State highway crews will be doing inspection work along Poplar Street beginning Monday.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says a set of highway safety improvement projects throughout Elizabethtown will conclude this month with intersection work along West Poplar Street at Sycamore Street and North Mantle Avenue to improve sidewalk and crossing safety for pedestrians and provide better maneuverability for motorists. The work was scheduled to coincide with area schools going on Fall Break.
The KYTC says the original design of the project has been modified with construction to include rebuilding outside corners and sidewalk approaches. Both intersections will remain open during the project, but congestion and delays are possible. Work is expected to take about three weeks.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams this week said the number of participants in the commonwealth’s Safe at Home Program has doubled since the law creating the program went into effect in June.
“This is a program designed to protect survivors of domestic violence,” said Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith. “It’s built on prior legislation, but it basically makes it easy for somebody who is a survivor of domestic violence to shield from public view their address which would normally be on public documents. Unfortunately there have been abusers in the past who have used government transparency as a weapon against their victims.”
The Secretary of State’s office says a criminal justice domestic violence publication found that more than 38,000 reports of suspected domestic violence were filed in Kentucky in 2022, with the Kentucky State Police serving more than 16,000 emergency protective orders last year.
Motorists traveling through Bullitt County on Interstate 65 this weekend should be aware of upcoming lane closures.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says the right lane on I-65 North from Exit 121 at Brooks Road to mile marker 123 and the right lane of I-65 South from the rest/welcome center at mile marker 113 to mile marker 112 will be closed from 7 p.m. Friday to 2 p.m. Sunday. The rest area/welcome center will also be closed during that time frame.
The closures are to accommodate crews performing concrete slab repairs along I-65. Motorists should obey restrictions and use caution when traveling through work zones, and anticipate increased travel times when passing through the area. For more information, visit www.transportation.ky.gov.
Writer and director Scott Fivelson says his film Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story tells a story about an era of Hollywood gone by in an engaging way that plays upon several film classics.
“The movie is sort of a cross between, or invokes thoughts of This Is Spinal Tap, Sunset Boulevard, and That’s Entertainment! because it sort of retells the history of Hollywood in a way that’s never been told before featuring a director you’ve never heard of before: Oskar Knight,” Fivelson said.
Fivelson says the film features performances by late actor Lenny Von Dohlen, Academy Award winner Margaret O’Brien, Lassie actor Jon Provost, and others, shot in a way that tells a story that spans decades of movie history with special attention to detail.
“There’s sort of a Ken Burns-ish kind of detail that we ultimately brought to this, so it feels very real but at the same time – it’s not,” Fivelson said. “But it’s very funny, and very nostalgic, and in a way a kind of a call to a return to moviemaking that evokes when movies were movies.”
Fivelson is excited to present an opportunity for area movie lovers to see Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story, as the film will screen once a day at the Crowne Pointe Theatre beginning Friday. The writer and director says the film has been screened across the globe at theaters in New Mexico, New York, and Germany, and he says he is grateful to get to show his first directing effort to an expanded audience.
“I hope Elizabethtown comes out,” Fivelson said. “Comes out for fun, comes out to pay tribute to Oskar Knight, to see Lenny Von Dohlen in one of his greatest ever performances, and to support the theater. Rick Roman with the theater is a prince. He’s really a great guy.”
Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story will play at Crowne Pointe Theatre at 6:45 p.m. daily from October 6 to October 13. Tickets are available at www.crownepointetheatre.com.
Helping Hand of Hope Director Hope Burke said once she saw the trailer for the movie Ordinary Angels she had to bring the film to Elizabethtown.
“There is a movie that was actually based out of Kentucky in the 90s,” Burke said. “For people that lived here, I guess there was this huge blizzard that happened, and what people may not know is there was a little girl that needed a transplant and had to be flown 700 miles in that major blizzard.”
Burke said the message and subject of the film comes close to home for her family.
“My bonus son is having a scheduled transplant on Tuesday, and I was like ‘I’ve got to see this movie early. I’ve got to bring it here,’” Burke said. “So I contacted the studio and I just explained ‘Can I please see this movie? For some reason I’m really, really touched by this, and I need to see it.’ So they sent it to me and I got to see it and I’m telling you I cried from the beginning until the end.”
Through a special arrangement with Helping Hand of Hope and the movie studios, Ordinary Angels will be screened at the Crowne Pointe Theatre this Sunday, and tickets are available to anybody interested.
“Tickets are going to be free,” Burke said. “All anyone has to do is email us at Helping Hand of Hope or give us a call and we will get you signed up, and we actually just got moved to the bigger theater to have more seats available for the show.”
The film features performances by Academy Award winner Hillary Swank and other actors, and Burke alluded to surprises at previous Helping Hand of Hope events when discussing the movie.
“There’s a lot of other people in it,” Burke said. “You’re going to see just a moving story, and one thing I’ll tell people is you may want to come because you never know who may show up.”
For a free ticket to Ordinary Angels, playing this Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Crowne Pointe Theatre, email hburke@hhhope.org.
