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Last week, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the community recreation center at John Preece Park. 

The community recreation center project is a partnership between Nicholasville, Jessamine County and Nicholasville-Jessamine County Parks and Recreation (NJCPR). It’s been a few years of planning for the recreation center. The actual groundbreaking will take place after permits are granted.

The project is estimated to cost between $18 million and $22 million. Phase 1 will focus on the gymnasiums, walking track, and community rooms. Phase 2 will bring aquatics to the recreation center. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocations and general funds from the two government agencies will pay for the project. 

Nicholasville City Manager Doug Blackford, Judge Executive David West, Nicholasville Mayor Alex Carter, NJCPR Director Anessa Snowden, Deputy Judge Executive and NJCPR Chair Justin Ray spoke at the event. Senator Donald Douglas, Representative Matt Lockett, the NJCPR board, former parks board members, city commissioners, and magistrates were also in attendance.

“I’m very excited. I think it’ll be a great thing for our community, from youth all the way up to senior adults, so we have a lot of things going on that’ll be happening all at once,” Snowden said. 

Community members on the Facebook post announcing the project commented on issues they had with the community center, including concerns that activities outside of sports would not be included.

Snowden and Ray responded to this concern, stating that there is much more planned for the space than just sports. 

“There are four courts, of course, for sports, but that’s also a space we can use for large special community events. We have two community rooms, two meeting rooms, and those will be used for meetings, birthday parties, but we’ll also program activities, classes, we’ll have arts and crafts, we’ll have health and wellness classes, fitness classes, all of that, so there will really be something for everybody,” Snowden said. 

“Everybody does tend to think recreation is just youth sports. It’s not. For the first time in a long time, we’ve seen that recreation is for the community, for the Silver Sneakers program,” Ray said.  “You don’t have to have a bat, a ball, and a goal or a net, it’s so much more, and I think that’s what’s most exciting about this, and it’s just one piece of the puzzle.” 

Snowden said that the park will be a great place for movies and concerts and other recreational activities like “bird watching, or just a place to sit and reflect like a meditation area, pollinated gardens, big meadows with wildflowers. I think there are a lot of cool things that we don’t have in our other parks that we can make unique to this property.”

“Where else can you find more than 100 acres in the middle of town that doesn’t need to be completely [sports fields and asphalt]? I love sports, baseball is my thing, but not everything needs to be stripped and built into a sports field,” Ray said. “I think it’s great, it’s like our own little Central Park in Jessamine County. Dreams are limitless.”

The park is currently 40 acres but will include 110 additional acres. Although Ray said possibilities are limitless, the budget is not. “We don’t have the money to do everything overnight. So as we build this, it’ll show us what the next step will be. There will be walking paths, and there are tons on the site that will obviously have to be dredged and prepared for outdoor recreation opportunities.

“[This project] will probably go beyond either of our reigns and current positions. This is gonna be a 100-year-plus park and will take years to develop. So I’m glad we’re taking it one step at a time, as painful as it’s been to be so slow, it’s kind of cool that hopefully we don’t mess up and we can have these areas just untouched and left as green space and these areas that are developed into whatever it needs to be.” 

Ray and Anessa said that residents should watch out for posts and requests for input for the recreation center and other Parks and Recreation programs. Input submissions are usually accepted in the form of surveys. Stay tuned to the Nicholasville, Jessamine County, and Parks and Recreation Facebook pages and websites to stay updated on these public input opportunities.