WQXE NEWS

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.

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.

The Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office is highlighting the success of expanding the state’s Safe at Home Program.

Secretary of State Michael Adams says since the Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation at his request to expand the commonwealth’s Address Confidentiality Program, use in the program increased by 460 percent in the first year.

“We know that government is supposed to be transparent, and it should be, but we can’t allow abusers to use the transparency of government to stalk and harass and further abuse their victims,” said Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith. 

Smith said the program is an added layer of protection for victims of abuse.

“It provides them an opportunity to hide their residency from public view on documents up to and including their voting record, and so someone would be able to register to vote here in Hardin County but we would obscure their address from any potential abuser who would use Kentucky’s open record laws to try and track that person down,” Smith said.

The expansion of the program also allowed for expanded interstate reciprocity, meaning neighboring states also help to mask records.

“I certainly agree with Secretary Adams that protecting abuse victims is worthwhile,” Smith said. “It’s worth the effort. His staff has put a lot of time and effort into this. He put a lot of passion behind it, and I applaud him for that.”

Victims can apply for the Safe at Home Program on the Secretary of State’s website.