WQXE News

Area communities are among the recipients of the latest round of Kentucky Trail Towns grant funding from the state.

Governor Andy Beshear on Thursday announced that more than $540,000 in funds were awarded to 19 Kentucky cities for recreational projects such as trail development and maintenance, project enhancements, and marketing efforts.

“These grants will help improve, enhance, and promote projects that boost the quality of life in local communities while attracting visitors near and far,” said Governor Beshear during Thursday’s Team Kentucky Update.

The City of Elizabethtown received $25,000, which according to a release from the governor’s office will go towards “trail enhancements, promotion of local events, and signage installation.” Cave City and Horse Cave received $30,000, as did the City of Munfordville.

“I’m excited to see how these communities will continue to provide these new and incredible experiences and show off the best of our new Kentucky home,” Beshear said.

The Kentucky Trail Towns program was established in 2024 with an initial investment from the state of $720,000, which the governor;s office says builds off of the state’s economic momentum including with the tourism industry. Learn more about the Kentucky Trail Towns program at kentuckytourism.com.

The City of Elizabethtown is inviting members of the public to a public engagement session regarding historic preservation and the downtown area, to be held at the WesBanco Gallery at the Historic State Theater on Wednesday, March 19 at 6 p.m.

“We started this discussion last month and I had mentioned at that time that the council had directed us to look into potentially expanding the Historic Preservation District downtown due to a zoning change request that was over on College Street, and there was a discussion by citizens over there about historic preservation in general, not necessarily about the preservation district,” said City of Elizabethtown Director of Planning Joe Reverman during a meeting of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. 

Reverman said it is a good time to have these discussions as they line up with work on implementing goals and objectives in the city’s comprehensive plan, and the first step in the process is engaging public discussion.

“This is something that would affect property owners, and so we want to make sure that we’re engaging property owners, providing an educational component to this, getting feedback from property owners, things like that,” Reverman said.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday with a short presentation at 6:15, with time for questions and informal discussion after.

“There are some benefits to property owners, but definitely to the community as a whole to having preservation in our community and expanding the districts and expanding the role that preservation plays with development of our community, so we really want to have that discussion first and make sure that people understand what preservation is and how that can benefit the development of the city and the community,” Reverman said.

Direct comments and questions may be made to Reverman’s office at 270-982-2238 or joe.reverman@elizabethtownky.gov.

Friday is the deadline for area residents to provide their input to the Twin Lakes Skatepark Project as they work with Hunger Skateparks on the design of the planned skatepark in Grayson County.

“We want to know ‘what do you want to see?’” said Twin Lakes Skatepark Project Chairman Casey Keown. “We don’t want to just put together a park based off of what we think it should be, right? ‘Unity through community’ is our motto, so we really want to incorporate everybody’s input in this new skate park.”

Keown says the organization wants to hear from Grayson County residents as well as residents of surrounding counties that would utilize the skatepark. A link to the survey can be found on the Twin Lakes Skatepark Project’s Facebook page and website.

Keown says the project team has continued to make progress, including official recognition as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

“Right now our focus is on community engagement and fundraising,” Keown said. “We’re all really excited to see where this is going and you know I think for the most part we’ve kind of got everybody on our side, and our cards are just falling in the right place at the right time.”

Visit twinlakesskatepark.org for more information on the project.