ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) -- Don't look for towering mountains here because there is none. This is a place of rolling countryside, cattle farms and cropland.
That's why some eyebrows arched when the Obama administration penciled Hardin County into Appalachia, allowing local law enforcement in Elizabethtown to tap into funding for a mountain-based anti-drug initiative. Never mind that Elizabethtown is some 200 miles west of bona fide Appalachian towns like Harlan and Hazard.
The availability of federal money set aside specifically for combating Appalachia's woes has some communities in the flatlands looking for ways to cash in. The result has been far-flung cities forming ties to the mountain region.
The most recent example was the Office of National Drug Control Policy adding the Elizabethtown-area to the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area in August.
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