PARIS, Ky. (FOX 56) — A multi-million-dollar grant will help clean up a former dump site in Bourbon County. It’s part of a larger push to revitalize the surrounding neighborhood.
Vanessa Logan says the space, once known as Riverside Park, used to be a vibrant community gathering place.
“Black baseball leagues would come on Sundays and play baseball there,” said Logan.
But in the mid-1960s, Logan said the city of Paris decided to place its waste transfer station and incinerator in the area.
“They never asked anybody. They never talked to anybody. They just did it.”
The waste transfer station used to sit on the city’s west side, near homes in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
Residents voiced their concerns for years about the smell and smoke that it caused, but now there’s a new hope on the horizon.
A new waste and recycling station has been built off Legion Road away from homes, and the former building was recently knocked down, which is something westside neighborhood residents have been fighting for for years.
“This is a forgotten area, and something needs to be done about this, and that’s how all this got started,” said Logan.
Logan said the Environmental Protection Agency recently granted Bourbon County $4 million to test for contaminated soil and clean up the site.
“They’ll know what the contamination is, how it has to be contained, and how you cover it up or remove it,” she said.
She said the funding will allow local leaders to move forward with revitalization efforts in the neighborhood, including updated landscaping near homes and play areas, as well as road improvements designed to eliminate safety hazards.
“If something happens on the first street over there, like a fire, everybody’s blocked in, and nobody can get out.”
And residents will no longer have to deal with excess trash being left in their yards.
“Just regular people with trailers—the stuff is falling off the back of the trailer, and they have to go out and pick it up because they don’t stop to pick up what they drop. They’re happy that they’re not getting roofing nails in their tires. They’re just happy it’s gone.”
Logan said she hopes this will eventually become a space residents can be proud of.