“I think opportunity is a good word in terms of how we view what’s in front of us,” said Boone County Engineer Jeff Earlywine as he explained to the fiscal court Tuesday the possibility of entering into a new lease agreement with Boone County Knothole for their 38-acre ball fields, Rivershore Sports Center.
This comes after the fiscal court’s strategic planning session in January, where they discussed purchasing and improving properties in the area.
Knothole recently bought Rivershore Sports Complex on Route 8, which has four fields, a paved parking lot, concessions, auxiliary fields, new restrooms and LED field lights.
Knothole has been around for 50 years and is a registered nonprofit business entity with secretary of state. They were also the primary baseball organization for many Boone County families for many years.
“I think when they purchased the fields they thought it might revitalize their organization,” Earlywine said. “That didn’t happen so they leased it out and used it primarily for adult softball leagues. But NKY has really been the behemoth for youth baseball and we’d like to see that pick up again.”
Earlywine also stated that if they enter the lease agreement, it would be $1 per year for five years.
“We would have to maintain it and incur all operating expenses,” Earlywine said. “We will just operate on a year-to-year lease and not invest in any major capital maintenance work because we can’t protect our investment in the asset at this point, unless that were to change.”
Judge/Executive Gary Moore suggested that this may be something the county will want to purchase down the line.
“One of the reasons it could someday need to be purchased would be to receive grants,” Moore said. “To get grants for capital improvements you need to own the property, you can’t lease it. But for now, hard to beat a dollar a year.”
Boone County also owns Conrad Park and the orchard property just a couple doors down.
“Our maintenance crews are accustomed to being down there so we think we can serve them pretty efficiently,” said Dave Whitehouse, Boone County parks director. ” We also have so many single fields around the county that my staff is driving to all these individual fields. To be able to have four all in one place would make productivity and our lives easier.”
Once the lease agreement is finalized, motions on this action will be made at the next meeting on May 9.