City Hall floats funding for Bull Hell

LFUC Mayor includes line item for KY River boat launch in newly released budget proposal

LFUC Mayor Linda Gorton’s recently released budget proposal includes $500,000 to develop Bull Hell Park, a 30 acre tract of mostly bottomland located nearby the most excellent Proud Mary’s Honky Tonk and BBQ and across from Bull Hell Cliff on Pool 9 of the Kentucky River.

Ominously, the Mayor’s budget designates the park funding as “Phase 1.” Meanwhile, a recent WUKY morning report now suggests the timeline for completion (of a put-in for canoes and kayaks) will be 18 months. October 2024. So, barring no setbacks…city leadership plans to open the park to the public just in time for the 2025 winter paddling season.

On the upside, this slackwater schedule buys NoC a fair amount of time to beef up our coverage of the city’s purchase and development of the park. The Kentucky River is perhaps the defining feature of Fayette County, if not of the entire horse-studded inner-bluegrass region. There is much to cover about the public’s coming ability to (finally) access this regional treasure, and we have much to say.

As we get back to work, here are a few quick observations about that $500,000 funding line in the Mayor’s recent budget proposal.

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Phase 1 means there is a Phase 2

The $500,000 proposed for Bull Hell is identified as Phase 1 funding.

One of the worst things for citizenry of all stripes to swallow is misappropriated money. Town Branch Commons had five phases, cost $75 million, and took 8 years to complete–and all citizens got was a 2.2 mile separated bike line that most of us must drive to in order to access. The Legacy Trail included three phases–four if you include the construction of Isaac Murphy Park. This trail took 10 years to complete and still lacks 2 miles in protected bike track.

Needless to say, it should not take $500,000 and 18 months in community stake-holder meetings to gravel an already-graveled lot and install a boat-ramp. Whatever else the park becomes, the city should hold those stakeholder meetings and develop that vision after already opening Bull Hell to everyday paddle-FUCers and other hardcore Kentucky River curio’s. Show citizens that the city can provide low-cost and nimble solutions before moving onto any grand designs between “stakeholders.”

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Bull Hell and private industry

One of the likely reasons for the long timeline and phased funding is that it allows for two competing sets of elites to duke it out behind closed doors.

The future park is ideally oriented for modern Kentucky River industry. It sits minutes from I-75, downhill from Burgess Carey’s Boone Creek Outdoors zipline canopy tours and a few Air BnB’s. The park will practically share a gravel lot with the most excellent Proud Mary’s Barbecue, a bustling restaurant which regularly features local and small-scale touring musical acts visiting their spacious grounds that overlook the Kentucky.

Carey’s attempt last decade to open Boone Creek Canopy Tours was fought by a silent but wealthy group of area landowners who used HORSE and HISTORIC LANDSCAPE to argue against the zipline company’s opening. Carey eventually won his battle; Boone Creek opened.

But the city’s near-billion dollar investment in selling its downtown and HORSE country mostly left Boone Creek Canopy to languish on its own for the past decade, an outlier business with little civic support or opportunity for nearby development, and a resulting general lack of citizen awareness.

Bull Hell seems to revisit those old development arguments from the Jim Gray era about where and how to emphasize city authenticity. The times, however, may have changed. The city’s tourism department has been sending signals that it is interested in allowing us to diversify the Lexington brand away from Main Street City Hoops and Horse County Farms.

At 30 acres, Bull Hell’s trail facilities are somewhat limited, but the area would seem to make an ideal public campground to augment the public boat-launch. Even a small campground is likely to do well here, and provide further customer bases for Proud Mary’s, Boone Creek, and any other private industry that develops to provide food and boats and bikes and hikes in the area around Pool 9. This would likely require electricity and toilet and shower facilities, which are all likely already onsite or nearby, but not much else.

The 18-month timeline to develop “Phase 1” allows the HISTORIC HORSE LANDSCAPE faction of landowners ample time to parry the more commercial and populous options like maintaining a public campground. But it also gives the stakeholders of this new adventurous city brand a bit of time to develop a robust outdoor tourism vision (and funding capacity) for the area.

Low-cost campgrounds with basic facilities that overlook naturally gorgeous areas are pretty standard–old-hat–in states like Colorado with a successful outdoor tourism industry. One imagines that, at some point, our hip progressive civic-leaders and our Horse Country conservatives will finally arrive together at this 1990s idea.

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You can go to Bull Hell right now

Last summer, when the city first announced its $1.2 million purchase of the future parklands, LFUC-member Kathy Plomin stated that she couldn’t wait for the boat launch to be completed so that she could finally launch her kayak onto the Kentucky River. While it appears that the new civic timeline will delay the District 12 Council Member’s inaugural paddle on the Kentucky for another year-and-a-half, you NoC readers don’t have to wait that long.

In classic Fayette County fashion, another (already operational) boat-launch is located…several hundred feet from the proposed Bull Hell boat launch.

This boat-launch has the good fortune of being even closer to the most excellent Proud Mary’s Barbecue. And the launch is free to use; Proud Mary’s seems to keep it up for area boaters.

No word on whether this fully-operational Proud Mary’s boat ramp cost $500,000 to install and maintain, or if it required multiple funding phases.

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Naming rights

Town Branch Commons! The Legacy Trail! Hisle Park! Veterans Park! And…The Kelley Property Development for Public Access to the Kentucky River for Kayaks and Canoes!

Yeah. We agree. The name chosen by our hip city hall delegates and brand-mavens to refer to the new 30 acre park doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. Follow the lead of we longtime paddling writers of the Kentucky River and call the area Bull Hell Park.

In our initial coverage last summer of the city’s $1.2 million purchase of the Kelly Property, you can read all about our in-depth and historically resonant argument for choosing the name : All hail Bull Hell. Reader New Jawn suggested the more likely name of Kroger Wildcat Water Splash Park. So there are other options.

As of yet, no representative from city hall has reached out to discuss the Bull Hell name with any of NoC‘s flotilla of paddle-bred writers. We’ll let you know when any of those civic leaders reach out to us.

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Regional literature from Pool 9

In the meantime, though, for anyone interested in learning about this part of the Kentucky River, a good place to start is with Wes Houp’s 2-part narrative from May 2012 of an overnight paddle from Boonesborough to Valley View:

The Sunken Corridor: Boonesborough to Bull Hell

Time and the River: Devil’s Meathouse to Valley View

More later. Grab the paddle. Take the float.