By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
A longtime member of the Joint City-County Planning Commission of Barren County attended the Glasgow Common Council Infrastructure Committee to express concern about a proposed closure of a segment of West Water Street.
Jim McGowan, superintendent of the Glasgow Department of Public Works, which hosts these committee meetings, said they learned a few months ago that an agreement was made during a prior administration to close the segment of West Water Street that crosses the property on which the Glasgow Water Co. sits, essentially from the site of the future justice center to be constructed for Barren County over to North Liberty Street. He said it was part of the property deal in which a portion of land GWC owned was sold to the Barren County Public Properties Corp., i.e. an entity that is overseen by the Barren County Fiscal Court, which serves as its board of directors.
Eddie Atnip, the JCCPC member, had written virtually a full-page letter to voice his concern. He said that as the JCCPC’s review of the final development plan for the justice center was concluding, he questioned the plan to close Water Street as a through street.
The minutes from the Aug. 19 JCCPC meeting, which are online, along with minutes from other meetings, bears out what he said.
“We did approve the final development plan as we certainly want to proceed with the construction of the justice center,” he said.
The reason for this was that GWC didn’t want people who were going to the justice center to use the neighboring GWC parking lot. He pointed out, though, that neither the county entity nor GWC has the authority to close that street to through traffic. That authority lies with Glasgow’s city council, and it is at their discretion whether to do this, he said.
Atnip said his concern is that people who are going to the justice center who may want to visit the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center, the parking lot for which is on the opposite side of North Liberty Street from the GWC parking lot, would be deterred if they couldn’t just drive straight over there via West Water. He suggested to Glasgow News 1 after the meeting that that could possibly be 200 to 300 people per year as traffic the center could lose.
The cultural center would still be accessible from North Liberty Street, which can be accessed via West Main Street or West Front Street. From the justice center parking area, it would essentially require a drive around three sides of a city block – from West Water north on Ford Drive, then east on West Front Street and south on North Liberty – to get to the cultural center.
Atnip proposed that, rather than cutting off that through access, GWC should first try something less disruptive, like putting up signage that the lot is for GWC business only and violators would be towed. Only if that is tried unsuccessfully should the road be blocked.
“My request is that you do what is best for the community in deciding this issue,” he said.
Councilman Freddie Norris, who chairs the panel, asked whether it would be possible to test out the issue.
“Would it be beneficial and would it please everybody to try it for a while, and then reverse it at a later time after the judicial center is built?” he asked.
There were questions and discussion about the timing of when work on the North Race Street bridge over Water Street and the tunnel under the bridge would be completed as well as when the justice center construction would be completed. No definite answer was available for either.
Joe Watson, GWC’s general manager, said his biggest concern is that if someone were utilizing the GWC lot for a visit to the justice center, and, “if they’re in court for like, a bad day, I don’t want to have to tow anybody.” He later used the possibility of someone’s losing custody of their child as an example, and he said he wouldn’t want to make matters worse and then having them come into the building upset.
He said he’s also concerned about making sure his customers have enough parking spaces.
“It wouldn’t take very many people to park there to where we’d lose all of our customer parking,” Watson said.
Atnip also pointed out that, despite a perceived shortage of parking for the justice center at one point, it has more than the minimum number of spots required under the current plan.
The entrance to the justice center is to be near the corner of the then-relocated Ford Drive and West Water, and the primary guest parking area is to be opposite that corner, between West Water and West Front streets and west of the section of Ford Drive that runs between them.
After the meeting, Watson said the Water Street issue was addressed in the option agreement that allowed the county to purchase the property for the justice center.
He later provided a copy of that option agreement, signed Sept. 19, 2022, by Jerry Botts, chairman of the Glasgow Water and Sewer Commission, which is the governing entity for GWC, and Micheal Hale, who, as judge-executive at the time was also the chairman of the public properties corporation. The agreement addresses the matter in two places.
The seller, GWC made the option to purchase the property contingent on using the property for the construction of a justice center and “Buyer developing said project such that sufficient boundary line barriers are erected to keep patrons of the new Justice Center from parking in Seller’s lot and walking over to the Justice Center.”
Further down, the document states, “The parties agree that Water Street will not be closed but will be cut off and dead end at the common boundary line …. In other words, Seller shall retain the use of the that [sic] portion of Water Street coming off North Liberty Street so that the Seller’s parking lots can be accessed.”
Watson told GN1 that the desire is for the property where West Water Street physically is to be transferred to GWC. The plan would be to leave the paved surface in place to provide access to GWC’s drive-through windows, but GWC would then be responsible for maintaining it, and a permanent barrier of some type would be placed on the street where the GWC property line is that adjoins the justice center property line.
At last week’s meeting of the local project development board overseeing the justice center project, Rich Alexander, who is the Barren County Bar Association representative on the PDB and is also the city attorney for Glasgow, said he anticipated having the West Water Street closure issue on the agenda for the Glasgow Common Council’s next meeting, which is Nov. 12.
No decision was reached at the committee meeting as to a recommendation to the council, but Watson pointed out it would be more than a year, possibly two, from now before the justice center is ready for use, so they have time to get things ironed out.
In other Infrastructure Committee business:
– McGowan said regarding the city’s parking garage that at a previous meeting they had talked about the fact the city had hired a consultant to design some of the necessary repairs to the structure that is between North Race and North Green streets, behind the row of buildings along Main Street on the north side of the Glasgow Public Square. In particular, he referred to the ramp entrance to the structure entered from North Green behind the Shogun Bistro restaurant.
He said they should be getting that back soon and can then advertise for bids.
“The reason for doing that first,” Mayor Henry Royse said, “is ‘cause that way we can get both ends of the structure open. Right now, we just have one way to get in,” he said.
McGowan said that once they get that completed, they can look at working on the pedestrian walkway from the parking structure over to the square.
One issue encountered with future work for the bridge walkway is that the wiring and such for the generator for the Barren County Government Center, which is between the structure and Main Street, runs underneath that walkway. The Barren County Fiscal Court recently voted to pay to get those lines moved.
– Wes Billingsley, foreman for the Street Division, reported that the sidewalk project along North Green Street between East Cherry Street and East Front Street is completed.
“We’ve got everything seeded back, strawed. We’re just waiting for grass to come up,” he said. “Other than that, that project should be at completion on that side of the road.”
McGowan said that after some time has been allowed for settling, they may go back and touch up a few spots this fall or in the spring “to make everything look good.”
– Billingsley also pointed out the city’s leaf-collection service started Monday. Glasgow News 1 had reported about the service at this link.
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