BEREA—The demolition of the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Pilot Plant, which began in April this year, is set to be completed in December 2027, according to a spokesperson for the project.

The facility was used to destroy chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD), a four-decades-long project which was completed in July 2023. Destruction of remaining non-explosive material, such as rocket warheads that contained residual GB or VX nerve agent, was completed in September 2025. 

Craig Williams, Madison County Host Community Liaison for the Army Depot, told the County Fiscal Court during its first regularly scheduled meeting of the month, that the project’s safety record was remarkable for an operation where more than 100,000 chemical weapons were destroyed. According to Williams, as of April 30, 2026, the project has completed 18,217,880 hours and 2,452 days without a lost time accident, which is an incident that causes an employee to miss at least one full workday.

Some of the plant’s infrastructure will remain in the possession of BGAD, some will be demolished and recycled off site, and some will likely be used in new projects, Williams said. New projects include a metal shipping facility, a SkyFoundry Innovation Hub, an energetics plant, and centralized security monitoring. Funding has already been secured for the projects.

As previously reported, The SkyFoundry project will serve as a research hub for the production of drones while the centralized security monitoring project involves using artificial intelligence to address security gaps. 

BGAD Public Affairs Officer William Ritter told the Fiscal Court the target completion year for the energetics plant is 2029 or 2030 while the metal shipping container plant will likely be completed by 2028 or 2029.

“So many people thought when the chemical weapons are gone the depot is going to go away,” Williams said. “But this demonstrates the fact that that’s not going to happen.” 

Resolutions

The Fiscal Court passed two measures that would help address road damage caused by severe flash floods in Madison County on June 27.

The first was Resolution 2026-066 to request authorization from the Department for Local Government to exceed the 65% expenditure limitation for fiscal year 2026-2027 for the road fund budget. During the first half of any fourth fiscal year (which Madison County is currently in), no county can spend more than 65% in any fund budgeted for that fiscal year, except in the case of an emergency, per state statute.

Taylor said he is working with Deputy Judge Executive Jill Williams to create a budget line item to track flood related costs. He added that it was likely that the County would be reimbursed by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) but that the process would be lengthy and could take as long as four years. The resolution passed unanimously in a roll call vote.

Resolution 2026-067 was introduced for an emergency paving project to address damage specifically related to the flooding. Funding will come from available county funds, as well as state and federal disaster assistance. Currently the cost is estimated to be about $185,900 and might increase as other roads that need to be fixed get added to the list, according to Taylor. The Resolution passed unanimously in a roll call vote.

Public Comment

Two Madison County residents voiced their concerns over the County's future plans for the Carr property located at 2494 Lexington Road just north of Richmond. The County, along with its partners in the Central Kentucky Business Park Authority, have an option to purchase the 722+ acres in order to build a business park that would be shared by Madison and Scott counties, as well as the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government and the City of Berea.

Mary Lois Kearns said she was concerned whether the members of the CKBPA would receive the geo-technical study of the area. She also stated her concerns about maintaining the integrity of the farm while sections of the land are being developed. Kearns' family have tenant farmed cattle on the property for several years. Mary McMahan questioned why the industrial park could not be located at one of the 41 build-ready sites across the state.

View the complete Madison County Fiscal Court meeting agenda, or watch the meeting in its entirety on the Madison County YouTube channel. The Fiscal Court meets every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 9:30 am. Meeting locations rotate each across the three County jurisdictions. Check the County's website for more information. On the home page, scroll down for a list of all upcoming County meetings, times, and locations.