Council clears up property issue, sets up new garbage rates for passage, hears a member say he's not running

Story and photos by Sarah Ladd

By University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

The Midway City Council cleared up a property issue and gave first reading of new garbage rates at its meeting Monday evening. It also heard an update on emergency preparedness and heard a member announce that he won’t be seeking re-election this fall.

The abandoned part of Winter Street next to the Corner Grocery

Property issue: The council declared that the city has no interest in a piece of property called “no man’s land” next to the Midway Corner Grocery, and gave grocer Scott Bradley a quitclaim deed for it and another parcel originally thought to be his. 

Versailles lawyer Phyllis Mattingly spoke to the council on Bradley’s behalf. She said the original deed for the grocer’s property, purchased by Bradley’s parents and grandmother in 1980, was surveyed incorrectly, an error discovered during a recent survey.

The land that Bradley has used for his business and paid taxes on includes two plots that belong to him, a parcel belonging to the city and an old part of North Winter Street, abandoned when the street was re-routed decades ago.

Plat shown to the council outlines the grocery tract in purple, another
tract of Scott Bradley's in orange, the abandoned street in green, and
the property to be covered by the city's quitclaim deed in hashed blue.
For a larger version of the image, click on it.

“When the state abandoned the road, by law that property would typically go back to the property owner,” Mattingly said. “Of course, we don’t quite know who the property owner is for all this.”

The other parcel is a strip between the grocery and North Winter Street that encompasses the fuel pumps in front of the store, which Mattingly said has been used by the grocery for many years.

Mattingly asked the council to declare that the city has no interest in the property and to authorize a quitclaim agreement conveying it to Bradley.

Council Member Bruce Southworth said, “I don’t think we’ve ever had any interest in the property.” The council voted unanimously to enter the agreement.

Garbage rates: The council heard the first reading of an ordinance to raise garbage collection prices to accommodate the council’s July 27 adoption of a new contract with Rumpke Waste & Recycling. The new rates will be:

•             Residential customers: one pickup per week at $14.95 per month, a 15.4 percent increase from the current $12.95

•             Business customers: two pickups per week at $35 per month, a 29.6 percent increase from the current $27

•             Churches: charged as businesses unless the church requests in writing to be charged and served as a residential customer

The new rates will go into effect Sept. 1. The ordinance requires a second reading before the council can vote on passage. The next council meeting is scheduled for August 20 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Steve Simoff

Council election: Council Member Steve Simoff, who has served on the council since January 2017, announced that he will not be running for re-election “for personal and professional reasons.” He said he wanted to bring it up publicly to allow people considering running to know there will be an extra seat available.

Though Simoff said he was not ready to expound on his reasons for not running, he said, “I’ve really enjoyed this. Maybe two years from now, four years from now, I’d like to do it again. … It’s been fun.”

The deadline to file for the six council seats is 4 p.m. Tuesday, August 14. Those who had filed as of 3 p.m. Tuesday are John Holloway, the city’s unpaid park manager, on Feb. 19; Stacy Thurman, on June 14; Logan Nance, on June 28; and Council Member Sara Hicks, on Aug. 2.

Storm cleanup: The council also heard from Drew Chandler, head of Woodford County Disaster and Emergency Management, regarding the cleanup and restoration of the city following the recent storm.

Chandler said the July 20 storm and its aftermath revealed flaws in the department’s communication. Many people could not receive notifications because their phones relied on electricity.

He said the department is trying to become more “tech-savvy” and he introduced a new app, Heads Up Community, which is available in the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. Citizens can sign up for selective notifications that meet their needs such as school closings, police and security and traffic alerts.

Chandler said the app is accessible on tablets and smartphones and “breaks down that barrier that we’ve always had. People don’t want to sign up for another government list.”

 

He also said the department is branching out to Instagram and other social media platforms beside Facebook. He said the app is the “first step in our corrective action,” and he hopes to keep expanding.

Fall Festival: The council approved the event permit for the Midway Fall Festival, which will be held Sept. 15-16. Elisha Ann Holt of the Midway Business Association told the council she has arranged for 214 vendors for the festival, a record number. Last year’s had 160 vendors.

The festival will not feature the bouncy house for children but will have other children’s activities like face painting and children’s vendors, Holt said. She said her goal with the festival is to continue to grow the city as a whole and she said this year’s event will feature a wider variety of music, which she hopes will draw a bigger audience. 

Lexington School bonds: The council voted unanimously to issue $5 million in tax-free revenue bonds for The Lexington School, to help it reduce the cost of a construction project.

Christian Juckett, a lawyer at the Lexington office of the Rubin & Hays law firm, returned to follow up on his July 18 request for the bonds towards a new learning center at the school. The school uses Midway as a financing tool because state law allows such bonds to be issued only by local governments that issue less than $10 million in bonds in that year, and Lexington issues more than that, Juckett said. He also reiterated that the city of Midway would in no way be responsible for the debt issued but would merely serve as a catalyst.

Donations: The council agreed to a request from Lillie Cox for $125 to help finance Woodford County’s display in the Pride of the Counties exhibit at the state fair. The city now has $975 remaining in its donations budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which began July 1.

Message from the mayor: What a week, what a city

By Grayson Vandegrift

Mayor, City of Midway

What a week.

Wednesday, two young Midway citizens decided to sell lemonade to raise money for the Homeplace because they wanted to help with the care of the wisest ones among us. Their proud parents posted about their good deed on Facebook, and before you knew it, fellow residents were pledging to match their contributions -- they wound up raising well over $200 in the end.

It’s almost as if these two young women were inspiring us to be ready for the days to come, when we’d all have to band together to help our fellow citizens. Although I’m not surprised at how the Midway community came together, I’m still remarkably impressed and inspired by the endless accounts of residents doing good deeds to help each other get through a surprisingly monstrous storm and its serious effects.

It would take a book to account for all the selfless acts that were performed by people this weekend, so I’ll just say that I am continually inspired by the immeasurable number of good deeds done by people who simply want to help their neighbor get through a difficult situation.

KU and LG&E called in help from other states and had as many as 180 technicians working 16-hour shifts to bring power back to our homes. As I write this, nearly all of Midway has power again. We owe a great debt of gratitude to every line worker and every person who helped clear debris and limbs, and to their families for sharing them with us. One line worker from Chicago said he hadn’t seen this kind of tree damage since he was deployed to assist with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

Our first responders were brilliant as well, especially on Friday night, when things really could have devolved into chaos had they not held everything together.

What a week. What a city. What a county.

Mayor says KU is confident that 'the bulk of the county, including Midway, will have power' by midnight Monday

UPDATE: The mayor reported just before 8 p.m. that it appeared power had been restored to all of Midway, except "the North Gratz to East Higgins corridor and the Midway School Apartments."

Midway Mayor Grayson Vandegrift reported around noon today: "I have just left a meeting with KU representatives and county emergency workers. KU feels confident that the bulk of the county, including Midway, will have power back by midnight on Monday, July 23 (Monday going into Tuesday). This is certainly not the news we were hoping for, but at least we now know a firm timetable for how long we have to bear through this.  KU and LG&E have approximately 140 technicians working to restore power throughout the county, working shifts of 16 hours on and eight off. They remind anyone to stay away from any downed power line, as well as a few other very important safety tips:

• Check to make sure any electric stove is turned off - if you were cooking when the storm hit then it would be very easy to have forgotten to turn your burner off. Make sure you have not set anything on them which could cause fire when the power is restored. 
• If you have a generator, make sure it is not too close (within several feet) of an open garage door - this could cause deadly carbon monoxide to enter your home. 
• Although it is tempting to want to help push debris out of roadways, please do not move anything that is touching a downed power line. 
• Remember to discard perishable food items that are in your refrigerator or freezer. The Health Department warns that frozen food which has thawed cannot be refrozen and then eaten safely. 

"Going without power this long can make you irritable, anxious, furious, or all three, plus some. We are going to make it through this because we stick together. There are many, many good folks out right now working tirelessly to bring us back to a normal state of living. Let’s continue to encourage them, even feel free to bring them water bottles if you are so inclined and can safely do so."

Woodford County Emergency Management announced that the American Red Cross will be in Versailles' lower city parking lot behind the police station from 3 to 6 p.m. to hand out clean-up kits, water, tarps, trash bags, gloves etc.

Midway Baptist Church is setting up free portable showers from the Southern Baptist Convention, tentatively available from 4 to 8 p.m. "Bring towel and toiletries," Logan Nance advises on the Midway Musings Facebook page. "We will update once we are set up and let you know the exact time it is available for use."

Midway Christian Church announced that it will hold a community dinner at 6:30 p.m. and needs available helpers to report at 4 p.m.

UPDATE, 4:45 p.m.: Here is an enhanced screenshot of the latest KU-LGE outage map:

Mayor says he's disheartened by county's ending of emergency-management talks; flood issues discussed

By Paige Hobbs
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

The Midway City Council meeting Monday night focused on emergency management. The agency’s budget and the joint mass notification system, Everbridge, were at the top of the list. The council also discussed issues raised by recent flooding.

Mayor Grayson Vandegrift said he was sending the proposed emergency management budget to the council’s finance committee for review before asking the full council members to make a decision. The negotiations between the City of Versailles, Woodford County, and the City of Midway were ended last week by the fiscal court, which wants more money for the program.

Funding for the program has been debated since last summer. Under state law, Midway has until July 1 to establish its own program or form a joint program.

Vandegrift said it was vote of 5-4 last week in fiscal court that ended the negotiations, thus telling Midway it must pay an extra $200 a month or start its own program.

“The five who voted to basically say ‘This is it, take it or leave it,’ they believe they are doing what is right. . . . However, I want to give a special thanks to Magistrate [Linda] Popp, our magistrate . . . Magistrate Gill, Magistrate Dotson, and Magistrate Gardner, who by voting against that meant ‘Let’s keep negotiating’,” said Vandegrift. Popp was at the council meeting.

“So I’m giving a special thanks with the caveat that I do believe that the other five are doing what they believe is right,” Vandegrift said. “But I believe we are trying to form a new relationship with the county and we’re trying to say ‘Let’s negotiate and talk.’ And that vote is a little disheartening. Because what it told me is that we’re going to stop talking. That’s not the way I think the City of Midway wants to do things, personally.”

Vandegrift said the finance committee will review the budget and the options and report back to the full council during a budget workshop on April 14.

System offers alerts about emergencies, weather, community happenings

In a related matter, Vandegrift said the county and Versailles have already signed into the joint agreement for the mass notification system, Everbridge. Midway’s contribution to the program would be $1,430. Versailles has agred to pay $4,390 and the county has agreed to pay $7,842,

Everbridge, for which only 5 percent of Midway residents have signed up, allows citizens to opt in for alerts about emergencies, weather advisories and warnings and other topics via text messages, email, social media, telephone calls and other methods. Citizens have the option to exclude certain alerts and times, except for tornado warnings. They can sign up at www.woodfordalerts.com.

Council Member Libby Warfield asked what could be done to publicize this program more.

Deputy Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler, representing the local Emergency Planning Committee, said the committee had already spent $5,000 on a public service campaign, including newspaper advertising that has not been completed, to get the word out. “We are taking a proactive approach,” he said. 

Vandegrift said, “It is a good program; I get these calls before any other notification. Why we can’t get people to sign up, I don’t know.”

Council Member Sarah Hicks suggested making signups available at the library.

Chandler said the dispatch center has more than 10,000 phone numbers in its 911 database.  Despite the low opt-in rate, Chandler said dispatch can still make emergency notifications to almost all residents, and the opt-in system for additional alerts can reach 200 phones in a matter of minutes.

Vandegrift noted that Midway is not set up for that function. Chandler said, “If we can get the customer data base in an Excel format (a software program used to organize data) . . . that can be done for Midway,” said Chandler.

Assistant City Clerk Diane Shepard expressed concern about sharing citizens’ cell-phone information to fill in the database. “If we take someone’s cell phone number here we promise we won’t give that out and we won’t use it for anything,” she said. “I think they should be the ones that opt in. That’s the reason we haven’t provided that information to you all.” (Shepard was filling in for City Clerk-Treasurer Phyllis Hudson, who was absent due to the death of her sister.) 

Chandler agreed that if a cell-phone number is given, the confidence in privately sharing that information should not be violated. No cell phone information given in confidence will be shared with the data base unless citizens choose to do so themselves, he said.

Emergency Management Director Keith Slugantz said he wanted to go ahead and build the database so citizens could sign up to get alerts on their cell phones. 333-0046

Flooding raises issues

Vandegrift noted that due to the flooding last week, two fences were knocked down by the debris carried by floodwaters in the dog park. The park, which was privately funded and built through an Eagle Scout project, is owned by the city.

Hicks said the park isn’t in the healthiest location. During heavy rains, “It becomes a muck pool,” she said. ”It’s not the best location because it doesn’t have drainage. I want the dog park to be replaced but would like for us to re-think the location.”

Vandegrift offered the options of putting the park in the city budget or seeking private funding. “We’ll get on it and weigh our options further on down the road,” he said.

Warfield brought up another issue raised by the flooding, asking why the fire department does not help citizens pump water out of their basements when it floods. Council Member Steven Craig said that it could be a liability to do so, and that the fire department does not have the proper equipment.

Council Member Daniel Roller said, “I think it could be great if they could provide safety information.”

Council Member Bruce Southworth suggested having the fire chief and water and sewer superintendent attend council meetings once a month to provide updates.

In other business, the council passed a motion by Southworth that Midway Station developer Dennis Anderson pay for a city inspector to review infrastructure for the housing development he is to begin in part of the failed industrial park this year.

Southworth told the Messenger after the meeting that in Anderson’s development of the Green Gables commercial area on the south side of Interstate 64, some valves were not installed and some of the pipes weren’t three feet deep as required.

The council adopted a motion by Warfield to donate $250 for supplies and staff time for the Main Street Clean Sweep program to be conducted by Bluegrass Greensource on Earth Day, April 22.

The non-profit environmental educational organization is offering the program in 17 cities across Central Kentucky. Environmental Educator and Volunteer Coordinator Ashley Bryant-Cheney said there are 14 staff members working on this event and they are expecting 1,000 participants.

“I think this is a very good program,” said Warfield. “If you get children involved in picking up litter, hopefully, when they become adults they won’t be throwing down litter. . . . They will remember the next time they think of throwing something out of the car.”

The 17 cities participating are Midway, Versailles, Nicholasville, Wilmore, Harrodsburg, Burgin, Frankfort, Cynthiana, Georgetown, Lancaster, Richmond, Stanford, Winchester, Paris, Stamping Ground, Irvine, and Sadieville. More information can be found at bggreensource.org.

The council scheduled four meetings for next week. The Cemetery and City Property Committee will meet Monday, April 13, at 6 p.m., to continue discussions about the wooded area along Lee’s Branch at the foot of Gratz Street.

The Finance, Ordinance and Policy Committee will meet Tuesday, April 14, at 2 p.m. to discuss a draft fairness ordinance with city attorney Phil Moloney.

A budget workshop will be held Tuesday, April 14, at 5:30 p.m. There will also be a progress meeting for the Higgins Street water project Wednesday, April 15, at 10 a.m.

Bozarth lays plans for water decision, suggests Midway chamber of commerce and tourism agency

By Taylor Moak and Julia Myers
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

Midway’s City Council has many items on its agenda for the new two-year term.

The biggest issue for the city, Mayor Tom Bozarth told the new council at its first meeting Monday night, is developing a plan for its aging water and sewer system. Among several other items Bozarth mentioned was the possibility of the city having its own chamber of commerce and tourism commission.

The council is faced with the decision to either sell the city’s water system to Kentucky-American Water Co., or to borrow millions of dollars to restore the system and maintain ownership. A water-sewer task force has been studying the matter.

Bozarth said a public hearing for the issue has been tentatively set for Feb. 7. He said in an interview that he wants information about the issue to be delivered to the people of Midway with their next water bills.

Retired Judge Anthony Wilhoit swore in the
council for its new term. (Photos by Julia Myers)

New Council Member Grayson Vandegrift (right) has taken a particular interest in the issue. “None of us has enough information yet,” he said in an interview. “We need input from the citizens.”

Vandegrift says he has concerns about the potential deal. “You want to own your own water company, to control your own destiny,” he said. “The fear is, how do you pay for it?”

Bozarth gave Vandegrift what the mayor told the council would be "a real project," studying the ideas of a separate Midway chamber of commerce and tourism agency. The Woodford County Chamber of Commerce includes Midway in its promotions, but Bozarth said in response to questions after the meeting that it does not promote Midway, Versailles and the county equally.

Midway is “the northern gateway” to the county and is at the “epicenter of the horse industry,” Bozarth said, adding that Midway’s downtown is an attraction for both locals and visitors, full of restaurants and businesses. “We have something here that enhances the whole county . . . and we want to promote that.”

Should Midway form its own chamber, the city would have to figure out how it would be funded, Bozarth said. He said in the interview that a tourism commission could be funded by a tax on restaurant checks and the local lodging tax that now goes to the county tourism commission. That is a small amount, only from a bed-and-breakfast, but he said one or two motels could be built in the city.

Bozarth said Vandegrift would examine the ideas with others in the Midway Merchants Association. He said he asked Vandegrift to head up the project because the new council member has been chairman of the county tourism commission and operates a visitor-oriented business downtown, his family's restaurant, 815 Prime.

The mayor arrived at the end of the meeting because of work commitments -- he is in the horse business and a sale was on at Keeneland -- but he packed many ideas into a short time. He said in the interview, “I wanted to challenge this council to accomplish things over the next 2 years.”

He told the council that Midway needs to develop its own detailed disaster plan. The city is included in the state and county plans, but he said with an interstate and railroad in town, Midway should have its own.

Bozarth said the city needs to review its cemetery ordinance, look into the possibility of permit fees for events in town, and get every house in Midway a number. The incorrect use of garbage cans has also been a problem, he said, with some users leaving cans on the street too long. He proposed marking cans with names of people or businesses so it is visible to whom the cans belong.

Bozarth also mentioned the possibility of adding a footbridge in the city park, the need to fix sidewalks on Gratz Street and other areas, and the need for making the upstairs back porch of the City Hall building more architecturally appropriate.

Another item the mayor brought to the council for later discussion was the possibility of a noise ordinance, due to several vehicle-related noise complaints. He said he had been approached by community members about such an ordinance, but in the interview said he wasn't sure how such an ordinance could be enforced.

The council meeting was the first of the year and began with the swearing-in of all the members, including three new faces: Sara Hicks and Bruce Southworth (left) and Vandegrift. They join incumbents Sharon Turner, Daniel Roller and Aaron Hamilton. The three new members all participated in the council meeting, with Vandegrift and Southworth making the first motions of the evening for Turner to act in Bozarth’s place until he arrived. Turner was the top vote-getter in the fall council election, and it is traditional for that person to act as mayor pro tem, said city attorney Phil Moloney, who opened the meeting.

Due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 21, the next council meeting will be held Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.