Horsey Hundred will bring scads of cyclists through Midway Saturday; rest stop captain seeks volunteers

The 39th annual Horsey Hundred bicycle tour will come through Midway Saturday, May 28, with a rest stop at the lot next to Midway United Methodist Church from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with most of the cyclists expected to come through in the morning. The Bluegrass Cycling Club provides food and supplies, while volunteers hand out snacks, mix Gatorade, answer questions and provide other assistance.

Midway City Council Member Dan Roller, captain of the rest stop, is asking anyone from Midway who didn't register with www.horseyhundred.com but who want to volunteer part of the day "to just show up and wear any type of Midway shirt, Midway church shirts or other t-shirts that would let the riders know you are locals and may be able to provide information about local activities. . . . Please leave me a message or show up. Thanks."

Midway will also be the site of a Saturday night party for cyclists, with food, drink and live music. The ride, following various routes in the Bluegrass from 25 to 102 miles long, will continue Sunday but there will be no rest stop in Midway on Sunday. Georgetown College is headquarters for the event, which is expected to attract more than 2,000 cyclists from all over the country and other nations. Here's a map of the 102-mile route, with rest stops and major mileposts marked:

The 82-mile route uses some different roads, including Weisenberger Mill Road, with traffic going both ways on Stephens Street and Spring Station Road:

Here's a close-up of the 82-mile route's path through Midway:

The 60-mile route uses Spring Station and Georgetown roads:

Here's the 41-mile route:

The 25-mile route does not go through Midway proper, but through greater Midway:

Midway University presents Spotlight Awards, looks to its future as a fully coeducational institution

Midway University upheld its traditions at its annual Spotlight Awards dinner last night as it looked forward to a very different future, very soon.

The university presented former Lexington Vice Mayor Isabel Yates its Pinkerton Vision Award, named for the founder of the Kentucky Female Orphan School, which evolved into a college and became a university last year.

The Legacy Award went to the family of James Bowling, whose widow Ann and daughter Belinda Metzger have followed him as trustees of the school.

"Long live Midway University," Ann Bowling said as she accepted the award.

Nearby was another sign that will need changing before too long.

In an effort to ensure its survival, the university will become fully coeducational this fall. That "is a move that was not considered in haste but one that will allow Midway University to reinvent itself at a challenging time for private higher education," President John Marsden told the crowd.

The school announced the change May 16, four days after its trustees unanimously approved it. At the time, Marsden said "We cannot continue to preserve something that is unsustainable merely for nostalgic purposes."

The crowd did its part to support the school, spending $12,541 on bids and donations through an auction of specially engraved Woodford Reserve bourbon bottles on each table, said Scott Fitzpatrick, vice president for advancement. Brown-Forman Corp. was one of the dinner's sponsors.

Council committee will hear presentation on proposed zoning ordinance regarding unoccupied large buildings

The Finance, Ordinance and Policy Committee of the Midway City Council will meet at 3 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, at City Hall to hear a one-hour presentation from Billy Van Pelt of Woodford Forward on a proposed "empty box" zoning ordinance that would apply to large buildings. All committee and council meetings are open to the public.

PSC sets public meeting June 7 to discuss Kentucky American Water's request for rate increase

Map shows site of hearing on water rate increase

The Kentucky Public Service Commission will hold a public meeting next month in Lexington to receive public comments on rate increases requested by Kentucky-American Water Co. that include a higher cost of water sold wholesale to the City of Midway.

The public comment meeting on June 7 will be held at the Conference Center on the Bluegrass Community and Technical College's Leestown Road Campus, 164 Opportunity Way, just outside New Circle Road. It will begin at 5:30 with an information session, during which PSC staff will explain the ratemaking process and an overview of Kentucky American's application. The public comment portion of the meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. For those unable to attend, the presentation will be available on the PSC website, psc.ky.gov, beginning June 7.

Kentucky American wants to raise its annual revenue by about 15 percent, bringing total annual revenue to about $95 million. The requested rate increase for wholesale customers, including Midway, is 6 percent plus an increase in the monthly charge based on size of the meter. Mayor Grayson Vandegrift's budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 anticipates an overall 13 percent rate increase.

The company says its request is driven mostly by the need to recover the cost of ongoing system improvements and of major construction projects completed since the last rate adjustment in 2013, notably a new filtration system at its Richmond Road facility.

In addition to the base rate increase, Kentucky American is again asking the PSC for permission to begin adjusting retail and wholesale rates annually to cover the cost of infrastructure repairs and replacement. The annual adjustments would be subject to PSC review and approval, but through a process less extensive than that in a rate case, the PSC says in a press release. It rejected the same idea in 2013, on grounds that it would not accelerate the replacement of aging water lines.

The company's application and related documents are available on the PSC website, psc.ky.gov. The case number is 2015-00418. A narrated slideshow explaining the PSC ratemaking process is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch9vTS5NzJ8.

In addition to the public meeting, the PSC will conduct a formal evidentiary hearing in the case on July 13, beginning at 10 a.m. EDT. The hearing will be held at the PSC offices at 211 Sower Blvd. in Frankfort and may last several days. It will be open to the public and may be viewed live on the PSC website. Written comments will be accepted through the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing. They may be mailed to the PSC at P.O. Box 615, Frankfort, KY 40602, faxed to 502-564-9625, e-mailed from the PSC website or submitted in person at the public meetings or at the PSC offices.

Francisco's Farm draws a big crowd Sunday

The 13th annual Francisco's Farm Arts Festival at Midway University had a little bad luck Saturday, with rain off and on, but the skies cleared and the weather warmed Sunday, and a big crowd turned out to see the 92 juried artists and crafters from 16 states, have lunch and enjoy the day.

Heath and Molly Eric of Rumsey, Ky., right, were among the musical entertainers Sunday afternoon.

The festival, presented by Midway Renaissance, is named for John Francisco, who owned the farm where Midway was founded by Kentucky's first railroad in the 1830s.

Asbury filmmakers in Midway for 'small town America'

Anson Williams, director, gave a "thumbs up" to Midway.

A video production crew is in Midway this week, shooting scenes for a one-hour pilot of a situation comedy that the Film Division of Asbury University hopes to sell to a national network or cable channel.

The crew is mainly students from Asbury, led by director Anson Williams, who starred as Potsie on TV's "Happy Days."

Williams said he was happy with the town, the crew and the cast, which was assembled from several states. The star is Doug Jones, who played the Silver Surfer in "The Fantastic Four."

The working title of the show is "Nazareth N.C." and it is set in rural North Carolina, which has no town named Nazareth. The pilot tells the story of Nathan Taylor, a New York stockbroker who loses his job and moves his family back to his hometown, where be becomes provost (chief academic officer) of the local college.

The synposis on the online casting call says in part, "Nathan has two weeks to procure $5 million to keep the college from going under. Complicating matters, the childhood home he’s moving his dubious family into is now a money pit and falling apart. So Nathan must settle his family, rebuild the house, rebuild relationships, and woo the local millionaire who does not suffer fools lightly. Set in the Blue Ridge mountains of N.C.‐ think 'Northern Exposure'  meets 'Gilmore Girls'."

The screenplay was written by Dr. Jim Shores of Asbury and Dean Natali, who produced "That '70s Show," according to Don Mink, who is Asbury's operations manager and the line producer for the sitcom. Other shooting will be done in Wilmore, where Asbury is located.

The crew prepared for the scene in which the family arrives
in town, parks in front of Railroad Drug and goes inside.

Mink said Midway was chosen for some scenes because "This is small-town America," and the storefront are sharp, distuinctive and colorful. "The color just jumps out at you."

In one scene filmed early Thursday afternoon, the family arrives in town, parks in front of Railroad Drug and walks in.

Mink said the last production he knew to be filmed in Midway was the 1998 movie "Simpatico," which starred Jeff Bridges and Sharon Stone as Thoroughbred owners and Nick Nolte as a former co-conspirator of theirs in California.

Mill, creek, dam and sky make for a nice picture at mill

The Weisenberger Mill on South Elkhorn Creek is a quintessential scene in Midway, especially today.