5 incumbents, 5 others run for City Council; 2 for school board; largest field of council candidates since 2012

The top six vote-getters on Nov. 3 will be elected.

Five incumbents are among 10 candidates for six seats on the Midway City Council, and there's a contested race for the Midway area's seat on the Woodford County Board of Education, following passage of Tuesday's filing deadline for nonpartisan offices.

Two more incumbents and two newcomers completed the council filings, and Ian Horn filed against Amanda Glass for the school-board seat being given up by longtime member Ambrose Wilson. The election is Nov. 3.

Council Members Kaye Nita Gallagher and Bruce Southworth filed for re-election Tuesday. Southworth said he had thought the current two-year term would be his last, but he said he had miscalculated the date of the 20-year review of the city's wastewater system and wanted to be on the council for that. He formerly operated the system.

Candidates who filed earlier were incumbents Sara Hicks, Logan Nance and Stacy Thurman, and Adam Bailey of Old Towne Walk.

Bailey, 33, is director of marketing and community outreach for a long-term and subacute care firm in Lexington. He said he and his wife Amy grew up in Woodford County (his father is EMS Director Freeman Bailey) and they have lived in Midway for five years. He said he is running to give back to a community that has a neighborly culture.

The signers of Bailey's nominating petition were his wife and Mayor Grayson Vandegrift and his wife Katie. The mayor said he signs such papers for anyone who asks "so long as I think they have their heart in the right place." He also signed for Southworth and Nance. (Magistrate Liles Taylor and his wife Robin also signed for Nance.)

Other newcomers filing for the council Tuesday were Mary C. Raglin and Andrew B. Nelle.

Raglin, 69, of the 400 block of South Gratz Street, was appointed to the Midway seat on the Woodford County Human Rights Commission in 2016. She would have to resign from the commission if elected, Vandegrift said. She would the the first African American on the council since Aaron Hamilton didn't seek re-election in 2014; he signed her nominating petition.

Raglin said she is retired from the 911 branch of the Lexington police department. She said she is running because she wants to be a voice and a positive influence for Midway, and was asked to run by two people. She declined to say who they were, but said one is a public official. Vandegrift, asked if it was him, said it was. "I’ve known Mary for quite some time and seen her dedication on the HRC," he said, "and felt she could add new perspectives."

Nelle, 36, said he delivers for Amazon and is a part-time chaplain assistant and staff sergeant in the Air National Guard. He said he was in the Air Force from 2008 to 2016, leaving as a senior airman. He said he moved from Lexington to Midway in early November 2019, just in time to meet the one-year residency requirement. Vandegrift said Nelle has watched every council meeting since.

Nelle said he is running because he is familiar with the workings of government and his parents inspired him to public service. "In service of others is the most noble of paths," he told the Messenger. Two of his four nominating-petition signers were merchants and fellow musicians Bill and Leslie Penn.

Only one incumbent, John Holloway, did not file for re-election. He was elected in 2018 and serves as the unpaid manager of Walter Bradley Park.

Two former incumbents, John McDaniel and Steve Simoff, filed for the council on Monday, June 1. They each served one term in 2017-18; McDaniel finished a close seventh in an eight-way race for six seats in 2018, after running third in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination for Midway-area magistrate on Woodford County Fiscal Court. Simoff didn't seek re-election that year.

The 10-candidate field is the largest since 2012, when 10 people ran for the council and Southworth and Hicks were first elected. They are now the longest-tenured members. Mayors serve four-year terms; Vandegrift was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018.

School board: Amanda Glass filed for a four-year term in the District 1 school-board seat on May 21. She and her husband Ken own and operate Railroad Drug and Old Time Soda Fountain on East Main Street. The Vandegrifts and Thurman signed her petition.

Ian Horn filed for the seat at 2:26 p.m. Tuesday, County Clerk Sandy Jones said. He could not be reached for comment, but his LinkedIn page says he is an information systems engineer for the state Division of Geographic Information.