Local News

LOUISVILLE – It is an issue that will not go away for local communities – and the environmental standards are only going to get more strict – but should communities such as Shelby County decide to be part of a regional waste-water program?

That is a question posed to local officials during a recent meeting of possible participants in a program approved by the General Assembly in 2011.

The city of Shelbyville is under the microscope for the rainwater that bounces off the pavement in your driveway, skitters across your fertilized lawn and disappears untreated into the storm drain at the low point of your cul de sac.

And City Public Works Director Jennifer Herrell is tasked with making darn sure you know that every drop of runoff water is being monitored by the federal and state governments and the city is liable for how clean it might be.

Longtime educator Mike Zoeller, a member of the Shelbyville City Council, is passionate about an ordinance, passed on first reading by the council during its meeting Thursday night, that would fine adults who allow minors to consume alcohol and drugs on their property.

The ordinance, which is a copy of a measure adopted in January by Shelby County Fiscal Court, is stricter than the requirements of Kentucky Revised Statutes because it does not require proof that the adults provided the intoxicants, only that they were present when the substances were consumed.

About 100 board members and supporters of the Shelby Sharks – about a third of them children – stormed out of a meeting Tuesday night, muttering in anger and some even shouting at members of the Shelby County Parks Board, protesting the board’s decision on a new contract with the swim team that could mean its end in Shelby County.