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Nicholasville General Government Director Doug Blackford attended the Tuesday, Dec. 20 Jessamine County Fiscal Court meeting to present an update on the refurbishment of the Riney-B Aquatic Center.

A few weeks ago, the Nicholasville-Jessamine County Parks and Recreation Department met with officials of the city and the county to finalize its $1.23 million repair bid. This amount would be split evenly between the city and county and include all splash pad repairs, filtration pump replacements, and a pool surface replacement.

This repair will not include one of the main pipes for the pool under concrete. The construction team will check if this pipe has any issues, and if it does, Blackford said it could cost a lot more time and money.

In his update, Blackford presented a breakdown of the repairs needed for the pool and the pricing. He said that parks and recreation received an invoice earlier that day to order the parts and equipment for the repairs and that he needed the court’s approval of the invoice.

The court approved the invoice and will need to approve the bill at a future meeting. Jessamine County Judge-Executive David West suggested that the county use ARPA funding for this project.

West has said before that he doesn’t want to spend ARPA money on recurring costs, but he said this project is different since repairs are needed every 20-25 years.

Youth football complex

A few years ago, the NFL started a project in Jessamine County. They wanted to help fund the construction of a children’s football facility. Jessamine County put $1 million into preparing this land, but the funding ultimately fell through because it was revenue based, and the NFL did not make enough revenue.

Now, Nicholasville is finishing the project.

While trying to figure out how the city would fund the football complex, Blackford was offered a turf donation by Turf Alliance. This New Orleans Saints organization donates the football team’s used turfs to high schools around the country. The Louisiana football team uses each turf for one season and then replaces it with a new turf.

Because of this donation, the project will only cost about $1 Million, as opposed to $1.5 Million. Also, since it is a professional-sized football turf, there is enough to incorporate two softball fields and a soccer field.

Blackford said that the city has begun looking into sports management companies for the complex. City officials have also proposed that the facility could be reserved for regional tournaments on the weekend- but this idea is still being determined.

The next Fiscal Court meeting is Tuesday, January 3 at 4 p.m. at 107 North Main Street.