Mayor's update: Reaching out at a time of high anxiety, anger and sadness, and remembering to stay safe

By Grayson Vandegrift
Mayor, City of Midway
     I have been reaching out to leaders in our church community in hopes of continuing a conversation we started in our park nearly 3 years ago so that they can help us decide where we should go next. I will keep you updated as to those details.

     Ours is a time of high anxiety, anger, and sadness. Since I have no answers about what the future holds, I always find comfort in looking to the past. Our shared history and my faith teaches me that we are not novel in struggling with racism, division, and pandemic. We continue to have a problem with institutionalized racism in this country, but we can lay the next stepping stone to healing.
     To my black and brown neighbors, I see you, and I’m with you. To those still suffering from the plague of hatred, I hope you find a way to open up your heart.
     We are merely temporary on this stage, so each of us has no choice but to decide whether we will help lay the path forward to peace, or whether we look the other way to more anger and division. Even if all of our efforts only lay one stone on a path of a thousand, we should lay it anyway.
     As we continue this struggle for equality, let’s not forget about the global pandemic we are also dealing with, and while it is a more temporary situation, it is still here. Keep practicing good social distancing; try to keep get-togethers outdoors; wear a mask if you can when you enter a store, pharmacy, or any place with tight quarters; and practice good personal hygiene. Stay well, and God bless.

Council passes resolution saying it will confront racial issues in city; deadline to file for council is 4 p.m. Tues.

By Aaron Gershon and Al Cross
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

The Midway City Council committed itself Monday to confronting racial issues and “taking an equitable approach to all decision-making” amid the nationwide protests of police brutality and racial injustice.

The all-white council unanimously passed a resolution saying the city will examine “the racial biases embedded in our city” and “the racial impacts of city polices,” encourage people of color to participate in government and try to “improve the quality of life for all residents of Midway by asking these questions: Who benefits? Who is burdened? Who is missing? How do we know?”

The resolution’s author, Council Member Stacy Thurman, said “I felt it was good to acknowledge what’s going on in the world right now and know that Midway can always do better . . . and maybe lead to a list of action items.”

Mayor Grayson Vandegrift said he had already begun the process by reaching out to African American pastors. Noting the annual observance of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s birthday, he said he had long asked “how we have a discussion beyond a day in January every year … It’s almost like the country doesn’t have the appetite to tackle this problem,” which he said began when the Constitution included compromises on slavery.

“The founding fathers were well aware of the hypocrisy,” he said. “They created a great country with a terrible flaw to it.” He said solving it “starts with the heart, and it starts in the home, and it branches out from there.”

Council Member John Holloway, who first asked how the resolution would be implemented, shared a personal story to illustrate the racial divide that needs bridging.

He said one of his neighbors, an African American, reportedly said “one of the most awful things I ever heard” before the last election: that he was not going to vote “because voting’s for white people.”

“I was just crushed when I heard that,” Holloway said. “I’m not sure the relationship between the races in Midway is as rosy as what white people think it is.” Vandegrift agreed. “It’s not enough to say you’re doing better than other cities. That’s a pretty low bar.”

Council Member Logan Nance said the resolution was “a great first step,” but “We need to make sure people in the community that are minorities feel they do have a voice and that they can be part of this. . . . We can use this resolution as a reminder for ourselves when doing projects to make sure everyone has an equal voice.”

Nance said he has encouraged African Americans to run for office. The last black city council member was Aaron Hamilton, who did not seek re-election in 2014.

Holloway expanded the electoral encouragement to Latinos, saying he would vote for candidates of color and would even pay the $50 filing fee for any in Midway wanting to run for council. The deadline to file is 4 p.m. Tuesday, at the county clerk’s office in Versailles.

(Holloway and Council Members Kaye Nita Gallagher and Bruce Southworth had not filed for re-election as of 4 p.m. Monday, but Southworth and Gallagher said Tuesday morning that they plan to file; the other three members had. Other filers were Adam Bailey of Old Towne Walk and former council members John McDaniel and Steve Simoff.)

The resolution says “The City of Midway seeks to unify efforts aimed at reducing disparities and commit to intentionally and collectively advancing equity,” and “is committed to hearing individuals who meaningfully engage in raising awareness of disparities and in actively engaging in suggesting and supporting methods by which they may be resolved.”

Council Member Sara Hicks alluded to the shortage of affordable housing in Midway, saying “If we have the intention not to be a gentrified community, we can make policies as a city that will provide those things.”

In other action, the council approved an encroachment permit for an eight-foot-wide concrete driveway behind 230 South Gratz St., the former Midway Woman’s Club building, leading to Stephens Street; and reappointed Michael Michalsin to the Woodford County Economic Development Authority board for a three-year term. 

“He understands all sides of our goals of growth, to grow reasonably sustainably, slowly but to also fit into what makes us who we are,” Vandegrift said.

Michalsin said, “I am keenly aware that I am the only that I am the only Midway appointee to that board. I really do try to think about that and represent what’s important to us.” The EDA controls the Midway Station commercial and industrial development.