WQXE NEWS

Twin Lakes Skatepark Project Chairman Casey Keown says the nonprofit took major steps towards their goal of a new permanent skatepark facility in Grayson County, including a partnership with Indiana-based design firm Hunger Skateparks.

“We’ve completed our geotechnical survey, and next week we’ll be completing our topographical survey, so we are hoping to have our preliminary design in the near future, and you know, all these things take time and money, so we’re just going to keep pushing,” Keown said.

The skatepark project promotes “Unity Through Community” and as they get closer to the goal they are seeking community partners to sponsor their upcoming Casino Night. 

“Our theme this year is Art in Motion,” Keown said. “It’s a night of celebrating skateboarding as an art form. Obviously, skateboarding is not like your conventional sport, and a lot of times skateboarders get a bad rep because they’re misunderstood.”

The sponsorship is not only a way to support the organization and be featured at the event, but also to be featured on the organization’s social media, which Keown says has seen great growth.

“Just over the last 28 days, we’ve had over 20,000 views,” Keown said. “Our engagement’s up 455 percent, and our follower growth is up 3,000 percent. This is before running any paid ads. This is just organic growth. We’re quickly becoming one of the top pages here in Grayson County.”

Businesses or organizations interested in sponsorship should email Dani Saltsman at dani@twinlakesskatepark.org. Visit the organization’s website or Facebook page for more information including tickets.

Students and their parents are invited to learn about scholarship opportunities and other college resources at Get Your Money Right 2026, to be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, January 17 at North Hardin High School.

“The goal of the event is to put the high school students in the same room with these local scholarship opportunities and get them to fill out as many applications as they possibly can,” said event organizer Selena Hudson. “If they bring their Chromebooks that day, or in the future this month, they can fill out the application and get awarded that money, and not leave any money on the table.”

In addition to scholarship opportunities, the event will feature workshops, panel discussions, and guest speakers focusing on a range of financial literacy topics.

“We have Budgeting 101 through Abound Credit Union and AI for Teens with Lucas Solutions, and we also have our former garrison commander coming back in and he’s going to be our motivational speaker to kick off the day, to talk to the students about ‘don’t talk about it, be about it,’” Hudson said.

All students are welcome to attend this free event, but seniors are encouraged to register ahead of time in order to qualify for door prizes and scholarship giveaways.

“It’s going to be a great day for the college students,” Hudson said. “We’ve had businesses donate gift cards and gift all the things, and we will have about 20 local vendors that are offering scholarships and local organizations that are offering scholarships will be there.”

Find the link to register and more information on the Get Your Money Right Inc. Facebook group.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the year Tuesday.

Hardin County Jailer Josh Lindblom provided an update on medical billing for inmates at the Hardin County Detention Center. Lindblom said as part of the sale of Hardin Memorial Hospital $150,000 annually is supposed to go towards medical bills for the jail. Bills were not being adjusted to the Medicaid rate for inmates in the hospital for more than 24 hours, and Lindblom said after discussions the hospital acknowledged the county is right.

“The good thing about it is going forward now every bill we have for the hospital worth $150,000 will be repriced, so what that means is over the next 15 years that we have it left there will be about $750,000 in savings at least,” Lindblom said.

Lindblom presented a check for $50,383.53 from an audit of 2025 billing, and said audits will be conducted for the other four years after the sale.

The court approved resolutions assigning the county’s solid waste franchise agreement to Unified Disposal Partners Holdings LLC. Judge/Executive Keith Taul said UDP plans to buy the Kentucky and Tennessee assets of Platform Waste, the current solid waste provider for the county. The court also approved a resolution assigning the county’s intergovernmental support agreement to UDP, which covers solid waste service to Fort Knox. The county says curbside pickups and scheduled routes will continue uninterrupted, and residents should continue to use their orange cans.

The court held a second vote on a resolution approving the hiring of a full-time GIS coordinator. County Attorney Jenny Oldham said under Kentucky law if the vote on a resolution for the hiring of personnel remains tied for 15 days, the judge/executive has authority to make the hiring decision. E.G. Thompson, who abstained from the original vote, said given the existing contract with the Lincoln Trail Area Development District he was not ready to move ahead with the resolution.

“We have looked at cost savings and I’ve not heard that it’s inadequate,” Thompson said. “I do believe it’ll be a cost savings and in my mind it’s worth giving a good close look at to see if we can operate this way, and then if we can’t we need to go back and look at it again.”

Taul said he believed the more fiscally responsible choice was to hire a staffer rather than contract out the work. He also expressed frustration with the magistrates intervening in the hiring process.

“We do not know of any time in the last 20 years that the fiscal court has ever denied hiring an employee in an approved budgeted position,” Taul said. “I’ll say this: this negatively affected the morale of employees whenever this happened last month.”

The resolution was voted down 5 to 4.

In other meeting news, Hardin County Planning and Development Director Adam King said in 2025, 94 plats and 189 lots were recorded, 480 total building permits were issued, and 91 new single-family dwellings were approved. Hardin County Public Works Director Stephanie Givens said 937 bags were collected from 866 visitors during the county’s free shredding days in 2025, and 302 tons of products were collected from the county’s recycling trailers.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet January 27. The next Hardin County town hall forum will be held in the fiscal courtroom on January 26.