Edgewood residents complain to council regarding noxious sewer plant odors

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023 — A number of the residents of the Edgewood subdivision attended Tuesday night’s Bardstown City Council meeting to complain about the smell of the city’s Gilkey Run sewer plant.

“We’re really struggling in the neighborhood with the terrible smell,” Victoria Clark told the council. “It’s getting to the point where we can’t go outside or open our windows.”

The city is having one of the lagoons dredged prior to major renovation, and the dredging operation leads to more odors, Jessica Filiatreau, city engineer, told the residents.

Upgrades at the plant are expected to take place over the next year to two years.

The lagoons at the plant haven’t been dredged regularly, and before a lagoon can be renovated, it must be dredged, she explained.

One of the lagoons was about 70 percent dredged last year before the work stopped. She said more dredging is needed, though it should be completed by Jan. 1st.

The city has been taking steps to try to reduce odors from the lagoon, and has been adding chemicals to reduce the smell, she said.

“I’m literally stuck between a hill and a hard place,” she said of the Gilkey Run plant.

Filiatreau said she would work with contractors to do more to reduce noxious odors caused by the dredging operations.

Mayor Dick Heaton explained that when the wastewater plant was built, there were no nearby neighborhoods.

“The city has grown out around it,” he said.

There will always be some odor at certain times of the year from a wastewater treatment plant at the bottom of the hill, Heaton explained.

In other business, the council:

— heard Mayor Heaton report that the St. Joseph parishioners who were stranged in Israel when hostilies broke out last Saturday are expected to be home by Wednesday.

A small group arrived back in the United States Tuesday evening, he said.

Heaton praised our Congressional Delegation and state senators for their involvement in helping the parishioners return home safely.

— Heard Mayor Heaton report that PVA Jay Williams has advised the city that due to a software error, the real estate sales from January to August 2023 came through with the seller’s address rather than the buyer’s, affecting approximately 1,200 tax bills. No word on how many city tax bills might be affected.

City manager Aaron Boles said the city will probably offer an extension to affected taxpayers.

— approved a proclamation designation October as Manufacturing Month. Heaton noted the 1,600 jobs in Nelson County are related to automotive manufacturing. The county’s distilleries employ about 1,300 people, he noted.

— approved the first reading of changes to the city’s classification and compensation plan. The changes reflect retirements and other changes among the City of Bardstown staff.

NEXT UP. The Bardstown City Council will next meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023 in the council chambers next to the Rec. Center on Xavier Drive.

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