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Hardin County Fiscal Court hosts first September meeting

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

Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith named Bluegrass Middle School student Alyson Marinich a Hardin County Election Ambassador in recognition of her winning the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office’s “I Voted” sticker contest.

“These are folks here in our community and throughout the state who promote elections and encourage people to vote, and I don’t think there’s going to do anything more to encourage local people to vote than to get that one-of-a-kind ‘I Voted’ sticker,” Smith said.

Smith also informed the court and public that his office recently completed scanning and uploading 70 years of county election history. Those documents can be found on the county clerk’s office’s website.

Tim Asher with the Hardin County History Museum discussed the organization’s recent activity. Asher said the museum has adopted a cultural heritage plan which they hope to present to area communities in hopes of spurring “historic tourism.”

“We have lots of individuals who come to the museum,” Asher said. “They will go through it and they go ‘What else is there to do?’ and what we want to do is to give them exciting and interesting things to do where they will change their travel plans and stay one more day in Hardin County, or they will come back and go to see those programs.”

Hardin County Planning and Development Director Adam King said the number of permits filed with his office in 2025 is down from this point in 2024.

“I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t tell you exactly why that is, but I think some of it’s just what we’re experiencing on a daily basis, from market uncertainty going on right now, tariffs, interest rates, you name it,” King said

The court approved a resolution approving the lease agreement for accessibility equipment from Stryker Sales LLC. The agreement was previously approved by the court, but had to be rescinded in order to go through the proper bid process.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet September 23.

Historic cars set to visit Historic Holt Home Thursday

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The Historic Judge Joseph Holt Home in Hardinsburg will be welcoming some special visitors to the property Thursday as the Glidden AAA Car Tour makes a stop.

“This is a three to four day event where the Glidden AAA antique cars travel across America, and they’ll be coming from Owensboro to the Historic Holt Home beginning at 9:30 a.m. central time until 11,” said Friends of the Holt Home President Susan Dyer. 

The public is invited to check out this celebration of “A Century of Movement.”

“We hope we’ll have a beautiful day, and visitors can walk if they want to and bring a lunch or something,” Dyer said. “We have a picnic area there, and the home is open so they can tour the home, and talk to all these very unique drivers because this is like the third day or the fourth day of the tour, and this will be something that they maybe haven’t experienced before. A 100-year-old car driving down the road is pretty unique.”

The home belonged to Joseph Holt, who served as Judge Advocate General of the United States Army under President Abraham Lincoln. The home is located at 6205 KY 144 in Hardinsburg. Visit the Friends of the Holt Home Facebook page for more information.

E-Town Lawn Party series wraps Wednesday night

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The City of Elizabethtown is set to host the final Lawn Party at the Lake concert of the season Wednesday night.

Radiotronic will take to the bandstand at Freeman Lake Park for the September concert. The Louisville-based cover band will feature hits from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Parking at Freeman Lake will open at 5:30 p.m., with music getting started at 6:30.

“It is a totally free event,” said City of Elizabethtown Events Manager Beth Pyles. “We have food vendors onsite so you can get something to eat. We also have alcoholic beverages for sale for those 21 and over.””

All ages are welcome to attend.

“The goal of this series is just to create some free entertainment for our community,” Pyles said. “You know, Wednesdays are kind of a casual night. Get off work, come out during the summer, and enjoy a nice night of music at the lake. It’s just a beautiful venue.”

Seating is festival style and music fans are encouraged to bring a chair or blanket. Coolers and outside alcohol are not permitted. Find more information on the concert at www.etownevents.com.

Officers says E-Town enforcement of recovery residence ordinance is effective

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The Elizabethtown City Council met for a work session Monday afternoon.

Officer Chris Elam provided an update on the city’s enforcement of the recovery residence ordinance that went on the books in 2024. Elam said there are 89 sober living facilities located within city limits, and three in unincorporated Hardin County the city provides enforcement for. Elam said while it was hard to show a data point on how the situation has improved since the ordinance was passed, he provided an example of a facility that made no effort to provide its residences with better living conditions or to meet requirements for certification that eventually departed the city.

“If these people didn’t care enough about the people in the apartment to worry about him having hot water and power, they’re not going to care about anything else going on in that apartment or outside that apartment,” Elam said. “If they can’t even get an application started, they don’t have the skill set to run the program, so that is a huge circus that we’re not dealing with, the citizens of E-Town are not dealing with.”

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory noted that prior to the ordinance there were more than 160 such facilities in the city. Elam said the ordinance at least weeds out bad operators.

“There’s some of the people operating these places that are very good,” Elam said. “They actually care about what they’re doing. They keep and maintain nice places. They work with me. I ask them to do stuff, and usually it’ll be done that day or very quickly afterwards. I get very few complaints.”

Elizabethtown Planning and Development Director Joe Reverman gave an update on his office’s accomplishments last fiscal year and its goals for the next year. Reverman said the office has been focusing on topics such as housing affordability, roadway safety, walkability, and historic preservation. That includes new standards to give developers more flexibility and expanding historic preservation.

“One of the hurdles that every community has when they’re adopting preservation is getting community buy-in on that because it’s hard to convince citizens to allow more regulation on their property, but there are a lot of benefits for preservation and we’re trying to get that word out, get that education out about what those benefits are,” Reverman said.

Reverman said since January 2022, when development spiked following the BlueOval SK announcement, 2,893 new homes have been constructed, with another 1,517 in the planning phase.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet September 15.

Independent and other voter registration leads state for six straight month

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It was another strong month for new voters registering independent or other party in Kentucky. 

The Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office says for the sixth straight month Kentuckians registering to vote under independent or other outpaced new registrations by Republicans or Democrats.

According to the Secretary of State’s Office, independent or other registration in August increased by 1,867 voters. Republican registration increased by 1,467, while Democratic registration decreased by 1,128 voters. Republican registration makes up 47 percent of the state electorate, Democratic registration makes up 42 percent, and independent or other makes up 11 percent.

The Secretary of State’s Office says 4,559 voters were removed from the rolls in August. 3,590 were deceased, 416 moved out of state, and 429 were convicted felons.

Kentuckians can register to vote or check their registration status by visiting govote.ky.gov, or by contacting their county clerk’s office.