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The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources says residents can now get registered to take advantage of the state’s finest outdoor offerings for 2024-2025.
Licenses and permits to fish, hunt, and trap in the state are on sale now. The 2024-2025 license period runs from March 1, 2024, to February 28, 2025.
Licenses cover basic hunting and fishing for most species, with additional state permits available for species such as trout, migratory birds, wild turkeys, and bears. New this year is the Senior Lifetime Sportsman’s License, which is available to residents 65 and older and streamlines the licensing process.
The sale of licenses, along with the excise tax collected from the sale of recreational firearms and ammunition, archery gear, and fishing equipment, is the primary funding source for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.
Visit fw.ky.gov to learn more and to order.
During Tuesday’s Hardin County Fiscal Court meeting, Hardin County Attorney Jenny Oldham introduced Katie Bennett, who began working as the treatment coordinator in the county attorney’s office on January 9.
Oldham said support from the fiscal court allowed the county attorney’s office to achieve a milestone.
“Thanks to the fiscal court, who appropriated phase one of our opioid settlement funds (at least Hardin County’s portion) to the county attorney’s office, we’ve been able to hire what I believe is the first ever treatment coordinator in a county attorney’s office for drug treatment,” Oldham said.
Oldham said Bennett, an Elizabethtown native, has been integrating herself into the criminal court system, and one of the main focuses of the job will be ensuring court-ordered treatment is handled effectively.
“She’s assessing local treatment, and when I say local, regional treatment providers, again to ensure the integrity of that treatment,” Oldham said. “We want to make sure that anytime we’re referring, and when I say referring it’s through a court order, we’re not just suggesting, but when we’re court ordering drug treatment, we want to make sure that that program is sound.”
Bennett is also tasked with facilitating non-violent and not-trafficking offenders to determine if the appropriate course of action is to get that person into a treatment program rather than jail.
Oldham said her office appreciates the potential impact the treatment coordinator position can bring.
“I know as a community we put a lot of resources toward treatment, and it would be nice to be able to measure that we’ve moved the needle, that we see lives that are improving for the person who’s dealing with the addiction, and we know that also includes their family, their community, so we’re excited that this could do great things,” Oldham said.
Hardin County has several programs and initiatives aimed at drug treatment and prevention, as evidenced recently by the county receiving Recovery Ready Community certification from the state.
Baptist Health Hardin President Rob Ramey was the featured speaker during the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce’s February luncheon Wednesday.
Ramey said as the hospital celebrates its 70th anniversary and Baptist Health celebrates its centennial, the hospital knows it has to look outside the hospital’s campus to continue impacting area healthcare.
“We’re constantly looking at how we evaluate the disparities in healthcare, where those underserved areas of our community are, how we’re going to more effectively collaborate with other healthcare organizations and other community partners to be able to reach those people, that population, and make sure that they’re getting access to healthcare as well,” Ramey said.
Later this year, the hospital will open its new Baptist Health Hardin Medical Pavilion. Ramey said the 282,000 square-foot expansion represents a $225 million investment, and with the expansion comes improvements to technology that Ramey said will make Baptist Health Hardin a leader regionally and beyond.
“We’re actually looking at trying to be not just nationally but internationally on the forefront of looking at 4-D types of technologies,” Ramey said. “Think about that. We want Hardin County to have access to those things before all those others around the country, so we’re continually looking at how we can provide the best care that we can and the best resources that we can for you all.”
Ramey says with a completion date in sight, the hospital now has its sights set on its next project.
“We’re building the pavilion, we open that later this year, but what that means is next year we get to start renovating the hospital and improving the things in the aging facility in the hospital,” Ramey said. “One of those things we’re going to be announcing is how we can enhance the services to our expectant and newly-delivered moms as well as to our youngest and most fragile patients as well, so we’re excited.”
Ramey said the expansion and renovations will help to reduce the strain on the hospital’s emergency department, which ranks as the third-largest in the state, and improve a neonatal intensive care unit that serves one of the top ten birthing hospitals in Kentucky.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the month Tuesday.
The court held the first reading of an ordinance that adopts a certification process for recovery residences in unincorporated Hardin County. Judge-Executive Keith Taul said the ordinance is modeled after the one recently adopted by the City of Elizabethtown, and came about after conversations with E-Town Mayor Jeff Gregory to help prepare for possible outcomes of E-Town’s new ordinance.
“If there’s some of the recovery residences that don’t want to become certified or they aren’t doing the right things, if they get shut down in Elizabethtown, there might be some tendency for them to move someplace else.” Taul said. “Hardin County can be one of those places along with some of the other cities in the county. So we wanted to get ahead of this thing and make sure that that doesn’t happen.”
The council also approved an inter-local agreement with the city to use E-Town Recovery Residence Enforcement Officer David Neary for county facilities, as at this time only one county facility is known of.
The first reading was also held on an ordinance approving about $2 million in unplanned budget expenses. An inter-local agreement with the Lincoln Trail Area Development District for a county Safe Streets and Roads for All grant application was approved, as was an $187,500 disbursement of county American Rescue Plan Act funds for Hardin County Water District No. 2 to conduct a study of wastewater improvements in the Glendale/South Hardin County area.
In other meeting news, Fort Knox Garrison Commander Colonel Chris Ricci presented on the Digital Air-Ground Integration Range which was added at Fort Knox’s Yano Range. Ricci said the $56 million improvement project should be completed in May, and Fort Knox wants residents to be aware of the expanded activity they can expect to hear.
“While we do anticipate more aviation use, the range will have similar types of training as before, so we’re talking virtually all types of tracked and wheeled vehicles, utility and attack helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, artillery and mortars, and dismounted training,” Ricci said. “Put simply, DAGIR is the largest and most complex live fire range that the Army utilizes at a home station.”
Emergency Management Deputy Director Richard DeWitt said a recent consultation with OSHA revealed only about $100 in expenses needed to fix potential violations. DeWitt credited the county’s preparedness to strong leadership.
“You don’t prepare for an OSHA visit the week or the day of,” DeWitt said. “It’s what you do every day, and it’s the support that all of you (magistrates) and the judge have put into our safety program that made this consultation come out the way it did.”
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet February 27.