The Elizabethtown City Council heard two presentations during their work session Tuesday.
Silverleaf Sexual Trauma Recovery Services Executive Director Dr. Jillian Carden provided an update on some of the organization’s activities in 2023. Carden discussed the results of the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Abuse Involvement Test which received 66 responses from adult participants in the organization’s services. Carden said the organization did not previously have strong data on substance abuse.
“We know intuitively, and we know by research, that substance abuse and trauma go hand in hand,” Carden said. “They are co-occurring at a very high rate, and when you drill down even to sexual assault and substance abuse those numbers are incredibly high.”
While Silverleaf is not a substance use treatment facility, the data gives the organization a better idea on what it is dealing with.
“We recognize that if we’re going to say that trauma and substance abuse co-occur, we need to be intentional about assessing for that to make sure that if our clients and our survivors are working on their trauma, but they also have a substance abuse history, we need to be making sure that they’re getting referred to the place that they need to work on their sobriety as well,” Carden said.
Elizabethtown and Hardin County are its most frequent subject areas, but Silverleaf provides services for all of the Lincoln Trail District.
Meanwhile, RBS Design Group Architecture presented design plans for Elizabethtown Fire Station No. Four to the council. RBS President Craig Thomas said the design is largely based on that of Fire Station No. Two, with some changes based on feedback from E-Town firefighters.
“One of the things that we have done, when you look at Fire Station 2, we reduced the height for this portion of the building so it’s not going to be as tall,” Thomas said. “Another thing that we’ve done, we’ve added a baby drop box here on the western corner on the building.”
The estimated total cost of construction is $6.9 million, which City Administrator Ed Poppe said comes in under the $7.5 million budgeted by the city. The plan is to get the project out to bid in April, begin construction in May, and complete construction by April 2025.
The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet March 4.
