Council hears about mask project, other covid-19 issues

By Hayley Burris

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

With all the stress that comes from the spread of the coronavirus, Midway is fighting back and making masks. That community project was among the updates at Monday’s City Council meeting, as well as reports on the town’s major employers and use of Walter Bradley Park.

Lakeshore Learning Materials, the city’s largest employer, is operating on a skeleton crew “out of an abundance of caution” and beginning furloughs, Mayor Grayson Vandegrift reported. He said furloughed workers are eligible for unemployment.

The second largest employer, Midway University, has closed to the public, but “This weekend they had picnickers up there, drivers, walkers,” Vandegrift said. He said some had been walking through the campus for 50 years, but “These are not common times, and we all have to do our part. The university does not want to start doing anything heavy-handed.”

Walter Bradley Park is open, and to allow social distancing, walkers are allowed to step off the trails. “One thing we need to get a little bit better about with some folks is the leash laws,” Vandegrift said, noting that dogs can scare some people get into fights with each other. He also said painted “happy rocks” should be kept in place or moved with a cloth or gloves.

Mask project: Prompted by the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear masks when you may encounter others in public, Vandegrift and volunteers have started ‘Project Healthy Midway.’

“We’re gonna be able to make enough masks for everybody in Midway who wants one,” he said. ”They will be free to citizens who want them.”

He said the masks are expected to be distributed soon, “in waves,” and will meet all CDC requirements and will include CDC guidelines for wearing and washing them.

Vandegrift said Amy Bowman, owner of Midway Makers Market, approached him with the idea. “That’s just another very great example of Midway at its finest,” he said.

He said the project has three teams: the prep team, the construction team, and the finishing team.

The prep team cut the fabric and pressed the materials together. That phase is complete, with the help of 40 volunteers, according to Vandegrift.

The construction team, with at least 22 volunteers is sewing the masks. The finishing team will sanitize and seal the masks, and couple them with the CDC guidelines.

“They’re doing all the proper social distancing even when volunteers are picking up materials,” said Vandegrift. “They’re not meeting, they’re driving off in cars and they don’t get within six feet of each other.”

According to the mayor, Bowman is expecting around 60 to 100 volunteers. If anyone wants to help out as well, contact her at 859-533-0922.

The masks are just an added layer of protection, Vandegrift said: “This is not your first line of defense. Nobody should think they have some kind of immunity suddenly because they have a mask on because they do not. This will not fully protect you from coronavirus; it will not fully keep someone else from getting coronavirus.”

The masks are designed to prevent spread of the virus by the estimated one-fourth of people who have it but don’t realize it because they have no symptoms. Vandegrift said the best way to stay safe is to stay socially distant, keep up good personal hygiene and to wash your hands with soap whenever possible.

Vandegrift said 1,500 masks are being made, with the expectation that some people already have some and some won’t want them, but more can be made. He said each mask costs about $2 to make, and he is paying the cost from general city funds with the expectation that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse 75 percent of the cost.

Council Member Stacy Thurman said, “We’re going to able to provide the health department with cloth masks, which I think is a really nice thing. They’re reserving all their masks for health-care providers, so . . . I think that any way we can support the health department and anything thing we can do for them is a good thing right now.”

Other covid-19 matters: Businesses must pay a minimum bill for water, sewage and garbage, but with most businesses being forced to be shut down, Vandegrift said he wants the council to relieve those businesses of paying. He said he plans to propose the move at the next council meeting, on April 20, unless “I get the sense it’s not gonna go” with the council.

Vandegrift said he ordered hand sanitizer from Bluegrass Distillers, “a distillery in Lexington that is dying to operate in Midway,” and is providing it to the three groceries, the fire department and the police department.

He reported that the Sojourn City Church is planning a short drive-in service in Easter, with no live music and cars parked every other spot to stay six feet apart, and only biological family members will be allowed in the same car. He said communion will be held but participants must bring their own bread and grape juice.

The Woodford County Health Department has issued an order allowing one person per household enter a grocery, except in cases where children or the elderly need assistance. (Gov. Andy Beshear made the policy statewide Wednesday.) Vandegrift said it’s difficult to practice social distancing in the Midway Corner Grocery, the town’s only full-service grocery, but Council Member Sara Hicks said the grocery is offering curbside service to people who pay in advance.

Vandegrift said, “That’s a great way to keep people out of the store and still support them.”

County Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler, who also participated in the online video meeting, said “Social distancing is going to get us through this.”

Vandegrift said citizens should tell officials if they see social-distancing rules being broken. “Tippin’ ain’t snitchin’,” he said, and it protects “the whole community.”

Restaurants get designated parking spaces for pickup and delivery; officials brief council on covid-19 response

Business was slow on Main Street's restaurant row around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, despite spaces reserved for pickup.

What does a restaurant-heavy town do when a pandemic hits and the governor says no one in the state can eat inside a restaurant? City officials make it easier for restaurants to offer pickup and delivery.

That's what the Midway City Council did Monday night, setting aside three parking spaces for each restaurant and their customers to use until Gov. Andy Beshear lifts his order closing bars and restaurants to inside service.

The council also heard updates from first responders about how Woodford County is dealing with the new coronavirus and the respiratory disease it causes, covid-19.

The council approved Mayor Grayson Vandegrift's plan to put signs on three parking spaces in front of each Main Street restaurant for customers to pick up takeout orders. He said the bicycle racks in front of the Goose and Gander would be removed to create shared parking spaces for delivery vehicles.

"It gives them some semblance of authority to do this, and encourage people to use that service," Vandegrift said. "If we need to tweak this as we go, I think that's fine." Asked how it would be enforced, he said police could check a vehicle's license plate and track down the owner. He said he would "use public pressure" to keep restaurant owners and employees form using the spaces.

Vandegrift said the idea is to encourage people to support the restaurants. They rely on out-of-town trade and bring traffic to other businesses. He said Cortney Neikirk, president of the Midway Business Association, consulted "every merchant she could find" about the plan and they all agreed with it. He said other steps may be needed later to help retailers.

Holly Hill Inn on North Winter Street won't offer delivery, but its sister restaurant, Wallace Station on Old Frankfort Pike, will deliver all over Woodford County, owner Ouita Michel said in a Facebook video Monday. She said she is giving give health-care professionals a 10 percent discount, will keep buying local food, "and I want to encourage you to do the same," by shopping at farmers' markets.

The Woodford County Tourism Commission is gathering and publishing information from restaurants and retailers on its Facebook page.

Woodford County Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler talked about priorities in responding to the coronavirus.

Emergency report: County Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler, in his report on the county's reaction to the pandemic, reminded the council of the reasons for the governor's order.

"We're dealing with something that has rapid spread and no vaccine," unlike the flu, he said. "Our health care has so much capacity. You've seen reports out of Italy, where they have to choose who gets the ventilator and who passes away. We don't want that to happen. That's why we're implementing the social distancing," to slow the spread of the virus. "If we can prolong the period of time, the system can respond better."

Vandegrift said, "People need to take the social distancing very seriously. . . . We're going to be in this for the long haul. It's going to be uncomfortable. By the long haul, I mean it could last through the summer. I think the more we practice social distancing, the more we take these recommendations . . . the shorter the time's going to be," and the fewer people will die.

Chandler said, "It's important while we're social distancing that we not isolate ourselves and get stir-crazy." Council Member John Holloway later advised, "Go walk in the park," which he manages.

Holloway spoke after Council Member Stacy Thurman reported that a group of Midway citizens has organized to help "people who are very isolated right now and are high-risk and may not be able to get out of their house at all." She said they are planning to hang notices on all doors or porches in town, offering help with errands.

Chandler said the main effect of the state of emergency that local government executives declared last week is to "open up procurement" so goods and services can be obtained quickly. When he found that police were having to bring hand sanitizer from home, he said, the county got some from the state.

Versailles Police Chief Mike Murray said his department, which patrols the whole county, would maintain all services but has taken some steps to reduce personal contact, such as investigating petty crimes by telephone. He said the shoplifting he feared hasn't happened, and "Our call volume, overall, has kind of declined a little bit."

Chandler said the county road department increased its bulk fuel purchases to guard against shortages, and fire departments are being cautious about possible exposure on medical-assistance calls, assessing patients "from a good distance" so they don't have to waste any personal protective equipment, supplies of which are expected to run short.

"The biggest thing we can do right now," Chandler said, "is to maintain situational awareness." Chandler said someone in the county probably has the virus but there have been no positive tests. Beshear has said every county will eventually have a case.

In other business, the council formally accepted the recent audit report for the 2018-19 fiscal year, and held a public hearing and first reading on an ordinance to replace the telephone-line fee for 9-1-1 emergency service with a $59 fee on each residential address, to be placed on county tax bills. "Everyone seems to be behind this idea," Vandegrift said.

Thurman, chair of the city's Workplace Housing Task Force, said it has concluded that the city needs a professional assessment of housing needs and wants in the city, not only seeing what citizens think but getting the opinions of out-of-towners who work in Midway and might move here.

Mayor declares state of emergency for pandemic, plans to offer council plan to allow curbside restaurant service

Screenshot of first page of emergency declaration

Midway Mayor Grayson Vandegrift has joined the other two government executives in Woodford County in declaring a local state of emergency due to covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The declaration was made quietly. It was included in the packet for Monday night's City Council meeting. Vandegrift told the Messenger that it was "procedural," to make sure the city is eligible for any funding related to the pandemic.

The declaration says it allows the mayor to waive "procedures and formalities otherwise required by law pertaining to performance of public work, entering into contracts, incurring obligations, employment of permanent and temporary workers, utilization of volunteer workers, rental of equipment, appropriation and expenditure of public funds."

Later today, Vandegrift said he was adding to the meeting's agenda "a plan I’m working on with our restaurants and the business association to allow restaurants to offer curbside service during the pandemic. Details are still being worked out." Restaurateurs have voiced concern about the ban on spectators in the first half of the spring meet at Keeneland Race Course, one of their busiest times.

Gov. Andy Beshear, asked at this afternoon's press conference if Kentuckians should eat at restaurants this weekend, said "You need to avoid crowds. Now, does that mean you can go to a restaurant, as long as people are spread out? We're going to be putting up guidance for food service and that here soon, but again, you need to practice good judgment. If you're going to a place and you see a large crowd, with people close together, not six feet apart, that's not what we should be doing."

UPDATE, March 14: Asked the same question at Saturday's press conference, Beshear said, "Order takeout," and said he would. "We want to support that restaurant industry." About two hours later, the Holly Hill Inn sent out an email blast offering chicken and steak dinners for takeout Sunday from 4 to 5:30 p.m.