Butler County’s recovery center is located in Morgantown at Gasper River Association of Baptists, 530 Helm Lane. The center is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Eren Strittar, public relations specialist for FEMA Region 5, told the Daily News that personnel from FEMA along with the American Red Cross and the Small Business Administration are on-site to help residents access aid.

She said FEMA is providing grants to homeowners and renters to help with recovery efforts.

“So if you were affected, if you’re a homeowner, or even if you’re renting, you suffer damage to your property, you can go and apply to get financial assistance to help you recover from this disaster,” she said.

Residents can also apply if they suffered damage to vehicles, she said, and assistance is available if residents incurred additional child care expenses due to the storms.

“Each person, each story, each damage is different, so it all depends on (what) each individual needs,” she said.

Family-owned farms and agricultural workers can also access aid, Strittar said, for losses to “tools and equipment.” This includes tractors, plows, sprayers and other farming implements. FEMA states livestock and crops are not covered.

June 25 is the deadline to apply for aid. To apply, residents need to provide their phone number, address, Social Security number, banking information (if direct deposit is chosen) and a “general list” of damage and losses, according to a FEMA press release.

Residents can apply in person or online at disasterassistance.gov. Other ways to apply include through the FEMA mobile app or by calling the FEMA helpline at 800-621-3362.

Visit www.fema.gov/disaster/4860 for more information on Kentucky’s flooding recovery.

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The southern end of Bowling Green will soon be home to a 26-acre mixed use development that will house restaurants, office and living space and the community’s first Wawa store location.

Dubbed Evergreen Commons, the site is being developed by the KOIN Group, headed by Andy Shultz. It will sit on a plot of land nestled between Nasco and Bobcat of Bowling Green just a stones throw away from the Interstate 165 exit onto Nashville Road, a site that in another life was a mobile home park.

Renderings of the area show the Wawa location at the front of the property facing Nashville Road. This will be the first Wawa location in Bowling Green, opening up before another location now being built near the National Corvette Museum.

Shultz told the Daily News he expects construction on the Wawa location to begin soon.

“I would suspect, in the next few months, it’ll start rolling over there,” Shultz said. “They’re not going to want to let it sit too long.”

Wawa, a chain of convenience stores which got its start in the northeast United States, currently operates more than 1,000 stores across the country.

The closest Wawa location to Bowling Green is 206 miles away in Cincinnati. Though the company does not currently operate any stores in Kentucky, plans are in place to open up to 40 locations in the commonwealth over the next 10 years.

Typical Wawa locations normally measure around 5,000 square feet. The Daily News reported last fall that Wawa came first in the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey for convenience stores, with a score of 82 out of 100. For reference, Buc-ee’s scored an 80 out of 100.

Wawa previously identified the Bowling Green location near Exit 28 as its first site in the city. Shultz said the location in Evergreen Commons will instead become the company’s main spot in town.

“I think what they saw is just the traffic and the growth and all the stuff going out here,” he said. “There’s nothing like it on this end of town.”

Going deeper inside the site will sit the Lookout, a collection of three buildings that will be home to restaurants and some mixed-use space. This area is expected to occupy 6.25 acres of the 26-acre project and will provide up to 42,000 square feet of leasable space, according to Evergreen Commons’ website.

Shultz said “in some capacity,” up to four eateries could be housed in the Lookout inside two, 7,000 square-foot buildings.

Though specifics cannot be shared now, Shultz said one restaurant has been secured.

“The ones that we’re meeting with currently are sit-down type restaurants, which are not even out in that area currently,” he said.

Situated behind the restaurant building is a two-story mixed use building, measuring a combined 26,601 square feet.

Shultz said the second story is being eyed primarily for corporate office space. Shultz said the ground floor will likely be used differently.

“We could do office space too, but it could be for shopping, it could be for gyms … ,” he said. “ … We have a lot of interest (for) different concepts for that.”

At the back of the development sits the Cedar Point Apartments. These are being built separately by a different developer, but Shultz said once finished the project will consist of 112 multi-family housing units spread across six three-story buildings.

As for a project timeline, the KOIN Group is expecting staggered completions for the projects. Shultz estimates Wawa will finish up in under a year, with the Lookout finishing up next summer if all goes to plan.

He estimates that by the end of Q2 next year, everything will be finished.

Shultz, who owns the building housing Q Coffee Emporium on Waterbury Court, said that building was constructed to bring a more “modern, hipper” architectural style to the area, and spoke on the reason for building Evergreen Commons.

“What we wanted to do out there is kind of the same thing,” he said. “We wanted to bring something that’s not currently in Bowling Green.”

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The widening project itself will be handled by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, and will widen a 1.3 mile stretch of the road to three lanes from Flea Land all the way to and including the bridge over Interstate 165.

Judge-Executive Doug Gorman told the Daily News the project has been “a couple years in the making,” and said the county will aid in “coordination” for the project.

“Anytime the state does something, if it’s in the city they work with the city, if it’s in the county they work with us,” Gorman said.

Gorman said easements like this and rights-of-way acquisition are the early steps in projects of this type, so a full timeline is not yet known. KYTC’s highway plan, which outlines road improvement projects across the state, lists $8.8 million in fiscal year 2025 for the project.

Also, wheels are turning on installing a storm shelter in the Hadley community in the northwestern portion of the county after magistrates voted unanimously to start the process for the structure at the Hadley Community Center.

Currently, the only storm-rated shelter in that area is inside the Hadley Volunteer Fire Department.

The Hadley VFD covers around 550 households in the area. Hadley VFD Chief Russell Justice told the Daily News the safe room at the department was originally intended for firefighters staying at the firehouse, but is now flocked to by residents during severe weather.

“I’ve had over 40 people at one time there in the fire department,” Justice said. “A lot of people (have) been asking me, ‘when are we going to get a safe room,’ I said ‘well, we’re going to try to get one here.’ ”

Since Bowling Green and Warren County were struck in December 2021 by several tornadoes, and because severe weather events are becoming more frequent in this part of the country, the county and the City of Bowling Green alike have invested in public storm shelters.

Shelters now dot parks and public spaces across the community. Eight of them are spread across Warren County parks and the city is installing shelters at various locations as well.

Ronnie Pearson, head of Warren County Emergency Management, told the Daily News that each time a disaster strikes, funding is set aside for projects that make communities less susceptible to disaster.

“The Hadley Community Center approached us that they would like to have one up there,” Pearson said. “This is step one.”

He said a “pre-application” will be sent to FEMA and the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management. If approved after a review process, a full application will be sent to the county.

If a grant application is made available, Pearson said it would likely be worth between $400,000 and $450,000, an amount that would cover all expenses with the shelter.

“These are not cheap, because of the spec they’re built to,” he said.

The process is slow. Pearson said for reference, the grant that allowed the county to purchase a building near the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport for the new emergency operations center was applied for in 2023.

“That grant was submitted in late ‘23, and we’re not building yet,” he said. “That’s the length of time it takes.”

Fiscal court will meet again Friday, May 23.

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As there world reacts to the election of the first American pope, some in southcentral Kentucky are predicting he will work as a bridge-builder around the world and within the church.

Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected as the 267th leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday, the first American to ascend to the papacy. As Catholics in Vatican City and around the world welcomed the new Pope Leo XIV, many are wondering the direction he will take in leading the nearly 1.5 billion-strong Catholic Church.

Larry Snyder, who served as a religious studies professor at Western Kentucky University, shared his thoughts on Leo’s ascension.

“It’s hard for Americans, I think, to understand how diverse the Roman Catholic Church is,” Snyder said, pointing to linguistic and cultural differences in the church. “There’s much more theological diversity within the Roman Catholic Church that folks would sort of recognize, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising to me that they were looking for someone who could repair some of those bridges.”

The Rev. Randy Howard of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Bowling Green agrees.

“Some of (the cardinals) were saying that they thought that the church needed a peacemaker, someone who could try to unify and bridge the gap between polarization that has happened,” he said. “My hunch is that it has more to do with that than where he’s from.”

Originally from Chicago, the 69-year-old Prevost lived for years in Peru, where he worked as a missionary and later as an archbishop. Prevost came to the Vatican in 2023 after Pope Francis picked him to lead the office that vets bishop nominations around the world, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Commentators from around the world have predicted Prevost’s papacy may continue the reforms instituted by Francis. Snyder said that Prevost’s short time spent at the Vatican before becoming pope signals Francis “saw something” in him.

“I would not expect a radical break from Francis,” Snyder said. “It remains to be seen how far Leo will go, particularly on social issues such as LGBTQ inclusion within the church. If he’ll strike the same kind of tone as Francis, it’s hard to know, … but I expect that he’s going to continue to sort of voice, be a voice for inclusion within the church.”

As the cardinals entered conclave on May 7, Prevost’s name was not included in most predictions of who would be elected pope.

In his first appearance after being elected, Leo addressed a crowd of faithful in St. Peter’s Square speaking in both Italian and Spanish. Leo’s speech opened with the phrase “peace be with you.”

As for the impact Leo will have on the church, Howard said it’s hard to say.

“Certainly what we believe, not only about the election of the Pope but ultimately about the whole guidance of the whole church, is God’s in charge,” Howard said.

Though many believe Leo will serve as a peace agent in the church, Snyder said being the first American pope is still significant.

“I think for the 20% of Americans who identify themselves as Catholic these days, it’s a momentous day,” Snyder said. “It will be a boon for Catholics, I think, in the United States.”

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“It’s been the year of the sinkhole.”

This is how Bowling Green City Manager Jeff Meisel described the city’s ongoing battle with sinkholes Tuesday night as commissioners approved a $900,000 change order with Scott & Ritter Inc. for repairs to numerous openings across town that appeared as a result of the April 3-7 flooding event that struck Bowling Green.

“This is the (largest) amount we’ve ever come back for on a change order for sinkholes,” Public Works head Andy Souza told commissioners.

Nine priority sinkholes were listed in a city memo. Nick Lawhon, the city’s geologist, told commissioners that repair work is continuing at three locations. Repairs at a site along Normandy Way currently sit at $102,000.

At the Lovers Lane Soccer Complex, the most recent tally sits at more than $50,000, but city estimates place the expected repair cost at $100,000.

In years past the city has set aside roughly $100,000 for sinkhole repairs. However, the city’s sinkhole woes have grown over the fiscal year. Last fall, a sinkhole opened up on Single Tree Way in the Briarwood area of Bowling Green. The city approved in December the first change order for sinkholes, totaling $55,286.58.

In February, an additional change order of $200,000 was approved for another sinkhole that opened in almost the exact same spot along Single Tree — $100,000 in grant funding was secured for this one.

Lawhon told commissioners Single Tree held up “like a champ” during the recent flooding event.

“From what we’ve seen, (there’s) very little, if any, erosion at those sites,” Lawhon said.

The city approved the third and latest change order 3-0, with Commissioners Melinda Hill and Sue Parrigin absent, raising the total cost of sinkhole repairs to more than $1.2 million.

Commissioners also approved an $850,000 bid from Louisville-based Strand Associates, Inc. to study five possible rehabilitation projects with the city’s stormwater mitigation system.

The five project areas are:

•Chestnut Street from Fifth Avenue to U.S. 31-W Bypass;

•Elm Street at 10th Avenue;

•College Street, Park Row and East Main Avenue at Fountain Square;

•The 2100 block of Creason Street, and;

•Whiskey Run at Clay Street.

Strand’s work will be funded through a grant worth over $3.8 million previously awarded to the city.

Stormwater work session
Continuing the stormwater focus, the city held a third work session concerning the possible implementation of a stormwater utility fee that would help fund needs for infrastructure down the road.

The idea of a separate stormwater utility was floated to city officials in January during the city’s annual strategic planning session, though no action was taken then. In March, commissioners heard a presentation that detailed how funds would be collected and used for stormwater projects.

A Fee In Lieu of Construction, or FILOC, was proposed in March. City Environmental Manager Matt Powell told commissioners then that the FILOC would be a one-time fee applied to projects that take up more than one acre of land and measure at least 10,000 square feet.

Powell said FILOCs will be paid into by developers, generating a “pool” of money. This money would be used by the city to fund an expansion of “water quality protection measures” across town.

Additionally, Powell proposed adding a utility fee to city residents’ water bills that would help supplement the FILOC. The proposed fee would stand at $4 per household. For commercial developments, an “equivalent residential unit” would be used to calculate the fee. A normal ERU measures around 3,100 square feet.

“We know that the way we’ve set this up will generate more than $4 million (per year),” Powell said.

No official action was taken by commissioners on Tuesday, since any implementation of a FILOC or a stormwater utility would require an ordinance to be approved by commissioners.

Some officials in March stated they were open to hearing some alternatives. However, on Tuesday, Bowling Green Mayor Todd Alcott said he has warmed to the idea.

“I wasn’t there immediately, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I would like for our Public Works team to bring this to us,” Alcott said.

Commissioners Dana Beasley-Brown and Carlos Bailey agreed, and Powell told the Daily News an ordinance could come forward as soon as June.

The city also approved in a closed session the termination of Jackson Miller, a probationary police officer with the Bowling Green Police Department. No details were provided, however a city memo states Miller “is no longer a good fit for the city.”

Commissioners will meet again May 20.

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The KAMF is being organized through a partnership with the Warren County Public Library and Mt. Victor Revue. Headlining this year’s festival is the bluegrass band Kody Norris Show, a group organizers state “tips a hat” to artists such as Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin and the Stanley Brothers.

Also set to perform are the Owensboro-based band Kentucky Shine and Bowling Green native Mary Rachel Nalley-Norris, who will perform with the Kody Norris Show. The Mt. Victor Revue’s Ernie Small told the Daily News that “it feels good” being able to bring the festival back after the hiatus.

“All the acts have a connection to Bowling Green,” Small said. “I just felt like that was a good, a good way to promote the event was to have local, local performers come in and play.”

The festival started in 2016 as a way to generate funds for the Capitol. Small estimates that between $15,000 and $20,000 for the theater was raised in years past, a combination of the acoustic music festival and some other events held at the venue.

“We did it for about four years, and then, of course, the pandemic came on and we took a break,” he said.

This year marks the first time since the pandemic that the festival will happen. After COVID subsided, Small said some issues with securing sponsorships delayed the festival’s return.

For this year, Small said a rough fundraising goal is around $3,000 to $5,000. He said in the past, the money has gone toward funding upgrades at the Capitol, like new lighting equipment.

“There’s always a lot that the Capitol as a building needs,” he said. “This money can (also) be used by the library to … promote events there and keep it as a vital part of downtown.”

Tickets are still available for the festival, and can be purchased online through https://capitolbg.org/event/kentucky-acoustic-music-festival/the-capitol/.

Even though the event is slated for Memorial Day Weekend, Small is hoping for a good turnout. He summed up his reasoning for helping organize the event.

“The Capitol has a place in my heart, and I’m excited to do things that promote it and bring people back down there,” he said.

Capitol Manager Magnolia Gramling shared the venue’s excitement for the event with the Daily News in a statement via email, saying the Capitol is “dedicated to hosting affordable events which help us further our goal of providing an excellent quality of life for Warren County and beyond.”

“We are most excited about the opportunity to celebrate our community and locally-grown talent,” Gramling stated. “We are humbled and honored that Ernie has chosen to make this event a benefit for the Capitol, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone there!”

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Tuesday’s rains moved out of town just in time for a group of personnel with Habitat for Humanity of Bowling Green, Warren County and the American Red Cross to gather at Habitat’s ReStore to welcome a new box truck that will help the ReStore continue its efforts in Bowling Green.

American Red Cross supplied the truck and some new shelving inside the ReStore. ReStore Manager Jared McDuffy said the new vehicle will allow Habitat to not only continue picking up donations across town, but will make it possible for the organization to respond to local emergencies if needed.

“Having a brand new, reliable truck kind of goes a long way for us,” McDuffy said. ” … (It) just sets us up for success.”

The truck was a Chevrolet Low Cab Forward 4500 box truck with 500 miles on the odometer when it was delivered to Habitat. Prices for these trucks start at around $60,000 which, McDuffy said, represents the largest donation the ReStore has received since he started with it.

McDuffy said the ReStore was in need of a new truck. He said the old one was breaking down every few months and did not have a working air conditioner.

“We spend a lot of money keeping that truck on the road,” McDuffy said, adding that the ReStore has had to rent vehicles in the past as well.

In the past, the ReStore has used its truck to aid in disaster relief efforts, such as moving supplies after the Dec. 11, 2021, tornadoes.

McDuffy said while his department has not been called on yet this year, they are able to help when the call comes in.

“We’re ready to help out whenever we need to … but hopefully, we don’t ever have to do it,” he said.

Joshua Riddle, risk reduction manager for the American Red Cross’ Community Adaptation Program, said supplying the truck came from the Red Cross’ desire to get involved in the affordable housing push in Warren County.

“It’s the whole point of our program,” Riddle said. “We want to try to build resilience in the community … “

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Duncan Hines Days will return to Bowling Green for its third year June 1-8 with several new activities on the slate.

The week will kick off with the Fountain Square Nostalgic Block Party on Sunday, June 1. Telia Butler, downtown development coordinator for the City of Bowling Green, said this event will contrast with others taking place during the week.

“You’re going to have concession-style foods like popcorn, cotton candy, some of those carnival-style concessions,” she said, adding that while live music will be featured too, it will be more “easy listening” style music instead of rock ‘n’ roll.

Games and inflatables will be set up on Park Row. The block party will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. that day.

Two new events will happen Monday, both honoring country music singer Dolly Parton’s connection to Hines. Butler said the Capitol Theater will hold two free showings of the 1980 film “9 to 5” at 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

The new “Dolly Trolley” will run that day as well, coinciding with the 6:30 p.m. movie showing. Butler said those who wish to dress up as Parton will gather at The Fringe in downtown Bowling Green at 6:15 p.m.

“They’ll do a couple of circles of Fountain Square, stop in front of the Capitol and unload to the red carpet,” she said. “The idea is to have them all hooting and hollering dressed as Dollys as they’re making their grand entrance to come watch the movie.”

Tuesday will feature the Pickleball Palooza at Roland Bland Park and a new event hosted by BikeWalkBG, the Community Bike Ride and Dine.

The bike ride will start and end at Mellow Mushroom. Riders will gather at 6:15 p.m. and set off at 6:30. On Friday, BikeWalkBG is also hosting a “cake walk.” Butler said participants will get free cake and brownie mix.

Returning events include the vintage car show on Thursday night, the Summer Stroll and Roll Parade through downtown and various scavenger hunts and Hines-themed tours happening at the Historic RailPark and Train Depot throughout the week.

Other live music events are available during the week, including a Dolly Parton tribute concert at the Capitol and live music on Fountain Square, both on Friday.

Local rock band The Josephines will headline the Eats and Beats Music Fest on Saturday, a music event also featuring local bands Government Cheese and HuDost, along with the Owensboro-based “progressive bluegrass” band The Lowland Ramblers. Eats and Beats will kick off at 3 p.m. Saturday with the Bowling Green Rock Band Academy and, in Butler’s words, “ends by 10.”

For more information on Duncan Hines Days events, visit www.https://duncanhinesdays.com/.

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