WQXE NEWS

A voter registration deadline for the May 2024 Primary Election is actually at the end of this month.

“December 31 is the deadline to change your party affiliation in order to vote in that party’s May primary election in 2024,” said Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith. “We’ve got a presidential election coming up. We’ve got other federal delegation elections coming up, so we encourage everybody to go to govote.ky.gov and double check their party affiliation and make sure it matches the way they plan on voting in the primary in May of 2024.”

By law, a voter registered as Democrat or Independent after December 31 may not vote in the Republican primary, and any voter registered Republican or Independent after December 31 may not vote in the Democratic primary. The law does not apply to new voter registrations made after the new year ahead of the primary registration deadline.

Smith also said Hardin County residents should remember that a statewide computer conversion will impact vehicle registration at the start of 2024.

“Vehicle registration of any kind will not be available from January 1 until at least January 9,” Smith said. “We ask for the patience of the public as we continue to make this conversion. Once we get this up and running, feel free to come in or call the county clerk’s office. We should be able to take care of you.”

Contact the Hardin County Clerk’s Office for assistance.

The Radcliff City Council met for their final meeting of 2023 Tuesday.

The first reading was held on three ordinances annexing about 47 acres on the west side of North Dixie Highway between W.A. Jenkins Road and Les Dawson Road, a property at 5571 North Dixie Highway, and a property at 5511 North Dixie Highway. First readings were then held on ordinances that rezone those properties from either R-1 or C-2 to R-6 High-Density Residential or Planned Unit Development. At the council’s previous work session, Mayor J.J. Duvall said the developers of the property have been working on this step for a while.

“This is right between the Aaron’s and the cabinet shop,” Duvall said. “There’s a development we’ve been working with nine or 10 months, so they’re finally deciding to move forward.”

The council approved a bid from Realty World for $8,500 for a property at 2589 Vonoa Drive, and approved an update to the city’s COVID-19 policy reducing the amount of paid leave from 5 days to 3 based on recent guidance.

With the meeting being the last of the year, Council Member Jerry Brown thanked his fellow council members for a productive year.

“We want the best for Radcliff,” Brown said. “We want to fight for you. We want to give you the best, and we think that that’s the first step in what’s going to be many. Mark this year. Mark today. It’s going to get better and better in this city.”

Duvall said he believes Radcliff is in the best shape it has been in for some time, and credited that to the dedication of city officials, council members, and city employees.

“We don’t have the huge budget,” Duvall said. “We’re at $13 or 14 million. Elizabethtown’s at $100 million. You just look at the numbers and we do a lot with very little, and that’s not to complain. That’s just to say that’s really what we have to work with, and so all of the employees always step up – police, fire, our non-hazardous employees, and so we work hard to get things done.”

The Radcliff City Council will next meet for a work session on January 8.

Two bills supported by Kentucky Second District Representative Brett Guthrie are under consideration by the United States Senate.

Guthrie recently spoke with Quicksie and The Wolf about bills on his legislative agenda, one of which is the Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act, which recently advanced out of committee in the Senate.

The bill reauthorizes the Support Act, which was signed into law in October 2018, and focuses on funding for community-based treatment recovery programs. Guthrie said he considers it his signature legislation.

“What our bill does is give support to local communities to make that decision,” Guthrie said. “That’s why I was having my meetings in local communities. If we just have huge grant programs that are prescriptive from the federal government, a one-size-fits-all Washington approach, that doesn’t help communities. It may help some communities, and some communities it doesn’t, so we leave a lot of discretion particularly at the Frankfort level but coming down to local communities to help people.”

Guthrie said he thinks it is important to help people who want to be helped.

“Now there’s some people that are just criminals, and we can’t just dismiss that, and I think we’ve allowed that to happen and we’re trying to tighten that up through our Judiciary Committee, but what we want to do is make sure people are free of their addiction or can live with their addiction so that they can be productive citizens again,” Guthrie said.

The Senate will also be considering the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support. Guthrie said at a time where people are struggling with health care costs people need to know what they are paying for.

“It focuses on exposing those anomalies, and not necessarily anomalies but planned pricing schemes so that people just continue to raise the cost of everyone,” Guthrie said. “We want everybody to have health care, and we want everybody to have the benefits they were promised. We have to have a system that’s sustainable and affordable and doesn’t bankrupt our grandchildren.”

Guthrie is the chair of the Health Subcommittee on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.