By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
Barren County’s $1.1 million purchase of the former U.S. Bank building at the outer southeast corner of the Glasgow Public Square was all but done after Tuesday morning’s regular meeting of the Barren County Fiscal Court.
The county’s legislative body approved the authorization for Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd to sign off on the closing documents for the property, with an amendment to it specifying that the bank will pay for a certain part and its installation for the HVAC system. Delivery of the part is expected soon. The air conditioning is currently not working, Byrd has said.
The main intention for the building is for it to serve as the new home for the Barren County Health Department, which would move from its location along West Washington Street. Byrd envisions that it would also house many of the offices a person who plans to build a house or commercial property or develop a subdivision would need to visit to the project going – building and health inspectors, planning commission and Barrens Information Technology Systems, which oversees addressing in the county – as sort of a one-stop shop. All of those but the health inspector are currently housed in Glasgow City Hall.
A handful of businesses and organizations currently rent space in the building and at least one business pays for the use of some parking spaces, and Byrd told the Building and Property Committee that met just before the full fiscal court on Tuesday that it would likely need to have a special meeting to review all of the leases. VibraTech, for example, is in the process of renovating the former Barren County Board of Education building on the other southern corner of the square, but it needs a place until that one is ready for them to move into it.
Two other property-related projects that are in the very early stages are beginning to gain ground as well. The proposed Cave City agricultural center that would be on property next to the Cave Area Conference Center in Cave City has gained financial commitments of $10,000 apiece from the City of Cave City and from the Cave City Tourist and Convention Commission toward the development of a conceptual plan with visual renderings and an estimated budget that is to be provided to the county for $35,000 by Sherman Carter Barnhart Architects, Byrd said.
On Tuesday, the fiscal court approved committing $10,000 in county funds toward that initial work. It is anticipated that additional funding may come from local governments in Edmonson and/or Hart counties as well, as the project is intended to be a regional facility.
The center would include an arena-type building as well as paddock buildings and such for livestock.
A proposed county sportsplex project is at roughly the same stage, except that a property has not been acquired for it. Byrd has said she has been looking at a couple of different possibilities on that front. Sherman Carter Barnhart is to work on a conceptual plan, visual renderings and budget for that as well, at a price of $27,500.
Byrd has spoken with Glasgow Mayor Henry Royse about that city’s sharing of this cost, and she thought it might be approved by Glasgow’s city council Monday evening. Royse told Glasgow News 1 after the council meeting that it is intended to be a topic for the council’s finance committee, which is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, and he said he believes Councilman Terry Bunnell, who chairs that committee, has spoken with Byrd individually as well. Royse said he supports the city’s providing half of that cost.
At Tuesday morning’s fiscal court meeting, after Byrd shared her expectation of Glasgow’s commitment, the fiscal court approved the county’s paying for half of that work as well.
Byrd envisions the sports facility could contain four full basketball courts, three indoor tennis courts, four indoor pickleball courts and an indoor baseball training facility.
Other building-and-property topics that were discussed at Tuesday’s committee meeting and then reported briefly to the full fiscal court related to details of how the spaces in the front section of a building at East College and South Franklin streets the county purchased earlier this year are to be used – with some changes to that draft needed, based on the feedback received – and an appeal from the county attorney for a remodel of his existing space along East Main Street, after which other ideas were tossed around as to whether his offices could be in the current Barren County Courthouse once the new justice center is completed or in the current Barren County Government Center, as some functions based there now are likely to move to the courthouse.
Byrd said the justice center timeline for completion is late 2025 at best, however.
Magistrate Ronnie Stinson asked Richardson where he’d rather be, and he said he would prefer for them to be at a remodeled and/or expanded version the current location, because it is closest to where the new justice center is to be constructed.
— RELATED: Additional coverage of Tuesday’s fiscal court meeting is at this link.
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