The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government a $200,000 grant to help clean up the historic Fayette County Courthouse.
The grant, part of the EPA Brownfields Program, will pay for the cleanup of contaminants at the 1898 building, which the EPA says in a news release includes “metals, inorganic materials, mold and guano.”
The building was the area’s primary judicial center until 2002.
In April, Mayor Jim Gray included $22 million in his budget plan -- the largest single expenditure in the plan -- to address the building’s many problems.
“It’s one of the most significant public buildings in Kentucky and it faces a critical moment,” Gray said at the time.
The courthouse money stands among 243 new grants announced by the EPA totaling mare than $54 million and addressing brownfield issues in 147 U.S. communities.