Officials ask Montgomery County to contribute $120,000 toward Walters Industrial Park site work after KPDI recommendation

Jason Brandy, an official with the industrial authorityeconomic development office, asked Montgomery County Fiscal Court on June 17 to approve a $120,000 county contribution toward a required local match for a site-preparation grant for the Walters Industrial Park.

Brandy said the county had already received a $2,000,000 KPDI award in February 2024 and a $100,000 Opportunity Kentucky grant, and that the industrial authority was recently recommended for an additional $2,000,000 through KPDI to pay for water, sewer, roads and other site-preparation work. Brandy said the total grant funds for the project are shown in the court packet as $4,100,000 and that the matching obligation on the project is $400,000; he asked the county to contribute $120,000 toward that match so the packet could proceed to the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) for final approval.

Brandy presented projected economic impacts in the packet, saying the site could generate "$2,400,000 in occupational tax revenue when fully developed" and that the overall total economic impact could reach "$790,000,000" for the community when fully built out. He described the work as phased, said the team expected an engineering phase in the next three to four months and asked the court to adopt a resolution and sign a memorandum of understanding so the grant could be finalized.

On the record later in the meeting the Fiscal Court approved a resolution authorizing Montgomery County to serve as grantee for the KPDI award and approved a related memorandum of understanding with the Mount Sterling/Montgomery County Industrial Development Authority. The packet will go to the KEDFA board for a final vote, and Brandy said an attorney will draft the necessary grant documents if the county signs the MOU.

Court members and the presenter discussed sources of additional state and federal funding that might be pursued and the local match structure in KPDI. The presenter used the spelling "Walters Industrial Park" while the later resolution and packet language in the meeting materials also used the spelling "Walkers Industrial Park"; the court approved the resolution and MOU despite that inconsistency in the packet.

The court carried the motion to approve the resolution and the MOU; court staff said the next step is submission of the signed documents to KEDFA and, if KEDFA approves, execution of grant paperwork and start of the engineering/site-preparation phase.