City Struggles With Harrodsburg’s Aging Infrastucture
The Harrodsburg Herald/Robert Moore
Hezekiah Fogle of the Kentucky National Guard loads a case of drinking water into a Mercer County resident’s pickup back in 2025. Volunteers—including military personnel, area first responders and elected officials, gave away nearly four truckloads of drinking water in one as part of efforts to help conserve water during the crisis last year.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
[email protected]
The Harrodsburg City Commission has its hands full dealing with Hogtown’s aging infrastructure, from a $1.4 million shortfall in their $19.8 million budget for 2027 to requests from citizens to repair vital infrastructure and damaged roads.
The condition of Harrodsburg’s infrastructure became national news on Friday, May 29, when the city asked residents to stop all non-essential water use after discovering a line break in the 12-inch line that pumps raw water from the Kentucky River to the city’s water treatment plant.
It’s the second time in two years that the city has had to ask citizens to reduce their water consumption. Back in April 2025, flood levels reached within one and a half feet of the City of Harrodsburg’s raw water station on the Kentucky River, leading to the closure of both schools as well as a run on bottled water at local stores and emergency shipments of water being distributed to the public at the fairgrounds.
The City of Harrodsburg supplies water to Burgin, the Lake Village Water Association and the North Mercer Water District as well as Harrodsburg. Most of Mercer County is relying on a raw water line that dates back to the 1950s, according to city officials.
Repairing that line on May 29 required the cooperation of city workers, workers from AY Construction who were pulled in from jobs in Burgin and Lebanon, local utilities including the City of Danville, which provided water and pipes, as well as Kentucky Engineering Group, which provided staff on site, as well as Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, which owns the land the waterline runs through. In addition, Sunbelt Rentals and Curren Construction provided equipment while Commissioner Jack Coleman provided pizza, Mercer Stone provided rock and gravel, and the Kentucky Department of Water, the Mercer County Emergency Management Agency, and local industries including Corning, Hitachi and Essity. Maynard even thanked local farmer Bruce Wade, who moved his cattle away from the pond where the waterline break occurred.
“They all did what they had to do,” said Chief Administrative Officer Stacey Maynard. At the Harrodsburg City Commission’s regular meeting on Monday, June 8, Maynard tried to thank everyone for helping out, including city workers at the water treatment plant and public works department and at city hall.
“If I forgot somebody, I apologize,” Maynard said. “For sure it was a group effort.”
On Monday, Maynard presented the commissioners with the first bill from that waterline break, which she said came to $70,285 in addition to regular bills.
For the past decade, “growth” has become the biggest subject in Harrodsburg. Officials have tried to trigger economic growth, such as the $19.8 million Bluegrass Innovation Gateway on U.S. 127. However, growth depends on having a reliable source of clean water.
The Kentucky Infrastructure Authority has offered the city a loan. At a budget workshop on Friday, June 5, Maynard said the city hopes to use that loan to replace raw waterline.
“We don’t have a good estimate on what that raw waterline is going to cost to replace,” she said.
Maynard called replacing the raw water line the city’s “top priority.”
Beyond paying for it, replacing the line will not be easy. The current line runs through property owned by Shaker Village.
On Monday, City Attorney Norrie Currens said she had met with officials from Shaker Village. Currens said she had pulled the easement for the raw waterline. She said the pond they drained provided water to livestock and is close to land being cultivated.
Currens said the city will be working with the state and Shaker Village on replacing the line.
“They understand we have to have water,” Currens said.
