Midway Stockyards' Fate Nears A Decision
U.S - The future of the largest stockyards in the eastern United States could be decided tonight if city leaders in Midway, Ky., vote to make way for the cattle auction house.
2 April 2007
1 minute read
But the project has opponents, who say moving Blue Grass Stockyards from its longtime home in Lexington to an industrial park in Midway will have dire consequences for a Woodford County community that otherwise features antique and specialty stores and is surrounded by the rolling fields of horse farms.
"It's totally out of character with everything presently located in Midway," said resident Ron Toy, who lives on a farm near the industrial park, called Midway Station, and fears the effect on his well for drinking.
Mounds of manure from the estimated 300,000 cattle per year that would pass through the stockyards would wash pollution into a popular fishing creek and get into the groundwater, he said.
On the other side of the fence, area cattle farmers say the stockyards is vital to Kentucky agriculture and it's time for a cleaner and more modern market to replace the Lexington center, which dates to the 1940s.
