Alternative Sports Groups Continue
The entire article can be found at the Kentucky Standard.
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Bardstown Boaters, a
group of local whitewater enthusiasts, first proposed
the project and have since compiled a preliminary
informational package for local officials to review.
Fund-raising efforts to generate funding necessary to
hire a design firm to compile a formal study of the
whitewater park began Sept. 30 with a paddlers poker
run on Beech Fork which raised almost $1,000.
Spalding Hurst, Bardstown Boaters president, said in
a recent interview that local businesses were also
being solicited for donations to fund the $6,700 cost
of hiring a design firm for the preliminary studies.
Dawn Ballard, Bardstown-Nelson County Tourist and
Convention Commission vice-president, said the next
step for the whitewater committee would be
solicitation of Bardstown City Council and tourism
officials to request matching funds for the hiring of
a design firm.
That meeting of whitewater proponents and public
officials was delayed until after Election Day.
The work to be done by the design firm is a must-do
before definite plans for the whitewater park and
possible raising of the rock dam can continue,
according to Bardstown City Administrator Larry
Green.
He began researching available funding for the
whitewater park and dam work and said state and
federal agencies require professional designs and
cost estimates prior to earmarking funds for a
project like a whitewater park.
Whitewater parks throughout the nation, similar to
what is planned for Beech Fork, range in cost from
$140,000 to about $2 million.
