Downtown Mayfield is getting a makeover, courtesy of $31.5 million in federal and state funding announced Wednesday.
The far West Kentucky community was ravaged by a tornado that ripped through downtown in December 2021. The storm took the lives of 24 residents, and completely destroyed 400 buildings as well as damaged more than 1,000 others.
Many parts of the downtown area where there were once historic hotels and homes are now empty fields.
But thanks to a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation revamping downtown’s utilities and streetscape, Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan has hope that the emptiness could soon be filled with hubs for local commerce and culture.
The project, also funded by more than $6 million in funding from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, will reconstruct 2.5 miles worth of streets to include ADA sidewalk, dedicated bicycle paths, traffic calming measures and street trees.
“The new streetscape will make (downtown) much more conducive and attractive to economic development, as well as just increasing walkability for our citizens,” O’Nan said.
Some office space is already coming to downtown, but O’Nan said she hoped the street redesign and utility work will kick-start investment into projects like multi-use developments with shops on the ground floor and housing above, more office space and other economic development projects.
The improvements will also complete and connect a five-mile biking network in the city.
Construction is estimated to start June 2026.
The federal money comes from the department’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity discretionary grant program, which has doled out more than $7 billion for similar projects across the country during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
Funding for such infrastructure projects has been a key plank on Biden’s platform in a presumed re-election bid against former GOP President Donald Trump.
“After decades of underinvestment, the condition of America’s infrastructure is now finally getting better instead of worse,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a release. “Through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re funding projects across the country to make roads safer, make it easier for people to move around their community, make transportation infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather, and improve supply chains to keep costs down for consumers.”
Beyond just streets in Mayfield, a new stormwater sewer system will be designed to “accommodate predictions for increases rainfall and flooding associated with climate change.”
The region saw major flooding events last year, breaking a Kentucky record for flash flooding.
A press release from the office of Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat who featured O’Nan in his re-election campaign materials, said that the governor and mayor joined forces to send letters of recommendation to Buttigieg and “had dozens of conversations and meetings with federal officials”
O’Nan told the Herald-Leader that the news solidified her faith in both the federal and state governments.
“This is my statement for the day: everything that the state and federal government told us would happen has happened,” she said. “They have stayed true to what we were told when the tornado first happened, and we are honored and thankful that they have kept their promises,.”
Mayfield’s project was the largest grant recipient in Kentucky, which received around $44 million in RAISE grant funding. Beyond Mayfield, two projects in Northern Kentucky were also selected.
The City of Covington received $16.3 million for streetscape completions on its Covington Central Riverfront site, which used to be home to an Internal Revenue Service office, as well as a land bridge that connects to the top of a levee along the Ohio River.
Boone County also scored nearly $3 million for planning and designing on reconstruction of a road in its Limaburg community.