Williamsburg hoping to have Halloween trick or treating

Williamsburg officials are hoping to hold trick or treating next month for Halloween, but are awaiting word from Frankfort before making a final decision.

Williamsburg City Councilwoman Patty Faulkner told the council Thursday that she is being bombarded with questions about whether trick or treating will happen.

Mayor Roddy Harrison said that he is afraid to make any kind of definitive plans for trick or treating before hearing from Gov. Andy Beshear about it.

“The bottom line is I am hoping the governor comes out with some guidelines,” Harrison noted adding he hopes to find a way to hold trick or treating.

Faulkner added that she is also being bombarded with questions about trick or treating at the Kentucky Splash Campground this year.

Harrison seemed less certain that will happen this year.

Harrison noted that the city council will have another regular meeting in October before Halloween.

Another annual event that the city council discussed during its meeting Thursday was whether the fall clean-up will take place this year due to COVID-19.

During the fall clean-up, there is a one-week period for the Highland Park side of town, and another one-week period for the downtown side, when each household can have one pick-up truck size load of junk and so forth hauled off for free by Williamsburg sanitation workers.

Councilwoman Laurel Jefferies West said that she has received a lot of texts and messages about whether the clean-up will take place.

Harrison said he thinks that the city can hold the clean-up this year, and that he planned to meet with maintenance officials about it.

Also, during Thursday’s meeting, the council approved a five-year lease/purchase agreement for a 3,850 square foot building, which is owned by Ray Sutton and located near Canada Brothers Auto Parts. The lease is $1,600 per month, which would go toward the price to purchase the building, and it will be used initially for storage space.

City officials noted that they are out of storage space at city hall, and have already utilized a lot of the attic space at the Williamsburg Tourism Center.

“It is going to help us quite a bit,” Harrison said adding that in the future he could possibly see the Sutton building being used to house an ambulance service base inside the city limits.

“I believe we ought to purchase it at some point. We are growing. We are going to need some room.”

In addition, the council cancelled a planned executive session to discuss proposed litigation.

Williamsburg Attorney Kim Frost said that the executive session was initially planned to get approval to file a lawsuit related to a piece of blighted property where the owner was reported to be a charitable organization, which has since been dissolved.

After further research though, an actual owner for the property was located in addition to an address for the owner.

A notice has now been sent to the property owner outlining the problems.

Harrison added that taking action regarding blighted properties is harder than many people think, and that one of the bigger problems is locating an actual owner, who city officials can speak with about the problems.