Funding for the Blue Grass Army Depot's sister plant in Pueblo, Colo., has been restored, U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., announced yesterday.

That's good news for Madison County, because much of the depot's technology and design for destroying its chemical weapons stockpile will come from the Pueblo plant.

The Pentagon had proposed cutting Pueblo's budget for 2005 from $151.7 million to $4.8 million.

Such a cut could have delayed the destruction of chemical weapons there from six months to two years, said Craig Williams, executive director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group.

That would most likely have led to a similar delay at the depot outside Richmond. But Allard said the funds were restored in negotiations with a Senate Armed Services subcommittee.

Williams praised the restoration of money.

"Despite the determined attempts by certain Pentagon officials to derail the safe destruction of chemical weapons in Colorado and Kentucky, the will of the people and their congressional leaders has once again prevailed," he said. "It is the best of news."