The City of Ashland on an initial ordinance vote approved an amendment to its engineering contract with Strand Associates to allow the city to access up to $4,000,000 in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency State and Tribal Assistance Grant (STAG) funds for engineering services, and later voted to award the construction contract for the Ashland Water Resource Recovery Facility Expansion and Improvement Project to Judy Construction Company for $99,782,000, subject to approval by the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority.

The amendment authorizes a not-to-exceed engineering amendment of $1,347,000 to cover post-design engineering and field services, with roughly $458,000 held as contingency for uncommitted tasks such as operator training or preparation of digital operation-and-maintenance manuals. Mark of Strand Associates told the commission, "the city was very fortunate through congressional set aside amendment to receive a $4,000,000 EPA STAG grant," and said the amendment lets the city access up to that ceiling for engineering labor costs.

The memo from Strand, presented by Mark and Joe, said the original engineering agreement (executed in 2022) covered three phases; design and bidding are complete and the amendment funds post-design administration and field services. Strand explained delays that increased costs: a year-and-a-half pause in the project procurement process and a 13-month state review backlog tied to increased federal infrastructure funding, which together raised market prices and contractor bid levels. Strand also explained that the city asked contractors for a 42-month construction window (instead of 36 months) so the city could continue to accept landfill leachate during construction, preserving ongoing revenue.

Strand said invoices for eligible engineering work dating to Oct. 1, 2023, may be submitted for reimbursement once EPA processes the amendment; he estimated the city would receive about $1 million in reimbursements shortly after the amendment is accepted by EPA. The commission later approved a separate motion that, as read into the record, stated the "intent to award" the construction contract to Judy Construction Company in the amount of $99,782,000, expressly conditioned on approval by the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority.

Discussion during the meeting focused on the size of the amendment (approximately a 34% increase over the original contract), the potential that not all the contracted ceiling would be spent, and the causes of delay that raised costs. Commissioners were told that because the contract is time-and-expense rather than a lump sum, the city will only be billed for hours worked and expenses incurred, but that without an executed amendment the city could not use the STAG funds.

No additional ordinance or funding appropriation was announced at the meeting; the construction award was made subject to KIA approval per standard conditions for state infrastructure funding.

The vote to adopt the engineering amendment and the vote to record intent to award the construction contract were taken during the meeting; both measures were approved by voice vote.