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State hosting license plate design contest to help support spaying and neutering programs

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Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Jonathan Shell is inviting the public to submit their artwork for the state’s contest to redesign the Kentucky Spay and Neuter license plate.

According to a release from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, proceeds from the sale of the spay and neuter plate  go to the Animal Control and Care Fund, which the state Animal Control Advisory Board uses for animal control issues and applications for spay and neuter grants. Elizabethtown City Council Member and Animal Control Advisory Board Member Julia Springsteen says the hope is a new plate will help bring in more funding.

“We need to raise more money from the sale of these license plates, and sales have been flat over the last 10 years, and so we’re hoping a refresh of the design will make more people want to buy this plate,” Springsteen said.

More than $600,000 in grants has been awarded during the lifetime of the current plate, allowing more than 17,000 cats and dogs to be spayed or neutered.

“The revenue generated by these license plates goes directly to county shelters in Kentucky to help with their spay and neuter programs, and with the money dwindling, spaying and neutering pets is even more important these days,” Springsteen said. “We’re hoping to raise awareness, raise sales, and help our county shelters more.”

All are welcome to submit a design by April 20. Artists are asked to consider reasons for spaying and neutering in their designs. More information, a design template, and the submission email address are available at www.kyagr.com. Online donations to the Animal Control and Care Fund can also be made through that website.

Road closures in Elizabethtown set to begin Monday

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The City of Elizabethtown is announcing several street closures that are set to begin Monday.

The following streets will be closed to through traffic from March 3 until construction is completed later in the summer:

-Helm Street between South Mulberry and South Miles streets
-Terry Court
-Park Avenue between South Miles Street and College Avenue

The city says the closures are related to the Helm Street, Terry Court, and Park Avenue Street Improvements Project, and a pipe in the road needs to be replaced on Park Avenue. All closures will have barricades at each intersection with detours posted.

Contact the City of Elizabethtown for more information.

North Hardin High School goes on brief lockdown after alleged threat

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An alleged threat put North Hardin High School under a hard lockdown at around 10 a.m. Wednesday.

“That means that no students were permitted to leave their classrooms and all students and staff were secured where they were,” said Hardin County Schools Community Relations Specialist John Wright. “No one could leave or exit a secure area, but that lockdown, at approximately 10:15 a.m., was lifted.”

The lockdown resulted from a student who was reported to have a weapon.

“We had reason to believe that there was a threat to the building,” Wright said. “Law enforcement officers detained an individual who pretended to have a weapon. They did not have a weapon. This person thought that they were playing a joke; however, that student, it was a student, and they will face severe charges which will be dealt with in accordance with the law and the Hardin County Schools Code of Acceptable Behavior and Discipline.”

Wright says the usual One Call that goes out to parents in situations like this did not go out because the school was in and out of the lockdown so quickly. HCS commended the student that reported the incident to an adult who contacted school administration, and thanked area law enforcement for their quick response to the situation.

Greenspace and City of Elizabethtown hosting public meeting on master trails plan Thursday

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Greenspace and the City of Elizabethtown are partnering to host a public meeting at the Pritchard Community Center Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. to gather public input on the bicycle and pedestrian master plan Greenspace began developing about two years ago, with the organization contracting engineering firm Gresham Smith.

Greenspace President David Haines told the Elizabethtown City Council earlier this month the public meeting will be preceded by a series of stakeholder meetings.

“It’s going to be the first day for public engagement here at Pritchard Community Center and there’s going to be a series of meetings,” Haines said. “One for the project advisory committee, one for a stakeholder group that was identified and includes city leaders, business leaders, tourism, and user groups to kind of start getting ramped up on the bike pedestrian plan, where it’s at, giving input.”

Those meetings will be followed by the public engagement session from 5 to 7 p.m. and the launch of a website for the collection of feedback. Haines said the goal is to identify what the city has and what it needs going forward.

“What I told Gresham Smith is what I would like is a top three or five high-priority, high-payoff street projects that the city can look at and budget for in the next five to ten years,” Haines said. “That makes sense, and then beyond that a best practices manual that incorporates what they did with Complete Streets, but tailors it a little bit more towards Elizabethtown.”

More information and a list of contacts can be found on the City of Elizabethtown Government Facebook page.

Hardin County man serving prison sentence gets federal prison time for mailing threats

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A Hardin County man serving time for the murder of his brother has been sentenced in federal court for sending threats from jail.

Kyle Miller of Vine Grove was sentenced to four years in federal prison following three years of supervised release after he was convicted for Mailing Threatening Communications with Threats to Kill and Extort.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky, Miller mailed letters to victims containing threats to kill in July, August, and October of 2023, and in January 2024 mailed letters to a victim containing threats to kill and extort. The case was investigated by the FBI, Kentucky State Police, and the Elizabethtown Police Department.

Miller was arrested in June of 2019 for the murder of his seven-year-old brother. Miller was 15 at the time, but in October of 2021 he was retried as an Adult and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He has been serving his sentence at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty.