Lexington mayoral candidate latest to target city’s snow response as a failure
As resident frustration builds over icy sidewalks and unplowed neighborhood streets more than week after Winter Storm Fern, a candidate for Lexington’s highest office says the city’s response is a failure.
Raquel Carter, CEO of Guide Realty and candidate in the 2026 mayoral race, said Monday a new plan to combat winter weather is “too little, too late.”
“Like many parents, my daughter is now on her 6th day out of school,” Carter said in a prepared statement. “My own employees have had to delay meetings with clients and many other small businesses in this city have suffered economically.
“Developing and executing a plan that utilizes the right people, with the right resources, at the right time is the job of our city leadership and they failed,” Carter continued.
Carter will face incumbent Mayor Linda Gorton and five others in the Tuesday, May 19 primary. The race is nonpartisan.
Mayor Gorton acknowledged the city’s strained response over the weekend.
“People are frustrated and want to get back to normal, as do I … I hear you loud and clear,” Gorton said Saturday evening.
Winter Storm Fern blanked Lexington with 5 inches of snow and plenty of ice beginning Jan. 24. That particular precipitation mixture, coupled with a week straight of temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, has made plowing and salting roads less effective, city officials have said.
“What used to be a very rare occurrence — a significant ice storm, followed by an extended period of extreme cold — has now occurred two years in a row … We will be revising our approach,” Gorton said.
After a storm in January 2025, the city invested an additional $3.5 million in new trucks, contracts with third-party companies and more salt to tackle a similar storm.
That investment was not enough, Carter argues.
“For days leading up to the storm, we were reassured by the Mayor that the city was prepared and that we would not have a repeat of last year. This has not been the case,” Carter said.
The city has used three times as much as salt as a typical storm requires, Lexington’s commissioner of environmental quality and public works Nancy Albright said Friday. Lexington has also used different vehicles to break up stubborn ice sheets over the weekend.
Speaking Jan. 28, Mayor Gorton urged Lexington residents to “be patient” as the city’s response effort continue.
Carter is not the only candidate to criticize the city’s response.
Richard Moloney, a former longtime Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council member running for the 11th District seat this year, argued on social media over the weekend the city’s response was neglecting marginalized neighborhoods.
Moloney specifically criticized Lexington resources being used to clear parking lots on Fayette County Public Schools properties.
Mayor Gorton said Moloney’s viral post was “a cheap, political online attack.”
Other candidates, including 5th District council hopefuls Michael McLaughlin and Nick Wolter, have said online that despite the best efforts of city workers, more could be done.
This story was originally published February 2, 2026 at 2:00 PM.
