WQXE News

The Elizabethtown Police Department gave community partners the opportunity to view their new victim interview room during an unveiling event Thursday.

EPD Victim Services Specialist Anesha Knott said when Elizabethtown Police Chief Jeremy Thompson hired her, he said she had a blank slate to figure out the best ways to serve victims of crime.

“Over the first year, starting from November of 2023 through last fall, we had a couple of incidents that really popped up and hit at home with us, that were larger incidents that we were like okay, we need a place for kids to be safe here in the PD and we need a place for victims to be interviewed where they feel safe and secure and they feel comfortable talking to the law enforcement officer that’s investigating their case,” Knott said.

Knott secured grant funding to convert one of the standard EPD interview rooms into a more comfortable atmosphere. The grant funding also allowed the EPD to purchase items such as toys, cots, and playpens for when children need to be at the police department for long periods of time along with resources for victims such as emergency housing and emergency cell phone service.

“We’re trying to make things to where it’s more comfortable for the victim, that they have what they need, and they’re more comfortable and feel safer and they can move forward and keep engaging in that process,” Knott said.

Thompson said all divisions of the police department work with victims in some way, but having a dedicated victim services position opened the door for the department to better provide help.

“We like to provide information,” Thompson said. “We like to provide that follow up, but everybody within this role has a cog in the wheel, and that’s not the one that we do the best. It just isn’t, so that’s why we here at the Elizabethtown Police Department have prioritized Anesha’s position.”

The room renovation and other purchases were made possible by a grant from the women-led philanthropic initiative Heels Together.

As the weather turns colder, Friends of Hardin County Animal Shelter is helping area residents who care for outdoor or community cats.

FOHCAS says for the fourth year the organization will be offering free winter cat shelters. The shelters are made of sturdy styrofoam donated by Eurotrol and filled with straw to help outdoor cats get out of the cold.

“These are for cats who live outdoors, who may be feral, or are just being fed by a caretaker but don’t have an indoor home, and so these shelters help to provide some shelter during the winter,” said FOHCAS Board Chair Sarah Fellows.

FOHCAS volunteers will be distributing the shelters from 10 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 22 behind the Hardin County Animal Shelter, located at 220 Peterson Drive in Elizabethtown.

“You’ll just turn down Headquarters Drive right beside the Hardin County Animal Shelter,” Fellows said. “You’ll go past their parking lot and go straight down through the end of that street, which is a cul-de-sac. It’s a very short street and we’ll be there from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. or until those are gone.”

There is a limit of two shelters per car. The shelters are free but donations will be accepted. For more information on the organization, visit the Friends of Hardin County Animal Shelter Facebook page or website.

The Olive Branch Fund, a nonprofit fund created by Olive and Oak Realty and housed out of the Central Kentucky Community Foundation, invites the public to help support their mission of supporting adoptive families at their Adopt-a-Fraser event, to be held November 28 and 29 at Village Green Landscaping in Elizabethtown.

Olive and Oak owner and Olive Branch Fund founder Tara Still says area businesses are sponsoring trees that will be on display at the event.

“The businesses are going to go in and decorate each tree with a different theme,” Still said. “These businesses have spent money to buy the tree and buy the decorations and taken time to decorate all these trees, and then we are going to auction these trees off at that event.”

A silent auction will also be held along with other activities.

“We have Santa, we have music, activities for the kids, food trucks, giveaways, and then we also have vendors,” Still said. “Since it’s going to be Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, we have vendors who are setting up in tents.”

All proceeds will support the Olive Branch Fund, which Still started based on the experience she and her husband had with the adoption process. The fund aims to help ease the financial burden on families looking to adopt.

“It’s typically around $20,000 to $50,000 to adopt, and I just remember thinking, ‘what if we didn’t have the means to do this? What would we have done?’” Still said. “So it’s always been something that’s just been huge on my heart.”

Visit the Olive Branch Fund Facebook page to learn more about the organization and the Adopt-a-Fraser event.