Bowling Green City Commission on Tuesday night accepted a grant worth over $1.3 million that will hopefully remove 15 homes around Whispering Hills Boulevard from a nearby floodplain.

“This is exciting news,” said Jeff Meisel, Bowling Green city manager. “This is the good that sometimes comes after the really bad.”

Meisel said the $1,322,000 Kentucky Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery acceptance will fund the replacement of a culvert underneath Whispering Hills Boulevard, with a goal of permitting two homes in the area for reconstruction that were damaged in the Dec. 11, 2021, tornadoes.

Brent Childers, director of Neighborhood and Community Services, said the two homes were too deep into the floodplain to be rebuilt previously.

He said the new culvert will financially benefit residents, too.

“Some of these folks don’t have to pay for flood insurance anymore, which is a big savings to them individually,” Childers said.

The project will be overseen by Public Works. The new culvert will also cut down on flooding in the new Jennings Creek Park, Meisel said.

The commission also approved the application for a $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE).

Childers said this grant will cover the cost of planning and design for two new roundabouts on Russellville Road.

One would be at the intersection of University Boulevard and Russellville Road; the other at Russellville Road and Morgantown Road.

According to a memo from Grants Manager Nick Cook, the project will improve traffic congestion, reduce vehicle emissions and improve safety for bicycles and pedestrians.

“This is a humongous project in a very short amount of space,” Childers said.

The City of Bowling Green applied for the RAISE grant last year but was denied, Childers said, because the city did not score high enough in different parameters of the application. This time, Childers said the city “beefed up” its application for the grant.

“We’re optimistic about this (application),” he said.

Childers said the city will not know until the fall if it will receive the grant. If the city is awarded the money, there is a “good chance” the state will apply for further RAISE funding to cover the construction of the project.

He said total cost for the project is around $25 million.

“You look at the roads that it’s on, those are all state highways,” Childers said. “We’re just helping move this along and providing assistance to the (Kentucky) Transportation Cabinet.”

He said since the railroad must be rerouted around the site during construction, the project would have to be done “all at once.”

“This has been talked about for a long time,” Childers said. “You have to move the railroad, build a new overpass, and move the railroad back.”

Commissioners on Tuesday also approved:

• An annual payment of $100,000 to the Property Valuation Administrator for fiscal year 2024 property assessment services for the 2023 property tax year.
• The transfer of six transit vehicles from Community Action of Southern Kentucky Inc. to the City of Bowling Green
• The continuation of a contract with Affordable Lawn Care & Pressure Washing, LLC of Bowling Green and Bluegrass Landscaping LLC of Bowling Green at a total amount of $392,032.94

The commission will meet again March 5.