Bowling Green commission recognizes local VFW, accepts major fire station land donation

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Bowling Green Board of Commissioners began Tuesday’s meeting with a moment of recognition for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1298, honored for being named an All-State Team for 2024-2025.

City officials celebrated the post’s more than 750 volunteer hours and over $40,000 raised for charitable causes, alongside its exceptional membership efforts.

The meeting began with a slew of approvals of positions such as Zane Martin to the Finance Department, Jackson Ezell to Creative Media, and a few others.

All motions within the agenda passed with a unanimous 5-0 vote in favor of the order. To see a full list of the agenda of the evening, Click Here.

Among the key items addressed in the meeting was Municipal Order No. 2025–170, which approves a $360,000 donation from the Koon Family Charitable Foundation to purchase land for the future Fire Station #9. The donation is part of the foundation’s broader mission to improve community safety through support of both fire services and the city’s baby box program.

“This didn’t start with future fire station land. This was about the baby boxes,” a city official said during the meeting. “They’re big supporters and trying to make the community safer and to take their blessed funds and pour back into the community. Their reach is far greater than baby boxes or fire station land.”

The foundation previously funded the full retrofitting of Station 6 for a third baby box and is now contributing toward the planned fourth.

The commissioners also approved a string of public safety-related purchases and contracts:

Municipal Order No. 2025–159 allows the Fire Department to spend up to $63,000 for new turnout gear to replace expiring equipment, purchased through a state pricing contract.

Municipal Order No. 2025–160 authorizes an $85,800 contract with Stewart Richey Construction for floor resurfacing at the Sloan Convention Center, following noncompetitive negotiations.

Municipal Order No. 2025–161 approves the continuation of a deicer contract with Cargill, Inc. at $149.98 per ton, marking the first of three available renewal years.

Municipal Order No. 2025–162 greenlights the purchase of mobile data computers for emergency vehicles from Law and Order Technology LLC, with a total not to exceed $706,959.04.

Municipal Order No. 2025–163 approves a $163,950 sole-source purchase of a multi-screen training simulator for the Bowling Green Police Department.

The meeting concluded with ordinances related to annexations, budget amendments, and renaming a city street, White Court, to Abraham Avenue. The next scheduled meeting is set for July 15.