Rowan County has a new public park, which officials said will eventually include many different amenities. The land for the park was purchased last year and is now officially open to the public. However, officials said work is ongoing to improve the area, located off KY 801. Harry Clark, Rowan County Judge Executive, said it will be some time before all the trails, equipment, and playing fields are in place, but work is being done in steps as funding is acquired. The first project is a paved walking trail.
“I got the authority to apply for some grant money for that, so really, totaled out with the grants and matching money it’ll be around a million dollars. And that is to initially put a trail through, so we want to put a blacktop trail that’s modern and designed so that it would be accessible to wheelchairs, as well. It’s about three-quarters of a mile track around the property,” said Clark.
The Rowan County Fiscal Court recently approved preliminary rules for the park including that the park closes at sunset and no children will be allowed without supervision.
“We had to put down some rules. We don’t want people driving golf carts through the grass, or driving vehicles through the grass, and just kind of turning their kids loose and letting them run wild, we’re all about that but we would like to have a little bit of supervision, because there are ponds out there, there’s things you could get hurt on,” said Clark.
Clark added that the county planned the layout of the park so that different features could be added in the future. They include a horse trail, an outdoor amphitheater, and room set aside for a pool. Care was also taken to ensure none of the lights from the planned baseball fields would shine at any of the surrounding residential properties.