When Amy Helton arrived in Hazard, Kentucky, just six months ago, she had no idea her work would become a linchpin in unlocking tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for some of the Commonwealth’s most underserved communities. As a Community Development Planner with the Kentucky River Area Development District (KRADD), Amy was handed a relatively new challenge: help local governments and nonprofits navigate House Bill 9—the newly launched grant program that matches federal investments with state dollars.
She took to it quickly.
“In September, I turned in four applications,” she recalls. “One ended up being completely ineligible… but the other three were funded right there.”
Amy’s knack for fast learning was met with patient mentorship from the Cabinet for Economic Development (CED). “They came back to me five hundred times with, ‘Oh, you forgot this,’ or, ‘Can you correct that?’ And they have been nothing but kind the entire time. They really care.”
A Game-Changer for Rural Kentucky
The program is straightforward in design, but revolutionary in impact: state match funds tied to eligible federal grants, creating powerful leverage for small communities. As Amy explains, “As long as [the CED] have the funds, they’re approving whatever comes across their desk as long as it’s eligible.” For towns that have historically struggled to come up with match requirements—especially for 50/50 grants like those through the Land and Water Conservation Fund—that’s a game-changer.
“Out here in Eastern Kentucky, all of our service area is what ARC considers a distressed county. They’re all poor, they’re all underserved, they’re all dealing with substance abuse and the coal issues,” Amy says. “Finding those match funds… it’s a big deal here.”
In the past, towns would simply give up on grants they couldn’t match. “There were people that wouldn’t even apply… because they couldn’t find the match anyway,” she says. “Now, knowing that those funds are available has made a huge, huge difference.”
Amy’s inbox has filled up with hopeful messages from fiscal courts, water districts, and nonprofits—many of whom never imagined they’d be able to pursue infrastructure-scale projects. “They send us an email: ‘I’ve got this project. What can we do?’” From there, the KRADD team gets to work. “We have an entire staff here… we do grant writing services, we do grant administration, we do all of that.”
What’s striking is the diversity of the projects coming through. “Wastewater, clean water access, trails, playgrounds… even rally racing and adventure motorsports,” Amy says with a laugh. “It’s a billion-dollar industry and they’re trying to bring it to little Owsley County.”
The Impact in Campton
But perhaps the most striking example is in the city of Campton.
In November, Amy submitted four applications on their behalf. The city’s total out-of-pocket investment? $14,859. The total project funding those applications unlocked? $10,045,000.
“It’s absolutely crazy,” she says. “The walking bridge is almost a million-dollar project. The water treatment plant improvement is three and a half million. The sewer rehab is about two and a half million. And the water line extension was another $3.2 million.”
These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. “That bridge… if you don’t have it, the kids were riding their bikes on the highway to cross the creek that runs through downtown,” she explains. “It’s not even that pretty. But it’s necessary for life.”
The return on investment here isn’t abstract—it’s tangible, measurable, and deeply human.
“When you have just open road in front of you, you start to realize how far you can really go.” — Amy Helton
Once they go through their first application, Amy says, communities are energized. “It just removes that kind of speed bump that’s been in front of them the whole time.”
No Catch, Just Progress
Amy knows there are skeptics. “You tell somebody and they don’t quite get it at first. They’re waiting to hear the catch. I tell them—it really is that easy, as long as you have an eligible federal application. If they’ve got money, they’re going to give it to you.”
And that ease of access is precisely the point. “This is not a program where we have to wait a year to find out if you’re going to get funded. This is not a program where we have to hurry, hurry, hurry and then wait and see what changes and how expensive things get while we wait for this application to go through. We get it done, it comes through, it’s done. And it’s so gratifying.”
Amy is quick to remind others that she’s only been doing this work since the program launched. “I’m kind of like the iPad kid,” she jokes. “I didn’t see the world before this program was there… how did you get anything done?”
For Amy and the communities she serves, the GRANT Program isn’t just a funding mechanism—it’s hope with a signature line.
“We don’t have a Louisville in our service area. We don’t even have a Lexington,” she says. “We are the City of Campton with 400 people. That’s who we’re trying to support here. And it makes a really big difference.”
There’s no ribbon-cutting for capacity building. But there is real transformation happening—one bridge, one water line, one community at a time.
“There’s not a downside here. Nobody loses. Nobody’s having to compromise. This is just everybody winning.” — Amy Helton
