The building that will be the future home of Cave City's Boys & Girls Club is located at 110 N. First Street.
By GAGE WILSON
for Glasgow News 1
Years after its announcement the Boys and Girls Club of the Caverns has yet to open its doors to the youths in the area. This delay has been chiefly due to the architectural plans as the firm handling the plans has undergone its own setbacks internally.
Throughout this process those involved remain optimistic, “This project is still a-go, we’re still very excited for it,” said club CEO, Mallie Boston. “I would like to highlight the fact that, through those delays, the main focus has been to maximize the benefits of these funds.”
The funds that Boston referred to come from a Community Development Block Grant to the sum of $750,000 to be used in the growth of a space for the BGC to expand its operations in Barren County. The awarding of this grant was just the first step on a long and circuitous path for the BGC and the city of Cave City to navigate.
“We have already had the environmental survey, and the roof inspection done,” Boston said. “That’s been a big conversation at the architectural meetings, as of right now the group we’re working with does feel that with a new roof and a few exterior changes it can be made a sound building.”
The project is currently in the “evidentiary phase” which was explained by BRADD community development specialist, Matt Pedigo.
“This phase is where you will do the environmental assessments and documentation from the city,” Pedigo said. “Basically what that does is it tells the state that you’re on level footing and can receive the funds.”
“One of the big requirements in that process is approval and inspection of the building plans. I’ve got all of the environmental assessments and most of the documents I need from the city, so now we are just waiting on the revisions of the plans to be inspected and have a permit issued,” he added.
The firm working with BGC is RBS Design Group, a company out of Owensboro who works across the state with many of their projects including schools. Barren County Schools worked with the company in 2022 on the construction of the Career and Technical Education Center.
“There were some employment changes at RBS so we kind of had to restart at one point,” Boston said. “The construction process is difficult even on good days.”
Seeing the silver-lining, Pedigo brought up that Barren County is lucky in having a building inspector qualified to inspect congregate settings, so the group will not have to go through the state’s department of housing and building construction, which would delay the project even further. “So we can do that part locally, once the plans are ready,” Pedigo punctuated.
Boston also pointed out that like many businesses, economic inflation and the cost of materials has further stymied the group’s efforts. “The original opinion of probable cost was around $108 per square foot,” Boston pointed out. “That has increased heavily.” The probable cost is important as that figure is used by BGC to ensure proper funding, outside of the block grant, to make sure that the project is sustainable and that its programming meets the organization’s standard of childcare.
It is important to note that neither the BGC nor Cave City has received any funds at this time as they await the “true” plans from RBS. This delay has been of particular frustration to the city as the city is ineligible for other community block grant while the current project is ongoing.
“We can’t even apply as long as this one is hanging out there,” said Cave City Mayor Dwayne Hatcher. “We certainly have other projects that we would like to move forward with.”
However, this inconvenience has not soured the city’s desire to assist BGC with its efforts to expand.
“It will be tremendous to our youths in the area,” Hatcher said. “It’s not just Cave City, it’s going to be huge for the kids on this side of the county.”
While the group works through the twists and turns of the grant, they also have been diligently working on setting up the future location for success. Boston explained that after being awarded $1 million through the organization’s state alliance, the BGC had planned to split the money between its Glasgow location and the upcoming Cave City location. Unfortunately, due to necessary updates made to the fire-suppression systems at the Glasgow location, the group was unable to provide as much in funding to the Cave City branch.
Although no end date has been set, Boston reinforced that the groups behind the project, as well as private donors, are unified in opening the doors to a new opportunity for children that is convenient to the area’s families.
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