Hardin County Schools has announced this year’s recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award, which recognizes five HCS alums who have excelled in their chosen profession or made outstanding contributions to their communities.
The 2024 class of recipients are Central Hardin class of 1994 grad Donna Preston Dennis, North Hardin class of 1985 grad Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Holt, North Hardin class of 1993 grad Lieutenant Colonel Jenohn Leshea Smith, East Hardin class of 1985 grad Gary Valentine, and North Hardin class of 1988 grad Mary (Cooper) Young.
“These five people are a true representation of how our graduates use their curricular, their co-curricular, and their extracurricular experiences to excel in their chosen career fields and in their communities,” said Hardin County Schools Community Relations Specialist John Wright.. “We look forward to honoring them next month. It’s going to be a great celebration.”
The distinguished alumni will be honored at a luncheon on September 26 at the Hardin County Schools Early College and Career Center. Contact HCS for more information.
State officials say Kentucky schools are continuing to make progress towards statewide school safety goals.
The Kentucky Office of the State School Security Marshal on Wednesday released the annual School Safety Risk Assessment Report. According to the report, 1,325 schools across the commonwealth are in compliance with the School Safety and Resiliency Act, a compliance rate of 99.81 percent.
State School Security Marshal Ben Wilcox said in the report that the number of school resource officers assigned to school campuses is 790, a 28 percent increase from last year and a 61 percent increase since House Bill 63 which requires every public school to have a SRO was signed into law.
The State School Security Marshal’s Office compiles the report based on unannounced visits to public schools. This year’s report indicates schools are complying with “mandated access control requirements regarding electronic-locking front doors, surveillance, locked classroom doors, classroom-window coverings, and a threat-assessment team.” Recommendations in the report include education of school staff on social media safety, ensuing up-to-date emergency operations plans, and ensuring training for front office staff on security measures.
Assessments for individual schools are not made public due to safety concerns. Kentuckians are encouraged to report possible threats against school safety to the STOP! Tipline at 1-866-393-6659 or online at safeschools.ky.gov.
The fiscal court approved a resolution to set the county’s property tax levies for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
“The recommendation is to adopt the real property tax rate at the 4 percent increase, and this results in a tax rate of 11.1 cents per $100 valuation for real property,” said Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul. “This actually ended up lowering our current real property rate and our current personal property rates of 11.3 down to 11.1 cents per $100 valuation.”
In his presentation proposing the tax levy, Taul noted the 4 percent increase keeps the county more in line with the 2024-2025 budget than the compensating rate option.
“Our 4 percent revenue, if we take that option, then we’ll end up with about $172,000 estimated that we would have above our budget, so pretty close, really, and then if we take the compensating then we would come out about the same amount under budget,” Taul said.
Taul said property tax revenue is the fiscal court’s largest funding mechanism, and said resident property taxes will largely be the same as last year.
“If you have $100,000 worth of property, our tax rate is already pretty low at 11.3 and $113 is what you would pay, and at 11.1, which is the proposed new rate, slightly lower, we save $2,” Taul said.
The Hardin County Soil Conservation District reduced its tax levy to .015 percent from the .02 percent rate last year, while the Lincoln Trail District Health Department rate saw no change at .022 percent.
In other meeting news, Hardin County Coroner Pat Elmore said his office investigated 165 cases in June and July. Hardin County Sheriff John Ward said in June and July his office made 214 arrests, issued 182 citations, served 117 warrants, and opened 34 criminal cases.
County Attorney Jenny Oldham, who Taul and several magistrates congratulated for being named by the state attorney general’s office the 2024 Outstanding County Attorney, thanked the fiscal court for expanded security funding for her office, which she said proved its worth during last Monday’s shooting in downtown Elizabethtown.
“I can’t imagine what Monday would have been like without Deputy Hawkins, who not only got us locked down but was the first one on the scene for the three victims, and so thank you for that funding,” Oldham said. “I hope it will continue. That is a day that I don’t ever want to repeat.”
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet September 10.
After lower temperatures were seen across the area the past few weeks, the heat appears to have returned with a force.
“It sure did rebound here in the opposite direction,” said Meteorologist Mike Kochasic with the National Weather Service in Louisville. “Strong high pressure over the area has resulted in temperatures around 10 degrees, 13 degrees above average, and near record-setting here for the next couple of days.”
Kochasic says the heat runs through the rest of the week.
“Normal high temperatures for this time of year are in the upper 80s, so when you’re pushing upper 90s to close to 100, that’s definitely well above average,” Kochasic said. “We’re looking at temperatures returning to near average, say, by the weekend. We have a cold front coming in that should bring things back down into the upper 80s.”
The heat prompted Breckinridge County Schools to cancel outdoor after school activity Tuesday. Kochasic says residents should remember to take precautions.
“Especially in direct sun,” Kochasic said. “If you can, if you’re outdoors for any length of time, make sure you take shade breaks, hydrate well, and try to find indoors where it’s cool. That’s all good to prevent heat illness.”
Kochasic also says to be mindful of pets and children, and to always check the backseat to make sure they don’t get left in a locked car.
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife has resources available to help hunters prepare for fall hunting seasons that are set to open in the coming weeks.
KFW says the fall dove hunting season and the early Canada goose season in the western goose zone open on September 1.
For the doves, hunters can begin searching for birds at 11 a.m. on opening day, although KFW says they will likely wait until cooler afternoon hours. Dove hunters typically look for fields with bare ground and food and water sources nearby. The state has more than 50 dove fields that are open for dove hunting.
Canada goose hunting seasons are divided into two zones. Hunting in the western zone, which includes all counties west and south of Hardin, Nelson, and Washington counties, takes place September 1 through 15. Hunting in the eastern zone, which includes Bullitt County and all counties east of Washington County, runs September 16 through 30.
City Public Works Director Don Hill gave an update on projects the city’s Public Works Department has been working on. Hill said investment from the city has helped with efficiency in the Sanitary Sewer Department, which completed several installation projects.
“On the sewer construction side, they installed 985 feet of sanitary sewer line, they installed 500 feet of water line at the nature park for the orchard, we just got that completed,” Hill said. “New taps installed: 20. Main line repairs: 33. Cleanouts installed: 9.”
Hill discussed changes in the department such as bringing maintenance of the Elizabethtown City Cemetery in-house, and reviewed other stats such as city paving projects.
“To date, 4.9 miles of city streets have been paved,” Hill said. “They have the schedule and they started on that this week, and there’s 6.63 miles in this next paving schedule, but we also will issue them another one around the end of September, so our target is to get between 12 and 15 miles of paving done.”
Hill said 1,897 loads of brush have been picked up since January, 675 bags of clippings have been collected from residents, and 5,480 bags of litter have been collected along 231.6 miles of city streets. With such a burden already on brush collection equipment and employees, Hill said the department is proposing setting limits on tree removal.
“We’re not saying we want to eliminate picking up trees,” Hill said. “We’re not saying we want to eliminate contractor-cut trees, but what we’re saying is because of the dollars, because of the lead time on parts and the difficulty of getting parts, because of the lead time on buying new equipment, we’re proposing, up for discussion is we’d like to reduce the size of what we pick up and kind of limit that.”
Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory supported Hill’s call for limits. He said brush collection is an important service the city provides but he feels some people may be taking advantage of it.
“I would even be willing to bet that some of those contractors figure in, on their bill, removal, and use us as a service to do it, and so they’re making money off of what our services provide, and it’s absolutely destroying a lot of our equipment on the pieces that you’re talking about that are extremely large, so we have to set a standard somewhere,” Gregory said.
The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet September 3.
Time is still available for area residents in need of assistance paying their electric bill to apply for help.
“The LIHEAP program is a program that helps right now with the electric,” said Hardin County Community Action Coordinator Julie Arney. “You cannot be disconnected. You have to be current, and we can help people that need assistance. It goes until September 13. Right now, that’s what we have money that we can provide assistance for.”
Assistance is available on a first-come, first-served basis by contacting your local Community Action office. Arney says walk-ins are welcome.
“We’re located at 233 Ring Road inside our Kentucky Career Center, or you can call us at 502-764-2222,” Arney said. “If you call, you can make an appointment. We do see those first, but you could walk in. Our hours are 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but we take our last client at 2 o’clock.”
Registration for the Fall LIHEAP program will open October 21 for disabled residents and residents over 60, and for other clients on November 4.
Drivers heading south on Interstate 65 this week should be aware of potential traffic due to an event in Bowling Green.
The National Corvette Museum is celebrating its 30th anniversary this weekend, and as part of the festivities the National Corvette Caravan will be arriving in Bowling Green. The museum describes the Caravan as “the world’s largest moving automotive event,” with regional caravans formed by Corvette owners from across the United States convening in Bowling Green.
With so many vintage cars heading for the area, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District Three says heavy congestion should be expected in the area around the museum. Interstate 65 around Exit 28, KY 446/Interstate Drive, KY 1402/Porter Pike, and U.S. 31W and U.S. 68/Louisville Road are expected to receive the heaviest extra traffic. The heaviest points of traffic are expected from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, but the event runs through the weekend.
Motorists are encouraged to avoid the high-traffic areas if possible Wednesday. Law enforcement and KYTC personnel are planning on increasing their presence in the area.
Bullitt County residents and drivers are invited to an upcoming meeting to discuss preliminary design plans for improvements along Kentucky Route 44.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District Three will host the meeting from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 10 at Mount Washington Elementary School. Visitors to the open house-style meeting may drop in any time to review preliminary design plans, get handouts on project information, ask KYTC officials and project engineers questions, and fill out comment sheets.
The KYTC says the goal of the project is to improve safety and accessibility along KY 44 from Water Street to U.S. 31E. Design alternatives being discussed include “reconfiguring KY 44 to five lanes with a center lane, four lanes with a raised median, or converting the U.S. 31E intersection to a median u-turn crossing to improve signal times and traffic flow.”
The state average for unemployment for July was reported at 5.3 percent, up slightly from the 5.0 percent rate reported in June and from the 4.6 percent rate reported in July 2023. Five counties in the Lincoln Trail District had rates higher than the state average and three counties had rates lower than the state average.
Hardin County’s unemployment rate for July 2024 was reported at 5.4 percent. Hardin’s rate also shows a slight increase, going from 5.0 percent in June and 4.4 percent in July 2023.
Meade County had the highest unemployment rate in the district for July at 6.2 percent, while Washington County had the lowest at 4.2 percent.
More information on how the unemployment rate is calculated and more data is available at kystats.ky.gov.
