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Hardin County receives Recovery Ready Community certification

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The Lincoln Trail District Health Department says Hardin County has received certification from the state as a Recovery Ready Community.

“It gives us a framework to look at what is going on in the community around youth prevention initiatives, substance use prevention initiatives, harm reduction, treatment, recovery support for individuals that are in recovery,” said LTDHD Harm Reduction Manager Jennifer Osborne. “It gives us an idea of what is already in place in the community and what we might see as opportunities for improvement in a community.”

Hardin County received a score of 252 points in the state’s review of the county’s application, needing 225 points for the certification.

Osborne said one of the county’s strengths is it already has a strong agency for substance abuse policy board in place to discuss recovery and prevention issues, as well as the availability of several organizations to offer services. Another strength is the partnership of several organizations and entities coming together to address the issues.

“For instance, the partnership between the health department and the Communicare regional prevention center, our partnership with the Drug Court there in Hardin County, our EMS and coroner’s office, as well as Baptist Health Hardin,” Osborne said.

One area of improvement identified was the need for a quick response team which would reach out to victims and families after a non-fatal overdose, which Osborne said is already in development in Hardin County. 

Osborne said Hardin County is fortunate to have the coordination it does, something that helped the health department as they prepared their application for certification.

“Having somebody who can kind of case manage or help coordinate care for an individual, a lot of times that is a solution to some of that problem of having all of these fantastic resources but how do we get people to utilize them effectively, and that care management a lot of times helps with that problem,” Osborne said.

Learn more about the Recovery Ready Certification at rrcky.org.

Hardin County Clerk’s Office no longer closing Feb. 14

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The Hardin County Clerk’s Office has announced that after catching up on work last week the office no longer needs to close on February 14.

Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith said his staff put in the time and effort to make sure another closure wasn’t needed.

“I’m proud of the staff,” Smith said. “I know it was an inconvenience to the public to shut down the in-person service for one day this month, but it allowed us to get caught up on a lot of backlogs. We processed hundreds of registrations and other transactions.”

Customers should still anticipate delays due to the rollout of the new system.

“The clerk’s office remains busy,” Smith said. “The lines remain longer than we would like. There remain more problems with the KAVIS software than we would like, but every day we’re getting a little bit better and we wish, ask, and thank the public for their patience.”

Meanwhile, the clerk’s office is gearing up for the special election on March 19 to fill the Kentucky House District 26 seat vacated by Russell Weber. That election will be set next Tuesday.

“There is one candidate on the ballot, but February 20 at 4 p.m. is the deadline for write-in candidates, so potentially there could be a write-in candidate,” Smith said.

Smith said the county has responsibilities for every election regardless of size because the person on the ballot has not previously received votes for that position.

The special election will give area residents a chance to get acquainted with the clerk’s office’s Radcliff location at 101 West Lincoln Trail Boulevard, which will be the site of absentee, early, and election day voting.

Crystal Rogers investigation suspects make court appearances

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The three men charged in the Crystal Rogers investigation made brief appearances in Nelson Circuit Court Thursday.

Brooks Houck, who is charged with Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence, along with Stephen Lawson and Joseph Lawson, who are each charged with Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence, appeared in person for the status hearing. The hearing began about 40 minutes later than scheduled, which Nelson Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III said was due to a delay in transferring Joseph Lawson to the courtroom from the Kentucky State Reformatory.

The primary purpose of the hearing was to review the status of discovery in the case. Special Prosecutor Shane Young said more than one terabyte of data has been transferred to the defense attorneys, with less than a terabyte still needing to be transferred. Young said due to the complexity of the case and in order to give the defenses enough time to review, a trial date in 2024 was unlikely. A trial date, subject to counsels completing review, was set for February 10, 2025.

Young said discovery should be completed by mid-March, by which time the prosecution should be ready to submit a motion to join the three cases in order to try all three suspects in the same trial. Houck’s defense also plans to have a motion for a change of venue submitted by that time. A status conference for all three suspects was scheduled for March 21.

Houck and Stephen Lawson then departed the courtroom, after which the court considered a request to reduce Joseph Lawson’s bond from $500,000 to $50,000 with a medical release to home incarceration with GPS monitoring. Lawson’s defense said Lawson is a paraplegic, which limits his independent movement and ability to flee, and having Lawson incarcerated hampers his defense as they said was evidenced by the delay in getting him to the courtroom. The prosecution argued against the reduction, stating that Lawson’s criminal history proves he can’t be trusted to obey orders from the court, and said when Lawson originally learned he was a suspect he began contacting associates to ask them to cover for him and help him create an alibi, so a release runs the risk of allowing Lawson to further obstruct justice. Judge Simms said he would rule on the motion as soon as he could.

Neary ready to get to work as E-Town recovery residence enforcement officer

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Elizabethtown Recovery Residence Enforcement Officer David Neary says prior to the March 15 enforcement date of the city’s new Recovery Residence Certification Ordinance he is reaching out to the owners and operators of the facilities to let them know what to expect.

“I’ll get to meet the people who own and operate recovery residences and let them know ‘I’m not out to get you, I’m just here to enforce what the law says,’” Neary said.

In his new position, Neary will be tasked with checking in on the more than 150 recovery residences in Elizabethtown to ensure they are in compliance with the law, which the city drafted to match state regulations. Neary said these facilities have not been regulated before, and the new law ensures people entrusting their recovery to these facilities are not being taken advantage of.

“One of the things they taught me at Treatment Court is drug addiction is a lifetime treatment,” Neary said. “You never fully recover. It’s something you’re going to have to spend the rest of your life on, and we just want to make sure that people out there saying they’re trying to help these people are truly helping.”

Neary comes to the position after an extensive career in law enforcement, and those skills are likely to come in handy.

“I’m fully sworn, that way if I should uncover something when I’m inspecting I can act upon it,” Neary said. “I have all of the authority of any police officer in the city of Elizabethtown to do that.”

The full text of the ordinance can be found on the city’s website.