BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

FRANKFORT — Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty and other local officials met Tuesday in Frankfort with state leaders to discuss the county’s grant applications for nearly $40 million from the Kentucky Water and Wastewater Assistance for Troubled or Economically Restrained Systems (WWATERS) program.

The General Assembly created the program in 2024 to aid distressed systems, based on a scoring rubric, and set aside $150 million for 2025 and 2026.

In November 2025 state officials released a ranked list showing Martin County’s projects had scored higher than all but one district statewide.

Under the same criteria and procedures that officials used in awarding grants to other districts, Martin County is in a position to receive funding. Concern arose, however, when the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority (KIA), which evaluates and ranks the applications before presenting them to lawmakers, produced two additional ranked lists.

State Rep. Bobby McCool, who attended KIA’s November 2025 meeting, said the agency announced it would submit three ranked lists to lawmakers Dec. 1. One of those lists ranks projects based on median household income.

“One is not good for Martin County,” McCool said.

Based on media household income, KIA officials noted during the meeting, Martin County would receive nothing.

Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty remains optimistic that lawmakers will deliver “what Martin County residents deserve.”

“They set the rules and we followed, jumping through all their hoops,” Lafferty said. “It would not be OK to change the rules now.”