WQXE News

Friday, March 1 is the deadline to register for the City of Elizabethtown Parks and Recreation Department’s annual 1,000 Mile Club.

“This will be our fifth year, and the goal of that club is to promote a healthier lifestyle for members in the community, to encourage them to run, walk, cycle, swim, or paddle 1,000 miles for the 2024 calendar year,” said E-Town Parks and Rec. Programs Coordinator Adam Case.

Registration for the program is $25, and the program has several incentives.

“We have benchmark prizes along the way throughout the year to keep you motivated, and we send out monthly updates from the club, and then everybody that registers for that will get a free t-shirt just for signing up, so it’s a win-win for us all,” Case said.

The 1,000 Mile Club is also a great opportunity to take advantage of the city’s park offerings.

“Between all of the Greenspace trails that we have and all the parks, there’s endless places to walk, run, and do all of the things,” Case said.

More information and a link to register can be found on the Parks and Recreation page of the city’s website.

One week after the BlueOval SK construction site was evacuated due to a bomb threat found in a portable toilet, a similar incident forced another evacuation Thursday.

“Originally, we got the call somewhere around 10 o’clock that they had found another bomb threat written inside another Porta-John,” said Chief Deputy David Lee with the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office.

Lee said BlueOval SK decided to evacuate the workers to specific areas on site rather than sending workers home, and the company conducted an internal search of the property. That search resulted in another call to law enforcement.

“Upon their search, they called back and they had found what appeared to be a device, with wiring coming out of the device connected to some sort of machinery item, and by machinery I mean either an air conditioning system or some kind of system inside that they have,” Lee said.

The sheriff’s office and the Kentucky State Police responded at that time. Closer examination of the device in question revealed there was no threat.

“The wiring was Christmas tree lights,” Lee said. “It was decided to remove the device, and it was just lying on Christmas tree lights to mimic a bomb.”

Lee said the plant was then given the “all clear” and operations were returned to normal.

Two Elizabethtown High School seniors are directing their first play for TK Stone Middle School. Kate Shirts and Madeline Curtis were asked to take on the project by E-PAC Director Carmen Caldera-Brzoska.

“Ms. C asked us if we would be interested in being senior directors for the middle school show because middle school, their program kind of fell apart after our show got canceled when we were in eighth grade for COVID, and it just never got rebuilt,” said Shirts. “We’re both really busy, so we were like, we can just do one together. We can’t do two separate.”

Before the two could direct a show, they first had to decide what play to do.

“We were supposed to do The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when we were in eighth grade, so we were looking at scripts and we were like ‘what if we brought it back and did it for our middle schoolers now?’,” Shirts said.

Both students have acted in numerous plays but directing is a new experience for them.

 “There’s just so many things you have to think about, because me and Madeline had talked about and kind of prepared for like the obvious things like what are we going to tell our actors, and how are we going to do notes, and when are we going to block, and what do we want our stage to look like, but then now we’re in tech week and we’re finalizing costumes and lights and all the stuff that I was aware of but I didn’t think about like how much work it was going to be to get it all together.,” Shirts said.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is being performed on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Elizabethtown Performing Arts Center, located at TK Stone Middle School on Morningside Drive in Elizabethtown. Tickets are $5.