WQXE News

The apprehension of a man wanted for an incident in Clarksville, Indiana, blocked traffic on Mulberry Street in Elizabethtown briefly Wednesday.

“We were contacted by the Clarksville Police Department, who requested our assistance in locating the suspect in a shooting that occurred in Clarksville,” said Elizabethtown Police Department Public Information Officer Chris Denham. “Members of our agency were able to locate the suspect, Eric Tabor, at the Motel 6 on North Mulberry Street. Our tactical team was alerted and responded to the scene. Tabor was taken into custody without incident. He was lodged in the Hardin County Detention Center.”

According to the Clarksville Police Department, Eric Tabor was wanted for a Wednesday morning shooting that left a man in Clarksville with a gunshot wound to the face. The victim’s injuries are considered non-life-threatening, and he is in stable condition in a Louisville hospital.

A sports legend with a local connection will serve as grand marshall for the upcoming Heartland Homecoming Parade.

“We welcome everybody on August 26 to the Heartland Homecoming Parade, where we will have perennial Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and All-Star Cal Ripken Jr. representing the Ripken Experience, which is a partnership we have formed at the Elizabethtown Sports Park,” Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said. “We ask everybody to come out and welcome him to our great community.”

Cal Ripken Jr. is a World Series champion, member of the 3,000 hit club, and owns the Major LEague Baseball record for most consecutive games played. The former Baltimore Oriole shortstop’s organization Ripken Baseball opened the Ripken Experience Elizabethtown at the city’s Sports Park this summer, hosting youth baseball and softball tournaments, camps, and experiences at the complex.

Elizabethtown Events Program Manager Beth Pyes said the city wanted to recognize Ripken for the Ripken Experience’s success.

“I don’t think anybody in our community can deny the impact the Sports Park has had on our community as a whole, so we thought it would be a great honor to have him be the grand marshall,” Pyles said.

Pyles also says Ripken fits in well with this year’s parade theme: World of Sports.

“We’re thinking about the impact sports has not only on our community but in everyone’s life, whether they have a favorite college team, professional team, or they go cheer on their children or their grandchildren at their soccer game or football game or baseball game,” Pyles said. “Sports is a pretty important component of pretty much everybody’s life whether they participate or are just a fan.”

The 2023 Heartland Homecoming Parade will make its way from downtown Elizabethtown to St. John Road beginning at 10 a.m. on August 26.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court heard reports on Animal Control and Emergency Management during their regular meeting Tuesday.

Animal Care and Control Director Mike McNutt said the animal shelter took in 84 dogs and 91 cats during the month of July. 76 dogs were adopted out, 12 were returned to owners, 8 were secured, and 15 were euthanized.

McNutt said while the euthanasia rate is up, it is not due to time and space in the shelter, and stressed that the adoption rate has also increased. He also said the biggest drop off has been in the number of dogs getting returned to their owners.

“Not as many people are coming and getting their animals back from the shelters, and that’s a nationwide problem going on now,” McNutt said. “For the second quarter it was up to a 26 percent increase over the past two years. We’re hoping that stables off eventually because the shelters can’t handle much more.”

The live release rate for cats in the shelter is 95 percent, and 268 spay/neuter surgeries were performed on dogs and cats in July.

Hardin County Emergency Management Director Joey Scott discussed some of the incidents his department responded to in recent months. King also praised members of his staff who have developed strategies for responding to incidents on the Nolin River.

“This year we’ve had quite a few incidents coming down there,” Scott said. “I think we’re just trying to be more efficient in our response to that, so with Nick (Douthitt) and Richard (DeWitt)’s work on a mapping process for us down there I think it’s going to really speed up our response time to lost people on the river location-wise.”

Ahead of their next regular meeting, the fiscal court will host its first town hall forum at the former West Point School on August 27 at 5:30 p.m. Magistrate Fred Clem said he wanted to correct a previous report that topics at the forum had to be submitted ahead of time.

“We’ll have a little bit of an agenda, and then it’s just going to be opened up to where the folks can have a dialogue back and forth with county officials, so the formality of it is going to be disposed of,” Clem said. “Just come with questions, comments, and suggestions.”

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet for a regular meeting on August 29.