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First day of school arrives for Elizabethtown Independent Schools

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Today is the first day of classes at Elizabethtown Independent Schools.

“We’re really excited about the beginning of the school year,” said EIS Superintendent Paul Mullins. “Our teachers have been receiving some professional development, getting their classrooms ready, and our maintenance crew and our custodial staff have done a wonderful job this summer getting the school buildings ready to receive students, and we’re just looking forward to the beginning of the school year.”

Mullins said the first day is particularly special for him as he didn’t come aboard as superintendent last school year until classes were already under way.

“I didn’t get here last year until September, so I’m really excited to be here as the school year starts to see the schools and to meet all the students and parents, and this is when the excitement builds and we just get so excited and ready for students to walk through the doors and schools to get started,” Mullins said.

Mullins encourages any parents with questions or concerns to reach out to their child’s school, and said the district is ready for any first day challenges.

“We always ask for patience and grace as the school year begins,” Mullins said. “There’s always a few things you have to work through, and we’re so glad to have the Elizabethtown Independent School family. Panther Nation is one big family, and we will work together and get through anything, any bumps that we may come across, but as always it’s a great day to be an E-Town Panther.”

Visit Elizabethtown Independent Schools on their website or follow their Facebook page for information and updates.

Elizabethtown council talks parking, Radcliff council talks budget during work sessions

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The Elizabethtown City Council met for a work session Monday.

City Administrator Ed Poppe asked the council for direction the city would like to take on downtown parking. Poppe said the city has made many attempts over the years to address concerns with parking at and around the public square, and noted that currently no enforcement mechanism is in place.

“We’ve had parking meters, we’ve taken parking meters off, we’ve put parking meters back, we’ve taken them off, we’ve limited parking around the square, we’ve limited parking on some of the side streets, so every option I think that has been explored has been explored in the past,” Poppe said.

Poppe said Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory attended a meeting of the Historic Downtown Elizabethtown Business Association and discussed parking concerns with several business owners. That Cute Little Shop Manager Kristin Kendall said parking on the square should be extended to longer than the current one hour limit, but currently the limits are being ignored.

“Just outside of our shop, there are four vehicles every single day that park there,” Kendall said. “It’s the same people from attorney’s offices that we have asked multiple times. We’ve called the cops to come and ask them to move and they just say ‘I’m too lazy and I don’t want to move.’”

City Council Member Marty Fulkerson said parking has been an ongoing conversation for as long as he has been on council. He said ahead of decisions on enforcement policy, the city should first address what is currently in place.

“First of all, we’ve got to get the signage,” Fulkerson said. “Either signage or or signage, because that’s like having an ordinance on the book and not enforcing it, so we need to get rid of that, clean that up, and second of all, can we not address these issues directly? I mean, we try to fix something, and if these people are violating it, they’re still going to violate it if we don’t have a conversation with them.”

Gregory said parking options will be included in the city’s upcoming Downtown Comprehensive Plan, and more conversation will be had.

Also meeting Monday was the Radcliff City Council, which met for a called meeting to go into closed session on which no official action was taken, and for a work session to discuss an upcoming budget amendment ordinance which Radcliff Mayor JJ Duvall said was the standard amendment following the end of a fiscal year. Radcliff CFO Chance Fox said only small adjustments in Parks and Recreation and Economic Development were necessary, but based on their department budgets it looks more significant.

“When planning has the smallest budget and you make increases, it tends to reflect more easily, so really the total of the two is about $133,000 and you’re looking at an $18.4 million budget, so if you do the math it’s a very small percentage,” Fox said.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet August 19, and the Radcliff City Council will next meet August 20.

CASA of the Heartland expanding to cover three more counties

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CASA of the Heartland will be taking over for the dissolved Tri-County CASA organization and expanding to cover Breckinridge, Grayson, and Meade counties.

“I think the biggest thing for us was just seeing that there was a potential for children to go unserved in terms of having court-appointed special advocates, and we definitely did not want to see that happen, so we saw a need and decided that it would be in our best interest and the best interest of the children in our surrounding communities if we stepped up and expanded our service area to now be serving a five county region,” said CASA of the Heartland Executive Director Michelle Kail. 

The organization, which focuses on recruiting, training, and supporting volunteers that act as court-appointed special advocates for area children navigating foster care and family court, will need support from more volunteers.

“The biggest challenge I would say is making sure that we have the people power in terms of volunteers to continue to support Hardin County and LaRue County, while also adding Meade, Breckinridge, and Grayson counties,” Kail said.
Learn more about how you can support CASA of the Heartland, or about how to become a CASA volunteer, at www.casaheartland.org or by calling 270-982-2274.

Meeting to discuss U.S. 62 interstate interchange corridor Tuesday night

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The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is hosting a public meeting Tuesday night to discuss congestion and safety within the U.S. 62 interstate interchange corridor.

The meeting will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Elizabethtown Tourism and Convention Bureau, located at 1030 North Mulberry Street.

“With continued growth of the area, more traffic, more congestion, this public meeting is going to feature some ideas, alternatives to offset that, and we know it’s only going to increase,” said KYTC District Four Public Information Officer Chris Jessie. “We have to plan now, trying to stay ahead of that curve, and again we’re going to present some ideas for intersections and just the corridor as a whole out on the interstate end of U.S. 62 for improvements.”

The meeting will be an open-house format with no formal presentation. Residents can stop by any time to review displays, ask questions, and discuss the design alternatives with officials. In addition to feedback on alternatives, the KYTC says they want to hear from anyone with pedestrian or bike usage input regarding the U.S. 62 underpass at the railroad tracks between Ring Road and the interchange.

More information on the project and a survey link for anybody that is unable to attend the meeting in person can be found at www.Drive62.com.

ECTC celebrating renovation of Occupational Technical Building

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Area officials were on hand at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College Friday as State Senator Matt Deneen presented ECTC President and CEO Dr. Juston Pate with the $44 million that was allocated to the college by the Kentucky General Assembly for phase two of renovations of ECTC’s Occupational Technical Building.

Pate said the renovations are not only important for keeping up with developing technology, but also for providing the best experience for both students and staff.

“Knowing what we have with our ECTC family here in this building, and knowing that the equipment, the technologies are cutting edge and up to date, but that these faculty and staff who work in this building are the best, absolutely the best at what they do, and to now be able to provide them a home that will reflect that,” Pate said.

Students attending classes in the OTB receive education and training for a wide range of careers involving speciality degrees and licenses. Pate said the only thing holding the college back to this point has been infrastructure.

“They put many round pegs into a lot of square holes to make this training work, and they’re not going to have to do that anymore, and the investment from this legislature will not only allow us to truly reach our potential as a training provider, but I think will allow us a much better path of recruiting future workforce into this field,” Pate said.

Deneen talked about how ECTC played a role in his own education, and said ensuring quality opportunities in education is critical.

“What we’re doing here, the changes and the upgrades, it will change lives,” Deneen said. “It will change generations. It will move people from poverty to success, And it’s all at the hands of you, the staff and the instructors.”

ECTC previously received about $15 million for work on the OTB. More information on development at the college can be found in the master plan available on ECTC’s website.