LOUISVILLE, Ky. — We've been telling you how farmers near Brandenburg, Kentucky are watching time run out on their river-port grain elevator. Nucor Steel factory's newest billion dollar investment--plans to move on in.
Tonight at a fiscal court meeting in Meade County community members found out of the proposed $6 million a year, the school system would be getting $75,000. A fraction of the tax money they were led to believe.
"I feel right now that not only did our fiscal court just sell out our farmers, but they sold out our kids too," said Alison Allen, a Meade County School Board Member and mother with children in their schools.
Allen explains it's hard to comprehend how these schools will be catered to, with such a significant decrease. With hundreds of new jobs expected, the Nucor Steel investment is bound to change the size of this small county.
"And with that growth we're going to have a lot more kids into our schools and we've got to be able to pay for that," Allen said.
We asked to speak to the Judge executive tonight, but he chose not to talk. Now Allen says this amount of tax money is not final. She believes the superintendent would have to accept the price.
"According to them tonight he hasn't accepted that offer yet," Allen said.
The impact goes even further than the schools. Dan Hardaway, a local farmer, says the farm economy in the area depends on this grain complex that's only about six years old. They have been told their grain elevator will close to make way for the factory, which Hardaway says will cost them thousands.
"Farmer's on the 31st are not going to have any place to deliver grain local and will have to go 70 or 80 miles west Owensboro or hour and a half, two hours to Jeffersonville, Indiana," Hardaway said.
These farmers have been fighting for a solution and have proposed sharing the rive-rport with Nucore to make everyone happy. But Hardaway says they do not want to share.
"Local government has just kept us in the dark and I'm not saying thye lied to us but I'm not saying they told us the truth either," said Larry Edelen, another farmer. He explained that tonight's meeting was last minute and they truly did not know what to expect. But he says they have no choice but to keep fighting until something is done," Edelen said.
With a tight timeline to be aware of, farmers are hoping that a compromise can still be made so that Nucore and the grain elevator can be in the same location.
"We feel like we can't just roll over and play dead. We've got to do something," Edelen said.
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