WQXE NEWS

The Elizabethtown City Council met for their second meeting of the month Monday.

The council approved two ordinances that were on their second readings. The first amended the zoning for 1151 Ring Road from Neighborhood Commercial (C-2) to Regional Commercial (C-3). The second amended the city’s 2024-2025 budget ordinance to include a change in pay classifications for the city’s fire department.

A municipal order was approved that awarded a contract to 5253 Design Group for professional design services on the Elizabethtown Police Station expansion project.

“These professional services shall include programming the project, design plans for the facility and site, a cost opinion, schematic plans, architectural design plans, contract bid documents, and construction administration,” said City Attorney Ken Howard reading from the order. 

The contract was awarded at an amount not to exceed $350,000.

Elizabethtown resident Steve Swan asked the council for an update on resident concerns with traffic control in the Bewley Hollow/Pine Valley Drive area. Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said speed radar signs were placed in the neighborhood to collect traffic data, and Public Works Superintendent Don Hill said the traffic study showed an average of 3,400 vehicles using Pine Valley Drive each day, with an average speed of 36.6 miles per hour and an average violation speed of about 40.8 miles per hour, so additional measures will be taken to slow traffic.

“What we’re going to do on Pine Valley Drive is prior to St. Andrews, and there’s a 25 miles per hour sign at that intersection, we’re going to go up Pine Valley Drive and put a warning sign that says reduce speed ahead, then when we get past the intersection of St. Andrews Way before Kensington, we’re going to set a speed hump,” Hill said.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet July 22.

CASA of the Heartland received support from the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels for their mission of serving children navigating foster care and the family court systems.

“Every year the Kentucky Colonels grant allows us the opportunity to get some type of project funded that is associated with our mission,” said CASA of the Heartland Executive Director Michelle Kail.

The grant this year was for $2,909.

“So this year we applied for a grant to purchase stuffed animals that correlate with several books that we have that are related to children navigating the court system, children having to testify, various family structures, having CASAs, different things like that that we know that the children that we’re advocating for might encounter,” Kail said.

You can help support CASA of the Heartland’s mission this Friday by heading to the movies. The organization is partnering with Crowne Pointe Theatre for a special showing of The Goonies.

“It is at 6 p.m. this Friday, July 19,” Kail said. “Tickets are $7 and can be purchased on our website at CASAheartland.org, and $5 of the $7 goes directly to CASA and then part of the ticket purchase is that you get a 30 percent off coupon for concessions.”

Find more information on the CASA of the Heartland Facebook page.

The sixty-first year of “the most fun you can have with your shoes on” wrapped up Saturday night as the Hardin County Fair came to a close.

“We had a really, really good fair week,” said Fair Board PResident Marty Fulkerson. “We ran into some issues with all the storms and tornado warnings Tuesday, that kind of hurt the attendance a little bit, but we had a really, really good fair. It was hot, but gosh, it’s July, and that’s what happens when fair time is here.”

He said entries appeared to be up among 4H and FFA members and a good turnout could be seen in the Family Living Building, including the debut year for the Exceptional category.

A scary situation was seen Saturday morning as one of the fair volunteers was seriously injured while preparing for the Brush Pull and had to be flown to a Louisville hospital for treatment. The fair board said the volunteer is stable and recovering.

“There’s still a long way to go and more surgeries and things it looks like, but it was just a freak accident,” Fulkerson said. “In 61 years, we’ve never had something like that happen. We’ve been pretty blessed, and we’re still praying for him and his family, and he’s got a long road to go.”

Fulkerson said the fair would not be possible without the support of the community and the fair’s sponsors, along with the hard work of the fair team.

“You get a fair board group of 20 people,” Fulkerson said. “There’s no way we can do it. It takes all the volunteers. I think there’s probably 60 or 70 volunteers in the Family Living Building. That track crew up there consists of probably 12 people that make that happen, and it’s a lot of turnovers and turnarounds.”

The Hardin County Fair will return the first full week of July 2025.