WQXE NEWS

An officer with the Radcliff Police Department is recovering after being dragged by a vehicle he attempted to pull over Monday.

“At about 11:15 p.m., one of our officers, Officer Ryan Boyd, made a traffic stop down on Centennial Avenue over on the west side of Dixie Avenue near the intersection of Centennial and South Wilson Road,” said Radcliff Police Chief Jeff Cross.

Officer Boyd had pulled the vehicle over for speeding. Cross says the driver of the vehicle, a 17-year-old male, allegedly became nervous, and Boyd sensed this.

“He had the door open, trying to get the subject out of the vehicle, and the subject started it up,” said Cross. “The officer reached in across him to try to shut off the ignition, and he took off.”

The vehicle continued, with Boyd hanging on, through the intersection and east on Centennial. The vehicle left the roadway and went into the parking lot of an appliance parts store.

“He hit a mailbox, a UPS box, struck a small tree, and hit a pillar on the building and threw the officer out of the vehicle against the pillar,” Cross said.

The driver fled the scene on foot, but was apprehended a short time later.

Cross says Boyd was transported to the University of Louisville Hospital, and was scheduled to be released Tuesday afternoon.

The Elizabethtown Planning Commission approved two development plans and denied a sidewalk construction standards waiver during their meeting tuesday.

The development plan and commercial design review was approved for APEX Center, which will be located at 245 Ring Road. Two 15,300 square foot buildings will be constructed for a proposed retail strip center. Contractors said the site should host about 12 tenants.

A development plan and commercial design review was also approved for Vibrant Vitalite, which will construct a 5,000 square foot medical office at 1106 Julianna Court.

The commission heard a sidewalk construction standards waiver request from the Kort Office Center, located at 2618 Ring Road. A contractor installed a four-foot sidewalk on the property while construction standards require a five-foot sidewalk. Mike Billings with Engineering Design Group said a mistake was made by a contractor that installed the sidewalk to match the other sidewalks on the cul-de-sac, and Billings said the cul-de-sac has functioned without issue for nearly 20 years with four-foot sidewalks. Commission Chair Steve Rice said he was concerned with setting the wrong precedent by granting the waiver.

“Whenever you make exceptions to what the plan says and/or our guideline, you are setting a  precedent, and you have to look forward to any other situations and be able to defend those,” said Rice.

The commission voted to deny the waiver 3 to 1.

Elizabethtown Director of Planning and Development Joe Reverman said construction numbers are already up in the new fiscal year.

“Just since July 1, the new fiscal year, we’ve got 277 new housing units,” said Reverman. “For the entire year, we’ve got 824 new housing units and $308 million in construction costs for this year.”

The commission asked Reverman and his staff to research and make recommendations on height requirements for new construction.

The Elizabethtown Planning Commission will next meet September 12.

The Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office provided an update on voter registration numbers as the 2023 election is now less than three months away.

According to the Secretary of State;s Office, 6,149 new voters were added to the rolls in July, while 4,903 voters were removed. The Secretary of State;s Office says this is the fifth month in a row that new registrations outpaced voter removals.

Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith says growth in the area means more potential voters.

“Hardin County is a growing county,” Smith said. “We can see that every day as we travel throughout the community. That includes new people moving here for the first time, and I’m excited to see that they’re choosing to register to vote here in Hardin County.”

Kentuckians who want to have a say in an election highlighted by the race for governor can get registered with a quick trip to their county clerk’s office.

“It’s pretty easy,” Smith said. “We can have you in and out in about two minutes once you register to vote. It’s important. The elections coming up will be big and will impact Hardin County for years to come, everything from governor to auditor to attorney general to ag commissioner, and we’d love to see a high turnout for Hardin County in November.”

Election Day is November 7. Voters must be registered by 4 p.m. on October 10.