Muhlenberg County

Muhlenberg County, doing business as County Judge, is a U.S. local government entity headquartered in Greenville, Kentucky that receives federal grants as a prime recipient for economic development, workforce training, and disaster recovery programs, and acts as a sub-recipient on emergency management and infrastructure projects routed through the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs and the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet. The county holds no federal contracts and does not compete in the federal contracting marketplace; all federal funding activity is grant-based, with 64% of recent awards flowing through state intermediaries as sub-recipient funding rather than direct prime awards.

Muhlenberg County's prime grant footprint centers on Economic Development Administration (EDA) funding and National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) emergency work programs. The county received a $2.722 million EDA Project Grant awarded September 26, 2023 (completion scheduled March 26, 2027) to renovate the Muhlenberg County Opportunity Center into a workforce development facility serving individuals with special needs and supporting economic diversification in a region impacted by coal-industry job losses. An earlier $212,000 EDA Project Grant (awarded July 5, 2022, completed November 5, 2024) funded a master plan, feasibility study, and marketing package for an industrial park. The county holds two NRCS cooperative agreements for disaster recovery: a July 6, 2022 award (completed November 30, 2023) and a July 7, 2025 award (scheduled completion November 26, 2025) providing financial assistance for emergency work recovery and debris removal following the May 26, 2024 tornado event in Muhlenberg County.

Sub-recipient activity has accelerated sharply in 2025 and 2026. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) anchors 13 of 22 total awards (59% of the portfolio) through sub-grant pass-throughs, predominantly routed from the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs and focused on debris removal, emergency protective measures, roads and bridges, donated-resource coordination, and parks restoration following tornado and disaster recovery events. The Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet passed through one sub-award in October 2025 for Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force funding to combat illegal drug distribution and trafficking. Five distinct federal customer agencies appear across the recent footprint: FEMA (13 awards), NRCS (4 awards), EDA (3 awards), the Rural Housing Service (1 award), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (1 award), with 100% of award activity accounted for by these five agencies.

Award velocity shows sharp recent growth: two awards in 2022, one in 2023, two in 2024, eight in 2025, and five in 2026 year-to-date. Combined dollars obligated across all twenty-two awards total $14 million. The corporate structure includes a subsidiary, Muhlenberg County Airport, operating as a county airport authority. As a government entity, Muhlenberg County does not hold SBA certifications and operates outside the federal contracting marketplace; it functions as an eligible grant recipient under federal economic development and emergency management statutes.