Sinkholes are taking their toll on more than the city’s streets as Bowling Green commissioners on Tuesday approved a $200,000 change order to cover increased costs of sinkhole repairs along Single Tree Way.

The change will take care of obligations the city has to Scott & Ritter, the contractor it uses for sinkhole repair.

“We’ve had our share of sinkholes this fiscal year,” City Manager Jeff Meisel told commissioners.

Single Tree Way has been a hotspot for sinkholes in recent years. In April of last year, a sinkhole opened on the street in the Briarwood neighborhood. That fall, crews dug the sinkhole out to around 20 to 25 feet to begin repair work.

The city previously approved an extension of its contract with Scott & Ritter for $130,000. After this project wrapped up, a $55,286.58 change order was approved by the city.

Scott & Ritter crews were on Single Tree again earlier this year after a second sinkhole opened up just a few feet from the one that was previously repaired. The change order covers these costs, bringing the total figure to $385,286.58.

Of this, $100,000 comes from a grant award the city received from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Nick Lawhon, the city’s geologist, told the Daily News previously that while having to return to a sinkhole site is not uncommon, it does not always happen. He said the repairs that are done on sinkholes are made on a “human time-scale” and a permanent, lasting fix to a sinkhole is not possible.

“I think it’s one of those things always going to be an issue,” he said.

Commissioners also took the first step in the effort to bring passenger rail service back to Bowling Green after approving the hiring of a consultant and beginning early work on the project, 46 years after the last Amtrak train departed Bowling Green in 1979.

“If we don’t take this step now, it might be another 46 years,” said Bobby Rabold, the Bowling Green-based entrepreneur leading the effort.

Omaha-based consultant HDR Engineering, Inc. will work with the city and Warren County Fiscal Court to construct a Corridor Identification Program grant application. The Corridor ID Program is a long-term plan that outlines passenger rail expansions between cities across the country.

According to a memo from HDR, the firm will help both governments create an application to the program. Meisel told commissioners Tuesday that of the 69 corridors approved by the Federal Railroad Administration in 2022, HDR worked with 17 of those.

The cost of getting a Corridor ID application together stands at $135,000, split by the city and county.

Rabold told commissioners that even though this is the first step, getting passenger rail back to Bowling Green would take “several years.”

“This is the first step of several … but I have all the confidence in the world that we’re going to make this happen,” Rabold told commissioners.

Commissioners will meet next on March 4.