Governor Beshear is expected in Letcher County Thursday afternoon, in the city of Jenkins, with a major announcement about new housing for the flood-stricken area. Todd Depriest is in his third term as mayor of Jenkins. He said he’s optimistic about the size of the project the governor will announce.
“Yeah, I think it will – I think it’s going to be a fairly large size, higher-ground development, with a lot of opportunities for housing.”
Depriest said Letcher County had a housing shortage before the July ’22 flood and now needs between 15-hundred and 3-thousand homes – so the sooner building can begin, the better.
“During the flood, one of the things that I've noticed, and from talking to different flood survivors, just knowing what they're going to do next, whether to rebuild where they were at, hopefully get involved in a buyout program and to get to higher ground.”
Depriest said after the flood, he was impressed by the way the people of Letcher County came together – and 15 months later, that hasn’t changed.
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