WQXE News

A strong population of two-year-old birds is anticipated as spring turkey hunting season approaches in Kentucky.

Spring turkey hunting season begins with a youth-only weekend April 4 and 5, followed by the 23-day general session which begins on April 18. Hunters with proper permits during the season may harvest two legal birds, meaning birds that are male or have a beard, but only one bird per day.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife says higher-than-usual turkey brood surveys from the past two summers signal healthy populations for hunters to pursue in the commonwealth, with numbers indicating an improvement in turkey survival rates over the past five years. The summer 2024 brood survey showed 70 percent of hens with an average of 2.7 poults. Male poults hatched in 2024 will be two-year-old turkeys this season. The summer 2025 brood survey showed hens with an average of 3.5 poults.

Shooting hours for the spring season are 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. An annual hunting license and spring turkey permit, or the all-in-one Sportsman’s License, is required for adults. Hunters ages 12 to 15 require a youth hunting license and turkey permit, and hunters under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

The spring season concludes on May 10. More information on the season can be found on the Spring Turkey Hunting page at fw.ky.gov or in the Kentucky Spring Hunting Guide.

The Elizabethtown City Council met for a special meeting Monday.

The council approved three ordinances on their second readings. The first annexed property on Leitchfield Road, to be zoned Regional Commercial (C-3). The second approved the rezoning of 106 East Memorial Drive from Neighborhood Office (C-1) to Neighborhood Commercial (C-2). The third approved the rezoning of 237 West Poplar Street from Urban Residential (R-4) to Downtown Mixed Use (C-5).

“I do think this will be a good addition to downtown,” said City Council Member Julia Springsteen about the Poplar Street property. “It’s on the outer edge of what we consider to be downtown, and I think it’ll be nice to draw people in and out.”

City Natural Gas Department Director Matthew Hobbs gave a report on his department, which he said employs 12 full-time employees. Hobbs said the number of inspections and the number of new services “is holding pretty steady.” The department completed about 7,600 locates in 2025, down from about 8,000 in 2024. The city natural gas system’s average flow over the last three years is about 93 percent.

“Which is phenomenal, but the bad thing that tells me is that you only got about 7 percent that you can grow before we need to be getting more supply in there,” Hobbs said.

City Public Works Director Don Hill discussed the city’s annual Spring Clean-Up, which will run March 30 through “tentatively” May 1.

“The schedule coincides with brush collection, however, because of the amount of debris that is put out through the month, we will go through the areas, not by the week, but we’ll start in area one on March 30, and we’ll continue to run the route schedule through the four areas throughout the month,” Hill said. “Usually we make three to four passes throughout the city.”

More info on Spring Clean-Up can be found on the City of Elizabethtown Government Facebook page.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet April 13.

With spring being a prime time for thunderstorms in Kentucky, you can assist the National Weather Service in Louisville by completing training to become a SKYWARN Spotter.

According to the NWS, SKYWARN is a volunteer program in which trained severe weather spotters help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the NWS. Since the program was introduced in the 1970s, the information provided by spotters combined with improved satellite and radar technology has enabled the NWS to issue more timely and accurate warnings for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and flash floods.

The NWS offers free online training sessions with NWS meteorologists for anybody interested in volunteering their time as a spotter. The training sessions typically last one to two hours and contain information on identifying and reporting severe weather, severe weather safety, severe weather climatology, and thunderstorm types and threats.

A schedule of online webinar events, including those being hosted March 24 and 25, is available on the NWS Louisville website. The NWS Louisville office also has introduced a four-part online training program consisting of four modules and quizzes. Upon completion, volunteers will receive a link to register in the spotter database.

Additional online courses and resource information is available after completion of the SKYWARN program to supplement training. Visit the NWS Louisville website for more information.