Merchants reach foregone conclusion, cancel festival

The Midway Business Association canceled this year's Midway Fall Festival at its monthly meeting Wednesday, due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was a decision no one liked.

"It sucks," MBA President Cortney Neikirk and event coordinator Elisha Holt said, at different times.

Neikirk began the discussion in the Mezzo patio by saying, "I think we all know what the inevitable vote is." She said Mayor Grayson Vandegrift had made that clear, and though the City Council had issued a permit in  January for the event to be held Sept. 19-20, it could revoke the permit if necessary.

"In all fairness, we don't want to have the council make a decision that's ours to make," Neikirk said. She said the idea of having the event on private property wasn't "sensible . . . because Fall Festival is for the merchants."

Some events such as the Kentucky Derby are going ahead with limited attendance, but they are able to enforce limits because they can block access to parking, which can't be done with the festival, Holt said.

Neikirk said the merchants "still have some options to do a few things," such as socially distanced movie nights in the yard between Main and Martin streets, but "I don't know that it would necessarily help the merchants," and "The movies are pretty expensive" to rent.

Earlier, Holt said, "I honestly think that our fall time is dead." She said the association still hopes to have Santa Claus arrive on a train the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but remain on the train and have some sort of socially distanced interaction with children.

"People are itching to get out and do things," Holt said, but Nekirk gave the flip side: "The last thing we want to do is be overrun and be accused of causing an outbreak."

On more positive notes:

• Holt reported that the Facebook commercial filmed recently, with merchants and restaurateurs waving at a drone flying down Main Street, is almost ready and will be targeted to metropolitan areas within driving distance.
• Emily Downey, executive of the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce and the county Tourism Commission, said the agency is targeting markets such as Nashville and St. Louis with ads promoting "Woodford Weekends" for "families, gals and guys."
• After a discussion of the need for a public restroom downtown, especially on weekends when City Hall is closed, Neikirk said she would again discuss the issue with city officials.
• The city is accepting applications from businesses for federally funded grants to compensate them for pandemic-related losses. All those approved will get the same amount, Neikirk said, noting, "We fought for this." The City Council voted 3-2 for two more rounds of vouchers that citizens could redeem at businesses, but switched to grants after state officials said federal relief funds wouldn't pay for vouchers and 19 Midway business people signed a letter warning that most businesses in town could close if they didn't get direct aid.
• Vandegrift told businesses in an email, "The application is available for you to print on our city website meetmeinmidway.com. If you are unable to print you can pick up a copy at City Hall, you may just want to call ahead. Please fill out the application and return to city hall or scan and email it back to sonya@meetmeinmidway.com by 4 p.m. Friday, July 17."