Friday, the City of Versailles will break ground on a $3.68 million downtown revitalization project. It’s a public-private partnership that’s been in the works for a very long time. Brian Traugott is the mayor of Versailles and a lifelong resident.
“I think the word transformative that sometimes overused, but this are private spaces, the private investment downtown has been remarkable in the past few years, this brings up elevates our public space to kind of match that quality. This, Big Spring Park, I think are the final two missing pieces for downtown.”
Big Spring Park is behind the county courthouse and a key part of the plan. Traugott said private, legacy sponsors have already pledged 300-thousand dollars for the project, which will include a farmers’ market, entertainment stage and a water feature highlighting the spring behind the Woodford County Courthouse. Traugott said he hopes city partners will pay almost half the cost of the project, and he’s confident the end result will bring county residents, and visitors, downtown.
“It will definitely allow us to up our event game, because we'll have a permanent space there. It'll also be a passive spot for people who are downtown, whether they're working, whether they're coming down to visit, to have a place to go to that looks nice, that's clean, that's enjoyable.”
Much of the planning for the downtown revitalization project has been done by volunteers, at no charge to the city.
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