#WolfCountry

Voter registration in Kentucky saw another surge ahead of the deadline for the primary election. 

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams says more than 8,300 new voters got registered between April 1 and the pre-primary registration deadline on April 22. 

In turn, about 4,600 voter registrations were removed. About 3,300 removals were for deceased voters, 543 for felony convicts, and 562 for voters who moved out of state.

Adams says Republican registration in the state rose by a little less than 2,700 voters, and independent or other registrations went up by more than 1,700. Democratic registrations decreased by about 700 voters.

Voters that qualify for in-person excused absentee voting may do so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the Hardin County Clerk’s Office. Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith says the same qualifications for a mail-in absentee ballot apply to in-person absentee, but voters can cast a ballot as they would on Election Day.

“Some of those qualifications are if you’ll be out of town or scheduled to work all dates and times of in-person voting,” Smith said. “The law uses the phrase ‘age, illness, and disability.’ Sometimes those words ring a little harsh on our ears. There is no definitive age, illness, or disability. We don’t ask. You just attest to it.”

Early voting for all will run at the clerk’s office and at the Colvin Community Center this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The primary election will be held on May 21. Find more election information at govote.ky.gov.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is highlighting new recognition of the commonwealth’s economic success.

The governor’s office says Site Selection magazine ranked Kentucky in second place for its South Central Region rankings and in eighth place nationally in its 2024 Prosperity Cup rankings. The Prosperity Cup “recognizes the competitiveness of state-level economic development agencies and their success in landing capital investment projects according to data from 2023.” Expanded facilities, new jobs created, and sales tax climate are among the criteria for the rankings.

The governor touted some of the state’s accomplishments during the ribbon cutting for the ECTC BlueOval SK Training Center Wednesday.

“We’ve now had over $30.6 billion of new private sector investment in us in just 4.5 years, a record by far, over a thousand new location and expansion projects, 52,700 new jobs,” Beshear said. “We’ve broken every export record, every tourism record. It is an exciting time to be a Kentuckian right now.”

Beshear has cited BlueOval SK as being the catalyst for making the electric vehicle industry a central part of new development in the state.

“We are leading this country in the EV sector with $11.7 billion announced in just 3.5 years, and 10,250 full-time jobs,” Beshear said.

More information on Kentucky economic development efforts can be found at ced.ky.gov.

Government, business, and community leaders joined officials from Elizabethtown Community and Technical College and BlueOval SK as the ribbon was cut on the college’s new training center located just outside the battery park in Glendale.

ECTC President and CEO Dr. Juston Pate said cutting the ribbon on the facility is a testament to the investment, vision, and commitment of the many community partners that have helped bring the project to fruition.

“It is kind of hard to think that a year ago we were just breaking ground on this,” Pate said. “We were here not even really a full year yet. It was a nice, beautiful, warm day, and we were thinking about what could be, and here just a short year later we’re celebrating what is.”

The ECTC BlueOval SK training center is a 42,000 square foot facility that will host training with a primary curriculum focused on battery knowledge, roles, and skills.

“The ECTC BlueOval Training Center is going to serve trainees who are looking to enter an innovative, high-wage, high-demand career, and at ECTC we could not be more proud to serve such a critical role in preparing those employees for those careers, and we could not be more proud to support the historic investment that BOSK has made in not just Hardin County but the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” Pate said.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the investment of BlueOval SK and the partnerships that help support ECTC will help change lives.

“This is advanced manufacturing with cutting-edge technology, so even with a workforce second to none we knew we would have to rise to the challenge to make sure we could fill all of these good jobs,” Beshear said. “We are facing this head-on with three great Team Kentucky partners: Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, BlueOval SK, and Ford.”

The governor credited BlueOval SK with sparking development in the commonwealth that has revolutionized Kentucky’s image.

“We are the first call that world class businesses are making right now,” Beshear said. “We are the first destination they want to come to. Never a flyover state ever again. Never a place anybody looks down their nose at ever again. We are truly together building a new Kentucky home.”

Beshear recognized the center’s ahead-of schedule completion in part by honoring Trace Creek Construction Vice President David Milam and Superintendent Scott Dalton as Kentucky Colonels. The training center will start onboarding classes in June.

Elizabethtown Community and Technical College celebrated the accomplishments of its students Monday with their spring graduation ceremony, held at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown.

ECTC says the college expects to award 725 degrees and diplomas along with around 1,200 certificates to students that completed coursework this spring.

ECTC President and CEO Dr. Juston Pate said Tuesday that graduation is a celebration for the students and the community.

“When a student comes to Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, they’re going to get relevant education for being here,” Pate said. “They’re probably going to stay here, which means they are going to be a vibrant, contributing part of our community. That’s where we want to be as a college, and to get to see that last night, that’s what makes graduation so special.”

Pate said the investment these students make in themselves by continuing their education pays dividends in multiple ways.

“Roughly half of our students do go on to transfer for a four year degree and that kind of thing, but because they’ve spent those first two to three years here after high school making connections in the community, probably getting that first job here in the community, the data shows that they are more likely to get that degree and stay here,” Pate said.

Whether a student stays in the area or ventures elsewhere, the college is still doing what it set out to do.

“The mission of the college is to add value to the lives of our students and then return that value back out into the community, and that value is represented in those lives that have bettered themselves by getting skills and knowledge that they didn’t have,” Pate said.

Enrollment for summer classes and the fall semester is currently open. Visit ECTC on the web or contact the college for more information.

The Kentucky State Police is investigating a fatal accident that occurred in LaRue County Sunday evening.

At approximately 6:30 p.m. on May 5, KSP Post Four troopers were requested by LaRue County Dispatch to assist in investigating a single-vehicle collision at the 6000 block of KY 61/Greensburg Road.

The KSP says the preliminary investigation indicates that 59-year-old Bobby D. Sexton of Magnolia was driving south on KY 61 in a pickup truck when for unknown reasons he drove onto the shoulder of the roadway before overcorrecting. The vehicle overturned several times.

Sexton was pronounced dead at the scene by the LaRue County Coroner’s Office. Two passengers in the vehicle, one an adult and one a child, sustained life-threatening injuries in the crash. The adult passenger was flown to the University of Louisville Hospital, and the child was flown to Norton Children’s Hospital.

The KSP’s investigation into the crash is ongoing.