WULF News

Beth Dugas says the best word to describe her daughter Madison is “sassy.”

“Even people that haven’t met her that just know her story and follow her Facebook page or, you know, if you’ve ever met Madison in person, she’s very unforgettable,” Dugas said. “You won’t forget Madison.”

Madison’s spunky personality has been prevalent in her health battles, which began at an early age with two open heart surgeries in her first ten weeks and a heart transplant at seven months. Most recently, lung issues have resulted in a hospital stay that has now gone past seven weeks.

“They finally did a biopsy on her lungs and found out something that they weren’t expecting,” Dugas said. “She has, they call it pulmonary hemosiderosis, and there’s no cure per se. There are a couple potential treatment options like high-dose steroids and she’s gotten an IVIG treatment, but otherwise there’s really no cure. Just kind of have to maintain.”

Doctors have ruled out a lung transplant at this time, but more surgeries are likely on the horizon in order to address other issues.

“The pulmonary vein is another issue that she’s going to need to have resolved somehow, some way in the future because that pulmonary vein is just going to continue to narrow, and they can go in and open it up through a cast but she needs to have an open heart surgery to fix that,” Dugas said.

As the family navigates Madison’s battle, Dugas says they have felt the support of family, friends, and community, including a GoFundMe titled Miracles for Madison and a tote bag fundraiser.

“Both of our moms are very, very involved, and they help a lot with our son because he’s seven and we try to keep his routine as much as possible through all of it, and then just more friends than we could ever imagine,” Dugas said. “I said ‘I think that like all of Hardin County has been praying for Madison.’”

Updates on Madison’s journey, along with links to the GoFundMe and info on the tote bags, can be found on the Miracles for Madison Facebook page.

Elizabethtown Community and Technical College’s Toy Box Theatre will present Silly Tales From the Toy Box, a story of silly people and animals, this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at ECTC’s Science Auditorium.

“This one’s called Silly Tales From the Toy Box, and I always adapt and write most of the plays, and so this one is one I did too,” said ECTC Communications and Theatre Professor Katrina Eicher, who founded Toy Box Theatre in 1998. “I adapted it from several different sources, and we usually run about 45 minutes so that young children’s attention spans aren’t, you know, taxed too much, and it’s very silly and it’s very funny.”

The cast is entirely composed of college students, many of whom are earning credits for ECTC classes.

“It’s a theater that uses common household props and very slight sets in order to encourage children to use their imagination, and we do a show every spring at ECTC and then we bring schools in from all around that we invite,” Eicher said.

Toy Box Theatre has performed for more than 11,000 people, and you can catch their 24th production this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $2 at the door and free for children 3 and under.

“This is a bargain,” Eicher said. “It is so much fun. This is, as I say, only 45 minutes long. Children love it. Adults will love it in the ways that maybe the children won’t, and you can’t really go see a show for $2 or less.”

Tickets for this family-friendly show are cash only.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is reminding motorists to help protect themselves, their families, and their neighbors by using caution when driving through work zones as National Work Zone Awareness Week is recognized this week.

According to the KYTC, in 2023 Kentucky recorded 1,251 crashes in highway work zones which resulted in 247 injuries and 17 deaths, nearly triple the number of fatalities from the year prior.

KYTC District Four Public Information Officer Chris Jessie says the most important thing for a driver to do when on the road is pay attention.

“One of the main challenges in operating a work zone is distracted driving, and that’s not really anything new, and the phone continues to be that primary distracting factor for vehicle operators,” Jessie said.

The KYTC continues to try to implement safety measures in work zones, which come in many forms.

“The zones aren’t just those obvious big projects like we have going on at the interchange at Glendale or north of Lebanon Junction on I-65, but they’re mowing, they are striping when we’re repainting the road, patching a pothole, or replacing a pipe underneath,” Jessie said “So put that phone down, slow down, and pay attention to work zone signage. That’s for the safety of our crew that is out there working and our contractors, as well as your own as a motorist.”

Visit the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet on the web to learn more.

Federal, state, and local officials celebrated the progress being made at the new Interstate 65-Kentucky Route 222 interchange in Glendale Friday.

Planning on the interchange improvement project began more than a decade ago when local officials began preparing the Glendale Megasite for a potential manufacturer, which arrived in 2022 with the announcement of the BlueOval SK plants. The ribbon cutting Friday celebrated “substantial completion” of the interchange.

The project realigns Kentucky Route 222 and provides a safer, more efficient interchange for car and truck traffic. New on and off ramps for I-65 and new intersections, one at KY-222 and U.S. 31-W and the other at the entrance road to the BlueOval SK site, were also part of the project.

Governor Andy Beshear was in attendance Friday, which he mentioned during his appearance on the Quicksie Morning Show as part of the AT&T Morning Line Monday.

“We were at the new interchange, which is incredible at Glendale,” Beshear said. “That’s going to take a little bit of the pressure off the residents of Glendale that have been so good to the rest of the Commonwealth, welcoming that largest investment in the history of Kentucky, that game-changing state-changing investment, BlueOval SK.”

Work on the project will continue into the summer. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is still evaluating further improvement projects in the area as part of the Glendale Mobility Study.

Two juveniles are in custody after allegedly vandalizing a church in Meade County.

The Meade County Sheriff’s Office says on April 9 deputies responded to the Saint Theresa of Avila Catholic Church in Rhodelia in regards to a vandalism complaint.

“The deputies met with some of the church staff who were able to provide some videos of two juveniles on the property vandalizing the exterior of the buildings,” said Meade County Sheriff Phillip Wimpee. 

Deputies entered the building and discovered more than $10,000 in damages.

“It appeared that the juveniles had dispersed several fire extinguishers inside the church and destroyed numerous religious artifacts, and some of these religious artifacts are irreplaceable because of the church being so old,” Wimpee said. “The juveniles spread holy oil all over the floor of the building, destroying the carpet, and turned one of the crosses upside down on the altar.”

Deputies processed the scene and collected evidence at the church and in the church’s cemetery where headstones were found to have been damaged.

“The detectives were able to identify two juvenile suspects who were in custody at this time,” Wimpee said. “The suspects are being charged with Burglary in the second degree and Criminal Mischief in the first degree.”

The investigation has been turned over to the Meade County Attorney’s Office and the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office for prosecution.