Warren County’s road department will soon be hitting the road for new quarters after action Friday by Warren Fiscal Court.

The magistrates voted 5-0 (with Third District Magistrate Tony Payne absent) to accept a negotiated bid of $2,452,682 from Bowling Green’s Scott, Murphy & Daniel construction company to build a new headquarters for the road department on the Sugar Maple Square property purchased by the county last year.

Plans call for building a 13,000-square-foot headquarters for the road department that will be an upgrade from the 10,000-square-foot structure on East Fifth Avenue that serves as its home base now.

“This will allow us to grow, and it means we can set up shop in one place,” said Josh Moore, the county’s public works director.

Moore said the department’s current headquarters sits on a 0.92-acre lot that limits equipment storage capacity. The new location along Ky. 185 will give the department the larger building plus a 40-foot-by-60-foot three-sided “lean-to” building for storing equipment.

“We’ve had to store equipment at Ephram White Park and other places,” Moore said. “Our hope is to get everything in one place.”

That place came available last year when the county purchased the Sugar Maple Square property from the family of the late David B. Garvin for $1.4 million.

Bowling Green’s Med Center Health then purchased the road department building, meaning Moore had to find a new home for the department.

Landing on the Sugar Maple property was a natural, but Moore said the move has been delayed while the cost of a new building was hashed out.

“The first estimates we had were pretty high,” Moore said. “We changed the layout a little bit to reduce costs. I think we’re getting as good of a product as we can.”

Moore plans to be in the new building by the end of the year.

The magistrates also approved at Friday’s meeting an ordinance rezoning to single-family residential 23.27 acres located along Double Springs Road and owned by the Housing Authority of Bowling Green.

In February, fiscal court approved allocating $1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay for bringing infrastructure to the property as a way of helping the Housing Authority develop affordable housing on the site.

“We bought the property about 20 years ago with hopes of boosting home ownership,” HABG Executive Director Abraham Williams said. “We’re going to build 40 homes, and we hope in the future to build 40 more.”

The magistrates also heard Friday from Kentucky Transportation Cabinet officials who revealed plans for Warren County’s $2,220,815 in 2022-23 fiscal year rural secondary road program funding.

Stuart Payton, an engineer in the KYTC District 3 office in Bowling Green, said Warren County’s rural secondary road allocation of $1,914,774 for the fiscal year is added to $306,041 carried over from the previous year.

The biggest chunk of that money – $689,300 – is earmarked for routine maintenance on 155 miles of rural roads in the county.

Another big item is $663,784 for a drainage improvement project on 3.976 miles of Ky. 1083 (Browning Road). The project will consist of shoulder repairs and other improvements in the section of the road stretching from the intersection with U.S. 68 to the intersection with Galloways Mill Road.

The final big project is $576,640 for resurfacing 2.919 miles of Ky. 1297 (Gotts-Hydro Road) beginning at the intersection with Ky. 101 and extending to the Barren County line.

Also approved Friday:

• Spending $1,100 with Larry Hymer Plumbing for replacement of a water heater at Sugar Maple Square.
• Granting authority for Warren County Emergency Management to apply for a Homeland Security grant for a mobile command post.
• An expenditure of $3,707.36 to Reynolds Sealing & Striping for four-inch double yellow lines on Memphis Junction Road.

The next scheduled meeting of Warren Fiscal Court is scheduled June 10 at 9 a.m.