THE MIDWAY MUSEUM is celebrating Black History Month with three new

exhibits with one already up. Pictured from left are museum board

members Christy Reaves and Dee Mason. (Photo by Scott White).

  The Midway City Council heard a report from city engineer David Brown

at its meeting on Feb. 5 about maintenance work needed on the water

tower located at Midway Station – not to be confused with “Tin Man,” the

out-of-service iconic water tower visible from Midway proper.

Brown described a number of technical needs, which he said can be

summarized as the “tower needs a new paint job.” The tower, built in

2002, should be repainted both inside and out every 20-23 years, so, he

said, “It’s time to start planning on getting it done.” Other than the

repainting and minor issues such as repairing the float level indicator,

no other work needs to be done. Brown assured the council the tower is

operating fine.

Brown estimated the work will cost approximately $500,000. If the

council is ready to proceed, he said the bid process would take about

two months and the winning contractor could begin a month later. Brown

said they would need to coordinate the work with Kentucky-American Water

Company, Midway’s current water supplier, to ensure there would be

sufficient water and pressure during the work, which will take

approximately two months.

Councilmember Patrick Hall asked Brown if it made sense to do the water

tower work in conjunction with the necessary construction for the

switch-over to the Frankfort Plant Board, which will be the new supplier

in mid-2025. Brown said he would explore this possibility, but it could

be problematic since the switch-over work has its own contractor

requirements, costs and timelines. He said the repainting of a water

tower is a very specific specialty which limits the number of

contractors who could even bid the job.

The council discussed various options for financing the project. Mayor

Stacy Thurman said the city has received $490,000 from two federal

sources: the American Rescue Plan Act that is unrestricted of which

$116,000 has already been pledged for police radio upgrades; and

$160,000 in Clean Water grants ($60,000 of it is still to come this

fiscal year). This then Leaves $534,000  that could be drawn from to

fund the water tower project.

Thurman also said she had spoken with Woodford County Fiscal Court Judge

James Kay about a possible loan from the county at a quarter percent

interest rate as a fund source.

Thurman, saying she has not taken a position yet, raised the possibility

of defraying some portion or all of the costs by selling advertising on

the Midway Station water tower (not Tin Man) which can be seen from

I-64. Thurman said there is interest but there have been no serious

discussions, which is the reason “I am raising it here for discussion as

a funding source and to see how you (the council) feel.” She said if

there is a desire to do this, it would need to go through a bidding

process.

Councilmember Logan Nance said, “I don’t like the idea of putting logos

up at Midway Station. We aren’t a town that needs that . . . it makes us

look desperate . . . I like the idea of (making up any shortfall) with

the low- interest loan from the county.”

Hall said, “We could bid the project to see what kind of funds could be

raised and then decide not to do it . . . (if we did decide to do an

advertisement) it could free up money for (fixing the issues with) Tin

Man.”

When asked about what Tin Man needs, Brown said the current paint is

lead-based, so, “We would need to paint over it with very little

patchwork so we didn’t create an environmental problem of removing all

the lead paint.” He also said there would be some minor work needed on

the support structure. Brown estimated the cost of remediating Tin Man

at $100,000.

“I agree it may not be the best idea for us (to sell advertisements on

the Midway Station tower), but I’m glad we are discussing it.”

Black History Month

Christy Reaves, a board member of the Midway Museum, gave a short

presentation on the museum’s celebration of Black History Month (BHM).

There is already a new exhibit up and there are two more scheduled. The

national theme of BHM is “African-Americans in the Arts,” and the museum

will be highlighting this in one of the exhibits. She also announced the

museum will have a formal celebration of BHM and the exhibitions on Feb.

25 from 1 –3 p.m., which is sponsored by local business “A Likely Story

Bookshop.”