Paducah’s Mayor and City Commission voted last night to approve a contract with two construction companies to begin work on a marina and boat launch along the Ohio River. According to the contract, the City will pay Jim Smith Contracting Company almost $2.6 million to build the boat launch, and it will pay almost $4.5 million to MAC Construction & Excavation, Incorporated, to work on projects including a breakwater. Commissioner Allan Rhodes was the lone dissenter in both decisions. He expressed concerns including the cost of and need for these developments.
“TVA said there were 794 boats that logged through Kentucky and Barkley for all of last year,” He said. “If you divide it over a nine month’s period of time, that’s less than 90 a month, so that’s less than three a day.”
Mayor Gayle Kaler disagrees. She said she had observed other cities benefit from riverfront developments and believed the projects were important for Paducah’s downtown businesses.