Hard hats – dozens of them lining the shelves and emblazoned with logos and dates from groundbreakings – may be the most eye-catching aspect of Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon’s office in the county courthouse.

And rightfully so.

Buchanon, preparing to step down at the end of this month from an office he ran for only reluctantly back in 1993 and has held ever since, has been a hard-hat type of chief executive – constantly in a building mode, pushing for projects that at times could draw the sort of slings and arrows that maybe only some thick protective headgear could deflect.

Projects like the Interstate 65 interchange at Cemetery Road, the Kentucky Transpark industrial park and the Warren County Justice Center – all facing opposition from some quarters – were largely willed into existence by Buchanon and those he enlisted to help.

Now, as he prepares to turn over the reins of county government to Doug Gorman, Buchanon reflected on a transformative tenure in local government that almost didn’t happen.

“We were talking at the chamber of commerce about (Basil) Griffin not running (after a 32-year tenure),” Buchanon recalled. “I tried to get others to run, and then people tried to get me to run.

“Probably (former Bowling Green Mayor) Johnny Webb had as much influence on me running as anyone.”

Mayor at the time Griffin was stepping down, Webb today proudly owns up to pushing Buchanon to throw his hat in the ring.

“I knew Mike to be very talented, so I encouraged him to run,” Webb said. “I don’t believe at the time that he had considered it.

“I’m so glad he did. Mike ushered county government into the 21st century.”

Buchanon, who turned 70 earlier this year, can rightly take a large part of the credit for programs and policies that have fueled Warren County’s growth from a population of about 80,000 when he took office to nearly 140,000 today.

That transformation, though, would come only after Buchanon himself experienced changes in his own worldview during and shortly after that initial campaign.

Running against Democrat and former Bowling Green Mayor Harold Miller was seen as an uphill battle as Buchanon tried to become the county’s first Republican judge-executive.

Already successful in the business of developing property, Buchanon attacked that first campaign with as much vigor as he would bring to a building project.

“Once you actually file to run, you become obsessed with it,” he said. “I worked just about 24 hours a day for 10 months.

“I met thousands of people I didn’t know, and I learned about the problems around the county.”

Once he was elected to that odd five-year term (brought about by a state law designed to avoid having elections every year), the learning really started.

Just days into that first term, Warren County was hit by one of the worst winter storms in its history, and the rookie judge-executive suddenly became a crisis manager.

“I had the National Guard reporting to me in my office,” he remembers. “It was another learning experience, and it was scary.

“It really made you think about the responsibility you have in this position. I learned a lot about emergency management.”

That knowledge has helped Buchanon through ice and hail storms, floods and the December 2021 tornadoes that saw him join the team of emergency responders who found the last of the county’s 17 fatalities.

“That’s something I will never forget,” Buchanon said of the deadliest storm to ever hit Kentucky.

The blizzard and the tornadoes may serve as bookends to Buchanon’s lengthy term in office; but they hardly define a tenure that may have been much shorter than nearly three decades had Buchanon not put so many projects in motion early on.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d run for a second term or a third term,” he said. “But the thing is, after the first term we were starting the Justice Center and working on the new parks. I could see things happening.”

As a result, that initial foray into politics turned into a career nearly as long as his predecessor’s and arguably more eventful.

“I didn’t look at this as an opportunity for a career,” Buchanon said. “I looked at it as an opportunity to make a difference, to build a community where people wanted to live. I like to think I’ve made an impact.”

Those who have worked with Buchanon over the years say he has.

Jody Richards, who represented the Bowling Green area in the Kentucky General Assembly for 43 years and served as speaker of the House for 14 of those years, recalls working with Buchanon on projects that required some political infighting.

“The first project he wanted help on was the Justice Center,” Richards said. “We had to go against the wishes of Gov. (Paul) Patton to get that done.”

Later, Richards said, projects to build the Cemetery Road I-65 interchange and the Transpark initially drew vocal resistance from county residents themselves.

“When we were trying to build that third Bowling Green interchange at Cemetery Road, I heard some words I hadn’t heard since I was in the Army,” Richards said.

Recalling the battle to build the Transpark and the I-65 exit 30 that serves it, Richards said: “He (Buchanon) and I took some pretty good thrashings over that one.”

Now home to some two dozen companies employing more than 3,000 workers, the Transpark continues to grow and will soon be home to the Envision AESC electric vehicle battery plant expected to employ as many as 2,000 people.

While successful now, the Transpark and its supporters had to plow through protests, lawsuits and delays before seeing it come to fruition.

That battle, says the judge-executive’s wife, is an example of how Buchanon perseveres when he believes in a project.

“He always amazes me with how well he takes it (criticism),” said Ellen Buchanon. “I’d be all fired up, and he’d just laugh and say, ‘That’s part of it.’

“The Transpark was probably the one that caused the most controversy, but he knew it was the right thing to do.”

Bringing state and local officials from both political parties together to get such developments done is a trademark of Buchanon’s time in office, says someone who worked with him on Warren Fiscal Court.

“He served with six different governors and 20 different magistrates,” said Doc Kaelin, a county magistrate for the first 21 years of Buchanon’s tenure. “He has accomplished so much.

“We wouldn’t have SKyPAC (Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center) and Bowling Green Ballpark without him. I was proud to be able to serve with him, and I’m proud of the accomplishments. He spearheaded everything.”

While big industrial announcements get most of the attention, Buchanon points to lesser-known achievements as highlights of his time as judge-executive.

“The growth of our parks is something I’m proud of,” said Buchanon, recalling development of Buchanon, Ephram White and Phil Moore parks in the 1990s. “A lot of people don’t think those are core government services, but I think they are huge assets.

“The parks help keep juvenile delinquency down, and they help build character.”

Buchanon is also proud of the expansion of water and sewer service throughout the county, improvements made to the county’s nine volunteer fire departments and the long-awaited progress made toward expanding broadband internet service to all parts of the county.

As he prepares to preside over his last scheduled fiscal court meeting on Friday, Buchanon believes the growth that was a theme of his tenure will only continue during Gorman’s time in office.

“I felt like we’d have this type of growth when I took office,” he said, “and I think for the next 20 years we’ll see continued growth.

“The real challenge for the next fiscal court and the community is to build the workforce. We need to bring more people in to participate in the workforce.”

Buchanon acknowledges that Gorman will put his own stamp on county government, and he expects some changes in the future – maybe some big changes in how Bowling Green and Warren County governments operate.

“We’ve talked about consolidation (of city and county services) for the last several years,” Buchanon said. “I think that will happen at some point, but it has to happen when everybody is ready for it.

“We do some things together already, and we realize some savings. If we consolidated, we could eliminate a lot of costs for parks and recreation, law enforcement and fire protection.”

Even as his career in county government comes to a close, Buchanon is thinking about other ways he can serve his community, maybe by donning one of those hard hats he has collected.

“I’m committed to the community and will stay involved,” he said. “I may get into building some homes, which we desperately need.

“I won’t be competing with anyone else because I’m looking at the potential for affordable homes, smaller homes. There’s a huge demand for those.”