Weese family scores big in pumpkin carving contest

Jill and Joel Damron won for most creative pumpkin in the adult category. For a larger version of any photo, click on it.

These pumpkins were judged to be the scariest of the lot.

Members of the Weese family were half the winners in the pumpkin carving contest that the Midway Presbyterian Church held to promote awareness of the Midway Community Garden.

Church Pastor Mary Weese and her son, Zeb Henry Weese, won the adult and children's prizes for scariest pumpkins, which made use of evergreen cones for teeth and horns.

Zeb won the prize for most creative carving by a child, his Civil War pumpkin (he was dressed for trick or treat as Gen. John Hunt Morgan); the adult prize in that category went to Jill and Joel Damron, who did a Cinderella carriage that was, in fact, a pumpkin.

Debra Shockley won the adult Halloween Spirit award.

The Halloween spirit awards went to Debra Shockley, who put a little pumpkin into a cat skeleton, and Maggie Walden, who did a traditional jack-o-lantern.

After the entries were judged, trick-or-treaters came by to look.

US 60 in Versailles to be closed at railroad crossing from 9 a.m. Friday to 3 p.m. Saturday for work

The state Transportation Cabinet has scheduled a closure of US Highway 60 at the railroad crossing in Versailles from 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1, through 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2 for RJ Corman Railroad Co. to perform track and crossing maintenance. A signed detour will be in place.

Midway University to host author of bestseller that is first-year students' common-read book 7 p.m. Nov. 7

Jennifer Teege, author of My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me, Midway University’s "common read" book for the year, will give a lecture to all first-year students and the public at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7 in the Duthie Auditorium of the Anne Hart Raymond Building, followed by a book signing.

The general public is welcome, but priority seating is for enrolled Midway University students. First-year students in their first semester use the book for class discussions, projects, and writing assignments in the MWY 101 Pathways and Perspectives course. "The culminating experience is for students to be able to meet the author in person and have their books signed," said Ellen Gregory, vice president for marketing and communications.

Teege’s memoir was hailed as “haunting” by The Washington Post, “unforgettable” by Publishers Weekly and “stunning” by Booklist. Subtitled A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past, the book tells how Teege responded to the discovery that her grandfather was Amon Goeth, the vicious Nazi commandant so chillingly depicted by Ralph Fiennes in the movie Schindler’s List. The film was shown in MWY 101 classes recently.

"When Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, randomly picked up a library book from the shelf, her whole life—her whole sense of self—changed forever," a Midway University press release said. "Recognizing photos of her mother and grandmother in the book, she discovered a horrifying fact they had kept from her."

Behind the scenes of judging the Midway Woman's Club annual Halloween Decorating Contest

The overall winner was at 211 South Winter Street.  For a larger version of any photo, click on it.

By Kennedy Sabharwal
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

For the past four years the Midway Woman’s Club has held an annual Halloween Decorating Contest among the homes in town. This year 12 awards were given, ranging from Scariest to Best Spider Web to Most Kid Friendly.

On Sunday evening, members of the Woman’s Club drove around town and took a look at all of the decorated homes. The judges were quite surprised that only a few businesses decorated this year. The judges said they gave the award to Commotion! At 104 E. Main St. because of its “festive window display” that consists of skeletons and a bat hanging above the front entrance of the business.

The judges gave the Most Fun award to a family that set up a full Wizard of Oz scene in their front yard. 121 Carriage Lane won because it was “very creative and fun,” a judge said. “The characters, you could tell exactly which they were, and even the witch was melting!” The excitement this house brought to all of the judges was reason enough for the award.

318 North Winter Street won for Best Daytime decorations.

Some other awards and reasons included the Best Daytime award at 318 N. Winter St. for being “eye catching when driving through town and being impressive, comprehensive, having thought of design, and use of multiple elements,” the judges said.

One of the hardest awards to give was the Best Spider Web, because so many homes had neat and diverse webs. Some had webs across bushes, trees, and the lawn, while others had webs covering their entire porch. The award went to 223 Johnson St. because of its creativity and intricate webs on its porch, the judges said.

Best pumpkins: 106 Cottage Grove

The Best Pumpkin award at 106 Cottage Grove won for its “pumpkins being artfully carved and arranged,” a judge said.

The award for Best Overall décor went to 211 S. Winter St. because of its “spectacular Halloween display… It’s creative, it’s a little scary, they continue to use lights every year,” a judge said. “It’s cool in the daytime as well in the nighttime. It’s just a lot of fun.”

During the car ride around town, one judges spoke about how hard it was for her to choose winners. “It’s difficult,” she said. “I mean you see how difficult it is to choose who wins each award … Everyone’s home just looks great in their own way.”

Many homeowners in Midway went all-out and allowed their Halloween spirit to shine through each decoration. The judges said they want to add more awards next year, such as Best Porch, because of how many amazing decorations they saw during the judging process.

The judges gave the award for Scariest display to the residence at 119 East Stephens Street.

The Messenger thanks the club for letting us ride with the judges, whom we granted anonymity.

128 S. Winter St. won a Halloween Spirit Award.

These homes received awards:
Most Kid Friendly - 111 Turner St.
Scariest - 119 E. Stephens St.
Best Use of Technology - 323 S. Winter St.
Best Spider Web - 223 Johnson St.
Best Pumpkins - 106 Cottage Grove
Best Use of Inflatables - 231 Higgins St.
Creepiest - 245 Higgins St.
Best Overall - 211 S. Winter St.
Most Fun - 121 Carriage Lane
Best Daytime - 318 N. Winter St.
Halloween Spirit Award - 218 219 W. Higgins (below), 128 S. Winter, 232 W. Higgins

Tourist commission formally hires Emily Kay Downey as executive director at $2,500 for 100 hours per month

From left: Samantha Aiken of Brainbox, Executive Director Emily Downey, member Neil Vasilakes (hidden), member Lee Howard, chair Maria Bohanan (wearing a birthday tiara), unofficial member Elisha Holt, Midway member Cortney Neikirk

By Dalton Stokes

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

The Woodford County Tourist Commission unanimously approved the appointment of Emily Kay Downey as its first executive director at its monthly meeting Friday morning. The commission tentatively agreed to approve a contract calling for Downey to work 100 hours per month, for $2,500 a month, as an independent contractor.

In other business, a representative from Brainbox, the Lexington digital marketing company, updated the commission on the progress of their marketing campaign, and there was a brief discussion on including Midway more heavily in next year’s Bourbon Chase.

Friday's meeting was the commission’s first in the City Council chamber at the Versailles Municipal Building, signifying its move from the Chamber of Commerce, which had provided staff and facilities. With the recent increase in bed-tax revenue from the new hotel in Versailles, the commission has money to hire its own staff, something Commission Chair Maria Bohanon said it should have done long ago if it had the funds.

Downey was chosen a week earlier by the five members of the commission who interviewed six of the 11 people who applied for the job. Because a quorum of the commission met to discuss and act on the personnel matter, that constituted a meeting under the Kentucky Open Meetings Act. The law allows public agencies to discuss hiring in private, but requires them to do it in a closed session called during an open meeting. It prohibits taking any final action in private.

Bohanon said at Friday’s meeting said she issued a press release announcing the choice soon after the decision Friday because she “thought it would be nice for people to know ahead of time.” She added, “We had six high caliber people that we interviewed. We have some real talent in Woodford County.”

Downey will remain North American marketing manager for Alltech, a agricultural-products firm in Nicholasville, and will take the second job with the company’s support, Bohanan said.

“Emily, I’m thrilled,” Bohanon said. “I cannot wait for you to bring your skills, and your contacts, and your love for this place to this board.” She said one of the most important things that the commission was looking for in a candidate was passion, and “You have passion for this.”

Downey said, “I really look forward to telling the story of Woodford County to the world.”

Downey is married to William Downey, a magistrate on the Fiscal Court, and is the sister of James Kay, the county judge-executive. Bohanon said earlier this week that those ties may cause “perception issues.” The judge-executive appoints some commission members.

Bohanon noted at the meeting that Downey was chosen with a scoring system in which each candidate is given a certain number of points in different categories, and “Emily had the highest score.”

The one commission member who didn’t participate in interviews was Neil Vasilakes, who said at the meeting that he was busy with the grape harvest at his vineyard and his absence “wasn’t making a statement.” He expressed his support for Downey and the commission’s process.

At the last commission meeting, Vasilakes said, “There are some rumors going around that we’re not following a process and we have a shoo-in person.” He said of the Messenger’s story about that meeting, “I felt like that article maybe insinuated that I was not for the process, but I am, totally.”

On a motion by Midway member Cortney Neikirk, the commission unanimously approved Downey’s contract, pending legal advice from County Attorney Alan George, and gave Bohanan the authority to make any necessary changes.

Bohanan said Kay had suggested that George be consulted because the commission’s attorney, Bill Moore, won’t be available until after Nov. 1, the day Downey is supposed to start work. George said Friday afternoon that he told Bohanan after the meeting to have a private attorney do the work.

Bohanan said the contract was modeled after the one used to employ John Soper as paid chairman of the Woodford County Economic Development Authority, of which she is a board member. It calls for Downey to "develop and supervise plans to promote Woodford County as a regional visitors destination" and lists 18 specific duties, including supervision of "day-to-day activities in the visitors center(s)" and "ensure that all visitors' inquiries from are answered promptly and courteously."

The contract refers to working in Versailles and providing services to the city, but Bohanan said in an email that she copied that language from the city's agreement with Soper and it will be changed to say Woodford County. The contract is to be for a one-year term beginning Nov. 1, extendable by mutual agreement of the parties. It can be terminated by either party for any reason on 30 days' notice.

Other business: The director of digital marketing at Brainbox, Samantha Aiken, updated the commission on the progress of the commission’s geotargeting marketing campaign. The firm’s website says, “Brainbox Intelligent Marketing is an experiential and digital marketing company based in Lexington” that handles marketing campaigns for three branches of the U.S. military, Valvoline and John Deere.

The commission contracts Brainbox to advertise Woodford County online and handle its social media marketing. Bohanon said the commission has a six-month contract with Brainbox and was paid $3,818 this month for its services.

Aiken reported that their campaign is “going really well,” according to Google and Facebook analytics. According to her handout the cost per click is $1.53, which is “on par with CPC rates of travel and tourism companies.”

She also talked about the newsletter the commission is putting out with the help of Brainbox, which has 85 subscribers.

Bohanon asked Aiken for a beginning-to-end report when the six-month contract is over so the commission can “see how to spend our money” amid the transition to a higher budget organization. “We’ve got to have as many performance indicators as we can,” Bohanon said.

Bohanon requested reimbursement from the commission for doughnuts she bought for the Bourbon Chase, a running relay of around 200 miles that goes through Kentucky’s historic Bourbon Trail. “We had gobs of people come into town,” she said. The commission voted to reimburse her $182 for the doughnuts.

 “Next year, hopefully, the Weisenberger Mill Bridge will be back up and running and I would like us to really make a presence not only in Versailles but also Midway,” Bohanon said after the vote. “It’s a great way to … show people our community.”

Council starts cleaning up blighted-property ordinances

The Midway City Council plowed through old and new verbiage Wednesday evening as it considered ordinances Mayor Grayson Vandegrift wants in order to crack down on owners of blighted property.

One ordinance would create a board to enforce the city's existing rules on nuisances and blight; the other, which contains those rules, would be updated to include the code enforcement board. Vandegrift said the existing ordinance is basically obsolete because a 2016 state law requires a local board to handle appeals of citations issued by a code enforcement officer.

The council spent much of its 75-minute special meeting cleaning up parts of the existing ordinance, which Vandegrift said "has been piece-mealed together for probably a century." But it also tentatively agreed on changes to the ordinance that would create and govern the code enforcement board, such as:

• A one-term limit for the three members of the board, which would also have up to two alternates to fill in when regular members are not available.
• Allowing the council, not just the mayor, to remove a board member, but requiring the votes of five of the six council members to do so.
• Allowing different lengths of time for property owners to respond to notices of violation, which if not corrected would result in a citation.
• Some sort of limit on how often citations could be issued to repeat violators.

The latter point was raised after the council discussed how the city could deal with property owners who resist repeated efforts to get them to alleviate blight. The existing ordinance allows the city to place a lien on the property for the amount of unpaid fines and any costs the city has if it goes onto the property to correct the problems. A lien must be satisfied before a property can be sold.

Council Member John Holloway asked, "How often can you give ‘em a citation?" Vandegrift replied, "I think you can give ‘em as many citations as you want. … We can make it too expensive for them to not to the work, or to sell the property." Holloway said there needs to be a limit on how often; he said can’t be five minutes, and it can't be 10 years. Vandegrift agreed.

The ordinance would also follow a state law in creating an "abandoned urban property" class of real estate, which could be subject to higher taxes. Vandegrift said that in extreme cases, the city could use its power of eminent domain, or condemnation, which would require council action.

Discussing the existing ordinance, the council and mayor agreed on removing several provisions that are outdated, or that have become part of the state building code applying to interior matters.

"The intention here is for things on outside of the house," Vandegrift said.
"Because those are nuisances to other people," Holloway said.

Holloway added later, "I have just been appalled at the conditions people are living in and the houses they’re living in," and asked Vandegrift how often the city gets complaints about such matters.

The mayor said it depends on the time of year, but "There’s some kind of complaint about once every week." He said he increasingly hears complaints about abandoned buildings. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimated in 2017 that Midway had 89 abandoned housing units.

Vandegrift has been trying to get blighted-property ordinances passed since he became mayor in 2015. He said early in the meeting, "A compromise version of this could come out and be perfectly fine with me." He added, "I do feel like we need to move as rapidly as possible." He said he plans to call another special meeting next week to continue work on the ordinances.

Emily Downey of Alltech, sister of Judge Kay and wife of magistrate, chosen to be county's first tourism director

By Dalton Stokes
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

The Woodford County Tourist Commission has announced its choice for its first executive director. After interviewing six candidates, five of the commission members unanimously recommended Emily Kay Downey, according to Chair Maria Bohanan.

A press release from Bohanan identified Downey as the North American marketing manager for Alltech, a developer of agricultural products based in Nicholasville, and said she has “extensive experience with the World Equestrian Games” in 2010 and 2014. She is married to William Downey, a magistrate on the Fiscal Court, and is the sister of James Kay, the county judge-executive.

Emily Kay Downey and her brother, County
Judge-Executive James Kay (Twitter photo)

The judge-executive appoints some commission members. Downey's family ties created “perception issues,” Bohanan said in an interview. In a written statement that she said was made on behalf of the commission, she said:

“The tourism commission board followed a meticulous process to individually score each interviewee. Emily Downey had the highest score of all. Her educational background and extensive international marketing experience with Alltech made her the best candidate for the job. Regardless of optics, it would be a disservice not only to the citizens of Woodford County but to all the participants who applied to not pick the best-qualified person. We had the pleasure of interviewing a group of high caliber candidates and feel Ms. Downey will do great things promoting Woodford County.”

A quorum of the commission met to discuss and act on the personnel matter, which constitutes a meeting under the Kentucky Open Meetings Act. However, the commission did not announce any meeting for that purpose, despite receiving a written request from the Midway Messenger to be informed of all its meetings.

The open-meetings law allows public agencies to discuss hiring in private, but requires them to do it in a closed session called during an open meeting. It prohibits taking any final action in private.

Bohanan’s initial press release said that following a “unanimous recommendation from an interview panel, and pending board approval, WCTC recommends Emily Downey as the Woodford County tourism director.” She said five of the six commission members served on the “interview panel,” and agreed on Downey and the press release.

The commission has planned to hire an executive director since it received a large increase in revenue, allowing it to stop using the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce as operational staff.

The county imposes a 3 percent tax on all overnight stays in the county; until the first modern hotel in the county opened last September, the only revenue generated by the tax came from bed-and-breakfasts. Now, with the new Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Versailles, the commission has about $100,000 available to spend.

Eleven people applied for the job of executive director, including Elisha Holt, an events promoter and online contractor who serves as an unofficial member of the commission. She was among the six interviewees, Bohanan said.

The last interviews were held last Friday, and a decision was made by the five members immediately afterward, Bohanan said. They then agreed to issue a press release without holding a public meeting.

Bohanan said, “The whole commission was on the panel if they could make it,” and when the decision was made Friday, she and members Lee Howard, Cortney Niekirk, Ken Kerkhoff, and Aaron Smither were in attendance. She said Neil Vasilakes couldn’t make either interview session.

At the last commission meeting, Vasilakes said, “There are some rumors going around that we’re not following a process and we have a shoo-in person.” Bohanon replied by noting the plan to score candidates and said, “Whatever we do we want it above board.”

She reiterated that point in a telephone interview on Tuesday.  “It’s not confirmed yet; we’ve got to confirm it on Friday,” at the commission’s regular monthly meeting, she said. “That’s why it says it’s a recommendation. It’s not an appointment.”

Asked if she would release the scoring of the candidates, Bohanan said she would prefer not to, and would have to consult attorneys about that.

“I think there could have been perception issues with a few of the candidates we interviewed,” she said. “We put a lot of things in place to ensure that everything was done right. We went above board.”

She added, “Coming out of the gate, we wanted to come our strong. We interviewed six highly talented people, but Emily had the highest scores. . . . She’s amazing . . I’m beyond thrilled.”

Downey holds an executive MBA and completed Alltech’s mini-MBA program through the University of Dublin, according to the press release. The Woodford Sun reported that she plans to keep working for Alltech because the tourism job will be part-time.