Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

With the start of a new year and a new decade, local officials are expecting great thigns in Jessamine County.

For most, construction and development projects top their lists of things coming in 2020.

“I’m hoping for some big announcements on the economic front,” Nicholasville Mayor Pete Sutherland said. “Everything went on hold for the holidays.”

The city will be wrapping one capital construction project this spring and starting another. Ground will likely be broken in April on the new Nicholasville Police Department building. Not long after, the city will also officially open its fourth fire station, located near Brannon Crossing.

“This will be the icing on the cake,” Sutherland said. “We want (the firefighters) out and about and involved with the people there.”

The new station will also include all new equipment, such as a ladder truck, and additional staff, he said.

For theater lovers, the city’s performance park is preparing for a couple of spring shows, on the heels of its debut performances in the fall, Sutherland said.

County officials hope to finish the restoration and repairs to the county courthouse around the start of summer or earlier if possible.

“They hope to (finish) much sooner than that,” Jessamine County Judge-Executive David West said.

The project, which started in September, will address a number of things to the courthouse including stabilizing the roof and attic spaces, repairing the cupola, replacing the weather vane, and reworking the roof and guttering, among other things.

“It’s a huge project,” he said.

The county also has a new economic development project in the works, with hopes of new companies coming to the community.

“We have a new economic development park that was bid,” West said. “I’d love to see a couple businesses interested in it.”

Wilmore Mayor Harold Rainwater has already seen his biggest wish come true. Monday night, the city council voted unanimously to approve a contract to purchase The Providence School building to become a new city government center for all departments.

The school is moving back to Nicholasville after the school year concludes and into a new facility.

The city offices, Rainwater said, have outgrown the current space. There are no public restrooms, and there are access issues as well, he said.

The city bid $250,000 for the building. The transition will begin shortly after the school year ends in June, he said.