Midway City Council heard a short presentation from Mayor Grayson Vandegrift at its Monday, April 7 meeting about a partnership to livestream downtown Midway for fans of trains.
Virtual Railfan operates a subscriber and free YouTube channel showing a live view of cities from around the world with active trains. Surprisingly, Vandegrift said the channel has a very large number of views due to the popularity of train enthusiasts. Woodford Chamber of Commerce President Emily Downey brought the idea to Vandegrift after learning of LaGrange, Kentucky’s participation.
Vandegrift explained there is no cost to the city. Railfan will install a video camera, which also records sound, and place it on top of the Midway Museum building. It will also cover increasing the streaming capacity of the city’s internet service. Railfan also archives the footage for 10 days, and if needed by law enforcement or the city can provide the requested footage for a particular time frame. Vandegrift encouraged folks to go to the YouTube channel to see the LaGrange set-up, which can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SLt3AT0rXk .
“I want to get buy-in from council, the merchants and public before we proceed with this,” said Vandegrift. “Think about any privacy concerns.”
Cortney Neikirk, president of the Midway Merchants Association, said she thought it was a great idea and that she would follow up with the association members for their input.
Vandegrift said he would bring it back to the council either at the next meeting or in May.
Valet service
Neikirk requested approval from the council to erect signage at the delivery and pick-up spots on Main Street for the new, free valet service the association is offering every week from 5 to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.
The service uses the parking spaces for its pick-up and return along both sides of Main Street next to the railroad, not the stores. The signs would be made by Safeco out of aluminum and would say: “Reserved Parking, 5-9, Wed – Sat for Valet Service.” This would replace the orange cones now being used. The signs would be placed on poles embedded into the ground and could be covered up if needed.
Vandegrift said he used the new valet service, which began about four weeks ago, and thought it was excellent. The council approved the signage request with the condition that Vandegrift approve the sign’s design.
Fourth of July
Vandegrift said the city will be making changes to the annual “Spark in the Park” July 4 celebration.
“The participation has really been dropping off over the last few years, and so Liz (Waterfill) and Sonya (Conner) and me are talking about ways to change it up so we get more folks attending,” he said.
The event will be moved to the revamped Bluejay Park and will be renamed.
“Spark in the Park gets confusing,” he said. “People come expecting fireworks, and, of course, we don’t have any.” Some possible new additions will be another “alumni” softball game, kickball games for kids of all ages, an antique car parade downtown and burgers and hot dogs. The event will be Saturday, July 5, beginning at 2 pm. Details will be announced later.
Ordinance
The City Council heard the first reading of an ordinance approved at its last meeting to temporarily raise water rates. This is necessary, Vandegrift said, because of the most recent of many rate hikes by Kentucky-American Water. The rate for the first 1,000 gallons will go from $11.64 to $13.64, and each 1,000 gallons after that would go up from $11.30 to $13.30. For the average user, the monthly total increase will be $8.
Vandegrift explained that once the city switches over to the Frankfort Plant Board as its water supplier, the council will revisit this and, after taking into account a necessary service fee to help cover the capital cost of the switch, the rate will be lowered.