NEWSROOM
Green Recycling Fully Operational in Pulaski County
Falling leaves certainly beautify the autumnal landscapes of Lake Cumberland but when they’re all raked up, they have to go somewhere.
“Green waste” — such as yard waste and storm debris — can account for 25-50% of the total amount of material sent to landfills every fall, but it’s the wrong place for it. Landfills are airtight, so organic material doesn’t have the oxygen needed to properly decompose as it would in nature. When organic materials break down in landfills without oxygen (or “anaerobically”), methane — a greenhouse gas 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — is emitted into the atmosphere.
Instead of trashing yard waste, choosing to compost builds healthy soils and helps fight climate change. While backyard composting is a thing, Pulaski Countians now have another option.
The Pulaski County and City of Somerset Compost Dump Site opened in January on Ky. 914 just east of the Ky. 1247 intersection, and is now fully operational just in time for the fall cleanup season.
The site is currently open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays for permitted companies to come in and dump green waste. A residential drop-off is held the third Wednesday of each month from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, though Pulaski County Recycling/Solid Waste Coordinator Danny Masten noted that could be opened up weekly — especially through the busy fall season or other events.
“There’s been so much interest,” Masten said. “This has been great for the ice storm and flooding, where the county and city were able to bring stuff out here to clear off the streets. If we have natural disasters like that, we’d definitely want to open it up and let people come in.”
Circling back to major weather events or other emergencies, Masten noted that the site provides local government with a spacious staging area.
Rather than purchase their own equipment just yet, with Masten noting a grinder can cost between $750,000 and $1 million, the county instead has contracted with Bushels & Blooms — a Franklin, Ky.-based company — to come in 4-5 times per year to grind up what has been collected. The company first arrived in June to cover what had come in since the facility opened in January and was back last week for another round.
“They do this for a lot of counties,” Masten said of the company. “The state gave us money to rent equipment.…[This company has] the grinder and provides the operator so it’s really a good situation for everybody involved. We don’t have to maintain the equipment or hire an operator out here.”
The county has assigned Steve Cook to operate the site’s $150,000 loader, which Masten said was also purchased using the Kentucky Pride Fund Composting Grant. In addition to keeping green waste out of landfills, Masten said, having the compost station keeps it from being dumped in sinkholes in private fields or along county roads.
“We’re just providing services for our community that we have the opportunity to do based on the support of the [Pulaski] Fiscal Court, magistrates, the state, the city and Hinkle [Contracting],” Masten said. “This has been years in the planning.”
The mulch produced has so far been used by public agencies, but Masten is also looking potential buyers as well. Another option could be to offer it to citizens.
“There’s a lot of growth potential,” he said, again emphasizing the environmental benefits. “We want to be proactive rather than reactive.”
“I can honestly say that Somerset and this region of Kentucky, I can’t imagine it being any better.” — Steve Merrick, Somerset Hardwood Flooring CEO Somerset-Pulaski County is an industrial hub in the region, with manufacturing being the third largest employment sector. In our latest video, SPEDA President and CEO Chris Girdler talks with leaders of four local companies — Somerset Hardwood Flooring, Hendrickson, Kingsford and Prairie Farms Dairy — about their perspectives on why Somerset-Pulaski County is at the forefront of industrial growth.
#somersetleads #PulaskiProud #makingbusinessaboutpeople
Compromise the key to interlocal agreements
Oftentimes we think of Somerset and Pulaski County as one large entity. We sometimes forget they have separate governments with separate wants and needs.
When it came down to piecing the puzzle of the much-discussed “interlocal agreements” together, there was a lot at stake for the city and county.
Somerset Mayor Alan Keck has spearheaded an effort to bring Horse Soldier Bourbon into our community — and with it would come a golden ticket into Kentucky’s lucrative Bourbon Trail.
However, there was some resistance from several members of Pulaski Fiscal Court to the city’s desire to incorporate a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district as a stipulation for passing the city-county Occupational Tax Agreement.
That TIF encompasses the property of the planned Horse Soldier Farms development which would bring a distillery, high-end lodging and retail village to the area.
Keck and Pulaski County Judge-Executive Steve Kelley also had to pound out pacts on the Comprehensive Fire Protection Services Agreement and the Insurance Premium Tax Agreement.
It was not easy. As Keck pointed out at this week’s SPEDA board meeting, it took months of negotiations to get to the point where all parties were comfortable.
The hang-up was the length of the agreement terms — the county wanted the agreements to extend 20 years, which was the same length as the TIF district would be active, while the city wanted to maintain the more traditional five-year spans. The city said they would go with 20-year agreements — but they would only be enforceable for five years, then allow either one side of the other to end the agreement with an 180-day notice. That didn’t give the county the security they were looking for.
But Kelley and Keck kept working and in an incredibly logical move that would make even Henry Clay proud, the two local leaders simply compromised. The agreements were set at 10 years and the TIF district, which is vital to the development of the Horse Soldier project, had the county’s guaranteed participation.
It’s mind-boggling that more problems can’t be worked out with simple common-sense, goodwill negotiating.
It’s no secret the city and county governments have not always been in sync. As a mater of fact, they’ve been at odds quite often.
“We’re still fighting an old belief that the city and county are supposed to be against each other. We’re enemies. We fought each other in grade school and with bragging rights, and so they carry that,” Kelley said. “There’s a lack of trust, I’ll say, between anybody that went to the county (schools) against anybody that lives in the city.
But with Kelley and Keck at their respective helms, the spirit of collaboration has never been more pronounced in our community.
“My message – and the judge’s message – has been ‘Let’s stop fighting with each other and start kicking other communities’ butts,” Keck said at the SPEDA meeting. “And then, when we start working together regionally and we start doing well, we’ll start kicking other state’s butts.’ … I think it’s a big step in the right direction for, quite frankly, a generation.”
Amen to that.
Thanks to a new spirit of collaboration and compromise, everyone in our community is winning.
JEFF NEAL is the Editor of the Commonwealth Journal. Reach him at jneal@somerset-kentucky.com.
