Area senators talk South Central Kentucky funding awards for 2024

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – As hard as it is to believe, 2024 will be coming to a close in just over three weeks.

It’s certainly been a triumphant year for chance and growth in the commonwealth, with several multi-million-dollar projects being funded across South Central Kentucky. Area senators gathered in Bowling Green Wednesday afternoon to discuss infrastructure and economic changes in the region, and the funding awarded to do so.

Discussion began with Sen. Robby Mills talking on the backlog of police officers waiting for training and how the new training center will help in mitigating the issue.

“The first is the new Western Kentucky Police Academy, the DOCJT Training Center in Madisonville. This is an issue that we’ve heard through state and local government multiple times about the lack of training facilities for police when they’re hired on. There’s about nine months to a year of waiting periods before a police officer, when he’s hired or she’s hired, can hit the streets by themselves.”

$50 million has been allocated for the training center, which is set to open in February of 2025.

Sen. Max Wise talked on traffic developments for Warren County, discussing the widening of US Highway 31 West from the Warren-Simpson County line and to Buchanon Park and from Park Avenue to Fairview Avenue.

“Many times, we point to Lexington, and I’ll say that because I lived in Lexington, that congestion there is probably some things that maybe should have been done years ago. That’s not what we want to see happen here in Warren County, so the improvements we’re looking to do there.”

$25.5 million total has been awarded for the widening of the highway.

Wise also discussed the $20 million allocated for the Anchor Project, a mental health and addiction recovery center being brought to Bowling Green in collaboration with LifeSkills.

“This was also a consortium of leaders in this entire region right here that wanted to step up and say, we can take this project and we can make this our own. We want to make sure for those re-entering the workforce, those that have a substance abuse disorder problem, that we can get them on the right track, we can get them the help they need, but also to make them productive citizens to go right as an easy transition right into the workforce.”

Even those just visiting the Corvette Capital for an education get to share in the spoils, as over $190 million total dollars was funded to Western Kentucky University from House Bill 6 over the biennium.

“That’s through four to five different tracks of money,” said Sen. David Givens. “WKU is such a vital part to this. It’s such a vital part in shaping not just Warren County, but South-Central Kentucky’s economic engine, education engine.”

Givens said he’s particularly excited about a $10 million portion of that funding being used to bring more technology to the university’s business and infrastructure classes.

Other area funding included $50 million to the Hardin-Warren County Loan Pool, with $20 million for the KY Transpark project, $8.8 million for the Three Springs Road extension, including a bridge over the Natcher Parkway, $8.5 million for a 21,000-square foot addition to SKyPAC, $6.9 million to improve connectivity to the Transpark, and just over $600 thousand to the Warren County Fiscal Court for the beautification of the Interstate 65 corridor.

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