City council wants legislature to raise Midway's official classification by one notch

Midway will ask the Kentucky General Assembly to raise the city's classification by one level, a move that would give it more authority and put it on a par with the county seat of Versailles.

The Midway City Council passed a resolution Monday night to seek the change from fifth class to fourth class. Kentucky has six classes of cities; those in the first four classes have authority over alcohol regulations, such as Sunday sales. When Midway restaurants wanted to sell alcoholic beverages on Sundays, the decision was up to the Woodford County Fiscal Court, which delayed action until Versailles decided the question for itself.

City officials cited "increasing population and tourism appeal" as reasons for the change, Stephen Burnett writes in this week's edition of The Woodford Sun (not available online). "City Attorney Phil Moloney, reading the resolution, said the city is also seeking to promote economic development and increase employment," Burnett writes. Moloney cited the hoped-for development of Midway Station and expansion of Midway College. “Midway’s current classification as a city of the fifth class does not provide suitable framework for its continued and future economic growth and development," Moloney said.

The college's residential students are included in Midway's population, which was 1,620 (including 138 students) when the last census was taken almost exactly 10 years ago. The 2010 census figures won't be available for about a year. The population in 2000 was much less than the 3,000 minimum that the state constitution required for a fourth-class city before the General Assembly and the voters relaxed the requirements in 1994. Now, there are no specific population limits and the constitution says the legislature can also consider tax base, geography "or any other reasonable basis" in assigning a classification. However, an earlier statute, still on the books, says a city must submit population data to the legislature before being reclassified.

In a signed statement, Mayor Tom Bozarth and City Clerk Phyllis Hudson said they believe the city's population was undercounted in 2000 because it didn't include "residents living for the majority of the year on campus at Midway College," and that development of Midway Station and adjoining areas, and a nursing home, will give the city "a population in excess of 3,000 residents, and that a strong public purpose exists for reclassification." State Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, said in an interview that he will try to get the classification changed during the current legislative session, which is scheduled to end March 29.

In other business, the council delayed action on bids for sale of the old sewer plant, because Bozarth and council members Diana Queen and Aaron Hamilton were absent.

Council OKs commitment letter and addendum to keep city in Main Street program via Renaissance

The Midway City Council tonight authorized Mayor Tom Bozarth to sign the letter of commitment required to keep the city in the state Main Street program and employ Midway Renaissance Executive Director Marci Christensen as Main Street director, at no extra pay.

The council also authorized Bozarth to sign the addendum to the letter of commitment, prepared by the city's attorney and the result of a meeting of a committee of city council and Rensissance members last week. (See item below.)

City and Renaissance hash out pressing issue, discuss problems in relationship

By Noha El Maraghi
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

It’s time for Midway Renaissance to be recertified as a state Main Street program. Three city council members and four Renaissance representatives met Monday night to iron out underlying problems between the group and the city and clear the way for the council to vote on the issue Monday, Feb. 15, the deadline for submitting the Main Street application.

In attendance were council members Sharon Turner (presiding in photo), Charlann Wombles (second from right), and Doris Leigh (in front of flag); and Renaissance members Randy Thomas, president (far left); Becky Moore, a former mayor (gesturing); Marci Christensen, executive director (between Thomas and Moore); and Bob Rathbone (far right). Also present was Assistant City Clerk Diane Shepard.

The purpose of the meeting was to get Renaissance and the city on the same page on a few issues, the top two being the Main Street application and the budget called for in the standard letter of commitment that must accompany the application. Council members felt the letter might make them obligated financially to Renaissance.

“We are not asking the city at this point for funding for a Main Street manager,” Thomas said. “Would I like that? Absolutely, and we would encourage the council to consider it.” The city stopped funding the half-time manager’s position about three years ago, and efforts to fund it on a shared basis with other local governments or local businesses have failed.

Thomas said the commitment letter cannot be changed, but a side agreement is possible. Later in the week, the city’s lawyer drafted an addendum to the agreement that specifies Renaissance is responsible for employing Christensen as Main Street manager and following its work plan, and the city will provide space for her during normal working hours if requested. Thomas said Saturday that he and Christensen will sign the addendum Monday morning.

Thomas told Turner, “I hope we can build a better working relationship,” and she replied that the ad hoc city-Renaissance committee appointed to work out the issue should continue. “None of it’s personal,” she said.

Wombles said she and Turner are “both distressed, as is probably the whole council, that there has not been a better working relationship. . . . It’s just a mystery to me why, with all the needs in this community, why we are spending energy not working better as partners.” She said the council represents “every citizen of Midway, and we need your support when we have to make hard decisions that are not popular with you all.”

When Christensen asked what she was referring to, Wombles said one example was “decisions regarding our insurance coverage.”

After the city’s insurance carrier expressed concern about people from Renaissance working on city property, sometimes with machinery, which could make the city liable to volunteers in the case of injury, the council voted to require volunteers to sign a liability release and report to the city every time they worked, including the time, place and machinery used. Renaissance opposed the ordinance, saying it required too much paperwork and would discourage people from volunteering.

Rathbone asked Wombles how Renaissance should manifest the support she was calling for. She hesitated and said, “I don’t think I want to go there.” But soon afterward, she told the rest of the committee, “I think we can make some improvements in this working relationship fairly quick.” She said they all share “deep love for Midway” and “If we keep that in mind we’ll get it done and we’ll do it with the civility and grace and the volunteer spirit that is Midway.”

Midway College announces scholarships for 20 talented female singers

Midway College is starting a scholarship program for talented female singers who enroll beginning this fall. The Midway Choral Scholars Program Scholarship of up to $10,000 will be awarded to up to 20 "accomplished female vocalists per year who wish to continue serious vocal performance as they pursue their college degree," the college says in a news release, which includes qualifications for the scholarship.

Application forms for the scholarship are available here. For application questions and admissions information contact Erika Smith, Director of Admission, at 846-5347 or easmith@midway.edu.

Tom Bozarth unopposed for re-election as mayor; ex-mayor Becky Moore among council candidates

After changing his mind and filing for re-election last week, Midway Mayor Tom Bozarth is running unopposed in the Nov. 2 election for a second four-year term. But when the new City Council is sworn in next January, he may be joined at the table by a former mayor with a somewhat different attitude.

Becky Moore, who was mayor for two terms before Bozarth and didn't seek re-election in 2006, is one of seven candidates running for six council seats. She said in an interview that the other two non-incumbent candidates for council, Joye Arnold and Dan Roller, are "kindred spirits" who like her have been heavily involved in volunteer activities in the town. Some volunteers have been rankled by a ordinance, backed by Bozarth and passed 5-1 by the council, that formalized volunteer work on city property.

Two council members, Charlann Wombles and Sandra Cooke, did not file for re-election. Incumbents filing were Sharon Turner, Diana Queen, Doris Leigh and Aaron Hamilton. Turner said she prepared filing papers for both council and mayor, in case Bozarth did not seek re-election, and didn't know until she went to file at the county clerk's office last Tuesday, the filing deadline, that he had filed.

Bozarth had told a group a few days earlier that he would not run. He said in an interview after tonight's council meeting, "I had no intentions to run. I had some things I wanted to do ... but I was approached by some people I respect in the community who talked to me and asked me to run again." He declined to name them, but said they are "people who have been in the community a long time," and number more than two. He also declined to say if he would have supported a mayoral candidate if had not filed.

Midway area leads the way in preserving land via conservation easements to Bluegrass Conservancy

The Midway area has the most concentrated set of tracts dedicated to conservation through the Bluegrass Conservancy, according to a map published with a story in Saturday's Lexington Herald-Leader. The map appears below; a chart with the story showed that Woodford County has accounted for more than half of the acreage on which the private, non-profit group holds conservation easements, which permanently bar development of the properties.

Reporter Andy Mead's story was datelined Midway because it focused on Suzi Shoemaker, left, and her Lantern Hill Farm east of town on US 421-62. "It is among the best in the world in what it can produce," she told Mead. "I would like to see future generations have the opportunity to raise horses here. Whether they want to or not, they will have that opportunity." (Herald-Leader photo by David Perry)

Mead explains that the easements "are voluntary agreements, tailored to the needs of each owner and property, that keep the land as open space as a defense against suburban sprawl. The land remains in private hands, and the owners can qualify for tax benefits, including income tax, estate tax and property tax reductions." (Read more)

Midway to open pharmacy school in Paintsville

Midway College plans to open a school of pharmacy in Paintsville, Ky., in the fall semester of 2011. "We are a college that has been built around the health sciences," President William B. Drake said. "This move to the doctoral level for a pharmacy program is a natural extension of that." The pharmacy school will be the first in Appalachian Kentucky, much of which is plagued by abuse of prescription drugs.

The school's first home will be the Mayo Campus of the Big Sandy Community and Technical College. Drake said the site was selected because of "extrordinary community support. That included "an investment of financial resources and multiple land parcels currently being considered as possible donations for the school's eventual permanent site," Susan Baniak of Business Lexington reports.