The Bowling Green Board of Commissioners voted to accept a $3,640,000 grant from the National Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund to fund the proposed Barren River Whitewater Park, part of phase 3 of the city’s riverfront park project.

The commission’s municipal order, approved by roll call, authorizes the city to accept the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership award and move forward with the river engineering and construction planning covered by the grant. City staff said the grant covers roughly half of the project cost and that previously approved state funding and other grants will supply most of the local match. The city manager said the remaining local share amounts to about 5% of the total project cost — estimated in the millions — and that the commission had already approved most of that match in earlier actions.

City engineers described the work as removing the existing rubble dam and building a series of engineered drop structures and “wings” to change river hydraulics across the roughly 3,000 linear feet between River Street and the pedestrian bridge. The redesign is intended to reduce the dangerous turbulence and entrapment features created by the current rubble dam, produce safer eddies and shore access, and create an accessible whitewater stretch for paddlers. “Instead of going through that and creating these turbulence, it will actually flow over and down through the dam, these drop structures,” a city engineer said. She added the changes would flush debris and create calmer side eddies for non-paddlers.

Staff told commissioners that phase 1 bids for other riverfront work were opening the next morning and phase 2 would be bid in spring; phase 3 — the whitewater park — is at least another 18–24 months from bid date. City staff and grant administrators credited in-house grant writers for securing more than $6.9 million in total grants related to riverfront redevelopment.

Commissioners and speakers framed the project as a safety and economic-development investment. The mayor noted the river had been considered an “eyesore” by many residents and argued the whitewater park would create a regional recreational destination for residents within a three-hour drive.

The municipal order passed on a unanimous roll call vote.