paris-westside

Paris Westside Neighborhood Association and Groundwork USA

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 22:48:46 GMT

The character of the West Side Neighborhood was defined by its residents and that continues today as this plan is prepared. The residents and the stories they have provided for the historical context of the community makes the West Side even more of a special and valued place in the hearts of everyone that interacted with the community.

A Brief Feasibility Study: Relocation of Paris Waste Transfer Station and Brownfield Site Remediation

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 22:31:27 GMT

In 2020, the Paris City Commission funded the development of the West Side Neighborhood Plan in partnership with the West Side Neighborhood, Community Leadership, EHI Consultants and the Bourbon County Joint Planning Office. This Plan examines the impact of the built environment on access to economic opportunity with the goal of enhancing quality of life for its residents. One of many action items committed to is the relocation of the City of Paris Solid Waste Transfer Station.

Study published October 2021

West Side Neighborhood Strategic Action Plan

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 22:25:58 GMT

The purpose of the West Side Neighborhood Plan is to provide an articulated, shared vision to guide decision making. This initiative was developed to provide a special set of circumstances that require a more detailed planning strategy for neighbors to resolve a broad range of issues.

Neighborhood planning is an extension of the City of Paris’ Comprehensive Plan, which identifies detailed goals and strategies for reaching the future land use and public infrastructure investments. Neighborhood planning for the West Side community is an essential phase towards meeting residents’ needs for a more habitable and sustainable community.

Neighborhood Plan published September 2020

Paris Westside Neighborhood Association Christmas Party

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:31:00 GMT

Check out some of the best moments from the Paris Westside Neighborhood Association's Christmas Party 2025.

Paris Westside Neighborhood Fish Fry

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 19:44:19 GMT

Relive the 2025 Paris Westside Neighborhood Fish Fry.

Bourbon County recycling center is ‘righting a wrong’ for a predominantly Black neighborhood

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:42:25 GMT

New center will move long-time trash transfer station out of neighborhood

PARIS — When David Downey retired from the Navy in 1968 after serving in three wars, he came back to where he grew up, a home on the west side of Paris, Kentucky. But three years before he returned, a trash incinerator had been placed in his neighborhood, too.

“The stench from it was ridiculous,” Downey, 97, said Monday. “You’re sitting in the kitchen trying to eat stuff, and all the stench is coming in — whether you had your windows up or down — the stench is coming in, and you’re eating supper. And that’s not a good thing.”

The incinerator burned the community’s trash, and to some residents it was obvious why it was put in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhood.

Read the rest of the article here .

‘Right thing to do.’ Dump in Black Kentucky neighborhood to move after 60 years

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 20:33:01 GMT

From the Herald Leader article by Beth Musgrave

Gov. Andy Beshear, state and federal officials celebrated the groundbreaking of a new $4.6 million trash transfer station and recycling center in Paris that community leaders say will help correct a longtime racial injustice.

Hundreds of people packed a tent off of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for Monday’s groundbreaking and announcement That’s hundreds more than the last groundbreaking for a solid waste facility attended by Beshear, he joked Monday.

“Today marks a huge step forward for Paris, and for the health and safety of Kentuckians,” Beshear said. “ We’re investing in every community across the commonwealth as we build a brighter future for everyone.”

Monday’s announcement was more than a celebration of a new transfer station and recycling center —it was a correction of a longstanding environmental injustice that took nearly 60 years to fix.

“For decades, there has been social injustice in Bourbon County,” said Bourbon County Judge Executive Mike Wilson.

Originally the town incinerator, the transfer station, where garbage is dumped and then hauled to a landfill, was placed in the predominately Black neighborhood in 1965, according to records.

The city’s main landfill, now closed, was also located on the Westside. In the 1960s, many public works projects —such as dumps and highways — were placed in minority neighborhoods like the Westside because Black residents had no political clout or money to fight it, Wilson said.

The same thing happened all over the United States in the 1960s, Wilson said.

But on Monday the community celebrated the beginning of the untangling of a longstanding social and environmental injustices.

“This is the right thing to do,” said Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris.

State funding key to building new transfer station

The effort to move the transfer station was discussed for years but began an earnest in 2019, when former Paris City Commissioner Anna Allen-Edwards convened a group of concerned citizens, which became the Westside Neighborhood group.

Paris funded a strategic action plan facilitated by EHI Planning Consultants. The remediation of the current waste transfer station and former incinerator site was identified as one of the top cocerns of the Westside Neighborhood.

The transfer station is tucked into the back of the Westside neighborhood. It’s not easy to get to. The streets are narrow.

In its study, EHI estimated that more than 30 trucks a day go through the Westside neighborhood to access the transfer station.

Phyllis Barnes, who attended Monday’s groundbreaking, lived in the Westside neighborhood when the incinerator and the landfill were open.

It was not a pleasant place to live.

“We had the trash trucks going through the neighborhood and they would live trash all over the neighborhood,” Barnes said. The burning of the town’s trash left a stinky thumbprint over the Westside neighborhood.

“We could smell it,” Barnes said.

A new site and clean up of Westside location

Building a new waste transfer station and recycling center takes a lot of money.

Finding a new location for the transfer center was a key hurdle.

Fortunately, the Bourbon County Fiscal Court donated the site for new recycling center. It’s on the by-pass, making it easier for trucks to get to and keeps those trucks from going through dense, downtown neighborhoods, Wilson said.

The state found money to fund the bulk of the construction of the new recycling center and transfer station.

In September 2022 , Gov. Andy Beshear announced a $2 million Community Development Block Grant to help pay for the removal of the waste station. There’s been hiccups along the way as costs climbed.

Bids submitted in the fall of 2023 for the new transfer station came in too high. The city then scaled back part of the project. A second round of bids was released in February. W Principles was awarded the contract.

In addition to the $2 million Community Development Block Grant, the Kentucky General Assembly also awarded the project $1.5 million in the current-year budget allocations.

Paris City Manager Jamie Miller said the city is pursuing other grants and funding for the remaining $1 million for the transfer station.

City officials believe it will take a little more than 12 months to build the new recycling center and transfer station.

But Monday’s announcement and groundbreaking was just the beginning.

Now, those who have pushed for the transfer station’s removal from the Westside are pursuing federal, state and other grants to remediate and clean up the site.

Many Westside residents want the site to be restored to a green space and a park.

Miller said thanks to various federal funds, there are multiple pools of money the city can apply for to help fund the remediation of the Westside site.

“Right now there are unprecedented opportunities for federal funding,” Miller said. “So why not, Paris? Let’s make this happen.”