WQXE NEWS

Area residents are advised to be mindful of outdoor burning as Kentucky’s Spring Wildfire Hazard Season is in effect from now through April 30.

“This area, you drive out in the county, you’ve got a lot of wooded areas around the fields,” said Radcliff Fire Department Deputy Fire Marshal Tomy Crane. “What we have sometimes is the grass in the field will actually catch fire and then that carries it into the wooded area, so that’s something that we have to watch for if the area is real dry.”

Crane says fire incidents can come from unexpected sources.

“I’ve been on fires where it’s been anything from a flicked cigarette to a farmer,” Crane said. “He’s bushhogging his corn stalk stubble, and he has a bearing overheat, and I’ve actually had where the fire actually spreads, it’ll have little spot fires all throughout his field because he didn’t realize it was catching things on fire as he drove around.”

During Wildfire Hazard Season, it is illegal to start any fires within 150 feet of any woodland or brushland between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. unless the ground is completely covered in snow.

Crane says check with local jurisdictions on other open burning regulations, and never leave any fire unattended. Crane also said if you plan on doing any burning, give local fire crews a head’s up.

“It’s always good to call 911, the non-emergency line, and just let them know that you’re planning on doing a controlled burn so that that way they have an idea, so if there is a callout for a possible fire then they can say ‘oh, well, we know there’s a controlled burn in this area,’” Crane said.

Find more information on Kentucky’s outdoor burning laws at eec.ky. gov.

The City of Elizabethtown is still collecting community input on the city’s “Vision Zero” Transportation Safety Action Plan.

City Director of Planning and Development Joe Reverman said public input is part of the creation of the action plan laid out by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets for All Program.

“The action plan is a public plan, it’s a plan for the public to use public funds and things like that, so we need to know what the public has to say about the safety plans and what roadways need improvements, and include that information as part of the action plan,” Reverman said.

The city received a $200,000 grant through the program to conduct engineering work related to developing the plan, and the plan will help the city as they try to secure additional funding through the program for road safety improvement projects.

“It’s a process where we’re gathering data, getting input from the public, and the goal is by summer to have this action plan developed so that by the fall of next year we can apply for future grants,” Reverman said.

The impact of recent efforts to improve safety can be seen in the data collected for the plan so far.

“Since 2022, the R-cuts on Dixie Highway and the roundabouts, they’ve already seen a reduction in accidents and likely lives that have been saved from those improvements,” Reverman said.

The public can view that data and provide their input on the safety action plan by looking for the Safe Streets for All link on the Planning and Development page of the city’s website.

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.