Federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, already used by Warren County government for employee bonuses and help with infrastructure projects, may now help prop up the county’s tourism industry.

Warren Fiscal Court on Friday approved allocating $100,000 each to three local tourist attractions: Aviation Heritage Park, the Historic Railpark and Train Museum and the National Corvette Museum.

These grants follow June’s $250,000 allocation to another tourism venue, Lost River Cave, for parking lot improvements.

Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon said such spending fits with the intent of ARPA, which was passed by Congress to help speed up recovery from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Buchanon said all county ARPA expenditures go through the Stites & Harbison law firm and Compass Financial Group to determine eligibility.

“They (the tourist sites) have experienced losses significant enough that Stites & Harbison approved,” he said.

Perhaps as much as any segment of the economy, tourist destinations were hit by the pandemic’s social distancing restrictions and are still trying to rebound.

“We’ll never be able to make up for the revenue loss of 2020,” said Jamie Johnson, executive director at the railpark. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to access the funding. It will shore up our payroll.”

Johnson said it has become more expensive for nonprofits like the railpark to hire and retain workers since the pandemic.

“We’re having to pay a much higher starting rate, and we’re still losing people,” Johnson said.

She said the need for employees has grown as well because many of the volunteers who conducted tours before the pandemic aren’t willing to come back.

Johnson said the ARPA grant will also help with general maintenance and railcar restoration projects that continue to increase in cost.

Like the railpark, Aviation Heritage Park and the National Corvette Museum were hit by revenue losses during the pandemic. Both also have large building projects underway.

Work has started on a 2,000-square-foot education gallery at the National Corvette Museum, and Aviation Heritage Park is continuing to work on an 11,000-square-foot, $2.6 million aviation museum that will enhance the static display of eight aircraft already on the AHP site along Three Springs Road.

The AHP museum, slated for an October 2023 opening, is already under roof, but work is continuing on utilities and on finishing the inside.

AHP board of directors member Joe Tinius said in June at the AHP Hangar Party that about $1.8 million had been raised toward the goal of $2.6 million, but the ARPA grant won’t be used to help meet the fundraising goal.

“Our intention is to use the money to continue to acquire artifacts and aircraft to honor aviators with roots in southcentral Kentucky,” said Michael Cowles, chairman of the AHP board. “It will not go toward construction.”

Cowles explained that the process of locating and acquiring the aircraft displayed at the park can be costly.

“It’s quite the ordeal to get one,” he said. “These funds will enable us to go get an artifact when it becomes available.”

These tourist attractions are the latest in a number of projects funded by fiscal court with ARPA money.

Warren County was allocated $26 million in ARPA funds over two years. County Treasurer Greg Burrell included a line item of $19 million for ARPA spending in the county’s 2022-23 fiscal year budget. He said the county has nearly $6 million in unspent ARPA money from the first year’s allocation.

The county is using ARPA funds to help Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. extend fiber optic cable, to fund Warren County Water District and South Central Workforce Development Board projects and to enhance the pay of county employees during the pandemic.

A $1 million ARPA grant has been used to help develop the infrastructure for a Housing Authority of Bowling Green affordable-housing project that is now underway.

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.