Katy Allen renovations moving ahead

An aerial photograph of Katy Allen Lake and the proposed additions. Submitted photo

Nevada Daily Mail

A mile long, 8-foot wide pedestrian and biking trail may wind around the Katy Allen Lake if funding can be acquired through a Missouri Department of Transportation enhancement grant.

The $250,000 grant would be used to pave an asphalt trail over parts of the existing road in the park, expand the dam to handle raising the water level by 3 feet with an overhead walkway, construct two bridges on the east end of the lake, build an ADA accessible fishing pier by the dam and place a parking lot off east Locust Street.

Austin Mount, executive director of Kaysinger Basin Regional Planning Commission, discusses plans for Katy Allen Lake on Tuesday. Engineer Bill Hendrich listens on left. Gloria Tucker/Daily Mail

"Those activities alone will eat up the first phase of the grant cycle," Austin Mount, executive director of Kaysinger Basin Regional Planning Commission, said in the planning meeting Tuesday at the park. "We are proposing to close off the existing road in the park to vehicles for the trail. That would close off access to the road so you don't have triple parking and alleviate all the confusion about where to park."

He said the commission's engineer had looked into building a bridge across the middle of the lake, but found the idea too expensive.

"We are proposing to rehab the existing bridge and build a second 20-to-40 foot bridge to overlook the lake where the mouth of the lake starts," he said. "A bridge across the middle would be about 200 feet and very costly."

The second phase of the project would include repairing and constructing a road north of the lake connecting the park with the fairgrounds as well as building truck, trailer and RV parking to the east of the fairgrounds.

Since much of the construction will involve county property, landowner Janet Erwin donated the warranty deed for the property adjoining Katy Allen on the east to the county commission.

On a historical note, Katy Allen Lake was named after the M. K. & T. railroad company, commonly referred to as Katy, which constructed the lake as a source of water for the steam locomotives coming to the terminal in Nevada in the early 1900s. Allen was the general manager of the railroad company.