Council committee decides noise complaint against new restaurant doesn't warrant changing ordinance

City Clerk-Treasurer Phyllis Hudson listened as Council Members Southworth, Hicks and Simoff talked. (Photo by Sarah Ladd)

By Sarah Ladd
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

The Finance, Ordinance and Policy Committee of the Midway City Council decided Thursday that a recent noise complaint doesn’t warrant changing the city’s noise ordinance.

The complaint came from a community member against the Brown Barrel for playing a radio too loud before the restaurant opened for the day. The complainant, who was not identified at the meeting, said they approached the business in person before filing a complaint. The city sent the business a letter on May 15 requesting compliance with the ordinance.

Committee members Sara Hicks, Bruce Southworth and Steve Simoff discussed the complaint and read through the ordinance, which covers “excessive noise that adversely affects the community and individuals” that may cause irritants or health concerns. The ordinance’s standards for “excessive noise” cover power equipment, construction, motor vehicles and “noise that disturbs a reasonable person” among others. The ordinance applies to noises audible from a distance of 50 feet.

Southworth said he has been in the area and does not think the music is too loud.

Simoff said that since the committee members did not hear the music at the time of the alleged disturbance, they have nothing on which to base a revision of the ordinance.

The three concurred that nothing in the ordinance forbids the business from playing music, and that the issue is a result of commercial areas being so close to residential areas. “This is what comes from living in a commercial area,” Hicks said.

The Brown Barrel opened in Midway a few months ago into a building that had been vacant for years.

Hicks added later, “It seems to me that our ordinance is reasonable and fair, and I don’t really see a reason to change it.”

Council panel to discuss noise complaints, ordinance

The Finance, Ordinance and Policy Committee of the Midway City Council will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 14 at City Hall to discuss the noise ordinance and noise complaints. All committee and council meetings are open to the public.

Council rejects proposal to extend bar hours, seeks applications for temporary successor to Warfield

By Lizzy Allen

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

The Midway City Council defeated an ordinance Monday evening that would have extended legal sales of alcoholic beverages to 1 a.m. six days a week.

The council also honored deceased member Libby Warfield and agreed to accept applications for the appointment to fill her unexpired term, which runs through the end of the year.

The defeated ordinance would have allowed licensed alcohol vendors to remain open until 1 a.m. instead of midnight Monday through Saturday. They would have still been required to close by 10 p.m. on Sunday.

“I don’t like the idea of this,” Mayor Grayson Vandegrift said. He said although the ordinance would pose no legal liabilities, the council should consider moral liabilities that could arise if extended hours of alcohol sales resulted in harm to citizens of Midway.

“At 1 a.m., you can’t get an Uber in Midway like you can in Lexington or Frankfort,” Vandegrift said.

Council Members Sara Hicks, Steve Simoff and Kaye Nita Gallagher also argued against the ordinance.

Hicks said that if Midway had public transportation, she would feel better about extending the hours, but she could not support the ordinance until then.

Simoff cited a serious car accident involving his brother and alcohol as an example of the potential consequences of later alcohol sales. “I just can’t, in good conscience, vote for 1 a.m. shutdown,” he said.

Gallagher said she did not see the need for extended hours. “I’ve always been told ‘nothing good happens after midnight’,” she said.

Council Member Bruce Southworth, who proposed the ordinance, said he believed there was a need for extended hours based on what business owners had told him. But only Council Member John McDaniel agreed with him, so the ordinance lost 3-2. (The mayor votes only to break ties.)

Warfield vacancy: The council adopted “a resolution honoring the life and service of Libby Warfield and declaring the week of March 4-10, 2018, as ‘Libby Warfield Week’ in Midway.”

Warfield died of cancer Feb. 24, after having served on the City Council since Jan 1, 2015. Several of her family members and friends were present at the meeting. After Vandegrift read the resolution, he presented the certificate to her husband, David Warfield.

Vandegrift asked Hicks to replace Warfield as chair of the Cemetery, City Property and Blighted Property Committee. Hicks accepted.

The council then discussed how to go about filling the open seat. Vandegrift reminded the council that it must make its decision within 30 days of Warfield’s death, but he would like to see the position filled by the March 19.

“I would suggest that you all accept essentially an application process,” Vandegrift said.

He said the letter should explain why the applicant would be a good candidate to serve the rest of Warfield’s term, which runs through Dec. 31. He said applicants should also promise that they will not run for the council after the term is up. The filing deadline for council elections is in August.

Vandegrift set the deadline for the applications for noon March 14. His formal notice appears at the bottom of this story. It does not bar applications from people who want to run in the council election, but says others would get preference -- unless none of the applicants say they're not going to run.

Merchants’ business: Leslie Penn, treasurer of the Midway Business Association, asked the council to reconsider donating $300 for interstate signs. This request was denied at the last council meeting.

Penn said that advertising like the interstate signs is crucial to keep business in Midway from dying out. “You have to remind people that Midway is alive and it is so interesting and we’ve got very diverse people and shops,” she said.

Southworth asked the balances of the association’s checking accounts. Penn said there is around $8,000 in the main account and another $8,000 or so in a separate account that holds only Fall Festival funds.

Vandegrift said that the donation for the interstate signs “was not denied out of malice.” He said that the council is planning on including funds for a new “Welcome to Midway” sign in next year’s budget.

The council approved the Business Association’s application for a parade/event permit for its “St. Paddy’s Day” celebration on Saturday, March 17.

The event will include six booths, a band, and cars, trucks and horses for the parade.

Other business: Helen Rentch of the Woodford County Community Fund invited the council to attend “On the Table,” an event the group will host March 28.

Rentch described the event as “a community conversation about ways to improve the place we call home.” She invited council members to register for breakfast, lunch or dinner, all of which will be served at the Life Adventure Center in Versailles.

Property owner B.J. Bentley asked the council to work on controlling the noise in downtown Midway, noting that most of the restaurants back up to houses and the noise from them, vehicles and music disturbs some citizens’ sleep.

Vandegrift said the noise ordinance is “difficult to enforce,” but said he would send out a letter as a reminder.

NOTICE

    The Midway City Council is now accepting letters of interest from Midway citizens who are interested in filling the open council seat left by the passing of Libby Warfield.

    Interested persons should write a summary (500 words or less) of their background and why they feel they are a good candidate to fill the rest of the term, which ends December 31, 2018. If you are interested, please turn your candidate summary in to City Hall no later than noon on Wednesday, March 14.

    By state law, the decision of who will fill the open seat is entirely up to the five remaining council members, and they are required to fill the seat within 30 days of the vacancy. They will confirm their appointment at our regularly scheduled council meeting on March 19 at 5:30 p.m.

    All candidates must be at least 18 years of age, and must be a registered voter in the city. Candidates who are NOT planning to run for a full city council term in the fall are preferable, so as not to give any non-incumbent candidate an advantage over other non-incumbents. 

    Intention to run for city council in the fall should not preclude any potential candidate from applying, but those applicants will most likely only be considered in the event that only full term council candidates apply.

    Feel free to call me at City Hall (846-4413) or on my cell (361-6320) if you have any questions.

Grayson Vandegrift, Mayor

City of Midway

Council passes noise ordinance, gives Bourbon Chase a good shaking and stirring before approving its permit

Midway has a tougher noise ordinance and the Bourbon Chase has another permit to run through the town in mid-October, following tonight's city council meeting.

The council voted unanimously for the noise ordinance, which officials said would be easier to enforce than the current one, but not before some pointed questions from Council Member Bruce Southworth.

"Do we need this?" Southworth asked, inquiring how many noise complaints city officials have received in the last six months. Council Member Sharon Turner said she had probably received 10 during the past two years, mainly regarding "car stereos, fireworks and loud mufflers."

Turner and Council Member Dan Roller mentioned repeat violators, such as a car owner who regularly gunned his engine through loud pipes at 5:30 a.m. and a resident who used a riding lawn mower as a personal vehicle on the streets.

Council Member Grayson Vandegrift said he had heard from no one who was opposed to the ordinance, but Southworth continued to be skeptical, asking how it could be enforced, particularly against the driver of a vehicle moving through town.

The Versailles Police Department patrols the entire county. Assistant Chief Jim Fugate, who reviewed the ordinance while it was being drafted, said officers would try to catch up to the vehicle and stop it, and if the noise had ceased, tell the driver about the noise ordinance and the complaint.

City attorney Phil Moloney said, "There's no doubt it's going to be tough to enforce, but it's meant to control the excessive, extraordinary noise," and incidents when apparent violators don't stop when asked. Mayor Tom Bozarth added, "It's better to have something [than to tell citizens] there's nothing we can do. . . . This is something Chief Fugate and the police department need."

Southworth, apparently convinced, joined the rest of the council in approving the ordinance, which can be read here.

Towns on the Bourbon Chase route map are marked with distillery symbols

At its last meeting, the council tabled a permit request from the Bourbon Chase, an annual relay race on a route connecting Central Kentucky distilleries. Bozarth and several council members complained that guiding the runners through town is a burden with uncertain rewards. "It's starting to feel like people are coming in and taking advantage of our town," said Vandegrift, who made the motion to table. "The community should get something back for it."

The race benefits the National Hospice Foundation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and LexArts, a funding source for Central Kentucky arts groups. Two weeks ago, the council discussed the possibility of tiered permit fees for such events, depending on their size, but that option was not discussed tonight.

Instead, the council and Bozarth gave a grilling to Bourbon Chase representative Mike Kuntz about the personnel and planning needed to make the race run safely and smoothly through Midway -- even after he told them that the race now requires those coming from long distances to provide volunteers, and that had quickly filled the slots for volunteers in the Midway area (two shifts of five volunteers each, he said afterward).

Bozarth pressed his case. "I'm not going to stand out here in Winter Street and direct traffic," as he did last year, he said. "Six of us have had to do this ourselves, and that's got to stop."

When Kuntz said the Bourbon Chase could bypass Midway in favor of other towns that want it, starting next year, Bozarth said they need to meet with Fugate to discuss traffic control, have a plan, and know when the first, last and bulk of the runners will hit town on Oct. 19. Kuntz said the bulk would come through a little after 2 p.m., and he offered to station the areas coordinator for the race in Midway. He also offered to take suggestions from local leaders about what to mention on informational sheets about the community that are given to runners and other team members.

Kuntz began his presentation by emphasizing the economic benefits of bringing hundreds of runners to the town. He said this year's relay will have 4,000 runners in 330 relay teams, "an affluent group . . . known for spending money when they are here." He said there is "anecdotal evidence" that runners are coming back for more leisurely visits. He said the race is trying for "controlled growth" and this year turned down more teams than it accepted.

Council scheduled to act on noise ordinance July 15

The Midway City Council gave first reading July 1 to a proposed ordinance that would regulate noise in the town and prescribe a $250 fine for violators. The ordinance is scheduled for second reading and final passage at the council's next meeting, Monday, July 15, at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Assistant Versailles Police Chief Jim Fugate was scheduled to discuss enforcement with the council at its July 1 meeting, but was unable to attend. Mayor Tom Bozarth said Fugate is scheduled to appear at the July 15 meeting. Versailles police patrol all of Woodford County.

A key part of the proposed ordinance reads: "It shall be unlawful for any person to make, cause to be made, continue or to permit any excessive or unreasonably loud noise or any other raucous sound, considering the time, date, place and nature of such noise or sound, that annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, health, peace, safety or repose of other persons of ordinary sensibilities within the city limits. Factors for determining whether a sound is unreasonably loud and raucous include, but are not limited to the proximity of the sound to sleeping facilities, the land use, nature and zoning of the area from which the sound emanates and the area where it is received, the time of day or night the sound occurs, the duration of the sound and whether the sound is recurrent, intermittent or constant."

To download a PDF of the draft ordinance, click here.

Committee to finalize anti-noise ordinance Monday morning; then council will meet, instead of June 17

The Midway City Council will hold a special meeting Monday, June 10 at 9 a.m. to handle business that would otherwise have been dealt with at the regular meeting on June 17, which has been canceled.

The agenda includes amendment of the alcohol ordinance to allow sales on election days, including the June 25 election to fill the unexpired term of Carl Rollins of Midway as state representative. The state law prohibiting alcohol sales on election days was repealed by the legislature this year, but the ban is also included in the local ordinance.

Also on Monday morning, at 8:00, the council's Cemetery, City Property and Ordinance/Policy Committee will meet to discuss a policy for benches at the cemetery and to finalize the proposed Ordinance Relating to Prohibiting and Controlling Noise Disturbances.

Both meetings will be held at City Hall. All council and committee meetings are open to the public.

Committee to consider first draft of noise-and-nuisance ordinance, cemetery ideas Monday morning

Noise and cemetery issues are on the agenda of the Cemetery, City Property and Ordinance/Policy Committee of the Midway City Council, which will meet Monday, May 13, from 9 to 10 a.m. at City Hall.

The committee will consider first draft of a noise ordinance, an idea it has discussed at its last two meetings. The draft will also cover nuisances other than excessive noise, according to the meeting notice from City Hall.

Cemetery topics will be ideas for a chapel, a bench for senior citizens and the Memorial Day service. All city council and committee meetings are open to the public.

Council committee starts to draft a city noise ordinance

By Nini Edwards
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

A Midway City Council committee is discussing what a noise ordinance in the city would look like.

The Cemetery, Ordinance and Policy Committee talked Monday about possibly including restrictions on such things as machinery noise, loud music or barking dogs.

The three-member committee reviewed Versailles and Lexington’s ordinances as examples that could guide Midway’s decisions.

“I don’t think there are many things in the Lexington ordinance that will be amicable to Midway,” said Council Member Grayson Vandegrift. “The Versailles ordinance seems a little closer to us.”

For example, the Lexington ordinance prohibits noises that “disturb a person with normal sensibilities,” while the general part of the Versailles ordinance says “No person shall make, continue, or cause to be made or continued any loud, unnecessary, or unusual noise or any noise which either annoys, disturbs, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace, or safety of others within the limits of the city.”

Vandegrift said, “I guess the reason behind this is to give police the discretion to reasonably discern” whether someone is violating the ordinance.

Vandegrift showed concern for certain Midway events if the noise limit starts at 10 p.m., and mentioned the possibility of imposing noise limits from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and requiring downtown events to end by 10 p.m.

“Sound can carry pretty far; you can hear a band over on West Higgins,” he said. “That might be something to think about.”

Council Member Sharon Turner said most of the city’s noise problems are from repeat violators, and wondered how the ordinance could address that. “It is not for the first-time offense, it is for the consistent day-in and day-out issues that we don’t have an ordinance to cover.”

Turner, the chair of the committee, is planning to bring the ordinance up again at the next committee meeting, at 9 a.m. on May 13. Turner said she is sending the Lexington and the Versailles ordinances as examples to the city attorney to prepare a draft ordinance for the committee to consider.

Turner said after the meeting that she would like the committee to think about the situation and come up with ideas to present after having a chance to think about the matter.

“Last meeting I had asked them to review the ordinances and come back with ideas and I didn’t hear anything, so sometimes I think it is easier when you see something that is yours,” she said.

The committee also discussed the possibility of a chapel at the Midway Cemetery where people could meet for services.

The chapel would provide a safer environment and would be more comfortable in certain weather conditions when holding a service, funeral director David Clark told the committee. He said that it would be safer and more convenient than graveside services.

Council debates charitable donations, OKs quarry work, and hears about job prospects and a grant hiccup

By Megan Smiddie

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

Midway Station, missing grant paperwork, requests for charitable donations and fixing up the old quarry at the city park were among topics the Midway’s City Council discussed Monday night.

Brad McLean, the chairman of the Woodford County Economic Development Authority, reported that there have been “four or five inquiries” recently on the three available industrial lots in Midway Station.

“I wish I could say more,” said McLean. “There is progress, I promise you.” He said any resulting development on the lots would be small, totaling only five to 10 employees.

Midway Station is a failed industrial park north of Interstate 64 that currently hosts a couple of small businesses, with all other lots empty. It left Midway and the county with a $6 million debt, so they optioned the property to Dennis Anderson of Lexington, whose plans for a residential and commercial development on the site have been stopped by the recession. McLean said EDA is trying to work with Anderson and the banks that hold the debt, since Anderson has an option on the entire property.

Mayor Tom Bozarth said that he would like to see a progress report from EDA on recruitment of “small, little, green jobs” and an agreement for funding of the agency, especially since it has employed a recruiter. “There needs to be an inter-local agreement between Midway, Versailles and the fiscal court about funding for this project,” he said.

The council spent several minutes debating whether it should make a $250 donation to the American Cancer Society as part of the annual Relay for Life fundraiser. The larger question being raised was: Should people who are handling taxpayers' dollars be donating them to charities?

“I think we can all agree that cancer has affected every single one of us,” said Council Member Grayson Vandegrift, who made the motion for the donation, noting (as Bozarth did) that the City of Versailles had given likewise. “I think it is one of those causes that we can make an exception.”

Council Member Daniel Roller countered, “Where do we draw the line?” He added, “Cancer has affected a lot of people, heart disease has affected a lot of people, Alzheimer’s affects a lot of people. . . . I don’t know how we determine which ones we give to.”

Roller moved to table the request until a policy has been put in place on such donations, but his motion lost 4-2, with only Council Member Sara Hicks joining him. The motion for the donation passed 4-1, with Roller opposed and Hicks abstaining.

A citizen at the meeting later emailed Bozarth, the council and the Midway Messenger expressing concern. “This is, I am sure, a worthy cause for donation, by each individual,” Michael Ashton of Midway wrote. “I do not believe it is proper for the city to decide to spend these funds.”

Ashton, who ran for a council seat last year, pointed out that there was “no set aside for donations of this type in the budget.” He added, “It sets a bad precedent; how do you say ‘No’ to the next and other worthy requests?” Ashton requested that the council rethink its decision and that at the next budget meeting set aside a separate allocation for donations.

Near the end of its session, the council agreed to hold a special meeting at 8 a.m. Monday to start discussing the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. “It’s just going to be a preliminary walk-through,” Bozarth said. That meeting will be followed by a meeting of the council’s Cemetery, Ordinance and Policy Committee, which has begun looking at noise ordinances in other cites as it considers whether to enact one in Midway.

Bryan Kirby, president of Community & Economic Development Associates Inc., asked the council to pass a resolution approving preparation of the application for the $500,000 grant given to the city in 2007 for the nursing home soon to be built as The Homeplace at Midway.

Kirby said that in getting ready for the actual release of the money, he could not find that the council had ever formally authorized the application. He said paperwork may have been lost in the merger of CEDA and Will Linder and Associates, which actually prepared the application.

“An action by the council was never taken to formerly hire a firm to write the grant,” Kirby said. Bozarth said City Clerk Phyllis Hudson had been unable to find any evidence of such action. He suggested that the council simply amend its agreement with CEDA to include the authorization, and indicated that documents to that effect would be prepared.

In an update on the project, Kirby said the state Department for Local Government is giving Christian Care Communities a 90-day extension of time to award bids on the project. He said CCC technically met Monday’s deadline by hiring a construction manager instead of a using a traditional bid process, but to get the extension the city will need to submit a letter supporting it.

“It was more of a formality to the council,” Kirby explained afterward. “It grants a 90-day extension on provision of any final documentation needed to release the $500,000.”

The council unanimously to approve Bozarth’s request to spend $3,500 on cleaning up the old quarry at the park. “It will make it nice and make it something we can use in the community and enhance the park,” he said. The quarry site lies between the library on the north and the dog park on the south, and between Lee’s Branch on the west and Northside Elementary School on the east.

An ordinance revising rules for the park was given a first reading. It would remove a ban on firearms that has been invalidated by a state law passed last year. “The presence of firearms shall now be permitted,” substitute city attorney Josh Salsburey said.

Perhaps coincidentally, an unidentified man drew attention at the meeting by wearing an automatic pistol. He left before the meeting was over. Woodford Sun Correspondent John McDaniel, a former policeman, noted that the gun was not loaded: "My guess is that he was waiting for someone to challenge him after the mayor read the no-concealed weapon paragraph before the meeting began."

The council also passed a resolution designating April as Alcohol Awareness Month. “We can help provide hope for today and hope for tomorrow to people facing challenges with alcohol use and abuse,” Salsburey read from part of the resolution. “We can discourage underage drinking throughout our community by giving our young people better things to do than use.” 

Vandegrift presented recent statistics for the city’s Meet Me in Midway website. He is working with the creators of the site to redo it. “We are looking to make it more mobile friendly and add a calendar,” he said. The statistics showed that more than 70 percent of new visitors to the site viewed it on a mobile device, but the site has no special configuration for such devices.

Finally, Council Member Sharon Turner asked for help in reviving the city's monthly newsletter, Midway Matters, which has been produced mainly by volunteers.

City panel to discuss possible noise and garbage ordinances, park and cemetery issues Mon. at 9 a.m.

Several interesting items are on the agenda of the Cemetery, City Property and Ordinance/Policy Committee of the Midway City Council, which will meet Monday, Feb. 18, at 9 a.m. at City Hall.

The agenda items include a possible ordinances to regulate noise and require identification of downtown garbage and recycling cans; permit fees for events; work on the back porch of City Hall; Walter Bradley Park, including a possible foot bridge; and several cemetery issues: removal of items,  Memorial Day, the tree grant and repair of stones and foundations.

All city council and committee meetings are open to the public.