Fiscal Court discusses Civil War Fort at Boonesboro grant

By John Chaney | The Winchester Sun

WINCHESTER — The Clark County Fiscal Court met Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at the Clark County Courthouse, approv­ing sev­er­al rou­tine finan­cial mat­ters while hear­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion on poten­tial grant fund­ing for recre­ation­al trail improve­ments at the Civil War Fort at Boonesboro.

The court began its meet­ing by approv­ing bud­get trans­fers. Magistrate Robert Blanton raised a con­tin­u­ing con­cern regard­ing util­i­ties expens­es at the ELC, not­ing he was “still unclear as to exact­ly the split and how we’re going to do all this with the ELC expens­es.” He sug­gest­ed the court devel­op a for­mal agree­ment to clar­i­fy respon­si­bil­i­ties. Judge RJ Palmer respond­ed that he would speak with the coun­ty attor­ney to draw con­clu­sions on the matter. 

Cash trans­fers (Items A and B) and the pay­ment of appeals were approved by unan­i­mous voice vote fol­low­ing stan­dard motions. The court also approved the appeals list, which includ­ed updat­ed doc­u­ments dat­ed March 25 and April 8. During the dis­cus­sion of the list, a mag­is­trate ques­tioned approx­i­mate­ly $14,000 in emer­gency equip­ment for a vehi­cle that had not been men­tioned dur­ing the orig­i­nal pur­chase dis­cus­sion. The item passed with­out fur­ther objection.

Jill Hamlin, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Winchester-Clark County Tourism, addressed the court and intro­duced Grace Reagan and Logan Hart of the Bluegrass Area Development District. Hamlin stat­ed it was “an absolute hon­or to be stand­ing here with you all today” and described her role as a priv­i­lege in bring­ing for­ward Reagan and Hart to dis­cuss grant oppor­tu­ni­ties that ben­e­fit both vis­i­tors and local residents.

Hart out­lined a pro­posed project at the Civil War Fort at Boonesboro to address trail ero­sion, install new bench­es, update sig­nage, and improve acces­si­bil­i­ty for indi­vid­u­als using mobil­i­ty aids such as strollers, wheel­chairs, and canes. He rec­om­mend­ed pur­su­ing fund­ing through the Recreational Trails Program, admin­is­tered by the Department for Local Government. The fed­er­al­ly fund­ed grant offers awards from $25,000 to $250,000 on an ⁸⁰⁄₂₀ match­ing basis. Recent state appro­pri­a­tions could cov­er near­ly the entire local match requirement. 

The grant appli­ca­tion peri­od opens in August. Hart not­ed that the Bluegrass ADD is pre­pared to assist with the appli­ca­tion at no charge for grant writ­ing or admin­is­tra­tion. Discussion also touched on whether the grant could sup­port relat­ed facil­i­ties, such as restrooms, with Hart con­firm­ing that asso­ci­at­ed trail­head improve­ments may be eligible.

Court mem­bers inquired about next steps, includ­ing obtain­ing bids for trail main­te­nance and relat­ed work such as rebuild­ing a can­non plat­form and replac­ing stolen bench­es. Officials indi­cat­ed they would work with the Bluegrass ADD to pre­pare the nec­es­sary doc­u­men­ta­tion for submission.

Additional busi­ness includ­ed approval to exe­cute con­tracts with Performance Electric and Carpentry Sector for pre­vi­ous­ly bid work at the Continental Facility. The court also accept­ed a peti­tion for a road change and appoint­ed a view­er to exam­ine the request. Grant funds for a coun­ty shel­ter agree­ment for 2026 were approved, as was a sec­ond read­ing of the Northern Supremacy Zoning License.

In mag­is­trates’ com­ments, Magistrate Davis request­ed an update at a future meet­ing on the Industrial Development Authority’s progress in hir­ing a new exec­u­tive direc­tor. Magistrate Craycraft com­pli­ment­ed Bill Jones and the road depart­ment for ongo­ing repair work. The court approved adding six new dis­trib­u­tors to the county’s opi­oid set­tle­ment agreement. 

The Fiscal Court con­clud­ed the meet­ing by enter­ing into closed ses­sion accord­ing to KRS 61.8.10.