Quicksie 98.3
As the government shutdown continues, the Central Kentucky Community Action Council Head Start and Early Head Start programs are among the organizations that have grants expiring on October 31.
“November 1 is a time where the Central Kentucky Community Action Council will no longer have access to federal funds to operate our Head Start and Early Head Start centers across our six counties, and so that does put us in a situation where our 400 children and their families, as well as almost 150 staff members, are in a precarious situation,” said CKCAC Executive Director Bryan Conover.
With the November 1 cutoff approaching, the Central Kentucky Community Action Board of Directors on Monday unanimously approved a stop-gap solution. The organization is pursuing a line of credit from People’s Bank of Lebanon that will allow normal Head Start operations to continue until November 21.
Conover stressed that this is not a permanent solution, and said reopening the government to support programs like Head Start is not a partisan issue. It’s a people issue.
“We need our people taken care of and we need to make sure that our children, the most vulnerable of us in our communities, are able to get the early childhood education they so desperately need, and the nutrition services and the therapy services and just the socialization opportunities,” Conover said. “It’s really just a really important opportunity for the federal government to reopen and let us take care of our kiddos and our families.”
Contact Central Kentucky Community Action for more information.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their second meeting of the month Tuesday evening.
The court approved a lease agreement with West Hardin Fire and Rescue, which will allow Hardin County EMS to locate a “satellite emergency medical service station” at West Hardin’s Station Two facility located in White Mills. The agreement is for one year with automatic renewal unless one of the parties opts out.
Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul said the lease agreement had been “a bit of a work in progress”, but he said hard work went into making the agreement possible.
“All that goes with it, and all the work that went into making this station suitable for a 24-hour ambulance as needed was impressive, and we have some of our West Hardin folks here from Eastview and the White Mills area of the county, the western part of the county, so I just wanted to, before we vote, acknowledge how much work you all put into this and thank you for doing that,” Taul said.
Taul said during the fiscal court’s Town Hall Forum Monday that if the lease was approved he would announce ambulance plans Wednesday.
In other meeting news, the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office reported 181 arrests were made, 335 citations were issued, and 206 warrants were served in August and September. Hardin County Coroner Pat Elmore said his office worked on 90 cases in August and 89 cases in September, and noted drug overdose deaths year to date are down from 42 last year to 25 this year. Hardin County Quick Response Team Director Justin Blair said the QRT was busy making community connections in August and September.
“We went to 67 residential units, and in 27 of those we actually got to engage with the homeowner,” Blair said. “We distributed 18 naloxones and 51 resource guides so that they would know what resources are available to them.”
Learn more on the Quick Response Team – Hardin County Facebook page.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet November 10.