LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Andrew Hagerty has worked at the Waterfront Botanical Gardens since it opened in 2019. Now his job as the horticultural manager is now as easy as a push of a button. 

“I’m just somebody who has always spent time in public gardens and they’ve always been a place for me to rest and read a book and just enjoy myself,” Hagerty said. “So being able to be a part of one, a botanical garden, it’s really a dream job for me.”

That’s thanks to a program geared towards reducing pollution surrounding lawn maintenance. Lawn Care for Cleaner Air Rebate Program encourages Jefferson County and Louisville residents to use cleaner, electric equipment to reduce harmful air emission.. 

“So the program gives rebates out on new electric lawn equipment essentially incentivizing making the switch from old gas equipment to much cleaner new electric equipment,” Bradley Coomes, environmental coordinator with the Air Pollution Control District said.

Lawn Care for Cleaner Air also has a grant program that awards a package of electric lawn equipment to a local nonprofit organization. They gifted the inaugural grant to the Waterfront Botanical Gardens earlier this year.

Since using the equipment, it has changed Hagerty’s mind on what he previously believed about electric trimmers, blowers and mowers.

“Pretty much if you have two batteries, by the time you’re done working through one, the other one is already charged up and ready to go so you can keep on moving, especially on these big projects like this,” Hagerty said.

The program has done over 11,000 rebates over the course of its 19 years of its existence and Hagerty said it has changed his job for the better.

“Previously I had always planned to run my two cycle equipment at the end of the day so I didn’t have to stay here working the rest of the day with my clothes smelling like the two-cycle fuel and just feeling it on my skin,” Hagerty said.

The Lawn Care for Cleaner Air Grant Program expects to award the next grant winner sometime in the first week of July.