Midway resident Steve Simoff presented proposed plans for the William G.
Clark Park to the Midway City Council at its Jan. 8 meeting. The park is
located on S. Gratz Street behind the Midway Bakery (old Midway School)
which has a ball field and train-themed playground. Simoff said Ashford
Stud and James Hicks want to donate four to five “three generation”
trees, those with a life expectancy of 300 years, for the park,
including labor and materials for their planting. Volunteers and the
Midway Park Board would then be responsible for maintaining and
nurturing the trees.
Simhoff said Ashford Stud would also donate the time of its arborist to
selecting and planting the trees. The types of trees would be Burr Oak,
Black Gum, Ginkgo or maples . . . all native to Kentucky. Simhoff said
the timing was perfect for planting now since the trees are in a dormant
state. He said, “Hicks was inspired by long-time Midway residents who
said to him ‘When I was a kid there used to be trees here where we
played.’”
Simhoff said he hoped to raise the funds, with possibly additional
funding from the city, to build a roofed Walter Bradley Park. He
recognized that the Park Board had other priorities, but said plans
could be made for this now. Further, he said he had already obtained a
commitment of $5,000 towards the construction of a pavilion from the
Crutcher Foundation and since $50,000 had been raised in private monies
for the train playground, he was optimistic additional funds could be
raised for a pavilion.
Simhoff said he had been working closely with the Park Board on these
plans. Cecilia Gass, the chair of the Park Board, confirmed their
support for the tree project and, in concept, the pavilion. “This is a
big project, and it will need a project manager with the expertise –
something we don’t have on our board,” she said. “We like the idea of a
pocket park, it’s something Midway is evolving to and it will be used.
The board is willing to take it on.”
Midway Mayor Stacy Thurman said the council is getting ready to start
planning for the 2024-25 budget.
“The Park Board should include this on its list if it wants, in addition
to its other plans and make priorities like water lines and this
proposed pavilion,” she said. “We know the pavilions at Walter Bradley
Park get used all the time and this would be popular too.”
The council unanimously approved a motion to allow the tree proposal to
proceed and assigned its supervision to the Park Board.
Midway Station road system
Tallest Warehouse, LLC, which owns a lot at Midway Station, presented a
concept for making a change to two roads at Midway Station to the
council. The current roads, which have not been completed since laid out
originally for residential, then rezoned commercial and then rezoned
again to industrial, are not compatible for industrial uses including
being unable to handle semi-trailer traffic or even allow for safe
ingress-egress of those vehicles. Tallest Warehouse proposed taking a
road out and building a new one. The plan is complicated by the
existence of a water line down the middle of the road that needs to be
closed.
Following this discussion, Thurman invited Versailles-Midway-Woodford
County Planning Director Steve Hunter to join the discussion. Hunter
discussed some of the issues, including a problematic “teardrop” portion
of one of the roads that needed to come out, the need to obtain sign-off
by abutting landowners to the road changes, and the ceding of publicly
owned rights-of-way to a private landowner. Hunter suggested that the
needed changes were not unusual and could be achieved, but it should
begin with a new plat process to originate at the Planning Commission.
Councilmember Patrick Hall asked if the city could request the Woodford
County Economic Development Authority to handle all of this since it was
the original owner of the property and had only recently deeded
ownership to the city.
Councilmember Logan Nance agreed deeding back the property to the EDA
should be explored and said it could be the most efficient approach.
City Attorney Sharon Gold said this approach was possible and that she
would look into that as an option and report back.
The consensus of the council, as expressed by Thurman, was that the plan
“makes sense and would be beneficial to the city, it’s a win-win for
everyone.” She encouraged Tallest Warehouse to proceed as they and
Hunter proposed. Bryce Anderson, one of the Tallest Tree principals,
said, “Thanks for supporting this concept and we will follow up
immediately with (Hunter and Gold), and, to be clear, we will pay for
(the costs) of this.”
FEMA resolution
Thurman told the council that as a result of a lot of work by Liz
Waterfill and Sonya Conner, the city will receive $36,205.89 from a FEMA
grant for losses the city experienced from the March 2023 windstorm,
such as city worker overtime. Council approved a resolution authorizing
Waterfill to sign the necessary documents to receive the funds.
Comprehensive Plan
Thurman told the council that the “goals and objectives” portion of the
new Comprehensive Plan had been completed and approved by the Planning
Commission. Midway has until Feb. 9 to accept the plans and suggest
changes or it will go into effect automatically. Hunter described the
“goals and objectives” as an “umbrella” under which the specific
policies contained in the plan’s chapters are written. Thurman said the
“goals and objectives” are the only part of the plan that requires the
approval of the legislative bodies of Midway, Versailles and Woodford
County.
Following a discussion of some concerns raised by members Hall, Dee
Mason and Sara Hicks, member Kaye Nita Gallagher suggested that the
decision on the “goals and objectives” be moved to the next council
meeting on Jan. 22 to allow “everyone some more time to read and think
about this since we just received the document a few days ago.” The
council quickly reached a consensus and the decision will be on the next
meeting’s agenda.