WQXE News

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.

The city’s wastewater treatment plant was the main topic of conversation during the Elizabethtown City Council’s work session Monday.

City Wastewater Treatment Director Corey Bond gave the council a recap of the wastewater treatment plant’s operations in 2023, during which time 2.3 billion gallons of water was treated and no violations were reported to the state. Bond said the plant is operating at just under 50 percent capacity, which with anticipated growth coming to the area has the department looking at expansion.

“Right now the goal is to build a second plant that will treat mostly industrial waste, so that allows us to basically break off what’s coming from the industrial park and treating it separately and treating it differently than when we treat commercial and residential waste due to the other chemicals that would be in the water that we could remove more efficiently in a separate plant,” Bond said.

Representatives from HDR engineering presented the preliminary results of the city’s wastewater treatment plant rate study. The proposed rate increases would see the base cost for the average customer using 4,000 gallons a month go from the current rate of $18.80 to $22.09 in 2025, increasing in increments to $28.20 in 2029. 

HDR said rate revenue adjustments are necessary in order to fully fund operations, maintenance expenses, and capital improvements. HDR Municipal Client Adviser Ashley Willoughby said the increases still land Elizabethtown lower than similar-sized operations like Bardstown and Hodgenville, but are necessary to maintain baseline growth.

“Those costs that we’re experiencing from the pandemic and just general inflation are now sort of catching up to you, so we’re probably looking at having to maybe recover those costs on the front end, and then look at making sure you that are maintaining that revenue rate to cover those inflationary costs down the line,” Willoughby said.

The proposed rate increases do not account for possible expansion, which HDR said the firm is looking at alternative funding sources for but would be primarily addressed in a future rate study. City Administrator Ed Poppe said the plan is to get a rate ordinance before council in March in order to have it on the books by July.

In other meeting news, coaches and team members from the Hardin-E-Town Stampede mountain biking team came before the council to discuss the positive impact the team has had on its members and the positive impact mountain biking can have on community health. The team is planning to help with improvements to the trails at Buffalo Lake, where they will be hosting an event this August, and are asking for the city’s assistance in building a pump track or bike playground at the site.

The city will be hosting a Safe Streets for All public meeting on January 30 at 4 p.m. at the Pritchard Community Center. The meeting will be an open house format and give the community the chance to give their input on the use of funds from the grant program.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet February 5.