#WolfCountry

Warm Blessings Executive Director Dawn Cash says the community kitchen has seen demand constantly increasing in recent years.

“Back in 2020, during the pandemic, and we never closed during the pandemic, we were open, we served approximately 26,000 meals, and it has continued to steadily rise to the point that by the end of July we are at 114,000 meals,” Cash said.

Cash reported on the status of the organization to the Elizabethtown City Council during their meeting Monday. She said part of the increase does come from Warm Blessings increasing its capacity to serve more, but the main thing they hear from meal recipients is that people cannot afford their groceries. A recent study from Feeding America showed an increase in the number of working families that are struggling with food insecurity.

Cash said the increased demand is straining the organization.

“This is not easily sustainable,” Cash said. “I don’t know how much longer we can do this. I will tell you, we’re investing more in food and services and space and utilities and all those things to the point where recently myself and our program director have gone to part-time because we can’t afford to pay us and pay for the groceries.”

Cash said there are people who have previously donated to Warm Blessings who are now coming to the kitchen for help, and the strain is seen in other services offered by the organization.

“We do community support services with referrals for people who are houseless, offer showers and laundry Monday through Friday,” Cash said. “I will tell you that those services have increased among people who do have homes. We have people coming in actually for laundry services that can’t afford to or don’t have access to laundry services right now.”

Cash said Warm Blessings is reliant on donations from others to sustain its mission, and is working on developing new revenue streams. Upcoming events include a golf scramble on August 30 and a craft fair on September 12. Visit www.warmblessings.org for more information.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the month Tuesday.

Judge/Executive Keith Taul recognized Deputy Judge/Executive Vicki Meredith, who will retire from the position this Friday. Taul said Meredith agreed to come out of retirement for one year to help Taul as he took office, and she ended up staying a year and a half.

“Her background and all the projects, being a county engineer for 15 years, were invaluable to me as I was stepping into this position, so I just wanted to publicly say thank you very much Vicki for all that you’ve done,” Taul said.

Bonnie Ciresi will assume the deputy judge/executive position Monday.

Hardin County Emergency Management Director Joey Scott discussed the incidents county first responders assisted with recently. Scott also discussed the $43,000 underwater drone purchased by the Lincoln Trail Area Development District that will be housed in Hardin County.

“This thing is state of the art,” Scott said. “It actually has a grabber arm on it, so it can also be used for weapon retrieval for the sheriff’s office. It’s going to be a regional asset, so it can do water sampling. There’s just so much we can do with it.”

Hardin County Animal Care and Control Director Mike McNutt reported that the animal shelter adopted out 62 dogs, returned 24, and euthanized 9 in July. McNutt said the shelter continues to deal with capacity issues, including housing dogs related to a Radcliff court case.

“Anytime there’s a court case, animals are considered property, so we have to keep them and we have to keep them healthy, and they can’t be housed together so it takes up 15 of our available spots for big dogs,” McNutt said.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet August 27.

Today is the first day of classes at Elizabethtown Independent Schools.

“We’re really excited about the beginning of the school year,” said EIS Superintendent Paul Mullins. “Our teachers have been receiving some professional development, getting their classrooms ready, and our maintenance crew and our custodial staff have done a wonderful job this summer getting the school buildings ready to receive students, and we’re just looking forward to the beginning of the school year.”

Mullins said the first day is particularly special for him as he didn’t come aboard as superintendent last school year until classes were already under way.

“I didn’t get here last year until September, so I’m really excited to be here as the school year starts to see the schools and to meet all the students and parents, and this is when the excitement builds and we just get so excited and ready for students to walk through the doors and schools to get started,” Mullins said.

Mullins encourages any parents with questions or concerns to reach out to their child’s school, and said the district is ready for any first day challenges.

“We always ask for patience and grace as the school year begins,” Mullins said. “There’s always a few things you have to work through, and we’re so glad to have the Elizabethtown Independent School family. Panther Nation is one big family, and we will work together and get through anything, any bumps that we may come across, but as always it’s a great day to be an E-Town Panther.”

Visit Elizabethtown Independent Schools on their website or follow their Facebook page for information and updates.

The Elizabethtown City Council met for a work session Monday.

City Administrator Ed Poppe asked the council for direction the city would like to take on downtown parking. Poppe said the city has made many attempts over the years to address concerns with parking at and around the public square, and noted that currently no enforcement mechanism is in place.

“We’ve had parking meters, we’ve taken parking meters off, we’ve put parking meters back, we’ve taken them off, we’ve limited parking around the square, we’ve limited parking on some of the side streets, so every option I think that has been explored has been explored in the past,” Poppe said.

Poppe said Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory attended a meeting of the Historic Downtown Elizabethtown Business Association and discussed parking concerns with several business owners. That Cute Little Shop Manager Kristin Kendall said parking on the square should be extended to longer than the current one hour limit, but currently the limits are being ignored.

“Just outside of our shop, there are four vehicles every single day that park there,” Kendall said. “It’s the same people from attorney’s offices that we have asked multiple times. We’ve called the cops to come and ask them to move and they just say ‘I’m too lazy and I don’t want to move.’”

City Council Member Marty Fulkerson said parking has been an ongoing conversation for as long as he has been on council. He said ahead of decisions on enforcement policy, the city should first address what is currently in place.

“First of all, we’ve got to get the signage,” Fulkerson said. “Either signage or or signage, because that’s like having an ordinance on the book and not enforcing it, so we need to get rid of that, clean that up, and second of all, can we not address these issues directly? I mean, we try to fix something, and if these people are violating it, they’re still going to violate it if we don’t have a conversation with them.”

Gregory said parking options will be included in the city’s upcoming Downtown Comprehensive Plan, and more conversation will be had.

Also meeting Monday was the Radcliff City Council, which met for a called meeting to go into closed session on which no official action was taken, and for a work session to discuss an upcoming budget amendment ordinance which Radcliff Mayor JJ Duvall said was the standard amendment following the end of a fiscal year. Radcliff CFO Chance Fox said only small adjustments in Parks and Recreation and Economic Development were necessary, but based on their department budgets it looks more significant.

“When planning has the smallest budget and you make increases, it tends to reflect more easily, so really the total of the two is about $133,000 and you’re looking at an $18.4 million budget, so if you do the math it’s a very small percentage,” Fox said.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet August 19, and the Radcliff City Council will next meet August 20.