SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY – Animals and staff all over the region are having a tough time, and there seems to be no end in the immediate future.

News 40 spoke to Lorri Hare, director of the Bowling Green Warren County Humane Society, about how the year has wrapped up for them, and it’s not too good. The station reached out to other shelters in the area for interviews, but unironically, no one was available due to the nature of their line of work at this point in time, somewhat reaffirming the dire times that the local shelters find themselves in.

Hare said they’ve taken in 11,600 animals as of Dec. 28, and it’s just too much for them to handle. With Bowling Green being the more metropolitan area, many smaller shelters look to them for help, but Hare said to her dismay, she’s not able to take any animals off anyone’s hands.

Hare said in just the first two days of being open this week, they’ve taken in 62 animals and right before her interview, a man walked in with seven more that he wanted to surrender to the shelter.

According to her, rescue organizations that they partner with in more northern areas of the state are facing the same issues, whereas they used to take 50 or so a month, they’re only taking 10 at most the past five months.

Hare said she’s heard of many directors contemplating where their career might end as they are mentally and physically exhausted by the number of animals they and the rest of the staff have had to deal with this year. Hare said in her 25 years of working in shelters, she’s never seen it this bad and she hates to see her staff leave so drained every day.

The only answer according to her and other shelters is to spay and neuter your animals. Hare said it hurts her to see on social media some people pointing the finger at shelters for “not working hard enough” but she explained to the station that it’s a community issue, by allowing a pet, especially an outside pet to roam unaltered, unwanted litters are bound to occur. According to Hare one pregnant cat in a seven-year pyramid can be the ancestor of 650,000 cats, and a dog cat be the ancestor of around 45,000 dogs in five years.

Hare said to avoid hard decisions for many shelters, the only option to is to try and cap off the population growth as much as possible, many shelters are practically begging the public to fix their animas by offer such low fees for spaying and neutering.

The director told News 40 that this is a problem all over the country and the northeast, a popular area for shelters to transport pets to, seems to be running out of room as well.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A great new resource just opened up for students, staff and family members in the Warren County school district.

Emergencies and crises happen all the time, not just during “business hours,” and that’s why WCPS has recently formed a partnership with Care Solace, a mental health care coordination service for education institutions that helps to fit students and such with a MHCP that fits their preferences and needs.

News 40 spoke to LifeSkills, Inc. and WCPS about the importance of mental health, especially when comes to school-age children.

The school system has reported seeing an increase for the need in mental health services since COVID. Melanie Watts with LifeSkills said it’s important to normalize conversations around things like depression or bipolar disorder.

Watts said in her interview, “If a friend of ours says they just diagnosed with cancer, the reaction is different from if they said they just got diagnosed with bipolar, and I would like to see the reaction be similar… ‘How can I help you?'”

Watts advocated heavily for 988, saying it’s a great resource for anyone to call, even if they just need to talk because they’re feeling down.

BARREN COUNTY, Ky. – In the wee hours of the morning, school staff helped put together hot spaghetti dinners, hams and dry goods boxes for families who are a part of the Barren County School District.

News 40 spoke to organizers of the food drive, who said the impact it makes on the community and students helping is great. The food drive started around six years ago with students in the biomedical science class wanting to aid the community in some way, and now it’s a tradition still carried on by staff and students.

The new instructor for the Biomed class said her students feel a great sense of pride in being able to help out fellow Trojans, and that they “truly have a servants heart” when it comes to this project.

According to family resource coordinator, 57% of the district is below the poverty, but even those families who might benefit more from help will often say the kindness would be better spent on someone else. However, this is all about spreading love and positivity throughout the community, regardless of socio-economic status.

The food can go a long way for some families with the nutrition services director telling us that 1 in 4 students have their last meal at school, a statistic specific to Barren County, so this is something that can benefit those families who might have difficulty providing a meal during breaks from school.

SOUTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY – Recently, some awards were given out in the name of stopping impaired drivers, and News 40 caught up with two officers who made a good amount of DUI arrests this year.

We spoke to Quintin Wright with the Logan County Sheriff’s Department and Allen Ward with the Glasgow Police Department, who in total made 134 DUI arrests this year.

Wright, who made 99 arrests this year, said that even though his shift is 4 p.m. to midnight, he has stopped impaired drivers during hours all throughout the night and morning. Wright said that through the night, he really focuses on getting impaired drivers off the road, to which he takes a lot of pride.

The sheriff deputy told the station that Logan County is a rural county with two gas stations being open after might.

“It’s going to be expensive, but I’d much rather you pay that $60 for someone to take you to the gas station rather than you drive that two miles up the road, because a lot can happen in two miles,” said the law man.

Ward offered a similar sentiment when he spoke to the station, saying “You could do so much damage in such little time and distance, it’s just not worth it. They have delivery services for everything.”

Ward recalled a collision he worked previously, where a man T-boned another car in Glasgow. Ward said that the man at fault was completely denying the fact he was under the influence of alcohol and various other drugs even when he was “butchering” the standardized field sobriety tests.

According to both officers, many subjects think they’re perfectly fine to drive. “Knowing” yourself and your car tend to be a trend in vehicular accidents, and that could be even more dangerous in rural Kentucky. Ward said “I’m limited to the city, but I talk to the county guys, and it’s most of the time on these secondary roads, don’t even have a line in the middle…”

And while they said it’s a magic word, the power is limited. Ward and Wright both said that saying sorry doesn’t do much for loved ones.

Ward said, “You can ask anyone who’s lost someone to a drunk driving incident, there’s no way to repay that debt.”

GLASGOW, Ky. – In Glasgow, a nonprofit organization is advertising their space they’ve opened up to keep people safe.

News 40 spoke to Wade Copas, the director of Bridge KY, who told the station that they opened up their warming room in December of 2022 to help keep people out of the elements. Thankfully, they opened it the day before temperatures dipped into the single digits.

Copas told us that there are usually snacks and coffee supplies in the room, as well as chairs just so people can get out of the cold and have some time to warm up. Hypothermia can set in easy, so this is a good way to help benefit the homeless community when the weather calls for it.

The room is also audio and video monitored, allowing staff to know any time someone enters the 24-hour space and in the event they do need some sort of assistance, staff would know if they were in need of medical assistance and can talk through the cameras.

Copas said during this time, Bridge KY is also looking for any winter coats as they can collect, so if you have a coat you wouldn’t mind to donate, they’d love to take it off your hands.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A new space seeks out to provide a sense of community to new parents.

In an interview with the owner, Kristen Siegle said she and her husband acted on a feeling and idea they had after becoming parents during the COVID pandemic and moving back into the Bowling Green area. The new service is meant to be a social lounge for parents and their young children to give families the support and fellowship the Siegles felt like they missed out on during their son’s first year of life.

The owner said she wants it to feel like a one-stop -shop for parents with things like open play hours and soon-to-come weekly programming and the resource wall.

Siegle said the resource wall will be a collection of QR codes to help parents connect with specialists in aspects of parenthood, and eventually parents can look forward to classroom sessions or organized events in 2024.

A first-time mother who just moved into town from North Carolina said it’s been a great help to her. With no friends in the area, it’s helped her and her son experience some needed socialization as a stay-at-home mom, she says.

She told the station she’s exchanged contact information with some other women who frequent the lounge, which is exactly what Siegle was hoping for.

LOGAN COUNTY, Ky. – Tornadic winds once again rattled south central Kentucky.

On the two-year anniversary weekend of the December 2021 tornadoes, another tornado blew through the bottom of the state. The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief was able to help out in the rural county.

News 40 followed around some of the crew and saw a large amount of damage in the area. The station talked to volunteers of the relief effort, who say they’ll be there until around Friday.

Southern hospitality is touted as a big boon to the area, according to members of SBDR Kentucky. Volunteers said the good neighbors of the area are doing their part as well. The teams just got there Monday, operating out of the Dripping Springs Baptist Church, but they told the station they had already seen piles of debris on various yards.

They also reminded us that perspective is important.

The group had responded to Mayfield back in December of 2021 but said, even though the damage may look less than the devastation that was the town, volunteers said it’s a disaster to that specific family, and they matter just as much as anyone else.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – She’s from Chalybeate, Kentucky and moved to Bowling Green almost 80 years ago, a home she almost always has been.

News 40 spent some time at Lois Willis’s birthday party today as she celebrates turning 105 years old with some family and friends. Her sons Dannie and Michael Willis spoke to the station as well for this great occasion.

Lois recalled some memories of her growing up, and it seemed pretty eventful. She rode on milk trucks, her family had the first car in the neighborhood, first telephone and the first radio.

Her sons applauded her for their upbringing – they told the station that their parents were great influences on their life, and they’re more than grateful to have their mother still with them.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – In this day and age of modern medicine, there are many preventative measures you can take, but arguably the best action to take is just asking around.

News 40 spoke to Michael Gosky today, a Senior Oncology Genetic Counselor at the University of Kentucky who said he wishes there was a blanket answer, but unfortunately it’s specific to the family. Gosky said he doesn’t think there is enough discussion going around about medical history and maybe the holidays are a good time to do that. With everyone gathering around for the holidays, Gosky said it might be worth asking some general questions, especially if you have your own concerns.

The counselor told the station in his own life, years ago, his primary care provider had said his blood pressure was a little higher than the average for someone his age. This prompted him to speak to his parents about the issue, and when reviewing the situation, Gosky said “Funny enough, just two weeks later, my uncle had a heart attack. I don’t want to be in that situation 30 or 40 years from now…”

Gosky hopes this season, more people ask the maybe more difficult questions to better protect their health and possibly their children as well. The oncologist said he sees day in and day out a lack of conversation within family units. Referencing a previous consultation, Gosky said “one patient said ‘I didn’t even know breast cancer ran in her family until her sister got diagnosed, then we started talking about it.'”

EDMONSON COUNTY, Ky. – Over the past three days, Edmonson County has been having some trouble with their water.

Today, the Edmonson County Water District had a footlong water main break that led to low pressure and outages in many areas on the south side of the county.

According to ECWD, there are around 2,300 customers having some sort of water issue right now, but they’re working as quickly as they can to rectify any problems. The manager suspects it could be weather-related. With the lack of rainfall this season, this could be an unforeseen side effect.

Tony Sanders, manager for the ECWD, told News 40 that he thinks it’s possible the rain impacted the situation in some way. Currently, teams are working to restore full service as late as Friday. Sanders just asks that the community try to be patient with them.