Parks Board Chair Cecelia Gass presented a proposed park budget for fiscal year 2023 (which begins July 1) to the Midway City Council Monday. The budget includes funds for dog park maintenance, machine rentals, structure and trail maintenance and other general park upgrades. The largest portion was dedicated to trail upgrades at Walter Bradley Jr. Park. Gass said most trails there could use updates, but the $8,000 requested would focus mainly on trails that would become ADA compliant. All the trails in Walter Bradley Park were built by volunteer labor. Gass said many need to become wider, deeper and more stable. These labor-intensive changes would be made by a contracting company, EcoGro, which recently partnered with Parks Board volunteers to revitalize the Northside Trail that connects Northridge Estates to downtown. Gass discussed the park’s goal of eventually being recognized as an arboretum, which she said would provide more publicity and make it easier for people to locate as a place to visit. “This would be really very nice if we could have that designation, because very often when people are looking for places to go or see or mess around in, they look for arboretums,” Gass said. The board is asking for $700 to begin a digital inventory of memorial trees with plans to expand the database in coming years to include all trees in the park. Due to weather conditions and vandalism, the willow tree arch at the trailhead behind the dog park is deteriorating, according to Gass. The arch, which was created by artist Justin Roberts, has survived five years in the park. With the arch being a favorite place for photo ops, the board requested $800 to have Roberts refurbish his work. While this undertaking will actually cost around $2,000, the parks board plans to hold fundraisers to supplement the rest of the cost, Gass said. Midway Mayor Grayson Vandergrift included the full $20,600 allocation in his proposed budget April 4. Elkton Place A resident of Elkton Place requested that the street remain two-way. Lisa Shelbourne said she was speaking for herself and two other Elkton Place residents who were not present during Councilmember Steve Simoff’s canvassing efforts this weekend. She said they all felt no reason to change Elkton Place from a two-way to a one-way street. “We like the street the way it is,” Shelbourne said. “We are very adamantly against it being a one-way street.” Simoff said that of the people he spoke to this weekend, only one resident wanted to make Elkton Place one-way. The switch died due to lack of a motion. Surplus bids The council reviewed offers to purchase items declared as surplus April 4. While a rare occurrence, the council is not required to sell the item to the highest bidder, and if the council does not feel an adequate price has been offered, they do not have to sell the item, Vandegrift said. The council voted 5 to 0 to sell all items to the highest bidder except for a 2016 Exmark mower, which was not approved for sale. (Councilmember Kaye Nita Gallagher was absent.) Vandegrift said Central Equipment in Lexington told Public Works Supervisor Nelson Wright they would honor a $2,500 trade for the mower. Wright advised the council not to accept any bid lower than $2,500 for the mower, Vandegrift said. Five other surplus items were approved for sale for a total of $9,500. American Rescue Plan Act The council approved a resolution allowing the use of standard allowance to identify revenue losses within the Local Fiscal Recovery Fund as authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program, a part of ARPA, delivers $350 billion to state, local, and tribal governments across the country to support their response to and recovery from the COVID-19 public health emergency. Midway will receive $490,209.39 through this fund, with the first half arriving last year and the second half scheduled for this year.
Parks Board requests $20,600 Budget for fiscal year ‘23
