The Drug Enforcement Administration will be conducting its 24th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day this Saturday. The Take Back Day offers free disposal of unneeded prescription medications whether they are old, unwanted or expired. Collection sites will not accept sharps, syringes or illicit drugs and liquid medications like cough syrup should be tightly sealed in the original container to prevent leaks. The Take Back Day event will take place from 10 AM to 2 PM local time and you can find the location nearest you by visiting DEATakeBack.com.
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The Elizabethtown City Council held their regularly scheduled meeting last night. The Council adopted a resolution to update the hazard mitigation and flood mitigation plan. The Council also heard and adopted municipal orders to award two contracts for projects in the city. The first order awarded the Freeman Lake South End improvements. “This contract with Scotty’s will have them start the site preparation work. So they will get the area ready for the playground. They will get the area ready for the pavilions and the restrooms and the parking areas. Then the playground contractor will come in and they will finish the site with the playground. Scotty’s then does all the trails and all the parking lot paving. We will have separate contracts for the tennis courts and the pavilion,” stated City Administrator Ed Poppe. The contract for the playground construction was awarded to Miracle Playgrounds Of Kentucky And Tennessee which is the same company that brought Funtopia to the city. The other contract that was heard and adopted awarded the Fire Station #4 to RBS Design Group which was the company that did Fire Station #2. During public comments, Bryton Hawkins asked the Council to explore the possibility of a municipal composting facility. “What I’m here to talk about today is, I believe that our city needs a municipal composting facility set up. The main reason I want this is for farmers to have a reliable source for clean compost. Another reason is, I filed a FOIA request with the landfill. It is currently emitting 2000 tons of methane. I believe that could be mitigated with a composting setup.” Mayor Jeff Gregory said it was a great idea and something to look at. The next City Council meeting will be a work session held on April 24.
The 6th annual Autism Spect-Run will be held this saturday. The run is the biggest fundraiser held by Camp TESSA Hardin County. “We have our annual 5K coming up April 22 out at Severns Valley. The race starts at 8:30 AM. That 5K is our biggest fundraiser. Camp TESSA is all community supported,” shared spokesperson Kay Mau. The 5k helps fund the week-long summer camp that pairs children and adults with autism with similar age peers to participate in activities that work on community based instruction, daily living skills, building social skills and post-secondary transition. To register for the 5k and find more information, visit the Camp TESSA Hardin County Facebook page.
City of Elizabethtown summer day camps and swim lessons registration officially opened up yesterday. “We opened up registration for summer camp and what that is is six weeks of week-long sessions. It will start June 5 this summer. The only week that we will not have summer camp is the week of July 4 just because it’s a shorter week. There will be summer camp the rest of the weeks. We also opened up swim lessons,” said Director of Parks and Recreation Seth Breitner. Camp weeks usually fill up quickly. For more information or to register, visit ElizabethtownKY.org and visit the Parks and Recreation page.
On Friday the Elizabethtown Sports Park kicked off the youth baseball tournament season with Baseball Hall Of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. Ripken was at the park to celebrate the start of The Ripken Experience Elizabethtown that will help youth baseball players experience what it is like to play at the major league level .
“So we wanted to create, you know, a tournament experience that would make everyone feel like Big League. It is really important for us to have really good quality fields to really do a lot of the same things as the big leaguers do. The concept was to bring those types of experiences to more kids so they can really enjoy the game of baseball better. So that’s really what the Ripken Baseball Experience is. I mean, you have a chance to have your own walk-up music, all the amenities that are there. We want to create that experience for all of you,” said Ripken Baseball Founder Cal Ripken, Jr. Ripken shared why the Elizabethtown Sports Park was chosen to become part of The Ripken Experience. “We couldn’t be happier and more proud. This complex is a beautiful complex. In order for us to come out, branch out and grow across the country, the main thing is to have a big league caliber type complex, and this definitely qualifies as a big league quality one.”
Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory shared his thoughts on seeing this project become a reality. “Another great day at the Etown Sports Park. You know, we announced this collaboration with Ripken Experience last summer, which was our ten year anniversary at the sports park. So we’re really proud of what we’ve done out here and the success that we’ve had out here. But you never rest on your laurels. And you always look for ways to improve. We’re really excited to partner with Ripken Experience. And we think this is just going to be another improvement for not only our sports park, but our community, and continue to grow and get better.”
The tournament continued through the weekend with 30 teams, 54 games and more than 1500 visitors to the city. Twenty additional baseball tournaments will be held at the complex through the fall, welcoming in over 1000 teams this year.