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Hardin County Fiscal Court approves new solid waste provider and again votes down GIS position

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The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the year Tuesday.

Hardin County Jailer Josh Lindblom provided an update on medical billing for inmates at the Hardin County Detention Center. Lindblom said as part of the sale of Hardin Memorial Hospital $150,000 annually is supposed to go towards medical bills for the jail. Bills were not being adjusted to the Medicaid rate for inmates in the hospital for more than 24 hours, and Lindblom said after discussions the hospital acknowledged the county is right.

“The good thing about it is going forward now every bill we have for the hospital worth $150,000 will be repriced, so what that means is over the next 15 years that we have it left there will be about $750,000 in savings at least,” Lindblom said.

Lindblom presented a check for $50,383.53 from an audit of 2025 billing, and said audits will be conducted for the other four years after the sale.

The court approved resolutions assigning the county’s solid waste franchise agreement to Unified Disposal Partners Holdings LLC. Judge/Executive Keith Taul said UDP plans to buy the Kentucky and Tennessee assets of Platform Waste, the current solid waste provider for the county. The court also approved a resolution assigning the county’s intergovernmental support agreement to UDP, which covers solid waste service to Fort Knox. The county says curbside pickups and scheduled routes will continue uninterrupted, and residents should continue to use their orange cans.

The court held a second vote on a resolution approving the hiring of a full-time GIS coordinator. County Attorney Jenny Oldham said under Kentucky law if the vote on a resolution for the hiring of personnel remains tied for 15 days, the judge/executive has authority to make the hiring decision. E.G. Thompson, who abstained from the original vote, said given the existing contract with the Lincoln Trail Area Development District he was not ready to move ahead with the resolution.

“We have looked at cost savings and I’ve not heard that it’s inadequate,” Thompson said. “I do believe it’ll be a cost savings and in my mind it’s worth giving a good close look at to see if we can operate this way, and then if we can’t we need to go back and look at it again.”

Taul said he believed the more fiscally responsible choice was to hire a staffer rather than contract out the work. He also expressed frustration with the magistrates intervening in the hiring process.

“We do not know of any time in the last 20 years that the fiscal court has ever denied hiring an employee in an approved budgeted position,” Taul said. “I’ll say this: this negatively affected the morale of employees whenever this happened last month.”

The resolution was voted down 5 to 4.

In other meeting news, Hardin County Planning and Development Director Adam King said in 2025, 94 plats and 189 lots were recorded, 480 total building permits were issued, and 91 new single-family dwellings were approved. Hardin County Public Works Director Stephanie Givens said 937 bags were collected from 866 visitors during the county’s free shredding days in 2025, and 302 tons of products were collected from the county’s recycling trailers.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet January 27. The next Hardin County town hall forum will be held in the fiscal courtroom on January 26.

Scams targeting social media users and victims of scams reported

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Kentucky residents are being warned of several ongoing scam attempts.

If you were a recent victim of a scam, Team Kentucky Stop Scams warns you may be targeted again.

According to a Stop Scams alert, scammers often target their victims again with refund and recovery scams. The scammers will pose as organizations such as a law firm or a government agency and falsely promise to help recover money that was lost for an upfront fee. The Stop Scams team reminds Kentuckians to never pay fees or share personal information with unverified sources.

Meanwhile, the Better Business Bureau Serving Greater Kentucky and South Central Indiana is warning consumers of a phishing scam involving users of X, formerly known as Twitter. Users, typically of accounts with larger numbers of followers, receive a direct message with a link to click, after which they are locked out of their account and their account is used to promote cryptocurrency or other products. 

The BBB says you should familiarize yourself with the policies of the social media platform you are using, as most do not send emails with attachments. Be wary of unsolicited messages that ask you to click a link or open an attachment. Look for signs of scams including poor spelling, bad grammar, pressure to act now or demands for payment. 

Learn more about scams and sign up for alerts at stopscams.ky.gov. If you have not done so already, set up two-factor authentication for your social media accounts.

Elizabethtown City Council hears project updates

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The Elizabethtown City Council met for a work session Monday.

City Director of Wastewater Treatment Corey Bond provided an update on his department. Bond said the city treated 2.9 billion gallons of water in 2025, with an average volume of about 13 million gallons per day, which is 62 percent of the wastewater treatment facility’s maximum capacity. The city’s facility expansion plan has been submitted to the state for approval. The estimated cost of the full expansion is about $120 million, but Bond said the work will be completed in phases to evaluate demand.

“The first phase of the expansion will be a new admin building and new equipment that we need in order to meet new regulations that are put forth by the state, and then we can also phase in later on the actual expansion of capacity,” Bond said.

City Administrator Ed Poppe provided an update on several city projects. Poppe said several projects related to the outdoor music venue are progressing. Commerce Drive will be closed until spring for construction operations, and the Kentucky Division of Water approved a water line upgrade project being conducted in conjunction with Hardin County Water District No. 2. Poppe said the project did hit some delays related to sinkholes, with costs coming out of project contingency funds.

“I’m happy to report that remediation work has been done, the projects moving along, so Congleton-Hacker and our design team have worked very well with our special inspectors, and like I said have done a really good job of staying on top of that from a timing standpoint,” Poppe said.

Poppe said work on Fire Station No. 4 is nearing completion, and after also seeing some soil remediation work the expansion of the Elizabethtown Police Department is progressing.

Elizabethtown Airport Board Chair Carl Swope provided an update. Swope said the city’s acquisition of the Hayden School Road property adjacent the airport will go a long way towards supporting the airport’s strategic plan. Work on a corporate jet hangar has been completed, while Swope said the board is requesting $600,000 from the city for the next phase of their T-hangar project as the board waits for grant application opportunities.

“We got done sooner than we thought we would, so we are not as close to the next round of funding as we thought we would be, and even then I was probably going to have to be here anyway, but I’m here today asking if it is possible to do some bridge funding, some gap funding,” Swope said.

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said the city and council would discuss the requested funds.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet January 20.

Radcliff city Council hosts first meeting of 2026

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The Radcliff City Council met for a called meeting and work session Monday.

The council approved an agreement with the Lincoln Trail Area Development District for a six-month trial contract for LTADD’s Office of Public Relations service. Council Member Jerry Brown said he would like to see the city hire a full-time PR official, so the trial contract is a good test.

“There’s a perception of Radcliff that I want to address,” Brown said. “I think this will hopefully start that process. We need to brand ourselves. We need to start sharing the positive stories, the positive people, the positive events that take place in our community. We’ve never done that the way we could.”

The council approved a budget amendment related to a construction building adjacent to the new Baptist Health Hardin facility on Centennial Avenue. Radcliff Mayor JJ Duvall said the city’s portion should cost between $150,000 and $175,000.

“We had discussed the road off of Centennial, which is going to be right there adjacent to Baptist Health, which was bid back in October,” Duvall said. “The recording was done and the easement was given to the city for the road.”

During the work session, the council discussed remediation services for the cabins at Saunders Springs. The city previously approved termite remediation, but additional restoration work has been requested for damages to the Stovall cabin. Duvall said the city needs more time to discuss the commitment the city is willing to invest.

“There’s been some proposals,” Duvall said. “I know Ms. (Radcliff City Council Member Toshie) Murrell has asked if Tourism would be willing to participate as far as helping restore those cabins. Those are conversations we can have, but I think long term we probably need to determine what value they are to our community and then if we were to spend the kind of money that it would probably cost to get them restored to the level they need to be at.”

The Radcliff City Council will next meet January 20.