Millions of dollars have been awarded to Jackson to aid in flood relief. The eastern Kentucky city suffered serious damage in the 2022 floods, where many homes, sewers systems, and their wastewater plants were damaged.
Governor Andy Beshear said the support from disaster recovery funding does its job to counteract the damage from the 2021 tornados and 2022 flooding.
“We’re awarding $13 million to build a new wastewater treatment plant outside of the flood plain,” Beshear said. “The existing plant suffered major damage in the floods so this will not only help on the operations of the system but make sure that if there is future flooding that that infrastructure is safe and will be able to operate and reduce risks.”
Jackson Mayor Laura Thomas said financial support was greatly needed.
“Our current sewer plant has outlived it life span,” Thomas said. “We’ve been putting band aids on problems for years, and this project will allow us to get a new modern facility that is away from the flood plain, this is out of our commercial district, that can serve new customers and new commercial customers and it’s just awesome news.”
Jackson isn’t the only community to get a funding boost recently. The legislature also granted a total of $12.6 million to improve Perry County’s sewer service along highway 28 and to 200 homes around the Wendall Ford Airport area. Bowling green was awarded $3.8 million for a new storm water line downtown on Chestnut Street.
More information on flood relief services and grants at governor.ky.gov/flood-resources.