Elizabethtown council hears update on city’s natural gas department

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

City Natural Gas Department Director Matthew Hobbs provided a report on his department. He said the department is fully staffed with 14 employees, and the department comes into 2025 with a “solid budget.”

“The biggest ticket item that we’ve got on that is a ‘de-hy,’ so that’s basically a unit that’s drying your gas as you’re pulling it out of the storage field,” Hobbs said. “Ours, I think, dates back to sometime mid-late 90s.”

Hobbs says while business has remained consistent, customer growth has stagnated.

“The industrial pool is still strong and holding pretty steady,” Hobbs said. “That makes up about 50 percent of our flow, so the amount or the volume of gas we’re using is staying pretty consistent, but that customer number is not going up.”

The city is in the beginning stages of a natural gas rate study, with data collection currently under way.

Representatives from Hope Academy for Kids presented on the organization’s services. Resource Development Coordinator Dara Bryant discussed additional efforts to support program members and their families.

“To better assist, Hope Academy has become part of a nationwide effort to end family homelessness,” Bryant said. “In 2024, we became a program site for Bridge of Hope, and I’m excited to share that we are the first and only program site for Bridge of Hope in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

Bryant said statistics show 1 in 30 children in the United States struggle with homelessness each year.

Members of Scout Troop 221 led the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of the meeting. The members then stayed after the meeting for a question and answer session with the mayor and council members.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet April 21.