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Hardin County Fiscal Court reviews emergency services, landfill property use

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The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their second meeting of the month Tuesday.

Jeff Stone with ESCI presented findings and recommendations from the emergency services study commissioned by the county to evaluate current county services and projecting needs based on anticipated growth in the county, with a primary focus on fire and EMS. Stone said most of the county volunteer fire departments are not currently ready for 24-hour service, the majority of the fire apparatuses need to be replaced, and EMS likely needs additional units to cover demand. ESCI recommended immediate goals such as a collective strategic plan and evaluating of funding, and provided a recommendation on a potential levy to cover funding for emergency services.

“We delineated doing three cents for residential, five cents on the farm, and six cents commercial, and that would produce about $3.5 million, so just over three times as much funding right now, and what that would allow is the county could divide that money how they wanted,” Stone said.

Magistrate Chris Yates introduced a written resolution stating that the county does not wish to alter its current lease agreement on the Pearl Hollow Landfill or sell or transfer any landfill property. Judge/Executive Keith Taul said he was frustrated the resolution was presented in a way that he was not able to discuss it with the magistrates ahead of time, and said the county has been exploring options involving property near the landfill in order to fund county parks efforts. Taul said there is interest from potential stakeholders but the resolution ends discussion.

“I believe that’s the purpose of this, is to end that process, and I feel bad for the citizens of the county that we’re not going to be able to utilize the lands,” Taul said. “It’s going to sit there like it is right now, not used. And for what purpose? I have no idea.”

Yates said the magistrates have had time to review the proposed plan and were not interested in pursuing it. Magistrate Aaron Pennington said he agreed with Yates and said it was time for the county to focus on other tasks.

“Instead of kicking the can down the road and saying ‘hey, let’s try to figure this out in a few months’ when we’re going to make a decision that we’ve already expressed that it’s not a good idea, let’s not continue to go through,” Pennington said. “I think it’s important. Let’s go ahead and end it and let’s focus on things like the budget and other things that we need to focus on.”

The resolution was approved on a 6 to 3 vote.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet April 8.

Goodwill Industries hosting opportunities fair in Elizabethtown Wednesday

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Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, the Kentucky Chamber Foundation, and Fifth Third Bank are hosting a Fair Chance Opportunity Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Goodwill Elizabethtown Opportunity Center, located next door to Quicksie and The Wolf at 243 West Dixie Avenue.

“A lot of folks that we assist through our opportunity centers are released from jail with basically nothing to their name,” said Goodwill Industries of Kentucky Communications Coordinator Kyle Williams. “We give them a hand up, not a hand out, on their journey back to the workforce and self-sufficiency, and this is just one of the examples.”

Williams says the opportunity fair is a “full-table event.”

“Several of our community and employer partners will be there to offer a wide range of holistic services for these folks like employment opportunities, there’s going to be legal support, there’s going to be an expungement clinic that we will be hosting through Goodwill and our legal aid partners throughout the state,” Williams said.

Appointments for the expungement clinic are full, but walk-ins will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The opportunity fair is open to the public.

“The beauty of it is it’s a holistic approach to their self-sufficiency, so it’s going to be a one-stop shop where you’re going to get a lot of different resources if you’re in that justice-involved population,” Williams said.

Learn more about Goodwill’s expungement program and other services at www.goodwillky.org.

One dead after crash in Grayson County

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The Kentucky State Police is investigating a fatal crash that occurred in Grayson County Monday. 

KSP Post Four says at around 3:30 p.m. on March 24 the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office requested troopers investigate a two-vehicle collision near the 4,000 block of Grayson Springs Road.

The KSP says the preliminary investigation indicates 42-year-old Charles E. Cann of Clarkson was driving a vehicle east on Grayson Springs Road when for unknown reasons the vehicle crossed the center line and struck a tractor-trailer operated by Bennie T. Sims of Clarkson.

Cann was pronounced dead at the scene by the Grayson County Coroner’s Office. Sims was transported to Owensboro Twin Lakes Medical Center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries and was later released.

The KSP says Grayson Springs Road was closed in the area of the crash for several hours for accident reconstruction. The investigation of the crash remains ongoing.

E-Town Planning Commission reviews Saint John Road zoning change request

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The Elizabethtown Planning Commission reviewed several property proposals during their meeting Tuesday evening.

A public hearing was held on a zoning map amendment and conceptual development plan for 707 Saint John Road. Requested by property owner Hanna Yun, the zoning would be changed from R-1 Low-Density Residential to R-6 High-Density Multi-Family Residential and C-3 Regional Commercial.

Elizabethtown City Planner Aaron Hawkins said the submitted conceptual development plan lays out a mixed-use development.

“The applicant is proposing to convert their existing single family house and residence into a clubhouse for the development as well as adding multiple hotel buildings, a commercial strip development, and multi-family buildings,” Hawkins said.

The proposed property would include 114 hotel rooms across four buildings, 126 studio units in a corporate housing unit, and a commercial building with three to five tenants. City planning staff recommended approval contingent on the implementation of screening measures to protect neighboring properties and the installation of a roundabout on Saint John Road at the property’s entrance.

Several nearby residents expressed concerns with the impact the development will have on the neighborhood including noise and light pollution, environmental impacts, and traffic hazards. Celia Thomas, who owns one of the neighboring properties, said she had concerns with the use of prefabricated modular buildings in the design.

“If this were to pass, it would set a precedent for future modular buildings in our beautiful city of Elizabethtown, and I cannot imagine anyone wanting this to happen, and if any of you all lived where I do you would not want this either,” Thomas said.

The planning commission tabled the discussion until their April 22 meeting as one of the area property owners could not be properly contacted ahead of the meeting.

In other meeting news, the commission voted to recommend approval of a zoning map amendment for 475 Hodgenville Road from C-3 to R-6 to accommodate a 288-unit apartment complex. The amended development plan for the Dixie Business Center at 4601 North Dixie Avenue, which accommodates additional business units at the site, was also approved.