WULF News

The City of Elizabethtown is excited to host its second Lawn Party at the Lake Concert Series this summer.

“It is held every second Wednesday at the bandstand at Freeman Lake Park off of the Blue Heron Road entrance,” said Elizabethtown Events Manager Beth Pyles. “We are offering multiple concerts with family friendly events throughout the summer.”

Pyles said the city had a goal of bringing something for everybody to Freeman Lake Park this summer when selecting the concert series artists.

June 12 will see The Rumors. Radiotronic will perform on July 10. The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra Devou-Do Daddies will take the stage on August 7. Bourbon Revival wraps up the concert series on September 11.

Each date will offer food vendors, and while outside alcohol is not permitted alcoholic beverages will be on sale.

“The concert series is totally free and family friendly,” Pyles said. “The gates will open at 5.30 p.m. and the acts will take the stage around 6.30, so it gives you a little bit of time to come in and get seated. It is festival style seating, so we ask that people bring lawn chairs, you can bring blankets. We will have picnic tables, but it’s very, very casual.”

Pyles said the first year for the concert series was a successful one, and there’s nowhere to go but up.

“We had such a wonderful turnout for last year after we got through the rain, but we’re very, very excited,” Pyles said. “The bandstand at Freeman Lake is such a beautiful fixture in our community. If you haven’t been out to see it, it is the perfect place to relax after a hard day, and we’re really excited.”

Follow the Elizabethtown City Events Facebook page for more information and updates.

The Kentucky State Police is investigating after a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet contract worker was struck and killed in a vehicle collision Tuesday.

The KSP says at around 9 a.m. on April 23 troopers were requested by LaRue County Dispatch to investigate a collision involving a van and a highway worker. The KSP says the preliminary investigation shows that Henry T. James of Louisville was driving a van east on KY-210/Old Elizabethtown Road when he entered a portion of the roadway reduced to one lane for maintenance operations. James failed to observe 22-year-old Blake Barnes of Elizabethtown, who was flagging eastbound traffic. 

The van struck Barnes near the 3100 block of KY-210. Barnes was pronounced dead at the scene by the LaRue County Coroner’s Office.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet released a statement following Barnes’s death which states: “Our hearts ache for the loss of a transportation team member today. We extend our sincere condolences to all those impacted by this tragedy. Please join us in lifting up the families, friends and colleagues in your thoughts and prayers. The safety and well-being of all employees is a top priority, and we are working with authorities as they review the incident.”

The road was closed for nearly 5 hours for accident reconstruction. The investigation is ongoing.

Elizabethtown saw traffic delays and other disruptions Tuesday during a widespread power outage. 

The outage area covered Dixie Avenue from around Mulberry Street to around Veterans Way, Mulberry Street from downtown E-Town to Ring Road, and neighborhoods west of the Elizabethtown Bypass. At one point, more than 6,000 Kentucky Utilities customers were without power. The outage began at around 10:30 a.m. and power was restored to affected customers by around 2 p.m.

Several area businesses and organizations had services disrupted by the outage, including Quicksie and The Wolf which were both briefly off the air. Elizabethtown Community and Technical College closed campus for the afternoon.

Elizabethtown Police Department Public Information Officer John Thomas said EPD officers manned intersections that were without power as available, and Thomas took to Facebook with a friendly reminder for drivers.

“We’re getting lots of complaints about intersections without power and people just running through them willy-nilly,” Thomas said. “Look, when you come to an intersection that has no power, the traffic lights are out, treat it as a four-way stop, an all-way stop. Everyone has to come to a stop. That is not optional, people. No power at the intersection, everyone stops.”

Kentucky Utilities has not yet responded to a request for information on the cause of the outage.

The Elizabethtown City Council met for a work session Monday evening.

Helping Hand of Hope Executive Director Hope Burke gave the council the organization’s 2023 impact report. Burke said the organization is asking the city to allot $5,000 to them in the upcoming budget. Burke said Helping Hand of Hope has never asked for financial support from the city before, but demand has been increasing on a month to month basis.

“The people that are coming to us, I know sometimes there is that misunderstanding of ‘oh, they’re just, you know, riding the system’ or ‘oh, they really don’t need this assistance,’ but they truly do,” Burke said “We have seniors that’s rent has increased anywhere from $300 to $500 a month. We have single parents that are working, actually making $20 an hour, and still can’t afford their rent with childcare, food, and everything else like that.”

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory told Burke the city appreciates the efforts of the organization and the burden that has taken off the city.

E-Town Natural Gas Department Director Matthew Hobbes gave a department update. Hobbes said the department has been busy with several capital projects. Hobbes said project costs and increased employee pay means the city will likely need to consider a rate increase soon.

“I wouldn’t come saying that we need to raise rates unless the writing was on the wall, and it’s looking like that time is about now where we need to be doing something before you get so low that you can’t comfortably operate, so I think we need to look at our tap fees,” Hobbes said. “I think we need to look at what we’re charging for the gas going through the meters, and what you’re charging for just everyday work.”

Representatives from RSA Financial Advisors gave a presentation to the council on the status of the current market and possible financing solutions for the city, including revenue bond services. Gregory said the city’s contribution to the Buffalo Lake concert venue the city is partnering with the E-Town Tourism and Convention Bureau on will likely be paid using bonds.

The city council and the tourism bureau will meet for a joint meeting Thursday which will be followed by a groundbreaking for the Buffalo Trail Phase One project. After budget meetings start on May 6, the Elizabethtown City Council will next meet in a special meeting on May 13.

One of the suspects charged in the Crystal Rogers investigation is asking to be tried separately from the other suspects.

The defense for Joseph Lawson has filed a Motion for Severance of Co-Defendants or Exclusion of Co-Defendant’s Statements with the Nelson Circuit Court. The motion calls for Lawson to be tried in a separate trial from Steven Lawson and Brooks Houck, or to have out-of-trial testimonials from Houck and Steven Lawson be excluded.

Special Prosecutor Shane Young previously filed a motion to try all three suspects in the same trial. The Motion for Severance states that the introduction of out-of-court statements denies Joseph Lawson’s right to cross-examination and would therefore deny him his right to present a defense. The filing also states concern for the potential for conflicting defenses and strategies between the defendants, which could potentially confuse the jury.

The motion will be discussed during the next pre-trial conference in the case, which is scheduled for June 13. Progress on finding a new venue for the trial will be discussed at a hearing on May 1.