Jefferson County is vying for part of a huge pot of federal money meant to make communities more resilient during natural disasters.
Kentucky is one of about 40 entities competing in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s National Disaster Resilience Competition. The money is part of a nearly billion-dollar pot appropriated for Hurricane Sandy relief. Some of that money is earmarked for the regions affected by Sandy, but about $820 million of it is open to the rest of the country.
Kentucky’s application focuses on two counties: urban Jefferson County and rural Bell County. It asks for about $82 million in funding; if the application is successful, about $62 million of that will go to Jefferson County.
J.P. Carsone is with Louisville’s Metropolitan Sewer District, one of the entities collaborating on the application. He said all of the projects proposed for this area have to do with flooding, either from the Ohio River or inland or flash floods.
“What we’ve done is looked at projects that would take pressure off the combined sewer system, would take areas that have had flooding problems and address some of that and improve water quality,” Carsone said.
The proposed projects would include green infrastructure — such as green roofs and rain gardens — as well as upgrades to the Morris Forman Treatment Plant and flood pumping stations.
It also includes plans to plant more than 10,000 trees — which would help absorb stormwater — and nearly $9 million to create a trail connecting Waterfront Park to Cherokee Park. The latter would help stabilize riverbanks and restore wetlands along Beargrass Creek.
Carsone said all the projects that have been proposed are going for a “triple bottom line: benefit us socially, economically and environmentally.”
The project’s partners will hold two public meetings to get community input on the application. The meetings are Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the American Publishing House for the Blind (1839 Frankfort Ave.) and at 5 p.m. Thursday at Iroquois High School (4615 Taylor Blvd.).
For more information about the projects, click here.