WQXE News

Elizabethtown Community and Technical College President Dr. Juston Pate says when students are forced to stop their academic pursuits at the college it is rarely due to academic reasons.

“It’s really and truly those non-academic life barriers that pose those problems that seem insurmountable, and just prevent continuation toward a better life,” Pate said.

Pate says a survey of students found that 38 percent of them ran out of money six times over the course of the academic year.

“That’s what we are working to overcome, and the talent level of these folks that we’re talking about is immense,” Pate said. “The talent is there. We just have to find ways to focus that talent and channel that talent to something other than survival mode.”

ECTC hopes to eliminate one of the biggest barriers, housing, as they and partner organization Family Scholar House announced Friday the Home for Hope Campaign, a fundraising effort to secure the last $1.5 million needed to construct a $14.8 million 48-unit apartment complex on ECTC’s campus. Beginning in 2025, the complex will provide student partners with housing while they complete their education and build a better life for themselves and their families.

ECTC says Family Scholar house has provided more than 700 students with services the college is not able to provide. Those services support students like Lacy Sallee, a single mother pursuing her associate’s degree in applied science.

“It’s knowing that I have people willing to be there to show me how to work through my issues and to get things done not for me but to teach me how to do it for myself,” Sallee said. “I want to become something that my children can look up to, and I want to have a career doing something I can wake up and look forward to doing every single day.”

Pate says the project will have an impact on ECTC for years to come.

“It’s not just a solution for 48 families,” Pate said. “It’s a solution for 48 families at a time until they get their degree, then we have programs to get them transitioned into stable housing. It’s a long-term, multi-phase, multi-generation, multi-participant program.”

To learn more or to donate, visit www.ectcforbetterlives.com.

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A Tennessee man was killed in a motorcycle accident in Hardin County Friday.

Kentucky State Police Post Four says troopers responded to the intersection of Bardstown Road and Botto Avenue around 1 p.m. August 11. Troopers had been informed of a motorcycle traveling east at a high rate of speed on Bardstown Road, then were told by the Elizabethtown Police Department that the motorcycle had collided with a concrete culvert at the intersection.

The operator of the motorcycle was identified as 29-year-old Nicholas Carr of Chestnutt Mound, Tennessee. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Hardin County Coroner’s Office.

The preliminary investigation revealed that about thirty minutes prior to the accident, Carr’s motorcycle had been seen traveling north on Interstate 65 near mile marker 87 by a KSP Post Three trooper. The trooper had been unable to pursue the motorcycle due to the high rate of speed.

KSP Post Four’s investigation of the crash is ongoing.

Generous Community support and donations helped make last weekend’s Dirty Dog Bash a successful fundraiser for the Friends of Hardin County Animal Shelter.

The fourth annual Dirty Dog Bash was held August 4 at the Venue at Highland Sod Farm, and FOHCAS says after tabulating the totals more than $31,000 was raised to support the efforts at the animal shelter at a time where support is critically needed.

“It’s really such a wonderful event when so many people who share the same mission of the welfare of animals get together for a night as fun as the Dirty Dog Bash is,” said FOHCAS board member and communications head Sarah Fellows. “We’re so grateful to all of our partners, particularly our presenting sponsor Hardin County Honda, our good friends at Pet Supplies Plus and Honey Creek Arena, and all those that were able to offer sponsorships or donations or in-kind gifts. We really just can’t do this without them.” 

The event featured a live and silent auction, a wine/bourbon bottle pull, dinner, and music provided by 94.3 The Wolf’s own Kevin Jaggers.

For more information on the Friends of Hardin County Animal Shelter, visit www.fohcas.org.