By Scott White

Managing Editor

Midway City Council heard a status report and plan for the property located at 341 N. Winter Street at its Dec. 15 meeting. The property is currently in disrepair.

Natalie Bates, who, along with her husband Tony, owns the property, told the City Council members that the plan is to demolish the existing structure, split it into lots and build three new residential homes, with two facing N. Winter Street and the other facing First Street.

She said the zone change was approved with the condition that the houses not be used as short-term rentals, which was a use the Bates’ had never planned on anyway. The next step is to obtain approval from the Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Planning Commission on their development plan.

Mayor Grayson Vandegrift thanked the Bates for coming to council with an update, given the community’s interest, and said, “We appreciate you fixing that property.”

Board appointment

Council approved Grayson’s appointment of Franklin Watson, a Midway native and resident who is a builder, to the Code Enforcement Board. Vandegrift said this will add to the board’s size to help with quorums, as well as provide additional expertise to the board’s work.

Event fees

Vandegrift introduced the imposition of some type of fee to groups that hold events in Midway to help defray costs for things like clean-up, street closures and extra police requiring overtime. He made it clear that he was opening the discussion for the council to think about and discuss over the next few meetings before a firm decision is taken.

The main focus of the discussion was on foot and bike race events.

Vandegrift said his view is that there should be a group of event sponsors who are exempt: the city, downtown merchants, citizens, Midway University and Northside Elementary. If the sponsor does not fall into one of these categories, then some fee would be charged.

Councilmember Logan Nance indicated he was generally in favor, but said, “We should look at other communities around us to see what they charge, get their schedule of fees.”

Councilmember Patrick Hall added, “I don’t understand why we have so many over the same route,” which impacts the same people every time.

Vandegrift said he was not casting aspersions over non-Midway related sponsors, but said, “These have a real impact and the citizens of Midway are footing the bill – even where they are fundraisers. . . . This isn’t a major issue, but we are being proactive in discussing this to make a good decision to keep from these getting out of hand.”

He added that he had heard several complaints from residents and business owners over the large number of these races in Midway.