah J. Wilson wrote, "I hope that our council will listen to both sides of the issue and vote in a way that will be truly representative of the feelings of their constituents, and not just what they want. Let's show the rest of the state that we have elected officials who care about those who elected them. Citizens, if you feel strongly about this or any issue, speak with your representatives!"
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| Council Member Logan Nance |
Nance said, “As I got older, my service to my country [and] through my church took me to places like Venezuela and Afghanistan, where I was able to see the refugee crisis up close and very personal,” and when he returned, he knew he wanted to help refugees: “I was able to meet refugee families that attend church in this community, shop in this community, and it was able to hit it home for me that we could be doing more to help these people.”
Lee Birdwhistell, who identified herself as a volunteer for Amnesty International, told the council that he resolution would be “non-binding” and wouldn’t “place the burden of resettlement” on Midway, Birdwhistell said. This would be the first Amnesty International refugee welcome resolution in Kentucky, but she said Kentucky is a leading state for refugee resettlement.
Asked after the meeting why she picked Midway, she said, “I just had a connection to Logan Nance and I brought it up to him.”
Nance told the other council members that he was willing to delay action on the resolution so the public could understand what exactly was happening.
Council Member Bruce Southworth said, “I would just feel more comfortable if we had more time to get more input before we voted.”
Council Member Sara Hicks agreed. “I think having a public forum would be very appropriate and a good experience for the community,” she said.
Council Member Stacy Thurman agreed but said, “I think it’s important to go ahead if we’re going to do a public forum to make a date, to find a venue and set it up and not just let this go and let it slide under the door.”
Council Member John Holloway he didn’t see the controversy in the resolution. “All the resolution is really saying is we are happy to comply with the law.”
Vandegrift said a public forum, with face-to-face communication, would be more productive than social-media posts. “I think the more we speak to each other, the more we’ll come together as a community,” he said. ”We might come out being stronger than we were before.”
The mayor then suggested that a council member make a motion to table the resolution “because it is a significant enough resolution.”
Hicks asked Vandegrift if he wanted to delay it “to a specific date,” and he didn’t think it would be best. “I think it’s still a new enough idea, still a fresh enough issue, that I don’t think we know exactly how much time this needs and how much time we want to spend on it,” he said. “We got other stuff we gotta focus on, too.”
Holloway indicated that he favored a specific date: “We should be sure and come back to this and not let this slide.”
Council Member Kaye Nita Gallagher quipped, “I’m pretty sure it’s not just gonna disappear.”
About 20 Midway residents on both sides of the issue were in the audience. The mayor said it would be best to postpone citizen comments to the council until the public forum, so a moderator from the Kentucky League of Cities could aid civil discourse.
The vote for tabling the resolution passed unanimously.
“We will schedule as soon as possible a public forum most likely to take place in the next few weeks,” Vandegrift said. UPDATE, March 20: The forum will be held at 6:30 Tuesday, April 9 at Northside Elementary School.
Birdwhistell said after the meeting, “I feel like it went well. I do think it’s good for the community to have a chance to talk about it, discuss it. There was a little more opposition than we were anticipating, but I feel like deciding to set up a public forum to give the community more time to come to terms with it is a good way to go.”
In other business, the council:
• Reappointed Gina Morris and Council Member Sara Hicks to the parks board. Hicks abstained from the otherwise unanimous vote. They will both serve four-year terms.
• Declared two vehicles and a list of other equipment and personal property to be surplus so it can be sold for the surplus and authorizing sale.
• Heard Don Vizi, executive director of the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce, present his annual report and request $1,000 to help with its ventures. The mayor said the monthly meetings that Vizi set up with the mayor and other community figures to keep up with one another have helped the city-chamber relationship. “I’ve really enjoyed that. It’s been very beneficial,” Vandegrift said. “I think we’re gonna see some fruit coming up soon.”
(Vizi also announced a job fair on March 26 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Woodford County Agricultural Center. “We have 11 employers coming,” he said.)
• Heard the mayor addressed the problem with vultures roosting around the city. “We’re working with state agencies and USDA,” he said. Vandegrift said the city doesn’t want to kill the birds, but to “push them off into other parts of the county where they won’t bother anybody and the excrement won’t become a health hazard.”
• Voted to appropriate $812.40 as its share of replacing an emergency siren in the Versailles industrial park that has not been activating properly. “It’s 25 years old and it’s also the most maintenance prone siren out of all 12 sirens spread about the county,” said Drew Chandler of Woodford County Emergency Management.
• Didn’t approve a request made by Midway University to place a no-parking sign on West Stephens Street just past the president’s driveway.
Asked how often cars park there, Rob Sarrantonio, director of security and operations at Midway, said “It depends on the time of year” but “It’s been more now lately than it has in the past.”
Gallagher asked if it’s normally during the president’s events or during events at the house across the street, where some students live.
Sarrantonio said “It’s not during the president’s events,” and said people are told to park away from the area of concern.
However, Council Member John Holloway, who lives near the president’s house, said the only time he sees cars parked in the area is when events are going on at the president’s house .
Council Member Sara Hicks noted that there is a no-parking sign on Winter Street because it’s a “blind place” and police ticket violators there because it’s a “safety issue,” but she doesn’t regard Stephens Street as a “safety issue.”
When the mayor asked if there was a motion to approve the sign, no council member made one.
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