Local sports with A.J. Brammer.
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WQXE News
Local sports with A.J. Brammer.
Send your team’s schedule and stats to sports@wqxe.com!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:09 — 4.9MB)
Local sports with A.J. Brammer.
Send your team’s schedule and stats to sports@wqxe.com!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:13 — 5.1MB)
Unemployment rates across the Lincoln Trail District continue to trend a little higher than they did a year prior.
The Kentucky Center for Statistics says unemployment rates rose in 115 counties from December 2022 to December 2023, with the state unemployment average for December 2023 reported at 3.8 percent.
All eight counties in the Lincoln Trail District did see unemployment rates come down a bit from November to December 2023, but all eight counties saw increases from rates reported in December 2022.
The unemployment rate for Hardin County in December 2023 was reported at 3.9 percent. That’s down from the 4 percent rate reported the month prior, but up from the 3.4 percent rate reported in December 2022.
Marion and Washington counties tied for the lowest rates in the region at 3 percent, while Breckinridge County posted the highest unemployment rate in the region at 4.6 percent.
The national unemployment average for December 2023 was 3.5 percent.
Visit the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet online for more information.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District Four is actively working on repairing potholes that sprung open after the recent bout with winter weather.
The KYTC says frigid temperatures and precipitation followed by freezing and thawing cycles, and combined with traffic and snow removal operations, can turn small cracks in the pavement into potholes.
KYTC District Four Public Information Officer Chris Jessie says crews are doing their best, but road repair options are limited during winter.
“Pothole repair is one of the toughest actions our maintenance crews have to perform,” Jessie said. “We can go out and put cold mix in the hole, but we’re really limited to anything else that we can do. Asphalt plants are not open this time of the year, so we’re really dependent upon what we can tamp down as we put that cold mix in there and then traffic kind of compacting it.”
Pothole repair will be a battle throughout the season, so drivers should keep an eye out for them when hitting the roadways.
“With additional winter weather, potentially, by the end of the season, and certainly heavy rain as we’re experiencing here in this forecast stretch, many pothole fills will come back out, and it’s kind of a ‘chasing our tail’ kind of thing,” Jessie said. “We’re doing the best we can.”
Anybody that wants to report a pothole can do so by visiting transportation.ky.gov, go to the “Contact Us” link on the website, and click on “Report Hazard” on the dropdown menu.
You can get updates from KYTC District Four by following the office on social media.