Adair County was recently awarded two grants. A $50,000 grant will be used to rewire the annex building and install new equipment.
An $8,000 grant will be used to add picnic tables and benches to the Jim Blair Center. Both grants were a topic of discussion during a special called meeting of the Adair County Fiscal Court on Friday.
Deputy Judge Executive Bridget Compton said she was at a meeting at the Lake Cumberland Area Development District and they were discussing grants becoming available.
To be eligible, she was required to take classes each week for 12 weeks. The Ready Local Government grant was available for anyone in the Appalachian Regional Commission.
“It was quite an honor for Adair County to be chosen,” said Compton.
The $50,000 is a capacity building grant for local government and can only be used within local government. Duo Broadband had already stated that there is nothing further they could do inside the annex building until it is rewired. The timing of this grant was perfect in order to help resolve an issue in the annex and save the county money, Compton said.
The $8,000 titled waste tire crumb rubber/tire derived product grant from the Energy and Environmental Cabinet requires the county to contribute 25 percent for the total project. There will be two eight-foot picnic tables, two eight-foot wheelchair accessible picnic tables, and seven six-foot park benches installed at the Jim Blair Center.
“As Solid Waste Coordinator, I love it that they repurposing old tires and making it into something that is functional and it is not winding up in our landfills,” said Compton.
Tires collected through the waste tire collection events and the disposal fee that is collected for old tires are used to make products out of crumb rubber.
In other action, the Fiscal Court approved to purchase a truck from Martin’s Peterbilt, which is opening a location in Adair County.
By Amy Pike
newsroom2@adairvoice.com
