Council debates how to help residents fix sidewalks as mayor plans to fund them in new budget

The sidewalk at 129 W. Main St. is among those that have been
painted to reduce the trip hazard. (Photo by Casey Parker-Bell)

By Katherine Stach and Anyssa Roberts

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Several sidewalks in Midway are in serious disrepair and can be a tripping hazard. The city's sidewalk policy, which has been a controversial topic for a long time, was brought up with a new perspective at Monday’s city council meeting.

For many years, the policy has been that the city can charge property owners $10 a day for damaged sidewalks. However, this has not been strictly enforced since 1990, Mayor Grayson Vandegrift said.

“If you can’t afford to pay for sidewalk repairs how do you think you can afford to pay the fine,” Vandergrift asked, “That’s absurd.”

Last fall, Vandegrift appointed a committee of council members -- Bruce Southworth, Kaye Nita Gallagher and Steven Craig -- to address the city’s sidewalk concerns and draft a plan for improvement.

Southworth, the committee's chair, said it has "been going back and forth" and not met recently, and it would be good to get the whole council involved. City officials have discussed the possibility of sharing sidewalk repair costs with property owners.

Southworth brought something to the council’s attention on Monday evening that he said had not been discussed, the possibility of the city covering the full cost of sidewalk repairs.

Vandergrift, who wants to spend $25,000 or more on sidewalks in the next fiscal year, asked Southworth about his ideas for those who don’t have sidewalks or who have already paid for their sidewalks to be repaired.

Southworth said city money could be used to build new sidewalks on blocks that don’t have them.

Council Member Dan Roller said that although the city wants to help residents, sidewalks are for public use, not just for private homeowners. He proposed adding the sidewalk repair costs into a monthly payment for homeowners.

Vandegrift noted, “In the past we had a policy where the city would work with the owner to cover up to $500 worth of repairs.” On projects costing less than $500, the city would also assist in covering a portion, while leaving the rest to the property owner.

And, if the owner did not work with the city to repair the sidewalk by an assigned date, the city would reserve the right to go in and complete the job. The owner would be billed for the work, and if they did not pay that bill, a lien could be placed on the property.

“I think that would be both a fair and easy to execute policy,” Vandegrift said. He said the policy was actually piloted two years ago, before he became mayor, and only one person took advantage of it.

Council Member Libby Warfield noted, “Some sidewalks go the length of a resident’s entire property, and $500 isn’t even going to begin to cover those repairs.”

Council Member Sara Hicks also suggested the city apply for a grant for sidewalk repair, because the sidewalk issues affect mobility, health and school transportation.

Vandegrift has said he would like a new policy to be put in place by the start of the next fiscal year, since council budget workshops begin soon and he would like to propose $25,000 for sidewalk repairs.

Southworth suggested that the city should begin fixing the most severe walkways with this money, and go forward from there.

The sooner the better, some might say, as the city’s faulty sidewalks have also raised safety concerns. “We’ve got some major sidewalk concerns to fix downtown, or else someone is going to get hurt,” Vandegrift said.

The raises and dips in the city’s sidewalks create a tripping hazard for those walking, and in a community where traveling via foot is popular, this poses a problem. The city has painted some of the hazards to make them more visible, but it is not a long-term solution, Vandergrift said. Although sidewalks are a resident’s responsibility, the city can be held liable if someone hurts themselves because of problems with the pathways.

Vandergrift asked for the council to consider the options discussed, and said sidewalks will be on the next council meeting agenda.

The council will have a special meeting at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 13 to begin discussing Vandegrift's proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Cemetery property: Hicks said in January that the city made a priority list of things that needed to be done, and one of the top priorities was deciding what to do with the house in the city’s cemetery.

The city originally planned to demolish the house, but Hicks suggested giving it away to someone who could prove capable of moving the structure.

The individual who decided to take the house would be responsible for the costs associated with having the structure inspected and deciding if it was stable enough for relocation.

Another suggestion was that the property be used as a live burn for the fire department. There are a number of avenues that the city would have to go through legally to make that happen, but the council agreed that it would be a great training exercise for the fire department.

“But, there are also concerns as to how close that house is located to the city’s storage facility,” Vandegrift said.

Cleanup day April 22: A representative from Bluegrass Greensource discussed the Main Street Clean Sweep event set for Midway on Friday, April 22, from noon until 4 p.m. on East Main Street.

Community members can meet to pick up and dispose of litter throughout the city. Participants are provided with bags, gloves and shirts for the event. The price of the materials will be $250, and Midway will be invoiced for the cost. Specifically, the trash clean-up will focus on areas around waterways.

“We try to focus on a certain day to get people out and aware, but any way that we can help to pick up litter in the area is going to be really important to us,” Bluegrass Greensource representative Ashley Bryant Cheney said.

Memorial Day services: With Memorial Day approaching, Craig suggested that it was time to begin thinking about holiday services. He said they are still looking for a speaker but have gotten a head start on planning by ordering tents and chairs.

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.