music >> Folks are taking notice of our success.

Notice of Eastern Kentucky success.

[MUSIC] >> Governor Andy Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers celebrate Eastern Kentucky's progress at the annual Soar summit.

[MUSIC] >> Jefferson County can really, really set the standard, not just for Kentucky, but the goal is to be the best of the United States.

And we're on our way.

>> Jefferson County says it's ready for the midterms.

[MUSIC] >> They considered three things moonshine, dark fired tobacco, and country.

Ham.

[MUSIC] They decided country ham was probably the most neutral.

>> And a Kentucky town is living high on the hog.

[MUSIC] >> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

[MUSIC] >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for Friday, October 9th.

I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you for joining us.

Millions of federal dollars are heading to Eastern Kentucky to support economic growth in the region.

Governor Andy Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers of Kentucky's fifth Congressional District made the announcement this morning.

The two attended the shaping.

Our Appalachian region, or Soar Summit in Corbin.

Soar was created in 2013, and Rogers reflected on how it came to be to be.

>> When we had that terrific, terrible killing of the coal industry.

At the peak of that devastation.

I went to Frankfort, sat down with Governor Steve Beshear, and we brainstormed about what could we do in view of the collapse of the coal industry.

And we talked and talked and talked.

Final result was we decided to call a summit of the leaders of Kentucky, especially East Kentucky.

Thus, we started this series of summits.

>> This year, just over a decade since the first Soar summit, $22 million dollars are being awarded to nine community projects in Eastern Kentucky focused on emergency services, infrastructure, energy, education and tourism.

The funds are coming from the abandoned mine lands, economic Revitalization program that Rogers established in 2016.

That program has brought more than $280 million to Kentucky over the past decade.

Governor Beshear acknowledged the region is receiving more than just federal grant dollars.

More businesses are investing to.

>> Folks are taking notice of our success.

Notice of Eastern Kentucky success.

Earlier this year, site Selection magazine, the preeminent economic development magazine that goes all over the country and all over the world, named four communities in the East as top areas for economic development.

They included Corbin, Mount Sterling, the Richmond, Berea area and Somerset.

We are determined to make sure that this success continues because every community deserves the opportunity to secure that next big game changing investment.

>> We'll have more coverage of the Source Summit for you next week, right here on Kentucky Edition.

While we were there, we talked to Rocky Adkins, the former state House Democratic leader, and Beshear advisor who's running for governor in 2027.

He says he's happy with the response to his campaign so far.

Atkins says his campaign set a fundraising record during its first quarter.

>> Our report is $1,750,000, which we raised in about two and a half months, and that is coming really from a large network of people that I've developed over my time in public service, 33 years in the House and the last six and a half with the governor and that big network of people is now responding in a very, very favorable way financially on the ground, organization wise.

So I could not be more encouraged.

And again, when I look at the donations, it's coming from across party aisles.

And that's really encouraging.

When you see that most people are telling me, they're saying, Rocky, look, you're qualified for this job.

You have the experience to do this job, and you have a vision of how to lead us forward.

You've got to be organized.

And the populated areas of this state, which I am.

But in a November general election, you got to be able to get votes in rural parts of the state.

So I feel like we have an unbelievable organization of Democratic voters across the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

But I think also in Kentucky being kind of labeled as a red state, it's one thing to win a primary, but how you win a general, and I think I'm the very person that has the ability to do that.

I think I have the resume to do that, and there's no question I've been the Democrat leader in the Kentucky House for 17 years of my life, so I don't think anybody questions my party affiliation or how I operate.

I'm a Democrat, but I'm a Democrat.

That also understands to get things done.

People are tired of the political divide.

They want somebody that can actually bring people together and reach compromise.

I've done that my entire career.

>> Atkins is opposed in the Democratic primary by lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman.

Dollar for dollar.

Taxpayers can get back up to $1,700 for donating to K through 12 scholarship funds as our June Leffler reports, advocates for public and private schools hope to seize this moment.

>> Sara Wolfe sends her son to a religious private school.

Now she's helping other families do the same.

>> Our focus is to help students who otherwise wouldn't be able to have that type of education.

>> Several nonprofits have recently formed in the state to take advantage of a new tax credit.

The U.S.

Treasury says that could eventually funnel $26 billion annually to more than 2 million students nationwide, though the credit starts on January 1st.

Wolfe's group has offered scholarships to three students this year.

>> We don't spend any portion of the money that we don't absolutely have to.

It goes all to the kids, and that's really what we care about.

And if the tax donations go to us, they know that they're going back into our local community and helping our local families that are really in need.

>> These nonprofits are scholarship granting organizations or sgaus.

They partner with schools for private schools, donations naturally pay for tuition and other fees.

But what would public school students get?

>> It may be offering a after school tutoring program.

It may be offering a summer tutoring program.

I will say this a lot of public schools do have fees that their local board approves.

Those fees could be uniforms, equipment for career and technical education programs, dual credit fees.

>> The newly formed Kentucky Education Fund will support public and private school students.

>> Our model is set up to allow the.

The donor, the one that contributes to the Kentucky Education Fund.

They can direct their contribution to a private institution.

They can also direct their contribution to a public institution.

I would say the majority are public, but we have we have signed a a sizable number of privates as well.

>> Of the more than dozen schools registered so far, about half are Kentucky based.

The other half are based outside the state, and most of those groups have no online presence right now, creating a bit of a Wild West.

>> The risk is doing it poorly and in a less than coordinated fashion.

>> The Prichard Committee advocates for public schools and evidence based learning.

>> And where we would hope to see those donations from taxpayers go, is to think, is to the things that parents have indicated they don't have enough of to support their students success.

And those are things like high quality tutoring.

After school programing and summer programing on the back end.

Five years from now, if done well, we should see significantly additive investment in education through donor commitment to the needs of public school families and students, and be able to begin to communicate return on investment in improved outcomes of students and improved readiness for post-high school success.

>> This tax credit is considered the first nationwide school choice measure.

That's an umbrella term for policies that critics say divert money from public schools to private schools.

A Christian conservative group says this moment revives the school choice debate in Kentucky.

>> And more families are going to be able to choose a Christian education.

I also think broader than that, this is going to be a moment and an opportunity for Kentuckians to see that school choice is a good thing, that freeing up dollars and resources to follow families and to put parents and families more in the driver's seat of this conversation is a good thing.

My hope is this will.

This will help over time.

Open the conversation back to maybe some things that we could consider doing at the state level.

>> Kentucky's constitution doesn't allow tax dollars to go towards private schools.

This tax credit circumvents that rule because it impacts federal dollars, not state dollars.

For Kentucky Edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> Thanks.

June.

Moore scholarship granting organizations will come online in the coming months.

Kentucky Secretary of State will send its list of.

S goes to the federal government in December.

Kentucky has absentee voting, early voting and Election Day voting, and the state's biggest population.

County is getting ready for all three.

Today, the Jefferson County Board of Elections inspected voting equipment that will be used during the upcoming midterm elections.

County Clerk David Yates says his county will be ready, and he warned people not to believe the myths about the election process.

>> If you look at this warehouse, these machines, no machines are hooked to the internet.

Despite the misinformation that's been put out.

Everything is done correctly, and that's why it's important that this board is bipartisan comes in and inspects and signs off.

But we do so in a way that's open to the public so that any questions or concerns they can be addressed.

We're not taking any chances.

We'd rather make sure that we have more than enough than ever go short.

We remember what's happened sometime.

The long lines on Election Day and and while we cannot plan for everything, what we can do is do everything in our power to make sure that Election Day will be accurate, effective, and efficient.

And what we've done is we've been looking for best practices to the United States.

We've taken other issues or hiccups that happened in the past, and make sure we correct it.

We have the best technology, and I got my board here with me, who is really been on board on making sure that Jefferson County can really, really set the standard, not just for Kentucky, but the goal is to be the best in the United States.

And we're on our way.

>> In the spring, some voters ended up voting in the wrong precinct.

Yates says the county conducted a complete audit so that everyone is now in the right precinct.

Good.

Throughout October, we are bringing you some of the candidates for the U.S.

Senate and the U.S.

House.

Each Monday on KET.

S Kentucky tonight.

The sixth district races are focused.

This Monday, I'll be your host.

Send us your questions and comments on the issues you care about.

That's Monday at 8:00 eastern, seven central right here on KET.

We have data center news in Kentucky's second largest city.

Lexington leaders voted last night to extend a data center moratorium until the end of October 2027.

The Lexington Herald reports.

Last night's council vote was unanimous.

The city is also considering new limits on the size and location of data centers.

The Planning Commission is still working on new ordinances.

[MUSIC] Rates just went up for the Metropolitan Sewer District.

The utility that handles wastewater drainage and flood protection in Jefferson and parts of Oldham and Bullitt counties.

MSD is actually a 3 in 1 utility, which is unique to other utilities in the country.

Our Kelsey Starks explains.

On the next Inside Louisville.

>> Tony Parrott is the executive director of MSD, or the Metropolitan Sewer District.

This has been very fascinating for me because there was a lot I did not understand about MSD and how it does everything.

So you all say three utilities in one.

So explain what those are.

>> Well, we are three utilities in one.

We provide wastewater treatment, stormwater and drainage and flood protection for the community.

So a lot of people think of MSD as okay, well, they just take care of the sewers.

Yeah.

But we do more than that.

So we're actually three separate utilities in Jefferson County.

We provide all three of those services, but we also provide wastewater services to Bullitt County and Oldham County.

So not only are we three utilities in one, but we're a regional utility as well.

>> Now, not every city is set up this way in some places, they're separate utilities.

So why are they combined here?

>> Well, we are a unicorn.

There's very, very rare that you find utilities that do all three that we do.

And I think in our situation, we've always been a wastewater utility.

Back in 1987, we actually signed a memorandum with the city of Louisville to manage and operate the stormwater and drainage and the flood protection system.

So it's really just kind of an opportunity for us to, to be a great partner, to be able to provide those services for our community.

>> Now, in a place like Louisville, though, stormwater drainage and flood protection, that's a big part of what happens here.

As we've seen here in the last couple of years.

Right?

>> Yeah.

You know, we we have a lot of responsibility, particularly around flood protection.

We have flood protection system that runs along the Ohio River.

We have 16 major flood pump stations.

We have 27 miles of levee that we're responsible for.

And so whenever the river rises, we have hundreds of flood gates and different things that we have to put in action to make sure that when the river rises, we make sure that the city, the downtown, a lot of areas West End, Churchill Downs, the University of Louisville, the hospital center here, the airport, Ford, GE, all those areas are protected by the flood protection system.

>> And and there's some areas of the city, like you mentioned, that flood.

And it's not just at the Ohio River.

So why is that?

And how do you all work that into your flood protection?

>> Well, the flood protection system is specifically for the Ohio River, but internal of that flood protection system, you have areas that are actually classified as floodplain areas.

For example, there are some areas along the Ohio River that are going to flood regardless, right.

And then you have some areas in the south part of Jefferson County that are going to flood regardless, because most of the land is in a floodplain.

And so when it rains, most of those waters or most of those lands are there to kind of hold water just like a marshland or a swamp, if.

>> You will.

>> And so there's really not much you can do with with those, with those properties.

But we also have an internal drainage system where everything inside the flood wall does drain out and away from the city through our combined sewer system.

And one thing that we try to do is to make sure that we make sure that Beargrass Creek and some of those areas are not flooding the city.

And then when we activate our flood protection system, our flood pump stations, we actually pump water out of the city during a flood event.

So the flood walls go up.

And then our flood pump stations go in service.

And then when the creeks rise, we actually pump those over the flood wall out into the Ohio River.

That's how we protect the city.

>> But there is a lot more to this story.

And you can hear the full conversation on the next Inside Louisville that Sunday at noon 11 Central here on KET.

[MUSIC] Every year, one western Kentucky town pays tribute to its agricultural roots with a festival dedicated to a certain curly tailed animal.

But this year is special as visitors celebrate 50 years of the Trigg County Country Ham Festival, our Emily Prince takes us to downtown at Katy's to learn about the history of this unique celebration.

>> Within about 24 hours, Main Street here in downtown, Katy is transformed into what you see now rows and rows of craft vendors, food trucks, rides, music, and more.

It's all part of the 50th Trigg County Country Ham Festival, a small town celebration that brings in visitors new and old.

>> Our little town, Katy itself has a population of about 2500.

We expect to have over the two day festival, anywhere from 25 to 40,000 people that come and visit.

>> Beth Sumner, who leads tourism efforts in Katy's and Trigg County, said some 50 years ago, county leaders put their heads together to see how they could celebrate what made their town unique.

>> They considered three things moonshine, dark, fired tobacco and country ham.

They decided country ham was probably the most neutral.

>> Sumner said.

Trigg County was one of the state's biggest pork producers back in the 70s, with broadband country hams as one of the largest companies.

And so the Trigg County Country Ham Festival got its start in 1977.

>> I was at the first Trigg County Ham Festival in 1977.

I can remember standing in front of the Wilkinson's department store, just a few doors down from here.

>> So what's developed since then and what will be different this year?

Well, for many years, one of the biggest attractions has been the baking of a gigantic ham and biscuit, 10.5ft in diameter.

Back in the day, Sumner said.

It even set a Guinness World Record.

There was an oven custom built just for this event, but this year the ovens gone into retirement and will be for display only.

>> People can come down, they can check out the oven, they can stand near it.

They can see just how big it really is.

Even though we can't produce the biscuit and ham this year, we are going to give away 500 country ham and biscuits to the first 500 people that are down here as part of the celebration.

>> Jessica Allen manages the persnickety Pig, a boutique and gift shop off the interstate in Trigg County.

She has many childhood memories of the festival and a giant biscuit.

>> So I have only missed a few in my lifetime.

But my parents were both on the Ham Festival committee seeing the big huge oven growing up and you had to get a piece, you know, like that's what you came for that morning.

Be like, I'm going to get a piece of that biscuit.

>> Sumner says.

After 50 years, the festival organizers try to maintain the heritage while also providing attraction for visitors of all interests and ages.

>> One of the things we've always tried to maintain is the idea that it's our small town celebration.

We have the country ham show, we have the ham and biscuit eating contest, we have the the county extension agents, and four-h students that do their exhibits.

We have a petting zoo and so much of it is free of charge.

>> Katie's mayor, Todd King, says the city feels the impact far beyond Main Street, and he says the Ham festival is a kind of meeting place for folks with roots in western Kentucky.

>> I know several people from out of state that is already coming, and they've already booked their hotels.

A lot of people waits and has their reunion on ham festival weekend so they can all come and be together.

>> I think that's kind of what it is.

It's just become tradition and home to people.

>> And families that have come here every year, going all the way back to, you know, early, early 80s, you know, that they just love.

>> It, Sumner said.

Even though this year marks a major milestone, they're always looking ahead to the next year.

And she said that giant ham and biscuit will be back in 2027 in Trigg County for Kentucky edition.

I'm Emily Prince.

>> Thank you.

Emily, we know you're having a big time there in Western Kentucky.

The festival kicked off today and runs through tomorrow night.

[MUSIC] We have everything from the moon to moonshine as our Toby Gibbs takes a look at activities planned around the Commonwealth.

>> Berea is keeping Appalachian music traditions in tune for another generation.

The 53rd Berea College celebration of traditional music focuses on music passed from person to person throughout Appalachia.

Events across campus include performances, dances, jam sessions, workshops, and lectures.

There will also be children's activities at the Berea Public Library.

The celebration lasts through Sunday.

[MUSIC] There's something musical brewing in the capital city this weekend as it hosts the Underwater Moonshine Festival.

The festival brings independent musicians and songwriters to Frankfort.

The event grew out of the Underwater Sunshine Festival, founded by Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz, to provide a showcase for emerging artists.

The city of KDE is hamming it up for the 50th year, with the return of the Trigg County Country Ham Festival.

It's a celebration of five decades of live music, carnival activities and traditions.

[MUSIC] Also celebrating 50 years, the Hunter's Moon Festival in Grand Rivers, taking place Saturday.

Events include a children's costume parade, a Main Street parade, rides, live music and dancing.

Craft and retail vendors, food vendors, a cake walk and silent auction are also part of the day.

The sky over western Kentucky is becoming the stage Saturday, as wings over western Kentucky returns to Madisonville Regional Airport.

It's an afternoon of aviation demonstrations with an air show that includes skydivers, aerobatic performers, formation flying and historic military aircraft.

[MUSIC] Lexington is taking baseball back to its old school roots as the bluegrass barons bring vintage baseball to Waveland State Historic Site in Lexington.

The club plays according to the style and traditions of baseball's earlier years and competes throughout Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.

[MUSIC] The game takes place Saturday, and that's a look at what's happening around the Commonwealth.

[MUSIC] I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> There you go.

We mentioned the moon and moonshine and that was our star Toby Gibbs.

Thank you so much.

We're about an hour away now from comment on Kentucky as Bill Bryant and his panel of reporters and journalists discuss Kentucky's U.S.

Senate race.

Also, new ads in the sixth district House race that is coming up this evening at 8:00 eastern seven central here on KET.

We certainly hope that you will stick around for that and have a good weekend.

Then we'll see you back here Monday night at 630 eastern, 530 central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, connect and inspire.

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