Expo center construction delayed

Principal construction on a 7,000 south Corbin expo center won’t likely start until January officials said Monday – about four months later than originally anticipated.
Plans for the Southeast Kentucky Agriculture and Exposition Center were discussed during the monthly work session meeting of the Corbin City Commission Monday. The center will be located above the Corbin Center for Technology and Community Activities on Cumberland Falls Hwy.
Corbin City Manager Bill Ed Cannon said changes to the design of the building requested by Global Spectrum have slowed down architects. The company was hired recently by the Commission to manage the facility once built.
“I’ve certainly put pressure on them (the architects),” Cannon said. “Once they got the consultants involved in it … they started saying they needed some things that we hadn’t anticipated they would need.”
Cannon said he would like to see the building “under contract” before year’s end, but was only cautiously optimistic about that timetable.
City Commissioner Alan Onkst asked what changes were made and whether or not commissioners would get to see a final plan for approval. Cannon said they would.
Corbin Mayor Amos Miller said no significant changes to the original design plan of the building have taken place.
Cannon said after Global Spectrum submits all its requested changes, officials from the company and from Bullock, Smith and Associations – the expo center design and planning firm – will have a “come to Jesus” meeting to determine which ideas can meet budget constraints.
Commissioners also discussed plans for upgrades at Rotary Park. During a special meeting that preceded the work session, the commission approved a bid from Hibbard’s Fencing for $15,080 to install new fencing at the park. Corbin Recreation Director Marlon Sams said angled parking on Wilson Street would be constructed as well. Old fencing will be painted and new sod will be installed in the infield of both little league baseball fields.
“By next summer, it will look like a new place,” Sams said. “We all just sat down and looked at it and saw some problem areas we needed to address.”
Sams said congestion on Wilson Street because of parking for use of the practice fields has been a problem in the past.
Miller announced that the City Utility Commission recently agreed to continue providing $15,000 to the city to spend on recreation.
“If anyone sees somebody from the Utility Commission, thank them,” Miller said. “They area a big part of our community and I appreciate them.”
In other business, the commission:
• Hired two firefighters. Jack Partin, Jr. and Brett Reeves were approved by the commissioners.
• Authorized City Attorney Bob Hammons to draft an ordinance changing Bacon Ave to Elliott Lane.
• Approved a resolution for reimbursement for sidewalk rehabilitation under the Safe Routes to School grant program.
• Approved a resolution to become part of the Partnership for Safe and Secure Communities.
• Discussed changing the current business license ordinance to tighten restrictions on peddlers and door-to-door sales. Commissioner Bruce Farris said two incidents recently of salesmen trying to sell investment opportunities seemed fishy and were annoying to local residents.
“Each time the police go on one of these calls, they say he’s got a business license and can’t really do anything,” Farris said. “So we are selling these $20 a day licenses to people and then unleashing them on the town. There’s not much the police can do because we are selling them the license.”
Farris suggested raising the $20 a day fee, and changing the ordinance so that each person engaged in selling must buy a license instead of per company.