BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Martin County is hoping to secure crucial funding for its ailing water and sewer systems through the Kentucky Water and Wastewater Assistance for Troubled or Economically Restrained Systems program.
This initiative, introduced during the 2024 General Assembly, allocates $150 million to support economically challenged water and wastewater systems statewide, according to Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty.
“The program is for distressed districts so that they won’t be competing against the rest of the state. Downtown Lexington and even Johnson County, for example, doesn’t qualify,” Lafferty explained.
Among the criteria are a leak rate exceeding 30%, remedial program or monitoring orders, median household income being less than the state median, user rates exceeding 1% of annual household income, and several others.
“Martin County is at the top of the list for distressed districts for several reasons,” remarked Lafferty. ”I don’t like the fact that it’s true about our system, but because it is true, it allows us to qualify for this program.”
Martin County has applied for $28 million in funding but still needs $60 million, according to the judge.
“We’re going to apply for the same amount next year,” stated Lafferty. “The state has $75 million this year and will have $75 million next year. This is the clearest shot that we have of obtaining this funding. I don’t know if we’re going to get a dime of it, but we believe we will and I’ll be lobbying.”
The county’s wish list of projects in the Kentucky Infrastructure portal is extensive:
- Route 40 water improvement project: $975,000
- Coldwater improvement project: $8.4 million
- WTP to Turkey tank: $6.8 million
- Inez water line replacement: $5 million
- Telemetry: $78,316
- Generator project: $1.3 million
- Water system controls and raw water modification phase III: $2.5 million
- Old Route 3 improvement project: $5 million
- Inez Wastewater System Improvement Project: $4.8 million
- Warfield Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade: $1.5 million
- Wastewater System Master Plan: $200,000
- Save A Lot Lift Station Improvements: $125,000
- Saltwell Lift Station: $320,000
The General Assembly is set to approve projects in April 2025.
“It can be awarded as a full grant or as a loan,” Lafferty noted. “I’ve made it clear to our legislators that we can’t do a loan. We have no way of paying it back, and they know that. They have assured me that when it goes through the legislature, they’re going to be working to make sure that it is just that—a grant.”
Reflecting on the county’s contributions, Lafferty said, “Martin County has contributed to the rest of the state for the last 100 years and sent a tremendous amount of wealth west and throughout the country. We have been a good neighbor. We’ve paid in treasure and blood. We’re asking for ourselves, for our children and grandchildren, for clean, safe, dependable drinking water. We’re not asking for our streets to be lined with jasmine and pearl. We’re simply asking for safe, clean drinking water.”
Despite the steep budget and the monumental needs, Lafferty acknowledged that the $28 million “may sound like a lot of money, but it is not even a drop in the bucket.”
He assured that there would be strict oversight of the funds.
“I can’t speak to anything that I wasn’t part of in the past, but I can assure these government entities that we will have oversight of our funding and every dime will be spent appropriately. We will watchdog.”
Until the General Assembly’s decision in April, Judge Lafferty will continue to seek federal and other funding sources.
“The main reason that I thought I should run for office was all the infrastructure and water problems that we’ve faced for over 20 years,” he said. “We’ve had a failing system, decade after decade of nothing but problems. Infrastructure has remained my No. 1 priority—water, sewer, and other types of infrastructure.”
