WQXE News

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

City Finance Director Jeff Hawkins said city cash funds are up across the board from where they were last year, with the General Fund on September 30 sitting at about $36.2 million, up from $32.9 million at that point last year. Hawkins said the city’s occupational tax collection has grown from $13.6 million in 2015 to $33.2 million last year.

“For net profits, we’ve gone from $2.3 million to $6.9 million, an increase of $4.5 million,” Hawkins said. “Some of that’s related to the increase in tax rate. A lot of this is due to growth. As you can see by the business licenses, we’ve gone from just under 4,000 to almost 6,000 business licenses. That’s a lot.”

City Planning and Development Director Joe Reverman discussed the master plan for 938 and 948 Nicholas Street. Reverman said a dedicated master plan limited to just the involved property is part of the requirements for Planned Development District zoning.

“The plan that they’re proposing calls for 594 total housing units across three sections,” Reverman said. “That includes single family houses, duplexes, townhomes, and multi-family units. It also includes a small commercial section along Nicholas Street and approximately 22 acres of open space along Valley Creek.”

Elizabethtown residents Phil Dieckoff and Karen Macy raised concerns with possible commercial development on the three-acre property that borders five homes on Pawnee Drive. Dieckoff said the residents previously expressed privacy and security concerns related to nearby development, but the current property owners recently removed trees that created a screen and buffer for the houses. Macy said she is concerned noise issues she and her neighbors have dealt with will get worse.

“A change in neighborhood character, a new business can alter the quiet residential feel of a neighborhood, making it feel more commercialized,” Macy said. “We need to make sure that we get it rezoned from C-3 to C-1.”

Reverman said the city’s Planning Commission can set buffer and screening requirements for a development, but no official plans have been submitted to the city, so the city has no real control over a property owner removing trees.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet November 17.

The Kentucky General Assembly has approved a new “straightforward approach to the way license, tag, registration, and permit fees charged by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources will be adjusted in the future.”

KFW says several key changes approved by state legislators are now in effect.

According to a release from KFW, among the changes is a reduced-cost sportsman’s license that is now available for resident first-time buyers. The $35 license for individuals who have not purchased an annual license since 1996 includes a resident hunting and fishing license and permits for spring turkey, fall turkey, trout, state migratory bird and waterfowl, and statewide deer. Other changes include a $10 permit for bobcat hunting, changing the motorboat registration fee to be based solely on vessel length, and fee changes for boat manufacturers and dealers.

Under new regulations, KFW will make incremental price adjustments every other year for licenses, tags, registrations, and permits. These changes will be based solely on the Consumer Price Index calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The next adjustment in January, based on the CPIs from 2024 and 2025, will affect the remaining license year and the 2026-2027 license year which begins March 1. KFW says the change was made to make adjustments smaller and more consistent.

Licenses, tags, and permits for the new license year go on sale December 1. Visit the My Profile app at fw.ky.gov to purchase.

Feeding America, Kentucky’s Heartland is ramping up efforts to support Kentuckians affected by the ongoing government shutdown.

During a press conference at their Elizabethtown headquarters Thursday, the organization discussed the impact of the $5 million Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear ordered to be disbursed to Feeding America’s network of food banks as part of his state of emergency declared on October 31 after the shutdown disrupted SNAP benefits.

FAKH Executive Director Charles Dennis said the prevailing theme of the last several weeks has been “fear and uncertainty”.

“Fear from parents wanting to provide for their children, fear from our agency partners worried about having enough to meet the demand, and uncertainty for when things will change,” Dennis said.

FAKH says data shows more than 57,000 households in the organization’s 42-county service region received SNAP benefits in October.

Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman said it is likely that every Kentuckian knows or is related to somebody dependent on SNAP benefits.

“13 percent of Kentucky’s population, which is a higher percentage than the national average, receives SNAP,” Coleman said. “Over 60,000 of those are adults with disabilities. Over 92,000 of those are elderly. We also must recognize that those are not just numbers or statistics. They are human beings. They are our families, our friends, and they are fellow Kentuckians.”

FAKH received just over $1 million as part of the emergency funding to purchase and distribute food.

Learn more about how you can support the organization through donations or volunteering by visiting www.feedingamericaky.org.