Brock ‘hopeful’ about Lewis Ridge hydroelectric plant

Judge Executive Albey Brock provided an update on the status of Rye Devlopoment’s plan for a hydro-electric plant that would go in the Balkan/Blackmont community during Tuesday’s Bell County Fiscal Court meeting.

“It’s a multi-billion dollar project and I spoke to a person with the Public Service Commission at the Governor’s Luncheon (during the Mountain Laurel Festival). He was really optimistic. He felt like that project was a ‘go’ but that’s not official,” Brock said.

He said Rye had completed the first round of environmental studies to get a permit and that was one of the more difficult challenges in getting the project approved.

“All of the money is apparently in place. They received an $83 million grant from the federal government to put into this project. It’s still a ways away but I’m hopeful,” Brock said.

The $1.5 billion Lewis Ridge project would convert former mine land into a closed-loop, 287-megawatt pumped storage hydropower facility, with the capacity to store electricity for up to eight hours and generate electricity to power 67,000 homes.

Brock was asked if the Fiscal Court would need to contribute financially to the project in any way.

“No. All we’ve had to do is write a letter of support and participate in a few calls early on,” he said. “The Fiscal Court or other local governments have not been asked to do anything monetarily. I’m sure if grants come up we may have to pass a resolution supporting the project along the way.”

Brock said his best guess was that everything went perfect with the project, it would still be three to four years before construction could start.

“It’s going to take them several years to construct it and they would need thousands of employees,” he added.

The magistrates also approved a series of payments for work done on the Flash Steelworks building. Those included $236,596.82 to Green Construction Company for Invoice #16, $45,828.00 to DelMae LLC for Invoice #10, $3,500.00 to CSI for Invoice #20991, $1,500.00 to J Hall Inc. for Invoice #25961, $1,635.00 to Allen & Hoshall for Invoice #318458 and $1,500.00 to Seiffert & Associates for Invoice #002. All are to be paid when funds become available.

Magistrate Eddie Saylor asked Brock how things were going on the project and if local workers were still training in Michigan.

“Everything is going great,” Brock said. “There are six to ten up there right now. I had one of their guys the other day and everything is on schedule for the end of the year.”

Saylor also asked if there was any news about bringing broadband to Bell County.

“Not really. There are state funds and federal funds available and there is some talk about companies that could partner with AT&T and those guys to try and do some last mile stuff. But it’s still kind of early in the talks,” Brock said. “We’ve got broadband in places — there’s broadband in this building — but it’s the rural part, that last mile, that is proving to be the most difficult and they knew that going in.”

Saylor also asked Brock if he had any plans on how to use the county’s opioid settlement money.

“No. We’re kind of stacking it at this point waiting to see if there’s something that would make a big impact,” Brock said. “We could piddle it away, but I don’t think that would be prudent.”

Rob Lincks, the president of the Bell County Fair Board, invited everyone out to the fair, which runs from Wednesday through Saturday. The first two nights are Family Night with $5 admission to unlimited carnival rides starting at 5 p.m.. Friday David Nail will be in concert along with a rodeo with admission $15 and on Saturday there is a free car show from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Then the fair opens at 2 p.m. with $10 admission that includes unlimited rides and the rodeo at 7 p.m.

In other business, the court:

• Approved payment of Health Insurance Benefits to employees that waived coverage during open enrollment.
• Approved a resolution authorizing the filing of FY 2025 Physical Security, Help America Vote Act (HAVA) application with the Kentucky State Board of Election for up to $8,300.00; which authorizes and directs the Judge Executive to execute any documents which are deemed necessary and to act as the authorized correspondent.
• Hired Samantha King as full-time Treasurer’s office administrative assistant at $13.00 per hour effective July 11.
• Hired Bill Taylor as full-time employee at the Bell County Road Department at $13.00 per hour effective July 18.
• Hired Amy Hoskins and James Yates as part-time deputy jailers at $9.00 per hour effective July 11.
• Changed Oscar Pursifull from Court Security Officer to Tax Clerk at same rate of pay effective retroactive to July 4.
• Changed Robert Young from full-time deputy jailer to part-time deputy jailer and changed Devon Hoskins from part-time deputy jailer to full-time deputy jailer effective July 18.
• Accepted checks in the amount of $54,899.98 from Sheriff Mitch Williams and in the amount of $30,547.79 from County Clerk Debbie Gambrel.

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