Ag-review panel votes 3-1 in favor of warehouses; fiscal court wants more in-lieu tax payments to issue bonds

UPDATE, May 4: The Board of Adjustment voted 3-1 May 2 to issue the permit. Marjorie Evans voted no and David Prewitt recused himself due to a possible conflict of interest, The Woodford Sun reports.

UPDATE, April 27: The Fiscal Court voted April 26 to issue $120 million in industrial revenue bonds for the project, with payments in lieu of taxes to be made to the county. The company also agreed to pay for new nozzles and hoses for the county fire station in Midway and up to $25,000 worth of training for firefighters.

By Aayat Ali

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

The Woodford County Agricultural Advisory Review Committee voted 3-1 Wednesday to recommend that the Board of Adjustment grant Brown-Forman Corp.’s request for a conditional use permit to build whiskey warehouses just north of Midway Station.

Brown-Forman fared less well the night before, as the Woodford County Fiscal Court voiced unhappiness with the company’s plans for payments in lieu of taxes on the warehouses and whiskey as part of its request for tax-exempt bonds to finance the project.

The Louisville-based distiller is seeking to build the 12 warehouses on 113 acres of Homer Michael Freeney’s 400-acre farm as an agricultural enterprise, but the main concern among the committee members was how bourbon can be considered an agricultural product.

Committee member John Wilhoit, the dissenter, expressed his concerns over the definition of agriculture and said it was “a stretch” to consider bourbon an agricultural product.  Committee member Lindy Huber shared similar concerns.

“I’ve thought about a lot of other agriculture products and how they can be interpreted in the finished product,” she said.  “If someone were to grow cotton in Woodford County and wanted to set up a textile mill, is that an agricultural product? To me, food and fiber is what agriculture is, and bourbon does not fit into that category.”

But committee member Skip Philips said if only food and fiber fell under the definition of agriculture, “Where do you fit in tobacco?”  He said that he considers bourbon and tobacco to be agricultural products, especially with no processing facility to create a distraction amid the farmland.

Steve Rushell, attorney for Brown-Forman, drew a distinction between this project and a more intrusive industrial or manufacturing project, saying it has no noise or air emissions.  He also said Brown-Forman is purchasing about 50,000 bushels of corn a year and would prefer to buy most of it in Woodford County if it meets Brown-Forman’s standards.

Lynn Martin, a tenant on Freeney’s farm, said he supported the project.  Brown-Forman said it would make arrangements for Martin to cross the access road at certain points so he can continue operating the farm.  The 113 acres would not be acquired all at once, so over the 12-year development of the warehouses, two per year, Brown-Forman would lease to Martin the land it does not use. 

Brown-Forman’s Woodford Reserve Distillery is located off McCracken Pike in Versailles and is a popular tourist site.  For the new warehouses in Midway, Brown-Forman says the barrels would be shipped to Georgetown Road over New Cut Road to U.S. 60 and down Interstate 64 to the Midway exit.  This would be shortest route between the two locations without using back roads and coming through downtown Midway.

Ruschell introduced a list of conditions of the permit.  He said they would help preserve the land and make sure the warehouses don’t become a distraction, by:

•             Using own-box lighting that will not illuminate beyond the farm

•             Using signage to make it clear that no visitors are allowed on the site

•             Limiting truck traffic to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday
•             Limiting construction traffic from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday

•             Requiring outdoor activities to be conducted at least 300 feet from surrounding properties

•             Not using reflective roofs

•             Building a three-million gallon retention pond to prevent spillage into South Elkhorn Creek

“The first warehouse will be well over 1,100 feet from Georgetown Road,” Ruschell said.  “The reason it’s being located there is to make sure the pastoral setting is preserved.”

Fiscal Court meeting

On Tuesday, other Brown-Forman attorneys, Timothy Eifler and Mark Franklin of Stoll Keenon Ogden, returned to the fiscal court for more discussion of their request for $120 million in industrial revenue bonds to purchase the land and build the warehouses.

The issue for the court is the proposed PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement that the company presented.

“We negotiated with the school district and worked out a PILOT formula,” Eifler said.  “Typically these are designed to cover situations where a project is going to cause additional costs or burdens imposed on a local government, so the PILOT is there to deal with that.” Industrial revenue bonds create a property-tax exemption.

Some members of the court felt that other county functions, such as the fire department and the county government itself, deserved more of the payments.  The annual payment per barrel would be about $2.50.  The school district would receive 70.2 percent of the payments and the county would get 7.4 percent.

“The county has not raised its tax rates,” Judge-Executive John Coyle said.  “We have made cuts, we have laid off employees, we have done everything to provide everything that is needed for the citizens of Woodford County.  The school board, on the other hand, raises its tax rates to the maximum every year.”

The court deferred further discussion of the matter until its April 26 meeting.

Shadwell Farm's Shagaf suffers first loss in Wood Memorial, but still points to Derby with Mohaymen

By Stepper Toth
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Shadwell Farm’s Shagaf went into Saturday’s Wood Memorial as the 9-5 favorite, but finished fifth. He significantly dropped in observers’ ratings for the Kentucky Derby, but is still heading for the Derby, along with his stablemate, the more highly rated Mohaymen.

The Wood Memorial was a mile-and-an-eighth, $1 million race at the Aqueduct Racetrack in New York. It was Shagaf’s first loss in four races.

Shagaf is now 18th in The Courier-Journal’s Derby HQ Poll. Last week he was seventh.  Mohaymen, is ranked sixth, down from fifth last week.

Jon White of Santa Anita Park, the only panelist who had Shagaf as No. 1 in the poll, now does not even have him in his top 20. “Yes, Shagaf was blocked momentarily on the far turn in the Wood,” White wrote. “Shagaf did rally to loom a threat at the top of the stretch, but he did not have the necessary kick in the stretch. Shagaf finished fifth in a slow edition of the Wood.”

The track was rated muddy, which Shagaf was not used to. Shagaf broke slowly out of the gate, but came within four lengths of the lead at the far turn. As the horses turned for home, he bumped into Tale of S’avall and started to fall back.

The winner of the Wood was Outwork. Following were Trojan Nation, Adventist, and Matt King Coal. Shagaf finished four lengths behind Outwork.

Due to getting 50 Derby qualifying points by winning the Gotham Stakes last month, Shagaf still headed to the Derby, though his trainer, Chad Brown, suggested that another muddy track might thwart that.

Brown told reporters at Aqueduct, “He made a sharp middle move there and then he just had enough of the mud. We'll just see how the horse comes out of the race and go from here. If the horse is healthy I'm inclined to hope for a dry track at Churchill and a better trip. I'm confident the horse can get a mile and a quarter."

Ag-review committee to hear Brown-Forman application Wednesday for warehouses north of Midway Station

Artist's rendering of one concrete warehouse, with others in background. Windows would be false. (Luckett & Farley)

By Aayat Ali

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Brown-Forman Corp. is asking permission to build 12 two-story whiskey warehouses on a farm next to Midway Station and South Elkhorn Creek.

The Louisville distiller’s application for a conditional use permit will be considered by the Agricultural Review Committee of the county Planning and Zoning Commission on April 13 at 8 a.m. at the county courthouse.

“They will make a recommendation to our Board of Adjustment,” said P & Z Director Patricia Wilson. “They are requesting to build 12 barrel warehouses to store bourbon in, two buildings every other year, as needed.”

Brown-Forman says that since bourbon is a product made from grains, building the warehouses on farmland is an agricultural enterprise that fits the A-1 agricultural zone. It also says the warehouses would reduce the possibility of industrial development on the land.

The warehouses would be built on 117 acres of a 400-acre farm over the next 10 years.  Each two-story high, 900,000-square-foot warehouse would hold about 65,000 barrels of Woodford Reserve bourbon.  The farm would continue operating as a farm, according to the company’s application.

The farm is owned by the Homer Michael Freeney Jr. Trust. It borders the industrial section of Midway Station on the south, Elkhorn Creek on the east, another farm on the north and Georgetown Road on the west. Access to the warehouses would be from Georgetown Road.

The state Economic Development Cabinet announced March 31 that it had approved Brown-Forman for $400,000 in tax incentives on an estimated initial investment of $22 million.

Brown-Forman says the full cost of development is $120 million, and has asked the Woodford County Fiscal Court to issue that amount of industrial revenue bonds in order to give the project a property-tax break. The request will be discussed at the next Fiscal Court meeting on April 12, said Timothy Eifler of Stoll Keenon Ogden, the attorneys for Brown-Forman.

“The county is not on the hook for the bonds,” Eifler said in an interview. “It’s not a true borrowing in the sense that the county is not borrowing money or liable for it. “Brown-Forman will be making lease payments that will pay repay those bonds.”

“The warehouses won’t cost the local government anything, they just generate revenue,” Eifler said. He said each fully loaded warehouse would generate approximately $153,000 in property taxes on the whiskey.

“They don’t demand any resources from local government,” Eifler said.  “It’s not a like a manufacturing plant where more people will be moving into the county or putting a tax on local resources. All they do is generate a lot of property tax because of the amount of barrels that would get taxed annually.”

The Board of Adjustment may choose to hold a public hearing on May 2 at 6:30 p.m. if the Agricultural Review Committee approves the plan on Wednesday.

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.

Mohaymen no longer perfect after Florida Derby but top 10 still includes him and Shagaf, who's in Wood Sat.

Mohaymen, left, gave ground after nearly catching Nyquist, center.
(Photo by Matthew Stockman, Getty Images)

By Stepper Toth

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Shadwell Farm’s Mohaymen is no longer the Kentucky Derby favorite after finishing fourth Saturday in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. But he remains a top Derby prospect, as does Shagaf, the Shadwell homebred who will race in this Saturday’s Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in New York, another mile-and-an-eighth, $1 million Derby prep.

Nyquist won the Florida Derby, beating Majesto by 3 ¼ lengths and Fellowship by 4¼. Mohaymen pulled even to Nyquist at the top of the stretch, but Nyquist pulled away.

Perfection in thoroughbred racing is very rare, but Mohaymen and Nyquist both had perfect records coming into the Florida Derby.  It’s also unusual for the top two Derby prospects to face each other in their final prep for the Derby, which will be run May 7.

There is a distant connection between the two horses. Kent Barnes, stallion manager at the Shadwell farm on Leestown Road, said Nyquist’s owner, J. Paul Reddam, has sold the breeding rights to Jonabell Farm in Lexington, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the brother of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, the owner of Shadwell Farm. Barnes said Jonabell can be seen from the Shadwell property on Fort Springs-Pinckard Road in Lexington.

Photo by Jonathan Dunn

Nyquist (right) arrived in Lexington Sunday to train at Keeneland Race Course before going to Churchill Downs for the Derby.

Mohaymen’s trainer, Lexington native Kiaran McLaughlin, told racing writers that he will probably bring Mohaymen to Churchill early to work out, gain weight, and build strength. "It's like a vitamin shot going into cooler weather after being down here for four months,” McLaughlin told The Courier-Journal. “Hopefully that would help Mohaymen in general – not necessarily with liking the track or anything but maybe stimulate his appetite. I always feel like he's a little light.”

McLaughin told The C-J’s Jonathan Lintner that the horse came out of the race in good shape and he does not plan to change his training plan.

McLaughlin told reporters at Gulfstream that he saw two possible reasons for Mohaymen’s disappointing performance. It rained earlier in the day, and the track was rated good rather than fast. Mohaymen has only raced on fast tracks. Mohaymen also got hung out wide in the race, making him run 54 feet farther than Nyquist, almost 1 percent of the race’s 5,940 feet, according to Trakus.com.

Mohaymen’s jockey, Junior Alvarado, told reporters on the scene, “This time he wasn’t pulling me.”

According to The C-J’s DerbyHQ Top 20 Poll of racing journalists from around the country,  Nyquist is No. 1 in the list with a record 12 first-place votes, Mohaymen is fifth, and Shagaf is seventh, with a first-place vote. The top 10 in order are Nyquist, Gun Runner, Mor Spirit, Danzing Candy, Mohaymen, Cupid, Shagaf, Destin, Whitmore and Zulu.

Frank Angst of The Blood-Horse wrote that he has Mohaymen at No. 3 because the gray colt “has accomplished enough to forgive that outing.” Tim Wilkin of the Albany Times-Union, also ranking Mohaymen third, wrote, “How much do you penalize Mohaymen for his flop in Florida when he finished fourth?”

Jon White from Santa Anita Park has Shagaf in first place. “In the wake of Mohaymen's loss in the Florida Derby,” he wrote, “Shagaf now has become Shadwell Stable's lone undefeated colt heading to the Kentucky Derby.”

Mohaymen and Shagaf also ranked in the top 10 in the most recent Derby Future Wager Pool at Churchill Downs, which ended the day after the Florida Derby. Bettors lifted Nyquist to first at odds of 3 to 1 and lowered Mohaymen to second at 8-1. Cupid and Mor Spirit were third at 11-1, Gun Runner was fifth at 13-1, Danzing Candy and Destin were sixth at 16-1 and Shagaf and Mo Tom were tied for eighth at 17-1.

Women become 'Calendar Girls' to promote play, theater and the role of women in Woodford County

By Aayat Ali

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Midway residents may have been surprised to see a calendar featuring many well-known women of Woodford County posing modestly nude, in support of The Woodford Theatre’s adaptation this month of Calendar Girls – the uplifting story about a group of women who pose semi-nude for a good cause.

The theater’s connection to this story hits close to home because the theater is run by four women: Patricia Clark, the executive and artistic director; Dawn Connerly, technical director; Dara Tiller, managing director; and Vanessa Becker Weig, education director. Clark said she wanted to highlight the strong women in the area who are notable community figures.

“When I first came here to work, I was impressed by all the women business owners in Versailles and Midway. The [Main Street] strip in Midway is mostly women who have opened businesses,” said Clark.

The original story of Calendar Girls is based on the true story of Angela Barker, whose husband passed away from lymphoma in his early 50s. Barker and her friends, part of the England Yorkshire Women’s Institute, decided to pose semi-nude for a calendar – which had typically featured meadows and flowers – to raise money for leukemia and lymphoma research, according to the website if The Bloodwise, a United Kingdom cancer charity for which the women have since raised over £3 million, or $4.32 million.

 

The calendar for July features this photograph of Leslie Penn.

The calendar features three women from Midway: Leslie Penn of the Historic Midway Museum Store; Peggy Angel, owner of Steppin’ Out Boutique; and Karel Churchill, owner of Le Marche Boutique on East Main Street.

“People have come into the store asking for my autograph,” said Penn. “I just love participating in community things and I love to see how people can work together in achieving what we want.”

Calendar Girls was adapted into a film starring Helen Mirren in 2003, then an onstage production in 2008, and continues to be adapted to suit various aspects of feminism, including in Midway. The calendar became a symbolic way for the women of Midway to express their strengths.

“The journey we took in setting up their photographs is everything the actual true story of the Calendar Girls was,” said Clark. “This was a really special community effort that we got the chance to complete this year.”

The tale has since become an empowering lesson driven by all types of women and has a flexible message for feminists. The Woodford Theatre’s adaptation of the story gave the women of Woodford County an opportunity to pose for their own calendar.

“Everyone has been incredibly positive,” said Churchill. “You know, this is the South. They’re a little more conservative. But I’m really proud of the women who got together to do it.”

Additionally, the theater spent the month of March, Women’s History Month, promoting The Girl Project, an arts- and performance-based program for young women that was founded by Weig and Clark’s daughter, Ellie. The project is “designed to inspire, educate and empower girls of all ages to challenge the misrepresentation of girls and women in American media culture through performing arts and education.” Clark said she truly believes that the project can help young women, and men, to express themselves and understand the issues and mistreatment they face today.

“I have people who absolutely celebrate and love the calendar and people who will shy away from it,” Clark said. “I often find it interesting how people receive comedy and theater with sexual innuendos, but it’s really about people’s perceptions.”

Although she credits the success of the theater to the women in charge today, Clark says that the message that her story and the real-life story of Angela Barker can inspire women and men of all ages at any stage in their lives.

“This is a celebration of life and that’s exactly what the story reveals,” said Clark. “There is nothing wrong with what we are doing. They are celebrating their aging. They’re celebrating themselves as women. They’re celebrating their bodies as much as they can.  They’re saying, ‘This is who I am and I’m proud of this.’”

Mayor putting Northside Drive repaving, sidewalk repairs, park work in budget to be proposed soon

Northside Drive (Photos by Katherine Stach)

By Katherine Stach

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

As he sketches a city budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, Midway Mayor Grayson Vandegrift has some ideas to highlight, such as road repairs, park improvements and sidewalk repairs.

The biggest project would be the repaving of Northside Drive, the road that runs from the Midway Grocery up to Northside Elementary School. The condition of the road is of concern considering the high volume of school buses and children that use it for transportation.

Potholes on Northside Drive

The mayor says he has set aside $80,000 for repaving, but does not plan on having to use the full amount. He says the job will cost around $60,000, and any funds that remain will be used to repave other streets with issues.  Vandegrift said he considers Northside Drive to be the worst road in town.

“I’ve told the council this year that I think our top priority should be roads and sidewalks,” Vandegrift said in an interview.

The mayor has also planned to budget $25,000 for repairing sidewalks. That funding will not be spent, however, until the city is able to secure a grant for sidewalk improvement, he said.

The city has run into difficulty with sidewalks, mainly because property owners are responsible for repairs. A city ordinance holds that a property owner can be charged $10 a day for a damaged sidewalk, but it cannot expect a property owner to pay the fee if they are not financially able to complete the repair themselves.

Vandegrift said the council plans on reworking that law so that it is fair to both the city and the property owner, which could mean splitting the repair costs.

Last fall, Vandegrift appointed a committee to address the city’s sidewalk concerns and to draw up an extensive plan for improvement. Council Member Bruce Southworth was named chair of the sidewalk committee, and Council Members Kaye Nita Gallagher and Steven Craig were also appointed to the committee.

The committee has had difficulty coming up with a comprehensive plan and a clear policy for the maintenance and repair of sidewalks.

One of the city’s main concerns is the injuries that can come from walking on damaged sidewalks, and although property owners are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of their sidewalks, the city itself can still be held liable for any possible injuries sustained. 

Vandegrift said he also plans to allocate $10,000 for minor improvements at Walter Bradley Park.

Some of the improvements suggested by citizens who attended a public hearing on the park last week include the expansion of the park’s walking paths leading to Midway University, a gated entryway behind the library and adding displays about the city’s history.

UK professor and Midway resident John Holloway, who serves on the citizens’ advisory committee for the park and has been improving its wooded area, said he has applied for a grant for planting 500 dogwood trees to improve the general aesthetics of the park.

Vandegrift said that his personal favorite suggestion at the hearing was the addition of a train car as a backdrop for the stage in a planned pavilion. He suggested placing the car at the top of the hill and using the flat land at the bottom as a place for public performances. Visitors could bring picnic supplies and enjoy the events held there.

The suggestions at the hearing could increase the popularity of Walter Bradley Park and attract more visitors to the area Vandegrift has called “the least-used resource in town.”

Vandegrift said at the last council meeting that he expects to present his proposed budget soon.