Lakes Summit Plex Project Update and Details of Reporting to the Public

On Saturday September, 28th, the Jackson County Public Library hosted a public meeting on the development plans of a new park that we have been awarded funds to develop. The 
preliminary name of the project is the Lakes Summit Plex. The name is subject to change at a later date. The meeting was facilitated by State Representative Timmy Truett. Representative Truett and Senate President Robert Stivers were instrumental in Jackson County receiving funding for this project. The funds allocated to Jackson County is 4 million dollars for this project. Also in attendance was Sandy Dunahoo from Nesbitt Engineering. Nesbitt and Mrs. Dunahoo designed the plans that we submitted to the State Legislature in order to ask for the funds we are receiving for this project. The design plans were funded by an ARC Mini Grant which we were awarded for the cost of these architectural plans. We displayed these plans at the meeting with preliminary designs in order to take public input on what they would like to see in a project like the Summit Plex. The meeting was well attended by the community and many ideas were shared and discussed as well as documented for plan designs. 
One topic of discussion is how the funding would be reported and where it would go when it 
came in. The Jackson County Fiscal Court has an account set aside for projects like this called the State Grant Account. The first step is to submit a budget to the Department for Local Government (DLG) and pass a resolution to request the funds. We have completed both those steps. I submitted those to DLG and they sent me back a memorandum of agreement. I have signed the memorandum of agreement for this project and they have emailed me back confirming it has been received. The next step will be DLG sending us a check for the 4 million dollars we have initially been awarded. Once that check comes in, we will deposit it in the State Grants Account and move forward with purchasing the land. The land is located on McCammon Ridge Road and is approximately 100 acres more or less. We will need to get the land surveyed by a licensed KY surveyor and then we can pay for the land. Once this is complete, we will contact a forester to see if any timber can be harvested from the land before we begin clearing for construction. We anticipate the excavating, utilities, initial preparation of the land to start constructing a parking lot and a pavilion will take the majority of the funds allocated. We will not know the exact cost until each part of this process is bid and then awarded for work. I plan to report to the Court and public as each transaction is made for this project. 
This is an exciting project for Jackson County and we will be having more public meetings 
seeking input as we go along. Those meetings will be announced and we will be encouraging the public to attend. 
Have a blessed week.