Bardstown will receive a grant for $172,564 to reduce the amount of solid waste going into landfills. It is one of 34 recycling and household hazardous waste grants offered by the state to expand recycling in Kentucky.
The grant is subject to formal acceptance from Bardstown and requires a 25 percent local match in the form of cash or “in kind” services, materials or equipment from the city.
The grant will provide Bardstown assistance in purchasing recycling trailers, a forklift, balers, cages, scales and advertising.
Assistant City Administrator Larry Green said Bardstown will meet the required match by in kind services such as labor by the city, county and Nelson County Industries. Advertising on WBRT, in The Kentucky Standard and on PLG-TV, who will assist in producing four television commercials, also is eligible as in kind services.
Bardstown Mayor Dick Heaton said he will sign necessary paperwork next week and Bardstown should receive the grant money by June 30.
The grant will allow the city to purchase five recycling trailers with 10 bins that could be assigned to different recyclable materials, Green said. Two trailers will be in Bardstown, possibly one downtown and the other in a shopping center. One trailer each will be in New Haven and Bloomfield. The final location of the fifth trailer is undecided, but could possibly be placed along KY 245 toward I-65. Green said one on KY 245 could offer residents in that area a more convenient drop-off location.
“This is a joint city, county and Communicare project,” Green said. “The county has agreed to transport the trailers in the county and the city has agreed to transport the trailers that is in the city to the Nelson County Industries location on Allison Avenue. What they will do [at Nelson County Industries] is take these recycled materials and collect them [and bale it into 500-800 pound bales]. When they get enough [bales], they will have them picked up by recyclers.”
The bales will be sold with proceeds benefiting Nelson County Industries, Green said, to offset its cost to pay employees who work there.
“We are excited about getting into a serious campaign to start recycling,” Green said. “We are going to try to convince people that recycling is a good thing for Bardstown and Nelson County and that we can do our part.”
Mayor Heaton said he has wanted a recycling program since being elected.
“[Recycling] is not normally a money-maker for governments, but it is the right thing to do environmentally,” Heaton said. “Many people in the community have been asking for it, and I think that is sort of where the council’s support came from.”
The county already has some curbside recycling in smaller communities and neighborhoods.
This is the second year the Recycling and Household Hazardous Waste Grant Program was offered. The Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet’s Division of Waste Management administers the grant.
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