Asked how she’d have reacted if someone had told her in 2005, when she and her husband moved to Midway, that she’d be mayor one day, Stacy Thurman said, “I would have laughed out loud.” Yet that’s just what the two-term Midway City councilmember will be on Jan. 1, as the 44-year-old is unopposed in the race to replace Mayor Grayson Vandegrift, who chose to run instead for the state House 56th District seat. Thurman laughed again when the subject of her being all alone on the ballot was raised. “I think I would be lying if I didn’t say I was relieved. I think anybody who’s running unopposed, there’s a certain amount of relief. I knew that meant I could focus more on the job and what I needed to do and learn more about the position … And also, running against someone in a small town is very awkward – it creates kind of an awkward situation with you and with your constituents, so I was relieved not to have to worry about that,” she said. Asked why she ran for the city’s top job – or the city council seat she won four years before – Thurman said the answer was complicated, adding that she’d always been drawn to public service. The year after Thurman and her husband Ian moved to Midway in 2008, she took a part-time job in the Midway Branch of the Woodford County Public Library, not long after the library opened. She liked it, and obtained her master’s degree in Library Science from the University of Kentucky in 2015. Shortly thereafter, she was named branch manager of the Midway Library, a job she held until April of this year, when she was hired as assistant director of the Woodford County Public Library. “Although literacy is important to me, really the thing I enjoy most is working with the community, trying to figure out what their needs are and helping meet those needs, so it’s really not a great leap to grow into local government,” Thurman said. Thurman said when she ran for city council in 2018, she had no intention of running for mayor. “In fact, people told me that I would be mayor one day, and I laughed. It was not a leadership position that I really wanted to do until the opportunity presented itself,” she said. That chance came early this year after Vandegrift, who Thurman praises as a leader and mayoral mentor, chose not to run for reelection. “I love my community, I love serving my community, and why not? If not now, then when?” she said. After discussing the prospect with Ian and her family (they have two children, Chase, 16 and Clara, who turned 12 last Thursday) she decided to go for it. Asked whether there are similarities between the responsibilities of leading a library and a city, Thurman said, “Absolutely.” “I mean, you’re working for the taxpayer. You’re accountable to the people of Midway and Woodford County, and it’s your job, like I said, to know what their needs are and how you can meet those needs, whether it be specific books that you have in your collection or programming that you provide for the community … It’s kind of the same thing, when you’re talking to the community, trying to figure out what’s important to them …” she said. As Midway Library Branch manager, much of Thurman’s work was with kids (more on that later). As assistant director, she’s more involved with scheduling, management and budgeting – skills that come in handy for the mayor of a town of any size. (Midway’s population was 1,864, according to the 2020 census.) Mayor Thurman will also have under her belt her work as chair of the city council’s task force on affordable housing and her outsized role in the recent countywide housing survey, for which she went door-to-door throughout much of Midway. When she’s not working in the library or working with constituents, Thurman runs every other day, reads, watches Hulu and is involved in her children’s many activities, she said. She plans to continue her library job come January, but while the mayor’s position is considered part-time, she said she considers it a “round the clock” job. Two people who’ve known her for years say they have no doubt she’ll be a fine mayor. “I know that she has an extremely good heart, a caring heart for her community and for people who are struggling, as evidenced by her work on the affordable housing analysis. She really is solution-driven,” said Versailles Mayor Brian Traugott. Traugott, who was mayor throughout Vandegrift’s two terms leading Midway, said he also expects to have a good working relationship with Thurman. “Grayson has a great personality and good sense of humor, and Stacy is right there with him. She’s so kind, so gracious – I don’t expect any turbulence at all,” he said. Another Thurman fan is fellow two-term Councilmember Logan Nance. They met when Nance moved to Midway and began taking his daughter, Olivia, now 6, to the Midway Branch Library. “I think Stacy’s incredible. I often joke – it’s not really even a joke – that Stacy’s my daughter’s favorite person because she’s always at the library and they (Nance and his wife Samantha have two other young children) love her and she’s so great to them,” Nance said. Thurman is also a favorite of Olivia’s dad. “… I know she’s going to be a fantastic mayor,” Nance said. “I’m really excited to work with her. I know she’s got some really good ideas, and I think my favorite thing about Stacy is she’s very open to listening to people’s ideas and … she’s always cognizant about being aware of making sure she’s doing right by everybody, but she’s also not afraid to make a decision.” Asked what sort of mayor she wants to be, Thurman said she thinks about that a lot. “First and foremost, I want to be someone who leads with integrity and with empathy, and I think it’s easy to say that, but I do feel like those are qualities I possess,” she said. Thurman said she doesn’t have any “huge projects” she wants to get done right away, but said the city’s in a really good spot now, in part due to the work of Vandegrift. “I think just basically being there to hear people out and really, it’s not exciting, but working on our existing (and aging) infrastructure – there’s a lot of projects that need to get done and we have money to do it. … In the long run, I think we’re really going to have to think about growth, whether we want to or not. I know there’s going to be developers that are already knocking on our door, whether it’s housing or industry or commercial, I think that we’re going to have to … think about what our needs are and (seek) measured and manageable and intentional growth.” Thurman grew up on the outskirts of Richmond and said until she moved to Midway, she never felt such a strong sense of community. Local government, she said, is where a person can really make a difference. “This is where you can really do things for people in your community, and everything comes with politics and sometimes, it can make you a little cynical, but all in all, it’s all about community service. It’s not about politics or political parties,” she said