A team of students from a local high school won an innovation competition. Here’s Jessica McKinney with more: A team of Larue County High School students brought home the top prize of ten thousand dollars from the Altec innovation challenge. The competition was held Thursday afternoon, at the Hardin County Cooperative Extension Office in Elizabethtown. Representative of Altec for the challenge, Trevor Diebel stated, “They were challenged with identifying a problem in the community and developing a project plan. They then had to develop a final presentation and present all this stuff to a panel of five community leaders, as well as a room of a hundred people. That is not an easy thing for anybody to do. They did such a good job and we are so proud of them.” The winning presentation was a solution to help solve top water pollution in Kentucky lakes and ponds presented by Sage Garris, Carter Peace, Conlee Crossno and William Wooton. They competed against nine other teams from four schools in the Hardin County and Elizabethtown Independent School Systems. I’m Jessica McKinney, from the new center.
A local teacher was recognized because of a program she implemented at a local school. Samantha Daniels, along with Richard Rowland implemented the Peer Buddies Partnership at James T. Alton Middle School. The partnership takes students from traditional education settings and places them in Daniels special needs classroom, with the purpose of helping to make students feel valued and creating bonds between students who, ordinarily, would not cross paths. Daniels was appointed a Kentucky Colonel by Governor Andy Bashear and a Commonwealth Ambassador by the Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams.
The Hodgenville Police Department is implementing around the clock checkpoints. Through the holiday season the police department will be setting up these checkpoints at various locations on both state and federal roadways in Larue County. The effort will be focused on speeding, impaired drivers, and seatbelt violations. The hours of the checkpoint will be 8 pm to 4 am, through the new year.
Altec is hosting their annual innovation challenge. Project Manager for Altech, Katy Howlett stated,”This is the third year for the innovation challenge. It is a community that Altech sponsors within the community with students from Etown Independent Schools and Hardin County Schools. We challenge the students to solve a challenge or problem in our community through STEM-based solutions.” The winning team’s school will be awarded $10,000 to implement their plan in spring 2023. The challenge takes place today starting at 9:30 at the Hardin County Cooperative Extension Office with judging beginning around noon. An award ceremony will immediately follow.
A young man saved the life of an elderly woman in Bardstown on Saturday. On Saturday night, ten-year-old, Allister Leger, called 911 and patted out an approximately 80-year-old woman who had caught fire. Bardstown Fire Chief, Todd Spalding stated, “He really made it easy for us because he got the fire out before we arrived. Quite an act of bravery on his part. An 80 year old female was smoking at the time, while on oxygen. She caught fire, causing severe burns to her hands and face.” When the fire crew arrived, the boy was on site and directed crews to the proper place. She was transported to Flaglett Hospital before being airlifted to the University of Louisville Burn Center. For more information visit the Bardstown Police Department Facebook page.
The juvenile that murdered over the weekend has been identified. He has been identified as 17-year-old, Landon Knox of Larue County, according to a Larue County Funeral Director. Preliminary investigations indicate, a fifteen-year-old and Knox got into an altercation leading to Knox being shot. Knox was transported to the University of Louisville Hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries and died. The 15-year-old was charged and is currently being lodged in the Adair County Juvenile Detention Center.
Today is Quicksie Toy Factories 31st year collecting toys from area factories on behalf of Helping Hand of Hope. Executive Director of Helping Hand of Hope, Hope Burke stated, “We teamed up with Quicksie Toy Factory, for honestly years now. When we started the affordable Christmas program, they came alongside us and have been a big partner for us every year, getting the factories and everyone involved. It is such a fun thing to see, especially with our communities having many factories, and things like that, people coming together and wanting to help our neighbors who are in need this Christmas and wanting to collect toys.” The Quicksie Toy Factory started in 1991 and has collected several hundred thousand toys for less fortunate children in our area over the last 31 years. Toys are picked up in the Quicksie cruiser and a “sleigh” provided by Coleman Allied.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Blue Oval SK Battery Park in Elizabethtown, yesterday morning. Mayor Geoff Gregory stated, “It was very exciting because there was leadership from both Ford and SK On, which if you put those two together, makes BlueOval SK. We got to meet some people we haven’t met yet. The governor came down and delivered some remarks but, most importantly, everyone got to see the progress. The steel that was being erected down there was about 20% of the first building and there was a lot of steel already up. That gave people an idea of how big these buildings are going to be and how big this plant is going to be.” The 5.8-billion-dollar plant is on-schedule to begin production in 2025 and will be creating 5000 new jobs.