Abramson announces funding for new water-distribution system in Jessamine County

At long last, the Armory Place area of Nicholasville will soon have an up-to-date water distribution system after Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson announced that the city and Jessamine County Fiscal Court were awarded a $391,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Friday morning.

According to Nicholasville utilities director Tom Calkins, the Armory Place area includes High and Gayle streets, Armory Place, Jessamine, Bristol, Twilight and Terrace avenues.

The grant will be used for the installation of new water lines, fire hydrants, valves and meters to upgrade the undersized and obsolete distribution water system within the designated area. The city is matching the grant, making the total project cost $782,000.

 “Effective, modern infrastructure is an imperative foundation for economic development and housing growth in Kentucky,” Abramson said. “This water distribution system project will provide a much needed upgrade to the city of Nicholasville’s current system and ensure that current and future residents and businesses will have safe, reliable access to water.”

Nicholasville Mayor Russ Meyer and Jessamine County Judge Executive Neal Cassity credited governmental cooperation as the key element in being awarded the grant, and Abramson echoed their thoughts.

“Community Development Block Grants are competitive grants, so with this community pulling together focusing on the opportunity to make a difference in water quality and ensuring that several hundred people will continue to receive water in an enhanced quality, and making sure to having an opportunity where the city and county are working together,” Abramson said. “When you put all that together, that adds up really quick when you’re trying to decide if you’re going with this community or that community when investments are being requested for community development block grants.”

The Armory Place portion of the Nicholasville water distribution system is one of the city’s oldest, having been installed in the 1920s.

“It will be all water lines; there will be hydrants where there aren’t any up in that area right now because all of that area was constructed and developed back before there were regulations for the city,” Calkins said.

The project area only has five existing fire hydrants, none of which meet the minimum pressure or flow rates for new construction. The city’s fire chief Charles Brumfield said that it is difficult to fight fires in the area due to lack of pressure and placement of fire hydrants. Moreover, the city has experienced 24 line breaks in the area since 2009, and continued line breaks can result in contamination and boil water advisories.

 The new Armory Place Water Distribution System project will relieve the water pressure problems, line break issues, and health and safety concerns in the current outdated system. The new 4,437 linear feet of water line will serve nearly 200 area residents, of which 84 percent are of low to moderate income. The area residents’ water rates will not go up as a result of this project.

 “High quality water is more than the dream of conservationists, and more than a political slogan. High-quality water, in the right quantity at the right place and at the right time, is essential to health, recreation and economic growth,” state Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, said. “I want to thank the Beshear Administration for making this grant available to the citizens of Jessamine County.”

 “This is exactly the type of project that Community Development Block Grant funds are designed to complete,” state Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville, said. “These improvements are long overdue and will have a substantial impact on the residents of this area.”

Calkins said the matching financing is already in place for the project to move forward.

“The fiscal court won’t be putting any money into it,” he said. “The city has already gone ahead and transferred $104,000 of grant money from a previous project that was left over, and the balance of the project will be paid for through an SRF (State Revolving Fund) Loan at a 2-percent interest rate over 20 years.”

The project is scheduled to begin in May 2013, after the current school year is completed, so construction will not interrupt school and bus traffic in the area. Calkins said barring unforseen circumstances, work should be completed by the end of 2013.

 The state’s CDBG program is administered by the Department for Local Government and funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Kentucky’s Congressional leaders’ ongoing support of the CDBG program ensures the availability of continued funding in Kentucky and nationally.