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Western Kentucky University comes out a big winner in this year's state budget, getting 13 times as much money for various projects as the rest of Warren County combined - excluding state road projects, which are slated to cost $180 million over the next two years.

On Monday, the Republican-run Senate approved the budget package unanimously, with the Democrat-controlled House expected to vote today.

Just over $120 million is included for Western, though almost all of that comes from bonds rather than direct appropriation. By contrast, about $9.3 million is earmarked for the wants of Bowling Green and Warren County.

Western President Gary Ransdell and other recipients of state funds credited House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, for packing the budget with local projects.

“It does help to be speaker,” Richards' spokesman John McGary quipped.

Ransdell said this year's major spending approvals keep the university on track in a plan for “a complete rebuilding of Western's campus.”

“Going into the session, we put together a list of needed projects, and worked hard for the last several months to make a case for them,” he said this morning. “With Speaker Richards' leadership and Sen. (President David) Williams' support, we were able to get everything on our list.”

Not all of Western's wishes were in any one version of the proposed budget, but persistent lobbying paid off, Ransdell said.

“We got some of the projects we needed in the higher (education) budget back in the fall, some at partial funding,” he said. “We only had a couple of the smaller ones in the governor's budget.

“So then we went to work with the House, and were successful at getting most of the projects in. Then we worked with the Senate, and were able to keep them in. Then when they went to conference, we were able to get the last one or two that had yet to be put in, in any version.”

According to a news release from Richards' office, Western should receive:

• $35 million to replace the College of Education building.
  
  
• $25.5 million for another half to L.T. Smith Stadium.
  
  
• $16 million to renovate Van Meter Hall.
  
  
• $10 million to expand Preston Health and Activities Center.
  
  
• $9 million more to renovate Science and Technology Hall.
  
  
• $8 million to renovate Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center.
  
  
• $5.8 million to plan, design and buy land for replacing Gordon Ford College of Business.
  
  
• $4.5 million for more construction on the Institute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology Materials Characterization Center.
  
  
• $4 million for parking improvements on the north side of campus.
  
  
• $3 million in operating costs for the Kentucky Academy of Math and Science.

The only direct appropriation is the operating money for the math and science academy. It will bring 126 of the top juniors and seniors in Kentucky high school math and science programs to Western, Ransdell said.

The College of Education, Science and Technology Hall, Gordon Ford and materials lab projects will be paid for by state-issued bonds that the state will repay, he said.

The Smith Stadium, Van Meter, Preston, Ivan Wilson and parking projects will be funded by bonds that Western is allowed to issue and must repay, Ransdell said.

The university will seek construction money for Gordon Ford's new home in the next two-year budget, he said.

Van Meter is the oldest building on campus and badly in need of work, he said.

Half of the money for Ivan Wilson will go for air conditioning work, and the rest to build an atrium on the building's front, providing music rehearsal space, Ransdell said.

Preston will be expanded to meet current enrollment needs, he said.

The $4 million for parking will pave two small faculty/staff and two large student lots, now all gravel, on the north side of campus, Ransdell said.

The uneven site must be terraced, and runoff water dealt with, he said.

Western is also slated to get a $1.7 million increase in its base funding next year, and $5.8 million the year after that, Ransdell said.

And the university will get space in a new $14 million building at the Owensboro Community and Technical College campus, and a $20 million building at the Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, Ransdell said.

“We're moving toward true regional campuses in both of those communities,” Ransdell said.

Outlined in a General Assembly conference committee report, the long list of state road projects in Warren County, spending more than $180 million over the next two fiscal years, starting July 1, includes:

• $30 million to extend the Natcher Parkway to Dye Ford Road.
  
  
• $28 million to widen Interstate 65 to six lanes.
  
  
• $19.3 million to widen Nashville Road from Campbell Lane to Dillard Road.
  
  
• $16.6 million for a new I-65 interchange at the Kentucky TriModal Transpark.
  
  
• $15.7 million to rebuild the Scottsville Road interchange.
  
  
• $11.4 million to widen Veterans Memorial Lane to five lanes.
  
  
• $10.7 million to repave Natcher Parkway.
  
  
• $10.5 million to reconstruct Ky. 101 from Smiths Grove to U.S. 31-W.
  
  
• $10 million to widen Lovers Lane to five lanes.
  
  
• $8.5 million to reconstruct Ky. 185 from Richardsville to the Butler County line.
  
  
• $6.6 million for the transpark connector road.
  
  
• $4 million to widen Cumberland Trace.
  
  
• $2.8 million to widen Three Springs Road to five lanes.
  
  
• $2.4 million to improve the intersections of the U.S. 31-W By-Pass, Chestnut Street, University Boulevard and Loving Way.
  
  
• $2.4 million for “initial advanced transportation management system” on I-65 around Bowling Green.
  
  
• $950,768 to build left turn lanes on U.S. 31-W.
  
  
• $500,000 to study a new Natcher Parkway interchange at Elrod Road.
  
  
• $250,000 to landscape I-65.
  
  
• $235,000 to fix a flooding problem on U.S. 68/Ky. 80.
  
  Items for the city and county are headed by appropriations that will benefit the transpark:
  
  
• $4.5 million for a rail spur and infrastructure at the transpark.
  
  
• $3.5 million for water and sewer upgrades in north Warren County, near the transpark.
  
  
• $250,000 to renovate the Warren County Courthouse, built in 1867.
  
  
• $220,000 to renovate the old Alvaton School gymnasium.
  
  
• $200,000 to bury utilities along Lovers Lane.
  
  
• $175,000 for Lost River Gateway Visitors Center.
  
  
• $150,000 for business acceleration at the Research and Development Center.
  
  
• $80,000 for the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra.
  
  
• $75,000 for the Historic Railpark.
  
  
• $75,000 for playground equipment at the new Alvaton School Intermediate Center.
  
  
• $50,000 for the Kentucky Fireman's Museum.

The transpark's infrastructure improvements will bring electrical service to part of the industrial park, Inter-Modal Transportation Authority Operations Manager Allen Heidel said.

Smaller appropriations for local organizations will still have a big impact locally, said Dorian Walker, former president and frequent spokesman for the Friends of the L&N Depot.

“This is just absolutely wonderful news,” he said.

To complement the old railcars it already has in place and is seeking, the group wants a diesel engine to round out the historic train, Walker said.

“Even though our train will only move in our imaginations, it still needs a locomotive,” he said.

The state money should be enough to buy an engine, and may be enough to restore it; but will also be spent on equipping a room in the train depot as a railroad museum, Walker said.

Since all of its items relate to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad - which runs through Bowling Green - the local museum is angling to become the national L&N museum, he said.