Latest news with #DaviessCounty
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Owensboro City Commission digest, June 3, 2025
At its meeting Tuesday, the Owensboro City Commission took the following actions: • Recognized the retirement of Sgt. Whitney Adamson-Payne, Owensboro Police Department. • Approved appointing Meaghan Woodruff to the Dugan Best Neighborhood Alliance; reappointed Katherine Zboril to the Owensboro Sister Cities and Regions board; appointed Landon Tong to the City Utility Commission; and reappointed Harry Roberts Jr. the the Regional Water Resource Agency board of directors. • Approved an ordinance adopting the city budget beginning July 1, 2025. • Approved an ordinance establishing the compensation for city employees and non-elected city officers. • Approved an ordinance amending the 2024-25 city budget to include $600,000 to purchase property (Colonel House Motel); to appropriate $400,000 for cold food storage; for construction of bus shelters; to provide a $375,00 incentive payment to TS Enterprises; and to transfer $462,000 to the Debt Service Fund. • Held first reading of an ordinance amending the fiscal year 2024-25 city budget to receipt of and appropriations for funds from Daviess Fiscal Court toward the construction of a senior center. • Approved a municipal order authorizing the mayor to apply for a Cops Hiring Program funding grant through the U.S. Department of Justice for $125,000, with a possible match of 25%. • Hired Teresa Jarrett as probationary, full-time, non-civil service bus driver with the Public Works Transit Department. • Hired Allison M. Maier as probationary, full-time, non-civil service administrative aide with the Police Department. • Promoted Michael J. Knight to regular, full-time, non-civil service instrument technician with the Public Works Engineering Department. • Promoted Danny J. Prater to regular, full-time, non-civil service mechanic with the Public Works Garage Department.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
County schools challenge young learners at 'Insight Academy' camp
Tuesday morning, students in Sara Appleby's 'Mind Maze' class were working in pairs to solve 'Murdle' mimi detective puzzles at Deer Park Elementary School. 'We're using memory skills, language skills, deduction skills, process of elimination,' Appleby said. 'It's trying to get them to think differently,' Appleby said. 'They have to figure out a solution to a problem that's not obvious. They all solve it differently. They all have different strategies.' Although schools are out for the summer, the fourth and fifth graders in Appleby's class and others were busy trying out the Scientific Method by experimenting with food, building their skills with integers and learning about history by sticking their hands in water similar to the the icy ocean that surrounded the Titanic when the behemoth ocean liner met its fate in 1912. The classes were a hands-on collaborative learning experience that was anything but routine, which was intentional by Angie Gunter, Daviess County Public Schools' gifted and talented coordinator. Tuesday was the second day of DCPS' 'Insight Academy' summer day camp for gifted and talented students at Deer Park. The 24 students, who came from elementary schools across the district, were invited to participate based on their high scores in math and language arts assessment tests. While each of the elementary schools has a gifted and talented team that augments the traditional curriculum for promising students, the idea behind the camp is to challenge the students beyond what they traditionally receive in the classroom, Gunter said. 'We have middle school teachers who are teaching these kids,' Gunter said. The teachers proposed their own topics and crafted the classes. Having middle school instructors working with the students at the camp both lets the teachers get to know kids who will one day be in their classes, while also giving the students an idea of 'what's expected in middle school,' academically, Gunter said. The classes were designed to be hands-on and fun, Gunter said. 'These kids signed up to do math in the summer, and they love it,' she said. Brad Goodall, who was teaching the 'Math with a Twist' class, said the fourth and fifth graders would move through a curriculum during the week that would include some of the pre-algebra they will encounter in middle school. 'Because I teach middle school math, I know what they are going to need,' Goodall said, as they students busily played a competitive card game based on integers. 'We've had a good time working together. If you notice, they are not quiet.' The game was designed to be active and energetic for the gifted students. 'If they are not challenged, they get bored,' Goodall said. 'I'm trying to keep them as challenged as I can.' There was also a social element to the camp, Gunter said, as the students learned cooperation and collaboration by working together. 'Some of these kids are the ones that tend to dominate' their traditional classes, Gunter said. Part of the camp process is teaching 'all these dominant (students) to take turns,' Gunter said. 'Next year, we are going to expand to middle school' and have students from the middle schools as well, who will be taught by high school teachers. While already gifted students might not seem to need much help with school, providing hands-on and engaging content furthers the district's goals, Gunter said. 'By law, we are supposed to serve and help every kid grow,' Gunter said. Even a student already considered to be gifted can achieve more, she said. 'If we are not allowing the kids to reach their potential, we are not serving the students,' Gunter said.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Vehicle fire breaks out in Daviess County
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) — Crews responded to a vehicle fire on Interstate 165 In Daviess County. Officials with the Daviess County's Fire Department say crews responded to the fire around 7:23 p.m. on Sunday. Upon arrival a passenger car was found to be fully involved. Officials say the fire was quickly put out. No injuries were reported. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Disaster Recovery Center in Daviess County closes temporarily
HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT) – The Disaster Recovery Center in Daviess County is closing temporarily starting Sunday. The center location was at 159 Highway 1554 in Stanley. FEMA officials state the center will remain closed until further notice. No reason for the closure was given. For more information about flooding recovery in Kentucky, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Lawsuit pending against indicted former OPD officer
A former Owensboro Police Department officer who was indicted last year for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman is being sued by the alleged victim in Daviess Circuit Court. The suit was filed by 'Jane Doe,' who is only identified by her initials in the complaint, against former OPD officer Aleph Zavala and against OPD Chief Art Ealum. The lawsuit is currently winding its way through circuit court, with the last ruling occurring last month. The civil lawsuit is the second case Zavala faces. Zavala was indicted on charges of first-degree sodomy, first-degree strangulation and first-degree sexual abuse in connection with a Dec. 8, 2023 incident, where Zavala allegedly assaulted the woman, who was homeless, while she was staying overnight in a storage unit on West Parrish Avenue. The incident allegedly occurred after officers were called to the U-Haul storage facility to reports of a possible burglary. Reports regarding the incident say officers decided to let Jane Doe stay in the storage unit overnight. All of the officers left, except Zavala, who went back inside the unit and allegedly performed a sex act on the woman, attempted to get her to perform a sex act and choked her during the incident. Zavala's body camera was not in use during the time of the alleged incident. Zavala was fired by OPD in February of last year, after an investigation by the department's Professional Standards Unit. Zavala was indicted on the charges in May of last year. Zavala is currently scheduled to go to trial on the charges on Sept. 15. Zavala, who is out of jail on house arrest after posting a $10,000 bond, will next appear in court for a pretrial hearing in August. The complaint names both Zavala and Ealum in their official capacities with OPD. The complaint says the criminal charges against Zavala 'highlight the serious nature of the offenses against' Jane Doe, and also says the incident calls OPD into question. 'The incident also calls attention to the systemic failures within the Owensboro Police Department, specifically the failure to train and supervise on the part of (Ealum),' the complaint says. 'Such deliberate indifference in oversight and training directly contributed to the sexual assault of the plaintiff.' The complaint seeks compensation against Zavala for battery, negligence and gross negligence, and for 'failure to train and supervise' Zavala against Ealum. The complaint seeks compensation for physical and emotional injuries and punitive damages. The city is not representing Zavala in the civil suit, but did file a response regarding him because Zavala was being sued in his official capacity as a then-police officer. In the response, attorney Patrick Pace says while Zavala was working as an OPD officer on Dec. 8, 2023, the city 'expressly denies that Zavala was acting under color of law and within the scope of his employment with OPD during said incident.' Regarding the incident in the storage unit, the city's response says it admits Zavala went back inside the unit with his body camera off and and without informing dispatch, but says 'the city is without knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations' of the incident, 'and therefore denies same.' Regarding Ealum being named in the suit, Pace wrote in his response, 'The city denies the premise of the allegations ... and expressly denies that the alleged 'said failure to train and supervise his officers' occurred.' Pace wrote the city admits 'Zavala violated some OPD rules and standard operating procedures, but (the city) expressly denies that Zavala was acting within the scope of his employment' during the alleged incident. Zavala also filed a response through his attorney, Mary Sharp. Sharp wrote Zavala 'denies any allegations of misconduct as stated' in the complaint. Regarding the alleged incident, Sharp wrote Zavala 'maintains that no non-consensual actions occurred.' Sharp asked that the complaint against Zavala be dismissed with prejudice, which would bar the complaint from ever being raised in court again. The last action in the case was in April, when Daviess Circuit Judge David Payne denied Jane Doe's motion for summary judgment against Zavala. There are currently no hearings scheduled in the civil case.
