MAYFIELD, Ky. — The Mayfield Finance and Administration Committee held a meeting Wednesday to discuss construction on a new soccer complex and the amount the administration was allotted in federal funding. The latter regarded relief grants the city applied for following the December 2021 tornado.
Graves County Commissioner Tyler Goodman said that the joint city-county park, which is 17 acres and located south of the YMCA, entered an inter-local agreement last year to develop the area into a soccer complex. The soccer fields adjacent to the expanding cemetery will be relocated there.
“We want this park to be first-class,” Goodman said.
The project so far has been funded through $156,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act. Plans also include a pavilion, which will house a maintenance closet and bathrooms on both ends. There are no concession spaces, but the parking lot will have access for food trucks.
Goodman provided updates on the project. Construction is projected to finish in the fall. He said crews have finished dirt work, established a level foundation, set up the parking lot and almost fully installed turf and irrigation. Paul Howard’s Custom Landscaping was employed to complete the irrigation; other developing bids were awarded for various elements of construction like fencing and the pavilion.
For this reason, Goodman said additional expenses are still to be incurred. He is pursuing other funding after the project was denied a $250,000 federal grant. He explained that local businesses can make a “sizeable” contribution.
Mayor Kathy O’Nan said that the city is not able to financially contribute during this budget cycle, as “money is tied up” in other construction endeavors. She still considers the prospective park an “asset to the community.”
O’Nan expanded on all the federal funding allocated to Mayfield in continued recovery from the December 2021 tornado. In addition to the $25 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, O’Nan said that Mayfield is the beneficiary of a roughly $6 million grant released to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
The city received more federal funding for disaster relief from the Community Development Block Grant Program — $5.9 million for storm water retention, $5.1 million for owner occupied housing, and $34.4 million for 122 rental units.
O’Nan said the total state and federal funding allocated to Mayfield, including other grants, is $102.9 million.
“The state and federal government, every group we've talked to, has done what they said they would do,” O’Nan said.
