Mayor Barry Armstrong, the Man Behind the Title by becca watts out of the Salt River and it would flood the pumps when it rained and the pumps would be shut down and the city would have to relocate the lines to a pond over on the other side of town and clean the water and do that on a regular basis. “The two most eventful things to change the course of this town was municipal water and municipal sewage. When I came on the City Council, the health department was beginning to shut down any further development because in order for the lot to permeate, you had to have soil that would handle the water, that’s how lateral fields worked, Bullitt County was full of rock and clay and it wouldn’t permeate, causing the lateral fields not to work,” said Armstrong. To permeate something it means to penetrate or pass through something. So when he says the ground wouldn’t permeate it means they couldn’t penetrate the ground very well for the septic tank so the lateral fields wouldn’t be effective. Members of the Armstrong family happily gathered together in city hall for an Armstrong family reunion. Photo from Kathleen Kelley (niece of Barry Armstrong)
Now, not only does the city no longer have to deal with lateral fields, it also receives its water from Louisville. Armstrong said it is one of the best water sources in the country along with one of the most pure.
Mayor Barry Armstrong has proven to go the extra mile for his family and his community. Armstrong made the decision to run for mayor because of the love for the community he has had since he was a kid. “I was born here and I wanted to see my town be the best that it could be and I thought that I could help it,” Armstrong said.
Being successful in his plans for a city park, Mayor Armstrong set his eyes on new goals to further better the city. “Now we have plans to build an Olympic size swimming pool down in the park area. The city owns about eight acres down there,” said Armstrong.
Since the time he went on the city council as a council member in 1968, he has tried to improve the way the city of Mount Washington operates. “When I ran for council to start with in 1968 the schools in Mount Washington had lateral fields that were overcome with sewage up on top of the ground where the kids had to go out and play, it was unacceptable,” Armstong said.
“We already have plans being formed to try and build the pool. It may take four, five, or six years to get that done but I’m hopeful we can do it,” said Armstrong. Alongside plans for a new city pool, they are also looking to change business signs in Mount Washington. “We want to get all the pylon signs out of here and put in monument signs but you can’t just go out there and call someone to do that. Say a business leaves and goes out of business, we then can go out and say, ‘yes,’ you need to take this big tall sign down and when another business comes in they can only put up a monument sign to replace it,”Armstong said. When it comes to making decisions for the city, Armstrong doesn’t work alone. The way the city is setup is actually a lot like the federal government apart from the judicial branch. Mount Washington’s judicial branch is in Shepherdsville through district courts and county judges.The mayor is like the President of Mount Washington in the sense that he is the executive branch and enforces all the ordinances that the city council (legislative branch) adopts and passes.
Finding the situation unacceptable and in need of change, action was sought in hopes of a solution. “A bunch of us got together, went in front of the council and we went to Washington D.C.,” Armstrong said. While in Washington D.C., they convinced the legislature at the time to finance the municipal sewage system that’s in place today. Along with changing the sewage system, Armstrong has been a part of some other big projects like bringing a city park to the city and changing the source in which the city receives water. “We didn’t have a city park, that was one of the major things I wanted to have done is get a park here for our kids and families to go and have a nice park to go to,” Said Armstrong. When he went on the city council, the city was pumping water
“I can suggest and I can lead, I can say I’d like to see us do 23
