Booneville outlines water plant rehab, downtown projects, tourism plans

The first change Booneville residents are likely to feel is not downtown brickwork or cabin traffic, but water-system reliability. Booneville Water and Sewer serves 5,346 people from the South Fork Kentucky River intake, and Paul Nesbitt told the Booneville Board of Commissioners that the plant rehab work and telemetry expansion are the projects that will matter most in daily life, because they affect how the city watches tanks, pump stations and the utility that has been operating since Dec. 1, 1968.

Nesbitt said the Water Plant Rehab Project has been sent to multiple grant agencies, but Booneville did not receive money in the state budget, leaving the city still chasing outside funding. The system is listed in Kentucky records as Booneville Water and Sewer, system no. KY0950036, and David Hall is named as the point of contact in drinking-water records. The broader push fits the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Kentucky priorities, which include clean water, wastewater systems, highways, entrepreneurship and community capacity-building, with state ties through Gov. Andy Beshear and Kentucky Department for Local Government Commissioner Matt Sawyers.

The downtown piece is also waiting on money. Nesbitt said the Bates Block project still depends on ARC grant support and possible matching funds before Booneville can move ahead on the next building, the future site of a Mexican restaurant. That makes the grant process the immediate gatekeeper for activity on Main Street, even as city leaders try to keep the project alive alongside the water work and other infrastructure needs.

Booneville’s tourism plans are moving farther along, but not on the original schedule. The council approved Requisition No. 5 for $134,410 on the Sag Hollow cabins project, then accepted a change order that added 60 days to the contractor’s timeline and pushed completion to July 23, 2026. That was a slip from the earlier target of May 24, 2026. The cabins already have a built-in audience: Sag Hollow has long been tied to the second weekend in June Invitational golf tournament, and the 2025 event was held June 7-8.

On the utility side, the Telemetry Expansion Project advanced when the council approved Billy Ball as the low bidder, though Nesbitt said a title certification issue still has to be cleared through an attorney and a title search before the paperwork is finished. He also updated commissioners on the Brewer Road Water Line Extension, the Waterline Replacement Phase 3 permit and easements needed from the Department of Transportation, saying those pieces should be ready for bidding after final plan verification. Together, the projects show a city trying to keep water service steady, downtown construction alive and recreation development on track, all at once.