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Radcliff Police Department hosting backpack giveaway Saturday

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The Radcliff Police Department is looking to help area families as they get ready to send their kids back to school.

“This is gonna be our second annual backpack drive or backpack giveaway that we’re doing here in Radcliff,” said RPD Officer Jamaal Wilson. “We’re just trying to find ways to give back to the community.”

The backpack giveaway is open to all Hardin County students from elementary school through high school.

“You can meet us at the Radcliff Police Department this Saturday,” Wilson said. “We’re going to get started about 8 a.m. and we’re going to run until 12 p.m. or until supplies run out. We have over 100 backpacks to give out this year, so I’m hoping that we can give out every single one of them to go towards a family or a child that needs it, and that we can get them started off on the school year on the right foot.”

The donated backpacks came from several area businesses and organizations as well as from the RPD.

“All the backpacks and the supplies were all donated from either officers at the department or there were also some donations throughout the community, and also my church, which is Hope Temple Church of God in Christ which is here in Radcliff,” Wilson said. “They also partnered with me this year and gave a significant amount of backpacks and supplies.”

The Radcliff Police Department is located at 220 Freedoms Way.

Registration open for summer LIHEAP subsidy

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Registration is open for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program’s summer subsidy.

If you live in a Kentucky household and are responsible for your home’s cooling costs, you may be eligible for assistance through the LIHEAP program. The enrollment period runs now through September 12.

According to the Central Kentucky Community Action Council, income eligibility for the program is up to and including 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. At the time of registration, all applicants must provide all required documentation which includes proof of Social Security number or a permanent residence card for each household member, proof of income for all household members from the preceding month, your most current electric bill, and the account number and the name on the account for the electric bill.

Assistance is available on a first-come, first-served basis by contacting your local Community Action office. Hardin County Community Action Coordinator Julie Arney says walk-ins are welcome at the Elizabethtown office.

“We’re located at 233 Ring Road inside our Kentucky Career Center, or you can call us at 502-764-2222,” Arney said. “If you call, you can make an appointment. We do see those first, but you could walk in. Our hours are 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but we take our last client at 2 o’clock.”

Visit www.ckcac.org to find the Community Action office nearest you.

ECTC student emergency fund established in honor of founding college committee member

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A new endowment at the ECTC Foundation will help support Elizabethtown Community and Technical College students while honoring one of the college’s founders.

The ECTC Foundation has announced the creation of the W.D. “Bill” Burks Memorial Student Emergency Fund, which “will provide support for emergency awards to ECTC students when they encounter difficulties, ensuring they can continue their education uninterrupted.”

“We want to remove whatever barriers we can to help them focus on their academic studies while they’re here,” said ECTC Director of Philanthropy Chrissie Angell. “A lot of our students aren’t able to work full-time jobs because they are focusing on classwork, so this will just allow us to have a little bit of flexibility to help students when they have emergencies arise that they just really aren’t anticipating.”

The endowment was established with a $100,000 gift from Burk’s daughter, which will be matched by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System Endowment Match Program.

“He was a part of the original committee that was determined to bring higher education opportunities to Elizabethtown, so his daughter Jo Anne García-Meléndez wanted to do something that would honor her father and decided to start an endowment with the college,” Angell said.

Members of the public looking to support ECTC students may also contribute.

“They can go to ectc.us/give to make a donation, and then they would just want to look for the Support Other Fund at the bottom, and they can make a donation of any amount there, and just let us know that it’s for the W.D. Burks Memorial Fund,” Angell said.

ECTC is set to host express enrollment for the fall semester from August 12 through 15, with classes beginning August 18.

Upton man dead after wreck on WKP

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One person is dead after a wreck on the Western Kentucky Parkway.

According to the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office, at approximately 9:15 p.m. Monday deputies were dispatched to the 121-mile marker westbound on the parkway in response to a motor vehicle accident.

The sheriff’s office says the preliminary investigation indicates that 57-year-old John Barnes of Upton was traveling east on the parkway on a motorcycle when he lost control on the rain-slick road, left the roadway, crossed the median, and entered the westbound lanes. The motorcycle struck a tractor-trailer in a head-on collision.

Barnes was pronounced dead at the scene. The operator of the tractor-trailer reported no injuries.

The Hardin County Sheriff’s Office Reconstruction Unit’s investigation of the incident is ongoing.

E-Town council discusses park projects, ethics ordinance

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

Elizabethtown Parks and Recreation Director Seth Breitner gave an update on his department. Breitner said during summer 2025, 280 campers participated in the Parks and Rec Summer Camp over the course of 10 weeks, and the American Legion Park Pool saw more than 31,500 daily admissions. Breitner said the department is looking ahead towards several capital improvement projects including facility upgrades at American Legion and University Drive parks, bridge replacements on the city’s Greenspace trails, and improvements at Trooper Lake including mountain bike trails and a pump track.

“We have been awarded a $670,000 grant by the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund to move forward with this project,” Breitner said. “The city owns 74 acres currently at Trooper Lake. We’re in the process of adding an additional 40 acres to that and maybe even more depending on how this all works out.”

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said the city wanted to create a dedicated mountain biking space after Buffalo Lake was chosen for the outdoor music venue project.

City Attorney Ken Howard discussed the ethics ordinance set to be approved by the city council along with other area governments. The new ordinance is an update to the original ethics ordinance passed in 1994. Howard, who was part of the team that drafted the 1994 ordinance, said the process began with the city reviewing an updated model ordinance created by the Kentucky League of Cities.

“Then I started meeting with the city attorney for Radcliff, Vine Grove, and the county attorney to try to get consistency within all of those ordinances so that the goal was so that we could continue to have one joint Board of Ethics for the entire county,” Howard said.

Under the ordinance, the Hardin County Clerk’s Office would be the custodian of records for the ethics board and would receive ethics complaints.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet August 4.