Heartland Help

12/23/2025

We have rebranded! Stay tuned for information on Hardin, Grayson, Larue, Meade, and surrounding counties mutual aid fund.

03/15/2022

03/15/2022

08/27/2021

This long-standing fight for solar power is something that we WILL be addressing once we meet with City Council. If you have run out of articles to read in short a property owner would like to turn his land into a solar farm to create more renewable energy and city planning has effectively denied this request.

In a civil case against Hardin Fiscal Court, Hardin Circuit Court held a hearing in an appeal regarding the denial of a conditional use permit to a solar energy company.

08/27/2021

Approximately 3 weeks ago one of our organizers penned an email on our behalf to the mayor and 5 of the 6 city council members of Elizabethtown aside from Councilwoman Springsteen who we know is well-aware of the future human-driven climate change will bring. In this email we mentioned a changing climate in Kentucky (greater precipitation and flooding) alongside the climate dangers other countries are currently facing. We mentioned that we hoped to have a positive and impactful relationship with the city as we are full of all different expertise and experience pertaining to the global climate movement. Our biggest question was to ask each of the 6 recipients if creating a more environmentally-friendly city is something on their radar and if so, did they have any plans already in the works.

We were very happy to receive a quick response from both Councilman Matt Deneen - who has done an exceptional job with trail building and ecotourism in town - and Mayor Gregory. We were INCREDIBLY disheartened to receive a blank response from Councilwoman Walker and no response at all from Councilmen Bishop, Fulkerson, and Willoughby. As y'all know, one of the main goals of being on City Council is to listen to your constituents and do your best to create a thriving city. We are deeply concerned that some folks elected to city council are not willing to even begin a conversation with our collective. We promise we don't bite. We genuinely hope this changes as we attend a City Council meeting once the threat of COVID has seriously subsided and present our green goals to the city. If you would like to be involved more in the planning process and attend the meeting in the upcoming months with us, send us a message and we will be happy to have your help.

11/14/2020

This page will initially be around to spread awareness and encourage folks to go carfree on Sundays as the visit downtown. We plan to bring our proposal of formally blocking roads downtown (aside from integral roads to get from one end of town to the next) each Sunday and every Second Saturday to City Council next year. The end goal, whether this be a few months or a few years, is to have open streets on Sundays with food trucks, outdoor storefronts, PLENTY of social distancing, and perhaps even local music every now and then. Several businesses may consider slight discounts for folks ditching the automobile on carfree day.

11/14/2020

Welcome to the beginnings of Etown's first climate action working group! We are actively recruiting members to join the cause as we know that climate change is currently humanity's biggest threat. Climate change directly impacts marginalized communities THE MOST and we must do as much as we can to mitigate this. We feel that starting nice and easy with a carfree day is the best way to introduce folks to the harms we are currently committing. Some folks just need a nice and gentle push in the right direction and we believe this can be it here in Elizabethtown! As many of you know, automobiles are responsible for emitting much of the C02 in today's atmosphere. Your average car emits 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year according to the EPA. There are 30,000 resident in Elizabethtown. Let's conservatively assume 1/3 of them own a car. Our city alone would then emit 46,000 metric tons of C02 per year. This is a sizeable chunk polluting not only the air we breathe but spreading throughout the atmosphere. If folks in this town did not drive downtown every Sunday, we could reduce those emissions somewhat significantly. Creating a carfree space downtown every Sunday and every Second Saturday market we could not only have cleaner air but healthier citizens as they walk, run or ride bikes to their destinations. We could also have an increase in tourism and spending in the local economy as greener destinations are very attractive to travelers. There are truly no downsides to creating carfree downtown days, so let's get to work!