The youth chamber of preservationists are currently working on a  project to help the city of Mount Washington meet water runoff requirements.

The club consists of four members:Haley Steinmetz, Eliza Love, Isaac Shelton, and Gavin Blain. They are in a club that helps people remember what Mount Washington is about. They have long projects that suggest how the city can become better. With the help of the historical society and their sponsor, Dale Salmon, they have started to improve plans for the future.

To join the group, you are required to write a resume like document and and answer a few short response questions. To be part of it, you need to be a leader with ideas to help Mount Washington’s future.

“We are a group that works to preserve the history of Mount Washington. A lot of people don’t know where Mount Washington really came from, or the history behind it, so we help people remember that,” said Steinmetz. The students involved in this have educated in the past of the town so that they have an idea on where it needs to go. They have one more member than when they originally started, and they have done previous projects before this one.

“When we first started four years ago, we had about three people. They produced a photo essay called ‘footprints of the past, footsteps to the future’. They now are working on a project to help the new city library meet requirements set by the state of Kentucky.”

According to Georgia Tech. Research Institution, storm water runoff can pick up chemicals, debris, pollutants and more as it flows to its final destination. These pollutants can initiate in storm water at hazardous waste sites, construction sites, outside of factories or gas stations and anywhere else that contaminants harmful to drinking water are spilled or disposed. Being non-compliant with storm water runoff can have serious impacts on human health and the environment. The new city library that is being built in the old location of the Methodist Church and originally had plans that didn’t help reduce the amount of runoff.

“It’s a law that it has to meet the eightieth percentile, which our plan does where without it, it only reaches the fifty-third,” said Shelton.

On November third, youth COPS are going to present their plan in an STLP competition, which Mr. Tackett will also be sponsoring.

“Our advisor throws out project ideas, then we sort through them and find the ones we like. For the past year we have been working on decreasing the stormwater runoff from the floyd’s fort. We’ve suggested a rain garden to soak up the water, more grass, and stuff like that,” said Shelton.

“I told them that if they stick with me, I will make them famous,” said Salmon.

With or without fame, this group agrees that in the long run, the benefits of being in youth COPS are well worth it.