The Christian County public school system recently received a statewide honor for its effort in energy efficiency.

A news release says the Kentucky Efficiency Program for Schools honored the local district for earning all three of its energy efficiency awards.

The award system is reportedly based on the Energy Star seven step process for energy management. The awards are for putting a management system in place, creating goals and putting plans in action to meet them and for districts who follow through on those plans.

Christian is one of only seven school districts in the commonwealth to have completed all three steps. The awards were presented to Energy Manager Bob Valentine, school board Chairman Barry Cornelius and board member Linda Keller at a ceremony in Louisville Friday.

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02/07/2012/am

The Kentucky Division of Emergency Management reports organizations in the state took part in the "Great Central U.S. ShakeOut" drill this morning.

Scientists say earthquakes can strike western Kentucky and Tennessee at any time and steps need to be taken to prepare residents.

The drill is part of "Earthquake Awareness Week" proclaimed by Governor Steve Beshear. It has been almost 200 years exactly since a series of major earthquakes devastated this region when the New Madrid fault was at its most unstable point in recorded history.

Earthquakes similar to those today would likely kill thousands and do untold damage as the region was only sparsely populated in the early 1800’s.

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02/07/2012/am

A Hopkinsville woman was injured in a rear-end collision on North Main Street late yesterday morning.

The report from Hopkinsville Police says 51-year old Peggy Baldwin of Hopkinsville was northbound and attempting to turn left onto Glass Avenue around 11:40 when she slammed on her brakes for an unknown reason.

Behind her was 28-year old Celestia Gilbert of Crofton, who didn’t have time to stop and ran into the back of Ms. Baldwin’s vehicle. Police write that Ms. Baldwin asked to be taken to Jennie Stuart Medical Center for back pain, but said her back was already hurting some before the incident.

Ms. Gilbert and passengers in both vehicles went uninjured. Police also cited Gilbert for not having proof of insurance.

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02/07/2012/am

A problem at the TVA’s main Kelly substation tonight caused a major power outage that put Hopkinsville and much of Christian County in the dark.

Brent Gilkey of Pennyrile Rural Electric said the issue was with a breaker failure at the Kelly sub-station between Hopkinsville and Crofton and that 4,518 Pennyrile customers were affected by the outage. Hopkinsville Electric Customers were also knocked into the dark by the issue.

Electricity began coming back on around 9:30 and Gilkey said the outage lasted approximately 40 minutes. Crews were out immediately after the problem began attempting to remedy the issue.

Kentucky Utilities customers in the northern part of Christian County were not affected by the outage.
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02/07/2012/am

The Kentucky State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division is partnering with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service to host another Farmer Outreach meeting tomorrow night.
Kentucky State Police say the purpose of the meeting is to forge enhanced relationships between law enforcement and the agricultural community.
The public meeting is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. in the U.K. Extension Office located at 2850 Pembroke Road in Hopkinsville.
According to KSP, topics that will be discussed will include safety regulations, licensing requirements and new legislation in effect for state farm operations.

For more information about the program contact Officer Chris Green at 270-388-2979 or Jay Stone at 270-886-6328.
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