Campbell County is moving forward with a multi-million-dollar restoration plan for AJ Jolly Lake.
AJ Jolly Lake is a 200-acre fishing and recreational lake within the 1,000-acre AJ Jolly Park, the largest county park in Kentucky. The lake’s dam was constructed in 1960, and in 1983, a spillway (a structure that allows excess water to safely pass over or around a dam) and bridge were constructed. Since then, sediment and other natural factors have gone without maintenance, lowering the water levels, in some places, to inches.
“No one else has a 200-acre lake part of their park,” Campbell County Administrator Matt Elberfeld said. “So, I think it makes sense to invest in that.”
In February 2024, the Campbell County Fiscal Court approved the restoration’s first phase, which consisted of conducting an engineering study to identify and recommend lake restoration measures for the lake’s optimum depth, water quality and recreational opportunities.
After studying the areas, the county developed two repair options. The first is to contract out a complete dredge with an estimated cost of nearly $15 million. Or a second option of doing the work in-house at just under $3.1 million.
The Campbell County Fiscal Court voted at its meeting on Wednesday to go with the cost-savings option.
“Not only is this significantly cheaper, we think it’s also the better option for a couple reasons,” said Elberfeld. “One, it gives us control over the timing of the dredging and where the material goes and when. So, if we know we have a large event at the park for a weekend, or it’s a holiday weekend, we won’t dredge. We won’t have that noise.”
Additionally, it gives the county control over the scope of work and allows it to not have to do everything at once.
The project will focus on three areas of the lake: Racetrack West Cove, Racetrack East Cove, and Flatwood Road Cove.
Racetrack West is near the Environmental Education Center. The average depth of this area is 11 inches and covers about 1.25 square miles. The area is currently functioning as a wetland. According to the county, the sediment is likely due to nearby construction.
For reference, five feet is the minimum depth needed for fishing recreation.
Racetrack East is located near the main park entrance, and it’s connected to the lake via a box culvert under Racetrack Road. It is .44 square miles. The cove has decreased in size and is also functioning as a wetland with an average depth of 1.25 feet. The source of sediment is from agricultural and forest litter (leaves, branches and natural debris.)
Flatwoods Road Cove is the largest of the three areas at 2.48 square miles. The source of sediment is also from agricultural and forest litter. It has an average depth of 1.7 feet.
In addition to the three target areas on the lake, the county also looked at some of the golf course ponds. They did not pay for an engineering study for the ponds but rather eyeballed areas of need. One is the pond in front of “eight green,” one is the water around “seven green,” and the pond near “16 T.”
The in-house route the county voted on consists of allowing Racetrack West to continue to function as a wetland. The Environmental Education Center will develop and maintain it as an educational wetland (implement trails and signage.) They will remove invasive species and allow the cove to drain into the lake. Elberfeld said this work will be done without direct funding from the fiscal court.
Racetrack East will also continue to function as a wetland. A weir wall (a barrier built to control water flow) will be built to retain sediment and provide stormwater overflow.
Crews will dredge the Flatwoods Road shorelines with in-house labor and equipment. They will also fill in the small alcove and repair the shoreline. The culvert there (a short tunnel or pipe that carries water underneath a road) will be replaced with a bridge.
This option also includes the cost of ongoing maintenance to prevent future large-scale projects.
“This is not a knee-jerk reaction to a few leaves that have been on the surface of one of our best capital assets in the county,” Campbell County Commissioner Geoff Besecker said. “You can’t count and put a price tag on how many people have used that lake for the benefits of recreation and fishing over the years. Everyone in this county knows about that lake whether they’ve used it or not.”
The cost breakdown of the $3,095,000-plus price tag is:
- Racetrack East: $345,000 (estimate)
- Long-reach excavator: $350,000 (estimate)
- Additional road maintenance specialists: $2 million (estimate.) This includes two additional employees for the next 10 years.
- Bridge: $400,000 (estimate)
- Phase II engineering: unknown
Elberfeld said the county would keep the excavator after the project’s completion rather than sell it to do ongoing maintenance.
As for the two additional hires, he said the county doesn’t have the staff capacity to dedicate two road maintenance specialists to the task, which will be a five-to-10-year project. He said one question that has come up regarding the two positions is what they will do with them once they are done dredging. Elberfeld said those positions would most likely backfill any retirements.
“Our employees are very conscientious of our equipment, of our property,” Elberfeld said. “They care about things, not that the contractors don’t, but we have really talented people at our road department, and using our own resources that are of known quality is less of a risk, I think, than a contractor.”
Concurrently, to work on the lake restoration project, crews will also work on the spillway at the dam.
The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Division of Water, notified the county that it needs to investigate and provide a remediation plan for the spillway due to the under-drain system not working. The existing concrete structure is approximately 50 feet wide by 12 feet tall by 200 feet long.
This project has a bidding proposal from Verdantas Engineering for the design, a cost of $192,620. The preliminary estimated project cost is $2 million.
“What we do know is it’s not going to get cheaper to replace that with construction costs, inflation, the time value of money,” Elberfeld said. “If we know that we need to replace that spillway at some point, I think it makes sense to just get on with it as part of an overall lake project.”
Campbell County Judge/Executive Steve Pendery said conversations have been ongoing for this project and each county commissioner has been individually going through all the material. The presentation at Wednesday’s meeting was not the first time they had reviewed the project.
“None of these are cheap options,” Elberfeld said. “None of them are the most fun way to spend money. It’s a lot of money for stuff that’s hard to visualize. It’s not a new building, but I think the value of the lake is worth it.”
