Council approves mayor's appointments to new board that will enforce revised rules for property maintenance

At the City Council meeting Monday evening, former mayor Tom Bozarth and Mayor Grayson Vandegrift honored city attorney Phil Moloney, who will leave the position Jan. 31 after 13 years, (Midway Messenger photo by Hayley Burris)

By Madison Dyment, Anna McAndrew and Hayley Burris
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

After passing ordinances Jan. 6 to crack down on lack of property maintenance in the city, the Midway City Council approved members of its new Code Enforcement Board Tuesday night.

The council also heard about the loss of a project to build a stage in the city park, and honored outgoing city attorney Phil Moloney, in a celebration that included a surprise visit by former mayor Tom Bozarth.

Code enforcement: Mayor Grayson Vandegrift nominated Jo Blease, Dan Roller and Jim Starks as the three members of the new Code Enforcement Board and Janet Hall as the alternate, saying all are willing to serve and are knowledgeable in the field. He gave brief biographies of each:

Blease and her husband, Ray, moved to Midway just under 10 years ago, fixing up a home at the corner of Winter and Stephens streets, giving Blease first-hand experience in property maintenance. The mayor noted that Blease is a retired school administrator accustomed to following "the letter of the law," recently served as president of Midway Renaissance, and is eager to serve on the board.

Dan Roller

Roller is a familiar face, having served as a council member in 2011-16. He was integral to the council's update of property maintenance codes and served on the old Vacant Property Review Board, which was "basically made obsolete" by a 2016 state law that paved the way for a new approach, Vandegrift said, adding, “Dan has one of the best eyes for detail of anyone I have ever known.”

Starks, a lifelong resident of Midway, brings personal experience as a landlord to the board. “He’s a great example of a landlord who owns multiple properties in Midway, who does it the right way and makes sure his tenants are living in proper conditions," the mayor said. "He invests in his properties, and he understands how expensive that gets.”

Hall, as an alternate, would fill in for a board member in the case of an absence. "She's a retired attorney who used to work for the City of Louisville on this exact same stuff: blighted and deteriorated properties," Vandegrift said.

The ordinance says initial appointments are to be staggered so one seat becomes vacant each year. Vandegrift didn't specify terms; asked about it afterward, he said Roller will take the one-year term but wasn't sure about the others because Blease has been away "and we haven’t had a great chance to discuss it. All are eligible to be reappointed to full three-year terms." There is a two-term limit.

Vandegrift said the matter would be resolved at the next council meeting, at which he also hopes to have the appointment of a code enforcement officer ready for council approval.

The Code Enforcement Board will hear cases of property owners who don’t correct violations in the time allowed by the code enforcement officer, at least 10 days. It can levy fines of $25 to $1,000 and its rulings can be appealed to circuit court.

Vandergrift, who has been trying to create the board for several years, said he would meet with the four after giving them two weeks to study the ordinances: “We took a long time on this, so to digest it, they can start writing up the questions that they may have and then I’ll get together with them, possibly with representatives of the Kentucky League of Cities if necessary, and kind of go through a little workshop or little training session with them.”

The mayor said he would like to see the board start taking complaints early next month, “but you know, it’s been two years or more; what’s the rush? We’re not going to rush this thing through them if they feel like they’re not quite ready to be taking possible appeals.”

Park stage canceled: In a more sobering moment, Vandergrift reported the failure of efforts to build a stage in the park. The initiative was funded by a $10,000 grant from the Bluegrass Community Fund, but the mayor said the Parks Board told him in a November letter that it “no longer felt that they had the resources to complete the project, given the new constraints placed upon it,” such as architectural and utility costs.

After the meeting, Council Member and Park Manager John Holloway said running electricity to the stage would cost $8,000 and some local merchants didn’t like the project because it would create an alternative entertainment venue to Main Street, which the city recently designated an "entertainment destination center" where alcoholic beverages with vendor labels can be carried openly.

The board recommended that the city return the grant. Vandegrift said he did that, but not before trying "a Hail Mary" to save the project, getting an architect to agree to design the stage for free, a savings of $5,000 to $10,000. But in the end, he said, there were still questions about electricity, parking, "who would run it, what kinds of cost would be associated with in, and what-not."

He added, "It's a disappointment. I'll be honest; there are those who, through their fingertips, made the thing more difficult, and I regret that's a thing we have to deal with, but those people are not solely at fault. Sometimes things just don't come together. I do hope that in the future, it may be able to come together."

Also, "There's simply too many things we need to fund this year," he said. "I can't sit here with a straight face and say we don't have the money. We have the money to do the things we need to do; we just don't have all the money we'd like to have to do everything we want to do. Building that stage might have meant we can't build a sidewalk to The Homeplace from Mill Road, and I just think that would just be unacceptable. It might mean we can't finish the cemetery pavilion, or finish our big sewer renovation, and that's just not something we can accept, or I can accept, right now."

Bozarth emerges from his old office.

Saying goodbye and welcome back: Lightening the mood, the council used the latter part of the 25-minute meeting to honor Phil Moloney of Lexington, who has been city attorney for 13 years, for two mayors, seven councils and 19 council members. Jan. 31 will be his final day in the position; the council passed a resolution making next week Phil Moloney Week.

“He is one of the finest attorneys one may find anywhere and his steady hand, rock-solid legal advice and great attention to detail has meant that he has left the city better than he found it,” Vandergrift said, telling Moloney later, "You often pulled me back from my worst impulses."

In a surprise, former mayor Tom Bozarth, who hired Moloney, emerged from a back office to congratulate him and assist in giving him a key-to-the-city clock.

He told Moloney, “You were the rudder of the ship that kept us all in line down the straight and narrow and kept us out of harm’s way, and I can’t thank you enough for that.”

Moloney, who told Vandegrift in a Jan. 15 letter that he is "edging closer to retirement age" and has other things to pursue, voiced gratitude and admiration for his employers.

“One of the amazing things is that every council member and mayor I have worked with all have interests of their citizens first in mind and led with their heart,” he said. “I wish Washington, D.C., could send down some representatives and see how governments are supposed to work.”

Other business: The council gave final reading and passage to a long-pending budget amendment and granted a street-encroachment permit to Tobacco Rose, a company that installs silt fences for construction projects and has bought a lot in Midway Station. Vandegrift said about seven people would work there.

UK Community Journalism students Lauren McCally and Jo'Tessa Townes contributed to this story.