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Elizabethtown City Council reviews ordinance regulating recovery residences

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The Elizabethtown City Council met for their first meeting of the new year Monday.

The first reading was held for an ordinance that requires the certification of recovery residences providing treatment for alcohol and other drug abuse. That ordinance follows Kentucky law to create a multi-point set of rules and regulations for said facilities and will allow for the city’s inspection officer to ensure facilities are in compliance. Facilities must be in compliance by March 15. Mayor Jeff Gregory said other communities in the state are looking to E-Town to take the lead on enforcement as there are more than 150 facilities in the city. A meeting will be held for property owners on the new ordinance at the Elizabethtown Police Department on January 29.

The council approved a municipal order that accepted certain streets into city maintenance. Included in the municipal order are several streets in the Magnolia Gardens and Ashton Park subdivisions. All of the accepted streets passed city inspections.

The council approved a resolution in support of the Elizabethtown Tourism Bureau for the Buffalo Lake Trail Phase One project. The portion of the trail that will be worked on in this phase starts at the Haycraft, and a groundbreaking is planned for this month.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet January 16.

LaRue County couple, former Bullitt County official sentenced in federal court

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A LaRue County couple will serve two years and nine months in prison on federal drug charges.

Court records state that Ashley Ramsey-Wilmoth and Stephen T. Wilmoth were each sentenced for conspiring to steal hydrocodone and oxycodone from a pharmacy to sell. Following their prison terms, the two will serve three years of supervised release, and will pay $2,500 in fines and about $18,700 in restitution.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky says Ashley Ramsey-Wilmoth was an employee of Century Medicines, and took unopened bottles of oxycodone and hydrocodone from the retail pharmacy and provided the drugs to her husband, Stephen Wilmoth, to sell and distribute. The case was investigated by the DEA, the Kentucky State Police, and the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Office of the Inspector General.

Meanwhile, former Bullitt County Master Commissioner John Anthony Schmidt was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison after he defrauded two trusts originally held by senior beneficiaries.

The charges stem from a case in which Schmidt stole over $435,000 while serving as the court-appointed trustee for two trusts, paying for his own personal expenditures including to pay debts related to his legal practice and the Bullitt County Master Commissioner’s bank account.

In addition to paying restitution, Schmidt will serve three years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service following his release from prison.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says there is no parole in the federal system.

Preliminary work at I-65/KY 480 interchange begins

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Preliminary work is set to begin this week on an interchange improvement project for Interstate 65 at Kentucky Route 480/Cedar Grove Road in Bullitt County.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says Cleary Construction Inc. of Tompkinsville was awarded the $18.7 million contract for the project, which is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2025.

The KYTC says the project “will improve access to the existing and committed businesses in Cedar Grove Business Park and the surrounding area.” The existing interchange will be reconfigured into a double crossover diamond interchange and will add enhanced signaling to the intersection.

Motorists should expect changing traffic patterns, lane shifts, and closures as work takes place in the area. Obey all restrictions and use caution when driving through construction zones.

Crystal Rogers investigation suspects Steven Lawson and Joseph Lawson make court appearances

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Two suspects charged in the Crystal Rogers investigation made court appearances last week.

Steven Lawson faces charges of Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence following his arrest in December. Lawson appeared in the Nelson County Circuit Court for a pre-trial conference and bond reduction hearing.

Lawson’s lawyer Ted Lavit said his client has consistently been cooperative with officials conducting the Rogers investigation, and said that an agreement had been made that Lawson would not be prosecuted. Lavit said that Lawson has proven he is not a flight risk with his cooperation with the investigation and has never made efforts to evade law enforcement. Lavit later said Lawson had been working in Winchester, Indiana, and then visited his mother in Harrison County the day he was arrested.

Lavit asked for Lawson’s bond to be reduced from a $500,000 cash bond to either a $20,000 cash bond or a $40,000 real estate bond. Lavit said Lawson does not have the financial resources to meet either, but those bonds are more obtainable for him than $500,000.

Special Prosecutor Shane Young said that Lawson was charged based on the decision of the grand jury to indict him when presented with evidence in the case. Young said he did agree that Lawson wasn’t necessarily a flight risk, but said a $500,000 bond fits the seriousness of the charges.

Nelson Circuit Court Judge Charles Simms III said he would make a decision on the bond reduction sometime within five days.

Meanwhile, Joseph Lawson, who faces charges of Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence, appeared in the Nelson Circuit Court via Zoom Friday from the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange.

The court was to consider a motion filed by the defense to reduce Lawson’s bond from $500,000 to $50,000 and to transfer Lawson to home detention with GPS monitoring, but Lawson’s attorney Kevin Coleman asked for that motion to be moved to a later date so that Lawson could attend the hearing in person.

Lawson’s next court date was set for February 8. Special prosecutor Shane Young said most of the discovery in the case should be processed and made available to defense by that time so a trial date should be able to be set.

February 8 is also the date of the next court appearance for Brooks Houck, who is charged with Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence in the Rogers investigation. Court orders were filed Friday for Lawson to be transferred from the Kentucky State Reformatory and Houck from the Oldham County Detention Center to the Nelson Circuit Court that day.

Unemployment up around the area in November

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Unemployment saw a slight uptick across the Lincoln Trail Region in November.

Data from the Kentucky Center for Statistics shows that unemployment rates rose in 117 of Kentucky’s counties from November 2022 to November 2023.

All eight counties in the Lincoln Trail Region saw increases, with the average going from 3.5 percent in November 2022 to 3.9 percent in November 2023.

In Hardin County, the unemployment rate for November 2023 was reported at 4.0 percent. That’s an increase from November 2022 when the rate came in at 3.6 percent as well as October 2023 when the rate was reported at 3.8 percent. Hardin County unemployment is also higher than the state average of 3.9 percent and the federal average of 3.5 percent.

Breckinridge County posted the highest unemployment rate in the region at 4.5 percent while Marion and Washington counties tied for the lowest at 3.2 percent.

Visit the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet online for more information.