Pendleton Project ‘coming soon’
By Nila Harris
BUTLER — Motorists may have seen signs along Highway 27 at Boston proclaiming: “Pendleton Project: Coming Soon.”
Pendleton Country Club owner David Bay and Business Development Director Rachael Wright last week explained the mysterious signage.
The answer includes a two-story, 25,000-square-foot clubhouse and a campground with 110 campsites and 34 high-end tree houses/tiny homes. And the golf course.
THE DREAM
“After the (July 2021 Pendleton Hills restaurant) fire, we struggled to get settled with the insurance company,” Bay said. “It took a really long time.
“After settling, I was beat up mentally and didn’t know what direction I was going. I thought about selling (the golf course). I wanted to do the best thing for the course itself; it needed to stay here.
“We have 180-plus acres of some of the best rolling hills in Kentucky. If you can’t figure it out, you should just hang it up,” Bay said.
Instead of focusing on what he DIDN’T have, Bay began thinking of what he DID have. He was quick to praise his exceptional staff, and the community and business support.
“It has been all hands on deck,” meaning that he and his staff have been working daily to secure funding, look at what the best facilities had, hire competent people, procure state and national support, and enlist community buy-in through multiple opportunities.
Bay met with Pendleton Hills Grounds Superintendent Andy Koenig who asked, “Have you ever thought about a campground?”
THE CAMPGROUND
Bay admitted that he had reservations about a campground. He wanted a nice place and not something that was “junked up.”
When Koenig assured him that he could have a great camping facility with rules and standards, Bay decided to check into it. He hired an investment consultant in the camping industry who “visited every campground from Cincinnati to Lexington”, accompanied by a designer.
The duo informed Bay that on a scale of 1-10, Pendleton Hills is a 9.2 and “we don’t give any 10s.”
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CAMPGROUND, continues Page 2