By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Christmas came a few days early for the Boone County Parks department.
A 30,000 square foot building is soon to be the main home of the Parks department, and Parks and Recreation Director David Whitehouse is excited to move in.
“The Parks department has been scattered into two to four buildings around the county, and sometimes it is more difficult to get things done when you have to travel around,” Whitehouse said. “The Boone County administrators came to me back in 2022 to check out how we were operating since we were spread out, and that is when the plan to build a central building to put everyone in was started.”
He said there wasn’t even any room for him to meet with his 6-7 supervisors all together, except in his office which was not big. Employees had a folding table in one building that they put up to eat lunch on, and offices were spread out in all buildings.
At the time, plans were jelling into place for a brand new 16,000 square foot animal shelter to replace the one on Maplewood Drive. As soon as those plans were firmly on track, officials began to look at the Parks department and in 2023 the money was appropriated in the budget.
The old animal shelter and the maintenance garage on Maplewood Drive were torn down, and in August of 2024, the ground was broken for the new Parks building in the same place the old garage and the old animal shelter had occupied.
“I would say a good 20,000 square feet of the 30,000 square feet in the new building is garage space,” Whitehouse commented. “Before, all my team would have to park their vehicles and carry all the equipment into their buildings, and sometimes the vehicles and larger equipment would have to stay out in the elements. We have always been very good stewards of taxpayer money, and we realize that if you keep large equipment out in the elements it shortens the life of the equipment.”
So on Tuesday, December 2, there was a modest, internal ribbon cutting to officially declare the building virtually done, a ceremony that belied how important this building is to the county. Whitehouse said they may have a bigger ceremony next spring or summer, when the weather is better.
“We have 27 full time people,” said Whitehouse. “The only people who are not in this building are Josh Selm and Chris Stone, who occupy a small building at the Arboretum. We decided it would be better for them to be right next to the place they take care of on a daily basis. We now have a kitchen in this new building, and bathrooms, and we do have a shower, which I originally thought might be fluff, but sometimes my team is out working in the dirt and dust and noxious weeds, and it does help if they need to get that stuff off.”
The training room is going to be very important, not only because they can have training classes for the staff, but also because the Parks Department hosts all kinds of programs, mainly in the summer, although Whitehouse said now they will be trying to extend the programs all year round. Even with the summer programs, if it rained the staff had to scramble to find a room in a church, or the library so that the program didn’t have to be canceled that day. With the new training room available, they can always move the kids or the people into that room.
The buildings they had before were older houses, partially renovated for offices, but Whitehouse said the new building was built for the purpose of accommodating the Parks department, so it is a much better fit.
“Going from the two older houses and an old metal building for housing the equipment, I mean, I knew it was going to be great from the plans on paper, but when I walk through with my staff, it’s even better than I thought,” he said. “Right now I am in the building across from the courthouse, but the convenience in this new building on Maplewood Drive is that all of my team will be here under one roof, and there will be no need to go hunt somebody down. It will be more efficient, too, in terms of receipts and PO’s and everything.”
He said Mark Spaulding and company were the builders and Hub and Weber were architects for the building. This week the builders were hanging garage doors, and checking jobs off the punch list at the new building.
“I am hoping to move in permanently on Monday,” Whitehouse said. “I am ecstatic. This is truly like a Christmas present, and my staff and I are very happy.”