DS Mayor discusses park rebuild

“We are kind of at the very end of our work,” she said. “The good news is we think we will be moving dirt by the end of this year and we think that by the end of 2025 we will have a brand new city park and pool.”

Sewell explained that the December 2021 tornado caused extensive damage to the park.

“There was a potion of that I’m sure was F5,” she said.

Residents have expressed concerns about the park taking so long to rebuild. Sewell said the calculations to rebuild the park and pool will be between $6 million and 6..5 million. Insurance provided the city with $1,257,696.68 for the park and pool.

“While the city has the ability by law to move forward to build a park as we see fit, we do not have the funds in place to rebuild the park as it is,” she said. “We don’t even have the funds in place to build a little park.”

The city is working with FEMA to secure “obligated” funding to rebuild the park and pool due to the financial constraints.

“A lot of people don’t realize the intense amount of work that has gone on,” said Sewell.

When she took office in January 2023, she said things were not as organized as it could have been.

“They did the best they could and even the FEMA people who came in to assess the damage did the best they could,” she said. “We did not feel as though they were trying to mess us up, but we weren’t getting anywhere.”

Sewell called both Governor Andy Beshear and former Governor Steve Beshear to explain what was going on. Immediately, they got Kentucky Emergency Management involved in the process and a gentleman from Alabama was sent to Dawson Springs to help the city work with FEMA.

The gentleman, who left in February this year, told the city that the Dawson Springs City Park project would be the largest one he’d ever prepared for FEMA.

FEMA looks at all of the documentations and insurance information before “obligating” any funding.

“The reason for that is they do not want to fund anything or any portion that would have been funded by insurance,” said Sewell. “FEMA will not fund any new things. They will fund what you had.”

One of the main challenges in rebuilding the park is making sure it meets all the safety standards of today which include Kentucky ADA compliance, Kentucky High School Athletic Association regulations, little league requirements, lighting specifications, and more.

The park had been constructed over a 50-year period, Sewell said. Although it had been well maintained, the park was destroyed by the tornado and anything new the city builds will not be grandfathered in to the safety standards of today.

Installing the playground has been an issue for the city. While the playground equipment was donated and is ready to be installed, it can’t be installed until the city receives funding for the ground work, grading, and pouring the crumb rubber surfacing.

As for the pool, Sewell said the pool’s location was changed due to tornado damage.

“The walls of the pool were aluminum walls and they were horribly dented from debris hitting it,” she said. “They said it would cost more to fix than it would to move down a couple hundred feet and build a new pool”

While FEMA will not fund any new projects, they will allow parts of the project to move around. The basketball courts swapped places with the playground and gazebo, and the pool was relocated and a soccer field was put in its place.

“The soccer field would not be funded through FEMA and we have not asked them,” she said. “Almost everything else is just a rebuild.”

Sewell emphasized that the city has not received any FEMA funds yet and will not receive any until funding has be “obligated.”