The completion of an intake center in Bowling Green for those experiencing mental health crises is inching closer as stakeholders eye a September groundbreaking and a fall 2026 completion for the project.

State Rep. Kevin Jackson, R-Bowling Green, delivered the news to Warren Fiscal Court magistrates during Friday’s meeting.

Jackson told the Daily News after the meeting that the center will be the only one of its kind in Kentucky once completed and will serve each of the ten counties that make up the Barren River Area Development District.

“It’s going to be a regional-based facility,” Jackson said. “It’s not just Bowling Green and Warren County — we’ve got the other ten counties (buying in).”

Called the Crisis Intake Center, it will form one-third of the Anchor Project, along with the Office of Drug Control Policy and the Life Learning Center. The $23 million project will provide services for mental illness and substance abuse, and is being spearheaded by the Barren River Area Crisis Services Transformation Committee.

The center will sit along Suwanee Trail in Bowling Green on land donated by LifeSkills, Inc. Once completed, the 35,000 square-foot facility is expected to employ 88 full-time workers. Capacity is estimated at between 45 and 50 residents. Those in need will be able to stay up to 23 hours at the center, with five-day and 10- to 12-day stays available as well.

Jackson said the facility will provide an alternative to jail for those experiencing mental crises and will help cut down on the time local law enforcement spends with calls of that nature.

“When they would get a mental health call, they were spending … four hours on average with these people,” he said, adding that a similar facility in Nashville cut the time down to seven minutes. “It’s a win for the police, it’s a win for the individual that’s having the mental health crisis, they’re actually going to get the help they need in this facility.”

Twenty million dollars were allocated by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2024 for the project. Jackson said while no further financial investment is likely from Frankfort, the project is expected to fit within the allocation and contact has been made with federal legislators to secure equipment for the facility.

“We think we could get it built for only $20 million,” he said.

Magistrates also gave renewed attention to the BG2050 project, approving a $60,000 agreement with the strategy firm Innovation Engine for completion of the project nearly two months after initial findings were revealed from the “What Could BG Be” feedback study.

The program ran from mid-February to mid-March. Members of the public were invited to share their ideas for how Bowling Green and Warren County should change and grow over the next 25 years.

Almost 4,000 unique ideas from residents were received and over 1 million “agree” or “disagree” votes for the ideas were cast.

Judge-Executive Doug Gorman said Friday that as the completion process goes on, Innovation Engine will work with eight “pillar groups” to determine the feasibility of the ideas collected from the study.

“When ‘tourism’ has a hundred ideas, they’re trying to determine what’s realistic and what can happen,” Gorman said.

A final report will be compiled and delivered to local government, Gorman said, at which point officials will decide the best course of action going forward.

“There’s no project that you can just wave a magic wand and it appears,” Gorman said. “Some of these things might not even come to fruition until 2050, but there might be some infrastructure investments, all kinds of different things that need to happen.”

Fiscal court will meet again Monday, June 30.