WQXE News

As part of the state of emergency declared by Governor Andy Beshear, the state’s price gouging laws have been activated.

Governor Beshear said when he declared the state of emergency Saturday that the state’s price gouging laws would be activated in order to protect Kentuckians from overpriced goods and services as they clean up and recover from the winter storm.

Any Kentuckian who suspects price gouging is encouraged to report it to the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office’s price gouging hotline, available on the AG’s website or by calling 1-888-432-9257. Price gouging under Kentucky law is “a grossly excessive charge – more than 10 percent above the price prior to the emergency declaration – that is not related to higher costs to the seller.” Goods and services included in the state price gouging law include food, gasoline, shelter, transportation, emergency cleanup, and repair or reconstruction services.

The attorney general’s office says a report to the price gouging hotline is reviewed by a team of attorneys, investigators, and staff with the Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Protection to determine if price gouging has occurred.

Hardin County on average collects more than 50 tons of recyclable materials a month from the seven trailers set up around the county, proving the trailers are put to good use.

Hardin County Solid Waste Coordinator Stepanie Givens, however, says citizens must do more to ensure the recycling program is able to continue.

“If it is overflowing and it is falling out of the trailer, when we do go to clean that up, anything that is touching concrete on the outside of the trailer ends up at the landfill anyway, so all of that energy and effort you put in to do in the right thing, if that’s what your plan was, it still ended up at the landfill,” Givens said.

People not using the trailers properly has resulted in overflowing trailers, and if more people do not adhere to the guidelines the county risks losing the program. Efficiency is also important in order to make things easier for the Meade County Recycling Center, which is where Hardin County’s recyclables are processed.

“That recycle center can only process as fast as they can get them emptied and get them back to us, so the problem is if I take them over there and they’re already emptying out two or three of our trailers, they still can’t get to the third one or fourth one until they get something emptied,” Givens said..

Visit the Recycling page on the Hardin County government website for more information. Givens also encourages anybody with questions to contact her directly.

The National Weather Service in Louisville says confidence is growing that winter weather set to arrive in the area this weekend will be “significant and impactful.”

“We’re looking for a weather system to move into the area on Sunday with precipitation starting over Central Kentucky Sunday morning,” said NWS Louisville Forecaster Andrea Schoettmer. “That precipitation will likely start off as some snow and then change over to a wintry mix during the day on Sunday, and continue into the evening and overnight hours Sunday night into Monday morning.

Precipitation types are expected to change as the area goes through different temperature profiles.

“Sunday night can be more of a wintry mix with some snow for Central Kentucky, and then as we go into Monday morning before precipitation ends, turnover back to all snow,” Schoettmer said.

The NWS says during the day Sunday there is potential for significant icing along and north of the Western Kentucky and Bluegrass parkways. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District Four Public Information Officer Chris Jessie says motorists should be aware of highway crews applying brine to the roadways in anticipation of the winter weather.

“We’re out doing those operations today, like we were on Thursday, to try and prevent any future problems,” Jessie said. “Should plowing become necessary and temperatures really drop later this week and into next week, that brine solution will really help when we need to clear those roads.”

Prepare your home and vehicle for possible winter weather, and if road conditions deteriorate avoid travel if possible.