Plus, sports complex woes continue, story by Jemi Chew from The Edge
RICHMOND–Vendors, the car show, the petting zoo, and food options ranked among attendees’ favorite parts of the Millstone Festival, while parking was identified as the number one area for improvement, EKU students Jenna Aken and James Madden, who researched attendance to the festival, told the Parks Board during their most recent monthly meeting.
Aken and Madden, students in EKU’s Event Tourism Strategies class, helped to conduct surveys about attendee’s experiences during the festival. The class found that 81 attendees were very likely to return to the festival next year, 25 were likely to attend, two were neutral, one was somewhat likely, and one was unlikely. Meanwhile, 68 respondents said that their overall experience was excellent and 37 reported that they had a good overall experience. No attendees said that they had poor, fair, or neutral overall experiences.
In response to the survey’s findings that parking needed improvement, Sharp said that “people are always going to complain about parking because they have to walk”. The department did a “great job” providing an online map of parking information and overflow parking at Madison Central with shuttle transportation, she said.
Approximately 12,000 attended the Millstone Festival, Sharp said. These numbers were calculated by the Tourism Department using the Tally app from Datafy, which tracks the number of devices moving in and out of a location by pinging all devices in a given range that have location tracking turned on. Because not all cell phone users keep their location tracking switched on, it’s likely that 12,000 is an undercount, a Parks employee said in a follow-up interview.
Tally also knows where a device originated. Data collected by Tally indicated that 70.6% of visitors to the festival were from Richmond. Other visitors came from Berea, Lexington, Winchester, Paint Lick, London, Nicholasville, Georgetown, Louisville, and Lancaster.
Datafy claims on its website that, “Tally is a smart proximity sensor designed to determine the number of devices and people within a ~250-foot radius,” and that “Tally does not collect personally identifiable information, track individual visitors, or rely on invasive monitoring methods.”
The Millstone Festival won “Best Annual Event” as part of the Richmond Register’s 2026 Best of the Best competition, Sharp said.
Sports complex woes
The Richmond Regional Sports Park is set to open in February or March next year, the City Manager told the Park Board. Staff will move into their offices by the end of this year or January 2027, he said.
The playground, pickleball courts, and the dog park are the “last pieces” of construction work that need to be finished, according to City Manager Rob Minerich. Signage is ready to be installed and sponsorship packages will be sent out mid-November, Director Erin Sharp said.
Portions of the complex were supposed to be open to the public by June of this year, but construction was delayed due to change orders. Previously, Building Maintenance Superintendent Tim Gross told The Edge Minerich had assured him the complex would open in October.
However, more change orders caused another delay and it was announced that soccer fields might not be ready for use until next fall.
No update was given regarding flooding issues in the Covington Woods neighborhood caused poor earthworks management on the complex’s construction site. The latest update was that the City plans to add water detention ponds to divert rainwater to the storm water system, Minerich said during the Commission’s regular meeting on October 27.
Special recognition
Special Needs Program Coordinator Jamie Moore was recognized for earning her Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS) credential from the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification. The credential means that Moore can provide recreational therapy services for sick or special needs individuals. Richmond is one of two Parks Departments in Kentucky that has a CTRS, according to Board Chair John McChesney. Nicholasville-Jessamine County Parks and Recreation Program is the other.
Department reports
Sandblasting and re-painting of the pools at Paradise Cove is underway after the Commission approved a bid for $228,630 during their last Commission meeting, according to Zach Martin, who heads Paradise Cove and Adventure Falls.
All adult sports and youth sports are finished for the season, Park Athletics Director John Kunce reported. There are also no Richmond Outdoor Committee KY events planned for November, Assistant Program Coordinator Lauren Kilburn said.
Programming at the Teen Center is still ongoing with mentoring taking place on Tuesday nights from 3 pm to 6 pm and the Free Play Program taking place from 3 to 6 pm on Thursday nights, Kilburn said.
The Teen Center is also accepting food donations for Thanksgiving baskets through November 20. Items needed include turkeys, hams, canned vegetables, mashed potatoes, turkey pans, mac and cheese, pies, desserts, gravy, rolls, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. Donations can be dropped off at the Parks Office on 345 Lancaster Avenue. There will also be a Christmas gift wrapping event on December 18 from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Teen Center.
On Oct. 9, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was the last movie to be shown in the park for the season. There were 140 people in attendance Program Coordinator Elizabeth Foster reported.
The Halloween Hoedown, which took place on October 29, was a success, Foster reported. There were 75 vendors and long lines of children waiting for candy, she said.
Previously the event was held at Lake Reba. McChesney asked if the department preferred downtown Richmond as the new location for the Hoedown. Sharp said that organizing the event downtown was better as there were multiple ways for attendees to enter and exit the event and there were more parking options. However, some attendees commented on the lack of food vendors, Kilburn said. There were only snack vendors such as Kona Ice trucks, she said.
Irvinton House had 140 visitors during the period of September 30 to October 30, Foster reported. Park’s cryptid event exploring local mythical figures had 12 attendees, Kilburn said. The Geocaching event, which is an outdoor scavenger hunt to find containers called “geocaches”, had approximately 116 attendees overall, Moore reported.
Sixteen members of the Richmond Special Olympics bowling team qualified for the state competition that will take place in Louisville on Dec. 5, Moore said. There were also six unified teams that qualified for the state tournament. A unified team consists of individuals with and without intellectual disabilities.
Special Olympic athletes have also been working with students from an EKU recreation class on personal goals, Moore said. Another EKU therapeutic recreation class has also organized activities for the Special Olympic athletes.
Other ongoing programs for Special Olympic athletes include Train for Life, a crossfit gym program that began on October 5. The Basketball season will begin this month as well, Moore said.
Upcoming events
The Richmond Christmas Parade will take place on Dec. 4 at 7 pm along Main Street and can be viewed live on Facebook. Applications to participate in the parade are open until Nov. 13.
There will also be a craft show on Dec. 5 from 11 am to 4 pm at the Richmond Mall. The public can register online for a Santa home visit or to have Santa send a personalized letter to their home now through Dec. 9.
