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Graduation for Elizabethtown Community and Technical College’s spring semester is coming up on Monday, May 6, and to support the upcoming grads the college has created the Gowns for Grads initiative.

“To support the grads, you can go to our website, and we have a Day of Giving link where they can pick just the Gowns for Grads,” said ECTC Director of Admissions and Assessment Judy Akers. “$50 gets a gown, cap, and tassel.”

The Gowns for Grads program relies partly on ECTC alumni donating previously used graduation regalia, but members of the public are also able to support future graduates by donating.

“We are trying to make sure that all of our graduates have the opportunity to graduate without worrying about the cost of buying a gown to participate in graduation,” Akers said.

Some of the graduates at ECTC are the first members of their families to receive college degrees, and some are completing lifelong missions of continuing their education, so graduation day is a special occasion that Akers says the college wants to see celebrated properly.

“They’ve already done so much, and we don’t want anything to get in the way of them celebrating that accomplishment,” akers said.

Visit ectc.us/give and select the Gowns for Grads Lending Closet to donate, or contact Akers’s office for more information.

2024 is a major election year in Kentucky, and Secretary of State Michael Adams is asking students for help creating the state’s next “I voted” stickers. 

The contest is open to all Kentucky students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Participating students are asked to create their best sticker design, and the winner will see their design distributed to Kentucky voters during the 2024 general election.

Students have until May 17 to send in their design, which must be original works and include the words “I voted”. Students should send an email with their name, school, address, and phone number along with their design in a JPEG or PNG file to sos.secretary@ky.gov.

Finalists will be chosen by the Secretary of State’s office, and will be voted on during the 2024 Kentucky State Fair.

The deadline to register to vote in the 2024 primary election, which will be held on May 21, is Monday, April 22. Visit govote.ky.gov for more election information.

A storm system this morning brought high winds and thunderstorms across the area, with thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings declared in Breckinridge, Grayson, Meade, Hardin, Nelson, and LaRue counties between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m.

That storm system resulted in a tornado touching down around Chaplin in Nelson County.

“We sent out a team, they went out and did a survey on it,” said Meteorologist Kevin Farina with the National Weather Service in Louisville. “Looks like they’re going to rate it as an EF-1, 95 miles per hour on the wind speeds there. EF-1 is almost 100 mile per hour winds. You can see trees down, of course damage to housing, but typically on your lower end of tornado damage.”

The chance for severe weather this afternoon has prompted closings across the commonwealth. Governor Andy Beshear has closed all state office buildings, the LaRue County Courthouse is closed, and classes have been canceled this afternoon at the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky.

Farina says a smaller system is working its way through the area now, but the chance for storms continues through the evening.

“There’s some stuff just east of Bowling Green now that’s moving to the northeast that had some warnings on it,” Farina said. “Back behind that though there’s not much going on at the moment. The cold front is not expected to come through until this evening so we could still see some thunderstorms develop before evening.”

The city of Radcliff is advising residents of malfunctioning weather sirens located near Dawley Park ,the Walmart Neighborhood Market, and Hill Street. Residents should keep an eye on forecasts and stay alert.

Keep it tuned to Quicksie and The Wolf for more weather updates.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is advising anybody planning on traveling to view the April 8 solar eclipse to expect congested highways and limited parking at rest stops the closer you are to the path of totality.

The KYTC is lifting restrictions in select work zones and informing commercial drivers of expected traffic increases in order to help the flow of traffic. Sections of Interstate 65 in Bullitt and Hardin counties are among the select work zones.

KYTC District Four Public Information Officer Chris Jessie says while the area is not expected to be as congested as other areas of the commonwealth, the District Four team is still getting ready.

“Heavier congestion for eclipse traffic is expected over in western Kentucky and southern Indiana, but if we have any issues here, we’ll have people on call that Monday to go out and man any signals that need to be flushed through,” said Jessie. “Anything like that where we have any spotted backups, and those would only likely happen on routes like I-65 interchanges or maybe one of the parkway interchanges, but again, we are prepared to man some of those sites if need be.”

The KYTC recommends packing essentials to ensure a safe and comfortable ride, and recommends delaying travel home after the eclipse for a few hours to avoid the initial traffic swell.

Officials are projecting more than 1 million travelers will pass through Kentucky on their way to viewing locations.

Visit the KYTC’s eclipse page on the web for more information and tips.