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Elizabethtown City Council meets for special meeting

94.3 The Wolf

The Elizabethtown City Council met for a special meeting Monday.

The council approved two zoning map amendments on their second readings. The first changed 1203 and 1205 Saint John Road from R-5 to R-6. The second changed 806 North Miles Street from R-4 to R-5. The first reading was held on a zoning change for 1121 through 1131 Alex Drive from C-3 to R-6, as well as an annexation request for 8.8 acres on South Wilson Road from Hardin County to be zoned C-3. All of these items were recommended for approval by the city’s planning commission.

The council approved a municipal order accepting CIMA Energy’s bid to supply natural gas for the city.

“Now be it ordered that the City of Elizabethtown accepts the bid from CIMA for a two-year contract at a rate of Inside FERC Index plus .2 cents/Dth,” said City Attorney Ken Howard, reading from the municipal order.

The council also approved four municipal orders awarding Downtown Redevelopment Grants to four properties.

“Whereas the City of Elizabethtown desires to promote and support the redevelopment of downtown, and whereas the City of Elizabethtown has developed a Downtown Redevelopment Grant program to encourage private property owners to redevelop their properties,” said Howard, reading from the municipal order.

Grants awarding no more than about $43,500 for 220 West Dixie Avenue, about $46,000 for 110 South Main Street, $2,000 for 117 North Main Street, and about $2,600 for 35 Public Square were approved.

Mayor Jeff Gregory and members of the council had high praise for the E-Town Wine Fest which was held at Freeman Lake Park this past Saturday. Council Member Cindy Walker said she arrived shortly before 6 p.m. and saw a strong crowd.

“I was told that over 1,500 tickets at that time had been sold and they were still lining up behind me,” Walker said. “Beth (Pyles) and Priscilla (Scarborough) did an excellent job, the entire staff, the city, the volunteers. It was perfect.”

Extra vendors, a wider footprint, and great weather helped make the event a successful one.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet May 20.

Radcliff City Council meets for special meeting

94.3 The Wolf

The Radcliff City Council met for a special called meeting Monday.

The council approved a $60,000 bid from Helm Construction for HVAC units at the Colvin Community Center. The council also approved a $79,000 bid from Skyler Construction for the roof at Radcliff Fire Station No. 2. That project was re-bid at the request of Council Member Jerry Brown after only one bid was initially received. Brown said he was pleased re-bidding saved the city about $10,000.

“We don’t have the luxury of a really deep budget, so we’re always looking to save money for our Radcliff taxpayers, and by re-bidding we were able to do that,” Brown said. “We saved the taxpayers thousands of dollars.”

Feeding America Kentucky’s Heartland Executive Director Charles Dennis came before the council to discuss the organization’s work with 250 partner organizations across 42 counties, including 5 in Radcliff. Dennis said figures on food insecurity are expected to be released this week, which has Feeding America evaluating how to best serve those in need.

“We’re not doing away with the Backpack Program, but we’re going to be shifting to funding what we call a Feeding Kids Fund, and we have piloted a School Pantry Program,” Dennis said. “There are some instances where the need is so great that just a backpack is not going to fill that.”

Radcliff/Fort Knox Convention and Tourism Commission Treasurer Bob Moore discussed the organization’s budget, which he said is higher this year thanks to increased revenue from area hotels. Moore said the advertising budget will be increased for airports and Spotify after strong interest was seen in area attractions.

“Boundary Oak has gotten 300,000 visitors already,” Moore said. “Red Hill Cutlery talks about the turnover there, coming in to see the knife and the museum, and still the largest download of everything we have is Saunders Springs.”

The Radcliff City Council will next meet May 21.

KFW reports strong spring turkey hunting season

94.3 The Wolf

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife says the spring wild turkey hunting season was a successful one. 

Hunters recorded the third highest spring turkey harvest on record for the state, with 33,460 birds brought in. That’s nine percent higher than the state’s five-year average.

The spring wild turkey season ran from April 13 through May 5. The youth-only hunt, which ran April 6 and 7, saw 2,309 turkeys harvested, which was up 25 percent from last year.

KFW says the combined total for adults and youths fell just short of numbers from the 2023 hunting season, but this was expected as the brood hatch from 2022 was not as strong as 2021.

Good weather over most of the wild turkey season calendar brought out a good number of hunters, and a lower than average amount of young male turkeys, called jakes, meant an increased number of two-year-old turkeys for hunters to look for.

You can help Kentucky Fish and Wildlife track the wild turkey population by reporting sightings of hens with young turkeys throughout July and August as part of the annual summer brood survey.

The fall wild turkey hunting season begins on September 7. Learn more by finding the current State Hunting Guide on the KFW website.

Elizabethtown Fire Department expands training with modular facility

94.3 The Wolf

The Elizabethtown Fire Department is expanding its training opportunities with the construction of their new fire training facility.

“We’ll be able to do live fire burns,” said Elizabethtown Fire Chief Mark Malone. “There are three rooms that are designed. One’s designed like a kitchen, one’s designed like a bedroom, and then there’s just a general purpose open room for burning. We have the ability to repel.”

The facility is constructed using modular units which allows for a diverse range of options.

“We have forceful entry doors, forceful entry windows,” Malone said. “The interior walls are movable so we can have different configurations for scenarios. It has a Nance Drill, which is a firefighter rescue drill, and also a Denver Drill mockup, which again is a firefighter rescue drill.”

Malone says the Elizabethtown Fire Department strives to be as prepared as possible to best serve the community.

“In Kentucky, it is required that they get 100 hours of training a year,” Malone said. “Elizabethtown tries to shoot for 200 hours of training a year. We’re a small department, so we have to do basically jack-of-all-trades. We do all the rescue disciplines, plus regular firefighting, plus we run first responder EMS, so we do a lot of different things for the community, and that takes a lot of training.”

The modular facility is being constructed next to the existing State Fire Rescue Training Area 5 tower on College Street.

North Hardin’s Neblett named ECTC Pathfinder Award recipient

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North Hardin High School hosted Academic Signing Day Friday, an opportunity to celebrate with seniors that have committed to a post-secondary education institution, the workforce, or the military. The event also gave Elizabethtown Community and Technical College the chance to present North Hardin High School College Coach Annette Neblett with their 2024 High School Teacher/Counselor Pathfinder Award.

ECTC says each KCTCS institution selects a recipient each year. The award is presented to a faculty or staff member that encourages students to attend a KCTCS college, assists students in identifying career and postsecondary paths, provides mentorship, and maintains contact with students.

ECTC President and CEO Dr. Juston Pate said he appreciates Neblett connecting students to the college, but her work ultimately benefits everybody.

“Her willingness to spend her time investing in these kids is really an investment in all of our futures, but to have the ability to work alongside someone like Annette for our college, for North Hardin High School, it’s really special to see these people doing this work and to be a part of it,” Pate said.

Neblett said the award was nice, but seeing her students celebrating their futures was the real prize.

“It makes my heart feel so great because it’s getting better,” Neblett said. “The kids are starting to listen more and they’re starting to really pay attention to what I’m saying, so I really appreciate all of them coming out today and just enjoying themselves, and this is all about them. It’s not about me. It’s all about them.”

ECTC says nearly 320 Pathfinder nominations were received statewide.

Traci Hunt named North Middle School principal

94.3 The Wolf

North Middle School will have a new principal for the 2024-2025 school year, and it is somebody with previous experience at Hardin County Schools.

HCS has announced that Traci Hunt will be moving into the principal’s office. Hunt comes to NMS after serving as assistant principal and principal at Marion C. Moore School in Louisville, principal at Bloomfield Middle School in Nelson County, and assistant principal at Bullitt East High School. The Western Kentucky University and University of the Cumberlands grad started her education career as a teacher and secondary instructional specialist at North Hardin High School.

HCS Superintendent Teresa Morgan said in a release: “Ms. Hunt brings valuable experience as she returns home. She knows how to ensure student growth in and out of the classroom. She has a strong work ethic and she will help lead North Middle School in a tremendous fashion. Our community is growing and Ms. Hunt’s experiences will help her prepare North Middle for that growth.”

Hunt replaces Jeff Lowan, who retires as principal at the end of this school year.

Voter registration up ahead of primary; in-person excused absentee voting this week

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Voter registration in Kentucky saw another surge ahead of the deadline for the primary election. 

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams says more than 8,300 new voters got registered between April 1 and the pre-primary registration deadline on April 22. 

In turn, about 4,600 voter registrations were removed. About 3,300 removals were for deceased voters, 543 for felony convicts, and 562 for voters who moved out of state.

Adams says Republican registration in the state rose by a little less than 2,700 voters, and independent or other registrations went up by more than 1,700. Democratic registrations decreased by about 700 voters.

Voters that qualify for in-person excused absentee voting may do so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the Hardin County Clerk’s Office. Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith says the same qualifications for a mail-in absentee ballot apply to in-person absentee, but voters can cast a ballot as they would on Election Day.

“Some of those qualifications are if you’ll be out of town or scheduled to work all dates and times of in-person voting,” Smith said. “The law uses the phrase ‘age, illness, and disability.’ Sometimes those words ring a little harsh on our ears. There is no definitive age, illness, or disability. We don’t ask. You just attest to it.”

Early voting for all will run at the clerk’s office and at the Colvin Community Center this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The primary election will be held on May 21. Find more election information at govote.ky.gov.

Buffalo Lake connector trail work progressing

94.3 The Wolf

Work is progressing on the Buffalo Lake Connector Trail, a joint project between the City of Elizabethtown and Elizabethtown Tourism.

“The trailhead is going to be located near the railroad crossing at Dixie, and will connect all the way to Commerce Drive,” said Elizabethtown Tourism Director of Marketing Krysta Souleyrette. “It’s going to be about a mile and a half long, and there will be paved sections so it’s accessible for everyone.”

The trailhead will include amenities such as a water bottle filling station, a bike repair station, and ample seating.

Souleyrette said the connector achieves a strategic goal of connecting Downtown E-Town with the hotels on or near Commerce Drive, and adds to Elizabethtown’s outdoor recreation offerings.

“We have a wide array of outdoor trails and wonderful outdoor activities in Elizabethtown, and this is only going to enhance this, our outdoor attractions and activities for community members as well as visitors,” Souleyrette said.

The connector trail is set to open in spring of 2025.

Kentucky ranks second in region, eighth in nation for economic development

94.3 The Wolf

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is highlighting new recognition of the commonwealth’s economic success.

The governor’s office says Site Selection magazine ranked Kentucky in second place for its South Central Region rankings and in eighth place nationally in its 2024 Prosperity Cup rankings. The Prosperity Cup “recognizes the competitiveness of state-level economic development agencies and their success in landing capital investment projects according to data from 2023.” Expanded facilities, new jobs created, and sales tax climate are among the criteria for the rankings.

The governor touted some of the state’s accomplishments during the ribbon cutting for the ECTC BlueOval SK Training Center Wednesday.

“We’ve now had over $30.6 billion of new private sector investment in us in just 4.5 years, a record by far, over a thousand new location and expansion projects, 52,700 new jobs,” Beshear said. “We’ve broken every export record, every tourism record. It is an exciting time to be a Kentuckian right now.”

Beshear has cited BlueOval SK as being the catalyst for making the electric vehicle industry a central part of new development in the state.

“We are leading this country in the EV sector with $11.7 billion announced in just 3.5 years, and 10,250 full-time jobs,” Beshear said.

More information on Kentucky economic development efforts can be found at ced.ky.gov.