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| Elisha Holt does a Midway Business Association video about the Historic Midway Museum Gift Store, part of a series tied to retail reopenings, as co-owner Leslie Penn watches and Morgan Castle records. The store will reopen on a limited basis. |
By Aaron Gershon
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
The Midway City Council heard Mayor Grayson Vandegrift
outline the city's game plan as several businesses are set to reopen this week
with Kentucky’s covid-19 restrictions gradually being lifted.
Vandegrift also discussed his new “middle ground” budget,
and the council approved three zoning-ordinance changes, in another council
meeting held online due to the pandemic.
Reopening and enforcement: Vandegrift told the council that he has sent both digital
and hard copies of the reopening guidelines from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to businesses, and expects workers and customers to
follow them closely.
"We're going to be strict about this, as we should
be," the mayor said, adding that violations of the guidelines should be
reported: "Tipping ain't snitching." However, he said reports should
be made to him directly via phone call, text, or email, not to police, who he
said are busy enough already.
Vandegrift said “There are some things we can mitigate
ourselves, just by talking to business owners,” who are responsible for
controlling behavior in their premises. He said after the meeting, “The optics
of having a police officer come to a business is not really something we want
to do.”
Council Member Sara Hicks said she has had “some kind of scary experiences” in a Lexington grocery of people not wearing masks or keeping six feet apart, and asked Vandegrift “who is responsible for following those rules, besides the customers.”
He replied, "I do consider myself somewhat responsible for making sure the governor's guidelines are being followed. You know, we're not going to create a police state. . . . My approach is going to be this, that no restaurant and no shop wants to permanently damage their brand right now by being the place that created a virus farm."
He said customers will be expected to wear masks indoors, except when eating, but “We as a government can’t force people to wear masks,” so it’s up to business owners.
“Restaurants need to know that right now, their duty is heightened, in a sense,” he said. “They really, I think, need, and I think they will, step up to the plate and help enforce these guidelines, because they don’t want to be the restaurant that gets in trouble; they don’t want to be the restaurant or shop that gets shut down and loses their business license over, you know, infractions. They don’t want to be the restaurant known as the place that started an outbreak in a city that had zero confirmed cases. And I think in that sense, market forces can help keep them in line.”
The mayor, a former restaurateur, said he knows how hard it is to tell independent-minded customers that they have to do thing they don’t want to do, but should think of the mask rule as just the latest addition to the standard sign, “No shirt, no shoes, no service.” He added, “That mask is not to protect you, it’s to protect other people.”
Asked after the meeting what the penalties for violation
would be, he said “I don’t think it’s going to come to a point where we have to
do something drastic, like pull a business license.” He said he would use “open
communication” and “honest dialogue” and give violators an opportunity to
comply, but there is “not gonna be three strikes.”
Vandegrift said Midway’s experience would be “a bit of a
case study” because it is a small town that attracts many visitors.
“Everyone's got to stay vigilant, using social distance,
wearing a mask and using the proper hygiene to keep our numbers as close to
zero as possible,” he said. No cases of the virus have been reported in Midway,
but “I’m sure it’s been here in one form or another.”
Many visitors come to Midway’s restaurants, which can reopen
Friday but with only one-third of their normal indoor seating capacity.
Vandegrift said he would issue an executive order letting restaurants put tables in parking spaces that the city has designated for curbside pickup, and waiving fees restaurants
normally pay to use their sidewalks to set up outdoor tables
He said the order will
also allow alcohol sales at such tables, but he would not reinstate the "entertainment destination center" ordinance that allows patrons to carry open beverage containers between businesses. "I think we need to step slowly into this," he said. "I don't think it's the time to encourage congregation downtown."
Vandegrift said outdoor dining is
safer than indoor dining. "Indoors has poorer circulation of air, and
ventilation systems can pass covid-19 to others."
Restaurants will still be advised to encourage customers to
use their curbside pickup, online ordering and delivery options.
“The restaurants and shops that adapt are the ones that will
survive,” Vandegrift said. “No restaurant can survive on just 33 percent
occupancy.”
Budget: With reopening on the horizon, Vandegrift discussed
his
recently revised "middle ground budget" that adds back some expenses he and the council agreed to cut when city revenues were more in doubt.
The “bare bones budget” cut almost $200,000 of spending from
the mayor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
That is now “not necessary,” he said, mainly because the
city’s largest employer, Lakeshore Learning Materials, had furloughed 225 of
its 300 employees, putting a hole in the city’s largest source of revenue, the
occupational tax on wages and net profits.
Now Lakeshore plans to bring back its full workforce in the
next few weeks, and “expects to have a profitable year,” which it did not
expect last month, Vandegrift said.
The company also expects to receive a certificate of
occupancy in September for its second Midway distribution center, with that
facility opening officially in March 2021, adding revenue from up 100 new jobs
in the last quarter of the fiscal year.
Nevertheless, Vandegrift reduced his estimate of
occupational-tax income for the next fiscal year to $737,500, down from his
original estimate of $825,000. He said the city also expects less income from
restaurants. The mayor proposed restoring these “bare bones budget” cuts, totaling $67,500:
● $10,000
for training and travel for employees and elected officials
● $7,500 in
donations (including $5,000 to Court Appointed Special Advocates)
● $25,000
for street paving, for a total of $50,000
● $20,000
for the sidewalk cost-sharing program
● $5,000 for
a water fountain and refill station on East Main Street
Vandegrift said he would like to see the council find a way
to restore the $30,000 originally budgeted for completion of the pavilion in
the cemetery, because city employees have told him about older people having a
hard time in bad weather at the cemetery, with few family members to help them.
Beshear has limited funeral and burial gatherings to 10 people.
The council will work more on the budget during a special
budget workshop meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 26.
Zoning: The council gave second reading and final passage to three
zoning ordinances that will:
● Allow
fences in the front building setbacks along rights of way to be up to 48 inches
high instead of 42; John Holloway voted no.
● Limit
display of banners for charitable activities for up to 14 days, with a 14-day
waiting period for reinstallation; Logan Nance voted no, calling it “silly.”
● Prohibit
permanent location of recreational vehicles in flood plains. All council
members present voted yes; Kaye Nita Gallagher was absent.
The changes, in the countywide zoning ordinance, are being
approved by the Versailles City Council and the county Fiscal Court. Those
bodies are also approving another change recommended by the Planning
Commission, which allows signs to project up to five feet from fronts of buildings,
with nine feet of head clearance.
With the council’s tacit agreement, Vandegrift did not ask
for approval of that change. He said at the last meeting, “Our downtown is
beautiful and pedestrian-friendly, and I feel that this could only lead to a
cluttered and unnecessary look.” He said it is “the first time I can remember
when all three bodies didn’t adopt the same amendment” to the countywide
ordinance.
Other business: Holloway, the unpaid
manager of Walter Bradley Park, said it will “probably have 20 times more
visitors than we did this time last year for obvious reasons,” but “most
everyone is really considerate of getting out of the way of other people.”
Nance and Vandegrift said they had noticed more dog waste in
the park. Holloway said he is placing signs to encourage owners to pick up
after their dogs, but “Some people just don’t want to.” He said a dispenser for
pet-waste bags is located in the fenced dog park.
Vandegrift announced that the city’s annual Memorial Day
service would be held largely online, with readings of the names of veterans on
the monument in the cemetery, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
