ASHLAND -- Signs proclaiming Veterans Riverfront Park and the Port of Ashland were unveiled Thursday at the site of $10.2 million project to turn the city's boat ramp into a park, reclaim up to 85 feet out into the river and make a pier where riverboats can tie up.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was on hand for the groundbreaking. Kentucky's senior senator was able to secure the funds that will be used to build the first phase of what city officials plan to be a $27 million project to develop a park outside the city floodwall along a 600-foot section of riverfront from 16th Street down to beneath the city's two bridges.
Ashland is joining a number of Kentucky river communities including Louisville, Owensboro, Henderson and Paducah which are developing riverfront projects. Those communities are realizing the importance of the Ohio River to their history.
"This community would not be here but for the river," McConnell said.
"It's a great place for recreation and entertainment," he said. "This project will create jobs and opportunity."
Mayor Steve Gilmore and other city officials came to Washington to lobby for the project and got McConnell's attention.
"Mayor Gilmore made a compelling case to develop the riverfront," McConnell said. "It was your initiative, your aggressiveness and your plan."
The first phase of the project could cost about $9 million and includes reclaiming up to 85 feet out into the river, building a pier where riverboats can tie up, build a new boat dock, and add restrooms to the riverfront where Summer Motion is held over the July 4 weekend.
"I hope we can go out to bid in June," Gilmore said. The initial phase could take about 18 months to finish, he said. "We'll be pleasure boat friendly, but we also hope to get boats like the Delta Queen and the Cincinnati Belle to dock here two or three times a year. We're trying to get on a regular schedule."
McConnell secured the money for the project in 2005, but Ashland officials weren't able to get the necessary permit from the Huntington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until a few days ago.
"I wanted to honor soldiers," Gilmore said of the decision by the Ashland Board of City Commissioners to name the park Veterans Riverfront Park. "We're talking about adding a sculpture. We wanted to honor soldiers form the past, our current soldiers and soldiers from the future."
The city first began its plans for riverfront development in 1991 when the late former Mayor Dick Martin and the board bought the railroad depot property adjacent to the city boat dock, Gilmore said. The Woodlands Foundation also provided funds for the city to develop the plan, he said. The city hired KZF, a Cincinnati firm, to do the design work.
Clean fill material, like the mounds of concrete from the former Wal-Mart, currently being stored along the riverfront, will be used to reclaim 75 to 100 feet of the Ohio River, said Henry "Hank" Fedders Jr., a representative of KZF, the Cincinnati engineering and architectural firm working on the project.
Gilmore called the city a river community that hasn't developed its riverfront. Some aspects of the plan are similar to Harris Riverfront Park including the cement pier where riverboats can tie up and let tourists off.
The project could cost $27 to $30 million to complete with later phases calling for an amphitheater, a restaurant, walking and bike trails and extending the project to beneath the city's two Ohio River bridges.
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