WULF News

Five area students will be heading to Washington D.C. this June as part of Nolin RECC’s Washington Youth Tour.

Central Hardin High School students Heaven Carpenter and Regan Raifsnider, Elizabethtown High School students Grant Shearer and Anna sumrall, and homeschool student Samuel Teipen will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the nation’s capital that will include visits to sites such as the Smithsonian Institute, Arlington National Cemetery, the U.S. Capitol, and the National Zzoo, and a visit with Kentucky’s congressional delegation.

“Nolin RECC is proud that these students will be representing our service area,” said Nolin RECC Communications Manager Sarah Fellows. “They join over 1000 other students from cooperatives around the country traveling to Washington for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” 

The selected students are high school juniors whose parents receive services from Nolin RECC and were selected based on review of a submitted essay, an in-person interview, and their knowledge of electric co-ops like Nolin.

The Hodgenville Police Department is asking parents to have a chat with their kids about behavior following an after school incident at the Hodgenville McDonald’s.

“There’s not a lot for our kids to do after school, and all the schools except for the ALES (Abraham Lincoln Elementary School) right down the street are all basically in that corner, so that’s a real popular place for the kids to go hang out after school, the McDonald’s, the Burger King area over there,” said Hodgenville Police Chief James richardson. “And that’s fine, and everybody, all the employees, the administrators, everybody is okay with that. They understand and they enjoy having the kids there, but we’ve been having a lot of problems lately with kids being disrespectful, verbally abusive.”

That’s Hodgenville Police Chief James Richardson.

The incident that sparked the response was on March 4 when a physical altercation broke out on the property, resulting in five juveniles being charged with Disorderly Conduct and Fourth Degree Assault and being trespassed from the McDonald’s.

Richardson is asking parents to remind their kids to be responsible.

“We just wanted to put out to the community ‘hey, have a chat with your kids,’” Richardson said. “And the world we live in right now with everything that’s online, our verbal skills and the ability to talk to people and have compassion for people is greatly affected by the fact that everything is online and no longer face to face, and people forget that they can say things or can’t say things to their face that they can say online because it doesn’t come across the same way, or it’s going to hurt their feelings and make them mad, and then you start a fight.”

The HPD says students that see something out of hand should contact a parent or the school resource officer.

Hardin County Water District No. 2 is cautioning customers about using a third party to make bill payments.

“We just want to caution customers to make sure that they know whose website they’re on when they try to make a payment,” said HCWD No. 2 General Manager Shaun Youravich. 

Doxo is a third party website and is not affiliated with the water district, but when you search the water district online the Doxo website pops up with wording that customers might take to mean implies a direct link to the water district.

Because a payment through Doxo is not a direct payment, the water district may not receive your payment quickly, which can result in frustration and fees for customers.

“We may not see the payment for seven to ten days, if at all,” Youravich said. “So yes, a customer could be subject to disconnect for non-payment if that payment shows up after the due date.”

The water district says many utilities nationwide have issued similar warnings. Youravich reminds customers that going direct is your best bet.

“We certainly encourage customers to make sure that they go directly to our website if they’re trying to make a payment online, but the best option is through ACH, where the payment is automatically drafted,” Youravich said.

Contact Hardin County Water District No. 2 for more information.

The Campbellsville University student charged with the murder of another student was in court Wednesday morning.

Charles E. Escalera appeared via Zoom in Taylor County District Court for a preliminary hearing. Escalera is charged with Murder in the death of 18-year-old Josiah Kilman on February 24.

Detective Jeremy Burton with the Campbellsville Police Department was called to testify. Burton said Escalera was interviewed at the police station at around 6:30 p.m. the day of the murder, and after being administered his Miranda rights admitted to taking a life and fleeing the scene. Burton said an audio and video recording of the interview, which lasted about an hour and ended when Escalera requested a lawyer, was recorded.

Burton said surveillance video from the dorm building both Escalera and Kilman lived in showed Escalera enter wearing a backpack and exiting without it, and a backpack belonging to Escalera was found in Kilman’s room.

Burton said there were no known problems between Escalera and Kilman, and there were no other persons of interest in the case. When asked if police had responded to any other incidents at the university involving Escalera, Burton said the CPD was contacted on February 20 regarding an incident in the cafeteria in which Escalera was reportedly acting strangely. Burton said Escalera was taken to the hospital for observation and believed he was released later that day. Burton said the CPD’s investigation is ongoing.

The judge said probable cause existed to present the case to a grand jury. Escalera remains in custody at the Taylor County Detention Center where he is being held on a $2 million bond.

An impact study conducted by the Kentucky Career and Technical College System shows that Elizabethtown Community and Technical College had a positive impact of $176.5 million on the Lincoln Trail District.

“Every dollar that a student spends with us, they get an annual return of $5.90 because of that dollar, and that’s a great annual return on that,” said ECTC President Dr. Juston Pate. “The region actually sees a $10.90 addition for every dollar that is spent at ECTC.”

The college’s annual report for 2023 states that ECTC provided more than 15,800 hours of training for more than 3,100 regional employees. Pate says the impact of ECTC is evident in individuals and the community.

“We think a lot about the individual value that the college adds, and that is our mission,” Pate said. “Our mission is to add value to the lives of our students and then return that value to the community, but it doesn’t stop there, and that’s what I think this impact study kind of shows is through that additional value all of those students do go back out into the community and what is returned to the community is exponentially greater than that individual value.”

ECTC supported students with more than $185,000 in scholarships and $1.5 million in Work Ready Kentucky scholarship funds. More than 1,000 students benefited from more than $28,000 in support through Family Scholar House.

Pate says there is still time this week for anybody looking to begin, continue, or start again on their education to sign up for the second eight-week session of the spring semester, and staff at ECTC are ready to help.

“Things are really getting streamlined,” Pate said. “We still have Work Ready Kentucky scholarship money available, a lot of other scholarships in the college, so really there’s no barrier to anyone who would want to start right now. There’s no barrier that would keep them from starting.”

Visit www.elizabethtown.kctcs.edu for more information.