WQXE News
If you are in need of assistance with wrapping up your last-minute Christmas gifts, help is available this weekend with Empowered Life.
“We are doing a gift wrap fundraiser,” said Empowered Life President Christi Schovel. “We’re asking anyone who needs gifts wrapped to come to 225 College Street. We’re just right down the road from the police station in the Project Learn building, and we will wrap their gifts for them for a donation.”
All proceeds from the gift wrapping will go towards the cost of activities and expenses for the organization.
“We provide enrichment and social and life skills to individuals with intellectual disabilities, high school-age and older,” Shovel said
The gift wrapping fundraiser runs from 1 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, December 21. Contact Schovel for more information on the organization.
The suspect in an October double homicide has been formally indicted on the charges he faces.
Dustin M. Caudill waived his case to the Hardin County Grand Jury during a court appearance November 6.
The grand jury this week indicted Caudill on two counts of Murder and one count of First Degree Arson.
The Elizabethtown Police Department said Caudill confessed to shooting 41-year-old Blake France of Greenville and 43-year-old Anthony Garrett of Elizabethtown and then setting fire to the Henon Lane residence they were in on October 30. The EPD says the personal belongings of the victims were found during a search of the hotel room Caudill was staying in.
Caudill is next scheduled to appear in court for an arraignment hearing on January 7. He is currently incarcerated in the Hardin County Detention Center, where he is being held on a bond of $1 million.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their final meeting of the year Thursday afternoon.
Hardin County Sheriff John Ward reported that his office made 193 arrests and issued 176 citations in October and November. When discussing his office’s budget request for calendar year 2025, Ward said the county’s supplement for the budget is the same as last year.
“Our revenue will increase through the fees, but the judge asked us to hold it at the same contribution rate, supplement rate that the court did last year,” Ward said.
Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith recounted some of his office’s accomplishments in 2024 including opening the branch office in Radcliff, securing more than $300,000 in state grant funding, and working through the rollout of a new state vehicle registration system. Smith also made his office’s budget request for calendar year 2025.
“In my first year’s budget, we requested $2.51 million, which represented a cut of $76,000 from 2023,” Smith said. “This year we’re coming in a little higher than last year with a request of $2.515 million, representing a cut of over $71,000 from 2023. We think that’s the fiscally responsible thing to do.”
Resolutions for both budget requests were approved, along with a resolution amending the sheriff’s office’s 2024 calendar year budget to balance line items.
At the beginning of the meeting, Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul asked for a moment of silence for the families of county residents impacted by drug overdose deaths in 2024. During magistrate comments, Magistrate Aaron Pennington encouraged anybody struggling with addiction to take advantage of available resources.
“We do offer services to try to help, and we have information out there with (Hardin County Quick Response Team Coordinator) Justin Blair, and we just want to keep pounding that out there so people understand that we are providing, and we are trying to provide, more resources for people to get help,” Pennington said.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet January 14.
The statewide unemployment average saw a slight increase in November.
The Kentucky Center for Statistics says the statewide unemployment average for November was 5.1 percent. That’s a slight increase from the 5.0 percent rate reported in October and from the 4.3 percent rate reported in November of 2023.
Kentucky’s unemployment average for November also came in higher than the national unemployment average, which the U.S. Department of Labor reported at 4.2 percent.
The Center for Statistics says Kentucky’s civilian labor force for November was about 2,080,000 people, an increase of about 4,700 from October.
The educational and health services, professional and business services, manufacturing, and government sectors all saw increases from November 2023. The arts, entertainment, and recreation sector and the information services sector saw slight decreases.
Visit the Kentucky Center for Statistics online for more market information.