WQXE News

The Elizabethtown Fire Department responded to a fire alarm activation at Flex Film Corporation located on North Black Branch Road at 6:26 AM. While units were in route, dispatch advised that there was a fire in the building. A fire had started in the boiler room of the facility, but the sprinkler systems had kept the fire in check. Responders extinguished the fire using hoses from the trucks.

More details have been released regarding the officer-involved shooting that took place early Thursday morning. As previously reported, the Radcliff Police Department responded to 101 Navaho Drive on reports of an armed robbery. Upon officer’s arrival, they discovered an individual wielding a knife outside of the residence. The suspect failed to obey the officer’s orders to drop the knife, and began to charge two of the officers, who then discharged their service weapons striking the individual multiple times. The subject was taken to Hardin Memorial Hospital, and then was later flown to University of Louisville Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The two officers involved were placed on administrative leave. Charges are forthcoming regarding the robbery.

Elizabethtown High School head football coach Mark Brown has made the decision to retire. Brown, age 67, took over the team in 2014. Brown coached the Panthers to a 9-3 record, as well as a district title last season.

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory is reflecting on some of the successes of his first year in office. The Mayor says he feels most proud of how he has raised morale among city employees, and how they feel that they are as special and needed as anyone in the Mayor’s office. He would also go on to talk about what he hopes to accomplish with the next three years of his term. For the full interview with Mayor Gregory, listen to Community Forum this weekend.

The 10^th Annual Radcliff Mayor’s Community Breakfast will be taking place tomorrow. The event will take place from 9-11 AM at the Colvin Community Center. The event will feature typical breakfast items as well as door prizes. This is a free breakfast that is open to the general public to attend.

Bluegrass Cellular has begun accepting applications for the 2020 Bluegrass Cellular Scholarship Program. The company is giving away $18,000 in scholarships, which will come out to $1500 scholarships for twelve students. The application as well as guidelines can be found at scholarships.bluegrasscellular.com. The deadline for application is Monday, April 6^th. Scholarship winners will be notified later in April.  

The City of Elizabethtown has applied for two grants for hopeful future projects. The first was an application to the Kentucky Economic Cabinet in hopes of making improvements to the industrial park. The amount requested is $500,000. The second grant was submitted to the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management in an attempt to gain funds for improvements and repairs to local flood control structures in the amount of $2 million. The results of the applications may not be known for six to nine months.

The Elizabethtown Police Department has issued a warning after fraudulent credit cards were used to purchase building materials. Reportedly, two suppliers accepted a credit card payment over the phone, and the buyer picked up the supplies in a U-Haul. It was later found that the credit cards used were in fact compromised. Officer Chris Denham with EPD emphasizes using extreme caution when taking payments over the phone, and doing extensive checks on identification when taking payments in person. Detectives with the department are working to bring the suspects to justice.

The Hardin Memorial Health Board of Trustees has approves a two million dollar building project to remodel Hardin Memorial’s Progressive Care Unit (PCU) in order to make rooms more private. Currently, the PCU has thirty-four beds; two that are private, and thirty-two that are semi-private. This remodel will relocate sixteen beds to another area of the hospital to allow for the floor to be made into a private room only floor. The remodel is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

At a meeting of the Elizabethtown City Council held last night, Mayor Jeff Gregory issued a proclamation in honor of Linda Funk, former executive director of Warm Blessings Soup Kitchen. In the proclamation, Mayor Gregory declared that January 21^st, 2020 would be celebrated as Linda Funk Day in the city of Elizabethtown. Funk served Warm Blessings for thirteen years before announcing her retirement in December.

In the days following the announcement that West Point Independent Schools would be discussing entering into negotiations with Hardin County Schools for the purpose of a merger, interim superintendent Sally Sugg discussed some of the difficulties she sees members of the district facing as talks proceed. Sugg predicts that adults in the community will have the most trouble with a transition, considering how much history people in the community have with the school, as some families go back multiple generations of attending West Point. However, Sugg is confident that the students are resilient and strong enough to make the transition without much difficulty. The next board meeting for the district will be held on January 28^th, and the public is invited to attend.

A Radcliff man was arrested earlier this week after his part in a verbal altercation. According to arrest citations, Isaac Patterson of Radcliff was involved in a verbal argument over his continued drug use when he became outraged. Patterson told the victim, his mother, that he was going to take a knife and stab her to death while she was asleep. When police arrived, they found Patterson rolling a blunt with marijuana in plain view on the table. Patterson was charged with terroristic threatening, as well as possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He is lodged in the Hardin County Detention Center.

The artistic community of Elizabethtown will be on display tonight at the Hardin County Schools Performing Arts Center as The Novel Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four, opens at the theater. The show will run tonight, where house opens at 6:30 PM, and through this weekend with a matinee on Sunday, then next week from Thursday to Sunday with the same hours. Tickets and prices can be found online at thepac.net.