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Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is currently accepting applications to fill game warden positions in several counties.

KFW says game wardens “are sworn law enforcement officers with statewide jurisdiction who enforce all laws of the commonwealth. Their primary mission is to enforce hunting, fishing, and boating laws to help conserve Kentucky’s fish and wildlife resources for present and future generations and to ensure public safety for the state and its waterways for all to enjoy.”

Applications will be accepted through May 7. The application can be found under the Game Warden Recruit posting at personnel.ky.gov. Applicants who pass the initial screening criteria will then need to pass a physical fitness test, swimming test, oral interview, psychological and drug screening, polygraph, background review, and medical evaluation.

Applicants must be at least 21 years of age and possess a valid driver’s license. Selected applicants not already Peace Officer Professional Standards certified will undergo 20 weeks of basic training at the Department of Criminal Justice Training in Richmond along with 14 weeks of training in the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Academy, followed by 12 weeks of on-the-job training with a field training officer.

Among the counties with game warden openings are Breckinridge, Jefferson, and Meade. More information is available on the job posting or at fw.ky.gov.

City of Elizabethtown Director of Planning and Development Aaron Hawkins told the Elizabethtown City Council last week that the Downtown Master Plan, which the planning department has been developing over the last year, consists of a developmental toolkit and an action plan which features three major projects: redesigning the downtown Public Square, a flex street on South Main Street to connect the new city hall complex to the Public Square, and a boardwalk area for Valley Creek.

Hawkins said the plan eliminates the 27 parking spaces currently in the Public Square, which combined with converting the traffic pattern to a roundabout increases safety and increases pedestrian activity.

“It gives, on all four quadrants of our square, the ability to not only add public space and pedestrian space, but also add things like art quadrants or sculptures or fountains or landscaping,” Hawkins said. “Things to beautify the square, not only to make it safer for pedestrians to walk throughout the businesses and around the square, but also to just make it more enjoyable in general.”

The city has plans for a new city hall complex between South Main Street and Mulberry Street, and the plan includes features to temporarily close South Main Street for city events, which allows city events to take place without closing Dixie Avenue to traffic. The flex street keeps the new City Hall connected to the downtown area.

Hawkins said the Valley Creek boardwalk gives the city a water feature that is a common feature to downtown areas.

“The concept and the thought is to create a boardwalk of sorts along Valley Creek that not only has an active portion down below right off the creek where you can funnel hikers and bikers and walkers through, but also a second tier on the back sides of buildings that creates more of a pedestrian plaza type area where the businesses can utilize that to have store fronts along the boardwalk on the creek, not just store fronts on the road,” Hawkins said.

The plan will be submitted to the city’s Planning Commission and the City Council for adoption. More information on the plan is available on the city’s website.