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North Hardin High School hosted Academic Signing Day Friday, an opportunity to celebrate with seniors that have committed to a post-secondary education institution, the workforce, or the military. The event also gave Elizabethtown Community and Technical College the chance to present North Hardin High School College Coach Annette Neblett with their 2024 High School Teacher/Counselor Pathfinder Award.

ECTC says each KCTCS institution selects a recipient each year. The award is presented to a faculty or staff member that encourages students to attend a KCTCS college, assists students in identifying career and postsecondary paths, provides mentorship, and maintains contact with students.

ECTC President and CEO Dr. Juston Pate said he appreciates Neblett connecting students to the college, but her work ultimately benefits everybody.

“Her willingness to spend her time investing in these kids is really an investment in all of our futures, but to have the ability to work alongside someone like Annette for our college, for North Hardin High School, it’s really special to see these people doing this work and to be a part of it,” Pate said.

Neblett said the award was nice, but seeing her students celebrating their futures was the real prize.

“It makes my heart feel so great because it’s getting better,” Neblett said. “The kids are starting to listen more and they’re starting to really pay attention to what I’m saying, so I really appreciate all of them coming out today and just enjoying themselves, and this is all about them. It’s not about me. It’s all about them.”

ECTC says nearly 320 Pathfinder nominations were received statewide.

Voter registration in Kentucky saw another surge ahead of the deadline for the primary election. 

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams says more than 8,300 new voters got registered between April 1 and the pre-primary registration deadline on April 22. 

In turn, about 4,600 voter registrations were removed. About 3,300 removals were for deceased voters, 543 for felony convicts, and 562 for voters who moved out of state.

Adams says Republican registration in the state rose by a little less than 2,700 voters, and independent or other registrations went up by more than 1,700. Democratic registrations decreased by about 700 voters.

Voters that qualify for in-person excused absentee voting may do so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the Hardin County Clerk’s Office. Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith says the same qualifications for a mail-in absentee ballot apply to in-person absentee, but voters can cast a ballot as they would on Election Day.

“Some of those qualifications are if you’ll be out of town or scheduled to work all dates and times of in-person voting,” Smith said. “The law uses the phrase ‘age, illness, and disability.’ Sometimes those words ring a little harsh on our ears. There is no definitive age, illness, or disability. We don’t ask. You just attest to it.”

Early voting for all will run at the clerk’s office and at the Colvin Community Center this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The primary election will be held on May 21. Find more election information at govote.ky.gov.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is highlighting new recognition of the commonwealth’s economic success.

The governor’s office says Site Selection magazine ranked Kentucky in second place for its South Central Region rankings and in eighth place nationally in its 2024 Prosperity Cup rankings. The Prosperity Cup “recognizes the competitiveness of state-level economic development agencies and their success in landing capital investment projects according to data from 2023.” Expanded facilities, new jobs created, and sales tax climate are among the criteria for the rankings.

The governor touted some of the state’s accomplishments during the ribbon cutting for the ECTC BlueOval SK Training Center Wednesday.

“We’ve now had over $30.6 billion of new private sector investment in us in just 4.5 years, a record by far, over a thousand new location and expansion projects, 52,700 new jobs,” Beshear said. “We’ve broken every export record, every tourism record. It is an exciting time to be a Kentuckian right now.”

Beshear has cited BlueOval SK as being the catalyst for making the electric vehicle industry a central part of new development in the state.

“We are leading this country in the EV sector with $11.7 billion announced in just 3.5 years, and 10,250 full-time jobs,” Beshear said.

More information on Kentucky economic development efforts can be found at ced.ky.gov.