Madison County is growing, and officials - both in the county and in Richmond and Berea - know where it's going.

That was the theme of Madison Judge-Executive Kent Clark's state-of-the-county address Friday to the Richmond Chamber of Commerce at Arlington.

"To me, Madison County is Richmond, it's Berea, and it's all the unincorporated limits of the county because we're all in this together," Clark said. "We're a team."

The three local governments all have similar comprehensive plans, which have allowed them to meet the needs of their residents as they have grown, Clark said. . .

. . .On the whole, the county is on the upswing, according to Clark, but his speech began with an issue that has local officials running in circles: the funding situation for a planned chemical weapons neutralization facility at the Blue Grass Army Depot.

President Bush's proposed budget would gut the program in charge of destroying the weapons here, and the Army is studying the possibility of transporting the weapons to another site.

That move comes after 20 years of community negotiations with the Army to determine the safest way to destroy the more than 500 tons of chemical weapons stored at the depot.

"We sat idly and waited until it was our turn," Clark said. "We've worked at the project closer as a community than they've had at any other project."

While the federal government spends billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has pulled the rug out from under the community, which expected the neutralization effort to proceed as planned, Clark said.

"They can't spend $200 million a year for 10 or 12 years to get rid of our weapons of mass destruction? I've got a problem with that," he said.

In the end, however, moving the weapons may be a moot point as Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning and Rep. Ben Chandler seek  to restore funding for the project, Clark said.

"I really feel confident with our contingency in Washington," he said.

Ryan Garrett can be reached at rgarrett@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 234.