The State and Main Podcast | Episode 7 W/ Brent Childers (The City of Bowling Green, KY)

So some people will remember probably 25 years ago, the community had this idea of developing Riverfront Park.

And there was this desire to build whitewater and there was this desire to do all these things.

And it got some momentum and then just kind of stalled out.

The funding wasn't there.

Some other things happened in city government, and it just kind of stalled.

And about 10, 11 years ago, there was a group of us here at the city that said, man, we've got 70 acres here.

So we'll kind of split this up.

This is Riverfront Park West.

It's about 18 acres.

This is about 56 acres.

So, you know, we added up to about 70 acres.

And we said, we got some walking trails.

That's all we have here.

But think about what we could do on a riverfront with 70 acres of land.

And so we started just dreaming about what could this be.

We got a landscape architect to throw together a little, literally a color pencil sketch.

I look back at it every now and then to think about where we started with this.

with just a colored pencil sketch and an idea and just the desire to do something for the community that was bigger than ourselves.

And so that's what we started with.

And we started just trying to chase money and started to build momentum with it.

And from that early stage, we were able to secure a $750,000 federal grant through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program with National Park Service.

And that first grant, that $750,000, the city committed to putting up $1.5 million.

So our first phase, phase one, is really tied to that initial grant.

And

how long ago did that money come