Barren County’s Browning Park to get improvements

By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
Barren County Fiscal Court is looking to make significant improvements at Jackie B. Browning Park, but they are likely to come in phases, depending on costs and availability of grant funding.
The court on Tuesday, approved an agreement with with American Engineers Inc. to conduct a topographic survey of the 25-acre property and then provide design plans for permitting and construction of four elements:
— Field 1, the first one on the right approaching the four-plex of fields from the walkway (and the field numbers continue counterclockwise), which is a 317-foot field currently, is to be converted into two 150-foot fields for T-ball, coach pitch, etc. for younger children, with associated paved access and bleacher pad areas;
— Field 4 is to be redesigned in such a way as to allow for the outfield fence to be “pulled in;”
— The existing parking lot is to be redesigned, to include paving, striping, landscape islands and lighting;
— Additional parking area(s) are to be designed for the Fields 1-4 complex.
Per discussion at a Parks and Recreation Committee meeting Monday, one of those additional areas is intended to be near the admissions gate, for handicapped-accessible parking. The other would likely be toward the far end of the parking lot from where the driveway enters it.
The agreement allows for fees of $42,000.
The fiscal court also authorized Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd to apply for a 50/50 grant from Little Tikes to be used for playground equipment purchased from that company and for her to order the equipment, which would be held until the county is ready to install it. The total cost is more than $91,000, and the county would be responsible for half of that. The funds do not have to be paid until the equipment is installed.
This playground equipment is intended to go in or near the general area where the home plate for Field 1 is now. The directions of the two new, smaller fields would be reoriented so the sun is not in the eyes of the players at bat. The dimensions for the equipment will be provided to AEI for incorporation into the design the company will develop.
Both the work being planned by AEI and the ordering of the playground equipment were approved at the committee meeting for recommendation to the full fiscal court, the approval from which was also unanimous.
Chris Jennings, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said having playground equipment at that park would go a long way toward keeping kids who aren’t on the ballfield entertained.
“They have nothing else to do but throw rocks,” he said.
Byrd said Monday that remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds could cover these initial costs, and in the spring, she intends to have the county apply for a grant that she believes could be used to reconstruct the concessions and bathrooms in the baseball complex. The county has roughly $3 million left in ARPA funds and it has to be at least committed to a specific plan by the end of this coming fiscal year, which runs July 1 through June 30, she added.
They need to be ready to start moving on the initial work around Nov. 1, as soon as the fall youth sports season is over, she told the committee.
Earlier in Monday’s meeting, the committee also discussed the following possibilities:
— working out an agreement with Barren County Schools for use of ballfields at Red Cross Elementary or another facility for the youngest age groups for fall leagues;
— working out a cost-sharing plan with the other partners in the soccer-complex consortium – the city of Glasgow, which initiated an inquiry about a cost-split, and the Glasgow and Barren County School systems – regarding construction of some new bathrooms at the complex, with a total estimated cost of $167,000;
— demolishing and reconstructing the concessions/press box building with bathrooms in the basement at the football field, as the bathrooms especially are in a very poor state and frequently flood with heavy rains, but in the interim before that’s done, finding appropriate temporary toilet facilities and providing concessions there for fall football;
— putting turf on the infields of Fields 2, 3 and 4, with estimates to be obtained, or getting Safe Coat put on the fields that don’t already have it – 2 and 3 and then later the new smaller ones where 1 is now – and purchasing extra to have on hand, which would also involve the purchase or construction of a shed in which to store the latter;
Also, Bewley announced that the county would be taking over the concessions at the soccer complex, but they’ll need to look at what equipment will be going with the person who has been overseeing because she personally purchased it and what they’ll need to get.
A special meeting of the committee is expected to be called with the probability of a bit of a “field trip” before its next regular meeting for the group to further check out some of the possibilities named above. The committee has decided to have its regular meetings at 10 a.m. on the Monday before the regular meeting of the full fiscal court, which is now at 9 a.m. on the third Tuesday of each month.