By Scott White
Woodford Sun Staff
The Versailles City Council approved a zone map amendment and general development plan of Versailles Baptist Church to, essentially, rezone a group of houses it owns on E. Green Street and N. Locust Street to B-2 (central business district) from R-4 (residential) at its Tuesday night meeting. The issue had been in front of the City Council for several weeks.
The Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Planning Commission recommended the request, and the city had several ways to move forward, either by holding its own hearing, making a decision strictly on the record created by the commission when it made its decision, or taking no action, thus allowing the change to automatically occur after 90 days.
The council chose to approve the zone change request with one condition – that if the church opts to sell any or all of the homes at 205, 207, 215 and 239 E. Green Street or 222 N. Locust Street, then those would revert back to an R-4 (residential) zone.
Phyllis Mattingly, on behalf of the church, was requested to confirm the church’s agreement to the reverted condition. Mattingly, after confirming that 125 E. Green was not included in the condition, confirmed the church’s acceptance, and the council then unanimously approved the change.
Sewer fee
On the recommendation of City Council members Gary Jones and Lisa Johnson, the council approved a decision to forego the annual 2.7 percent increase on the sewer fee for its Water & Sewer customers. Mayor Laura Dake said the cost to the city in lost revenues will be $180,000.
City Clerk Elizabeth Reynolds, in responding to a question from Councilmember Ann Miller as to whether this decision was in the budget, said that in preparing the Water & Sewer Department’s budget, she and Director Mitzie Delius were conservative in their budgeting and the loss of this revenue would not have an impact on the operations.
Audit
Heather Cochran, a C.P.A. with RPH Consultants in Lexington, reported on her firm’s audit of the City of Versailles FY 2025 finances.
Cochran said she rendered a “clean” opinion, which she said “is the opinion you are looking for, and which is the best it can be.”
Contracts
The City Council approved the following contracts, all of which were budgeted, by the Water and Sewer Department: purchase of a mini-excavator from Boyd Company for $83,750; purchase of a pump replacement for the Woodland sewer lift station from Straeffer Pump & Supply for $7,462; and a 2027 Chevrolet Traverse from Bachman Commercial for $39,228.