LaRue County is celebrating more than $1.4 million in funding recently awarded to the county.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear joined local officials Monday for a tour of the Nationwide Uniform Corporation, and while visiting presented checks from several state programs.
Included in the funds are more than $900,000 from the state’s Cleaner Water Program for LaRue County Water District No. 1 to enlarge a water main along East Leafdale Road, and $197,000 in discretionary road funds to help resurface Dan Dunn Road.
LaRue County Judge-Executive Blake Durrett said when the county budget of $10 million has to be spread across all of the county’s responsibilities, additional funding opens new opportunities.
“When you bring north of $1 million in in additional funding, that’s pretty nice,” Durrett said. “That’s a pretty nice bonus to your operating capital, so that’s over 10 percent of our operating capital that we were able to bring in in one day.”
The county also received about $360,000 from the Kentucky Product Development Initiative, which the county is using to acquire about 69 acres for industrial development. Durrett said a survey of LaRue County residents last year showed that about 85 percent are opposed to industrial development, so county officials are balancing the will of the people with the need for growth.
“Expenses go up every day,” Durrett said. “Your revenue has to increase at some point, and it has to either increase through property assessments or through tax rates or through new properties, so we’re trying to be responsible and cognizant of the fact that we need some new development, but at the same time we have a responsibility to the majority of our constituents that we do remain a rural community.”
The KPDI funds were originally announced in May of 2023.
