Local sports with A.J. Brammer.
Officers with the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office and the Kentucky State Police Tuesday night were once again at the BlueOval SK construction site in Glendale in response to a threat.
“At about 6:25 p.m. 911, Hardin County Control, received the call of a possible active shooter at the BlueOval location in Glendale,” said Chief Deputy David Lee with the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office. “Then there was another report of someone brandishing a weapon in the parking lot, and someone in a building with a weapon.”
Hardin County deputies and KSP troopers were on the scene for about four hours.
“We’ve completed some searches of bags, we have searched a car with negative results,” Lee said. “Nothing was found, and there’s nothing that says anyone here brandished a gun or had it. We located nothing.”
The incident comes within weeks of a previous rumor of an active shooter at the site as well as two previous bomb threats. All the incidents have resulted in searches by police that revealed no threat.
The Radcliff/Elizabethtown Metropolitan Planning Organization, a division of the Lincoln Trail Area Development District, is conducting a public transportation study to look into the possibility of implementing a fixed-route public transportation system in the area.
LTADD Executive Director Daniel London said this is the third such study the Radcliff/E-Town MPO has undertaken.
“The committee felt like that it was time to take another look at this given the economic development sea change, and the fact that there are some more publicly-available dollars at the federal level potentially for sustainability of such a system,” said London. “The cost, from a local government standpoint, has always been a very key concern and a key barrier.”
The study is looking for feedback concerning the MPO’s urbanized area which includes Elizabethtown, Radcliff, Vine Grove, Fort Knox, and Glendale, along with potential improvements in Meade County.
“What their concerns are, what the barriers may be to public transportation from their point of view, and what they would like to see included,” London said.” As we move through this study, the consultants will take a look at that, compare that to what’s feasible, and provide some recommendations to potentially move forward.”
The deadline to submit feedback is April 5, after which consultants hired for the survey will review and compile the results.
“They look at comparison of public input and what might be available and feasible for the region as far as transportation modes such as fixed route rail, whatever the case may be, and then what the dollars would look like in terms of the cost and sustainability compared to what’s available,” London said. “We look for the study to be completed sometime in September of this year.”
A link to the survey can be found on the Radcliff/Elizabethtown Metropolitan Planning Organization Facebook page.
The Elizabethtown City Council met for a work session Monday.
City Administrator Ed Poppe discussed an ordinance that will be introduced to restrict parking on Skyline Drive in the Glendale Hill neighborhood. Poppe said a citizen contacted the city with concerns and the city’s Planning and Development Department reviewed the request.
“They looked at that area, looked at pavement widths, looked at accidents, and the recommendation was that yeah, we need to restrict on-street parking along that roadway because of various factors,” said Poppe.
Poppe said looking at that request led to a review of other needs in the neighborhood including adding a crosswalk near the Wesley Hilltop House to accommodate its parking lots and widening Miller Street along property recently donated by the city to Habitat for Humanity.
The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet for a regular session on March 18.
The Radcliff City Council also met for a work session Monday. The council discussed an ordinance concerning the certification and regulation of recovery residences that comes on the heels of similar ordinances passing in Elizabethtown and going up for approval from the Hardin County Fiscal Court. Radcliff Mayor J.J. Duvall said it is important for area entities to take a unified approach.
“We believe, in partnership with Vine Grove and Radcliff, that since Elizabethtown has passed this ordinance and they begin to work towards enforcement, we feel that it’s important that both of our communities have this put in place, same as Elizabethtown” Duvall said. “That way all of us are on the same page, and you don’t see them skipping from city to city trying to bypass these regulations.”
The ordinance will go up for its first reading at the next regular city council meeting, which will be held March 19.
Work to replace deck joint seals on the Western Kentucky Parkway over Interstate 65 will require lane closures this week.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says the outside/right lanes will be closed in both directions Tuesday, March 12. Ramps to and from I-65 will remain open but traffic on the ramps will be impacted. The inside/left lanes will be closed in both directions Wednesday, March 13. Work will begin each night at 8 p.m. and finish by 7 a.m. the next morning. If additional time is needed, work will be completed Thursday, March 14.
“That’s a heavy volume area there at the I-65 Exit 91 interchange and we’re doing this work at night,” said KYTC District Four Public Information Officer Chris Jessie. “It minimizes impacts to traffic as well as with that lower volume makes it safer for our workers out there doing that bridge maintenance, as well.”
Motorists should slow down, minimize distractions, and pay close attention to directions when approaching and driving through work zones.
A Radcliff man is dead following a Sunday crash in Breckinridge County that came after a police chase.
The Kentucky State Police says at approximately 5:30 p.m. on March 10 a trooper was conducting speed enforcement on KY-313 in Meade County when a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed went by. The trooper initiated a traffic stop but the operator of the vehicle refused to stop.
The pursuit continued onto KY-333 before entering Breckinridge County. The pursuit ended when the fleeing vehicle crossed the centerline near the intersection of KY-333 and McDonald Lane and into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
The operator of the fleeing vehicle, identified as 51-year-old Rodney Richards of Radcliff, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Breckinridge County Coroner’s Office. The driver of the other vehicle was flown to the University of Louisville Hospital and a 14-year-old passenger in that vehicle was flown to Norton Children’s Hospital, both with life-threatening injuries.
The KSP Critical Incident Response Team’s investigation of the crash is ongoing.
Crystal Rogers investigation suspect Brooks Houck will remain in custody on a $10 million cash bond.
The Kentucky Supreme Court on Monday denied a request to review the Kentucky Court of Appeals’s decision to uphold Nelson Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III’s rejection of a bond reduction filed by Houck’s attorney’s that would have reduced the bond to $500,000. The Supreme Court order states that the decision in the appeal is now final.
Houck is charged with Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence following his arrest in the Rogers investigation. He, along with suspects Steven Lawson and Joseph Lawson, will next appear in court for a pre-trial conference on March 21. During that pre-trial conference, attorneys for Houck will be arguing for a change of venue to move the trial from Nelson County to either Boyd or Daviess counties to avoid pre-trial publicity. The attorney for Steven Lawson will be arguing to dismiss the charges against him based on Lawson’s claims that he was offered immunity in exchange for his cooperation with investigators.
The attorney for Crystal Rogers investigation suspect Steven Lawson is joining the change of venue motion filed in the case.
Attorney Ted Lavit on Friday filed a motion asking the Nelson Circuit Court to adopt the change of motion filed on behalf of Brooks Houck which asks the court to move the trial to either Boyd County or Daviess County to avoid pretrial publicity. The motion by Houck’s attorneys states that due to extensive media coverage since Rogers’s disappearance the defendants will not be able to get a fair trial in Nelson County, so Boyd and Daviess counties are ideal options as they are not in the Louisville or Lexington TV markets.
The motion will be discussed during a pre-trial conference scheduled for March 21. That is the same day that Lavit plans to also discuss his motion to dismiss the Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence charges against Steven Lawson due to his claim that the prosecution offered him immunity in exchange for his cooperation.
Special Prosecutor Shane Young stated during a previous hearing that he intended to have a motion ready to file in time for the March 21 pre-trial conference in order to try Houck, Lawson, and third suspect Joseph Lawson in the same trial. Young also said he expected discovery in the case to be completed prior to the March 21 pre-trial conference.
Ashley Hayes with Grateful Heart Events worked to organize the first ever Hardinsburg, Kentucky, Outdoors Expo on February 24, and the event was not only an opportunity to spotlight local vendors but to help support Hardinsburg Police Chief Terry Laslie in his battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“We were able to raise quite a bit for Terry,” Hayes said. “It wasn’t extravagant but it was a really decent amount and I’m pretty happy with that. Terry was really happy with it. He’s choked up, so it turned out to be a really great day.”
Hayes said she has primarily worked on “give-back” events in the last year and became acquainted with Laslie’s family through work with McDaniels Fire and Rescue. Laslie is fighting cancer for the second time in ten years after a bout with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013.
Hayes said the opportunity to support people like Laslie has been rewarding, but her focus has also been helping the community grow.
“Knowing that we are in a small town and not much really takes place, it’s mostly focused around the lake, of course, Rough River Lake, but little, smaller community events,” Hayes said. “There are some that go on like the Breckinridge County Chamber of Commerce, they host some things. There are some local businesses that host things for people. So I just kind of reached out to the public, and I was like ‘what else can we do in our area to bring more to Breck?’”
If you were not able to participate at the expo, there are still ways to support Laslie.
“Anything that he gets from the community will be going towards whatever insurance won’t cover, so open donations are fine,” Hayes said. “Just prayers, because Terry is definitely the praying kind. His family is as well, and so I think prayers will do a lot for him. Just anything really, I mean there’s so many unlimited possibilities that you can do to help. Just lending an ear, asking him, reaching out to him, seeing if there’s anything.”
Hayes said the Outdoor Expo will return to Hardinsburg on February 22, 2025. For more information, search for Grateful Heart Events on Facebook.