Allen County opening new sports complex
ALLEN COUNTY, Ky. – Allen County is close to putting the finishing touches on a new sports complex, and county officials are saying that this new park will be a home run for the community.
The new complex will hold baseball, softball, soccer and football games, provide courts for pickleball and basketball, and is working with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to even stock the pond with fish.
The vision for the complex has been in the works since 2022 and has seen some disruptions due to COVID and flooding. There were concerns over the price as well, but when the county started receiving COVID funds, officials say that they knew exactly what to do with it.
“We decided to use that money on something that 20 years down the road, we can all look back and say, ‘hey, there’s our money. There’s our COVID money being used for the greater of our community,'” said Allen County Judge Executive Dennis Harper.
For a growing community like Allen County, improving the quality of life, and providing a place for families to create generational memories is important to attracting new residents.
“When people are lookin and moving to the community, they look at your your quality of life, things like your parks,” Harper said. “And, you know, we have a great factory moving here. We already have 2 or 3 great factories here that people can move here and go to work, bring their families. They come out here and see this park. ‘Hey, my kids are going to get to play on just as nice fields that they play on in Bowling Green, in Glasgow.'”
Since 2022, much work has been completed, but undertaking a project like this one can be a big task for a community the size of Allen County. Local leaders are determined to finish what they started though, even with local elected officials pitching in to help complete the process.
“I’ve had a magistrate that brought his own mowers out here and been mowing around all these fields,” Harper said.
“I’ve got a magistrate now over here that drilling holes to put a building in the ground. And both of those gentlemen have has full time jobs. One of them’s retired, but does one has a full time job doing two or three other things, but they’re making time to come out to this part because it’s very, very important to our community.”
The park is expected to be completely finished by Labor Day.
