The Paducah City Commission approved spending $80,000 to grade rock on the Paducah Riverfront Redevelopment Project on Tuesday, Oct. 15 at City Hall. The effort is meant to ensure the structure's safety while the project is on hold for reassessment.
Paducah City Engineer and Public Works Director Rick Murphy makes the recommendation to regrade the rock at the safety suggestion of geotechnical engineers.
The vote passed 4-1, with Richard Abraham dissenting.
Abraham said he would have liked to see a timeline for how long the landmass could safely stand without regrading the rock, and have MAC Construction pay for the rock grading.
"But if it's to enhance our downtown, then I'm all for that," Abraham said. "But when you start getting into particulars within that framework I'm not just going to vote straight across the board because this was a time to look at that."
In September, City Manager Jeff Pederson recommended pausing the project because the city lacks funds to complete the project to original plans.
Allan Rhodes, who has in the past voted against funding large parts of the redevelopment project, voted to project the investment to date.
"To not spend $80,000 to sort of insure that it's going to be there during this year's layoff I just didn't think was prudent," Rhodes said. "I'm not happy about the whole thing, but I'm not gunna have my head stuck in the mud and say, 'Well, I'm not spend anything.' Because it would look pretty foolish if in the next nine months to a year your rock pile would be stuck up next to the Olmsted Dam."
The ordinance also includes the approval of $192,428 in steel pilings and $42,000 to pay for barges on standby. These changes bring the contract with MAC Construction from $4.49 to $4.8 Million.
Also during the commission meeting:
An ordinance was approved for employment of Brandon Barnhill as Paducah Police Chief.
An ordinance was introduced to provide $100,000 to be used to fund the Paducah Expo Center and the Julian Carroll Convention Center.
