Travis William Martin

Republican 

candidate for 

City Council, 
Ward 6
Travis Martin, 41, of Steeplechase Lane, is a real estate agent. He has served on the Hopkinsville City Council since 2020. He currently is vice chairman of the Committee of the Whole Board.

Which electoral system do you support for the city of Hopkinsville? Why?


Partisan elections. When the topic came up a year or so ago, I voted in favor of nonpartisan elections and I still think it has it's benefits. We agreed with the mayor to create a committee to look into and study each option. I attended the public forum that included political experts from the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University. They both agreed that changing our current partisan elections to nonpartisan would have little to no effect on anything in our community. After hearing this, I really think we need to leave things like they currently are. People in the community were pretty upset about this topic and I think government needs to do less as far as dividing the citizens of our community. While personally I can see the benefits, I think we need to leave this issue as is and move on to something that doesn't divide us any further. If my phone rings and someone needs help I'm going to do all I can to help them. I don't care if they are a Republican or a Democrat. Before we were Ds and Rs we were people. Sometimes I feel like that is forgotten when politics are concerned.

What plans do you have to address blight and dilapidated structures in the city?

Our city has gotten pretty aggressive in the past year on this issue. We have buildings and homes that are vacant and abandoned and the violations and fees are just stacking up on these properties. We started the mass foreclosure process and the Lot Next Door program to try to clean up our city. We feel that we've taken an aggressive approach to help clean up Hopkinsville and it's working.

If elected, how would you help address the housing shortage?

This one is near and dear to my heart. As a realtor, I've seen this as an issue for years now. We are going to have to get creative to get new builders and investors in our community. I'm on a few committees who are starting talks on this issue. We are trying to reach out to builders to see what's stopping them from coming into our community and work to fix any issue. We only have a handful of active builders in Hopkinsville. We have to reach out beyond those few we have and recruit more. We aren't trying to "be like Clarksville," but we have to change our mindset going forward. We need new ideas because the ones in the past have clearly not worked.

If elected, how would you work together with government, nonprofit and business leaders to encourage economic development?

I think the city and the county do a great job working together on economic growth. We are as aggressive in 2022 than we've ever been. The ways that worked even 5 years ago don't work today so I think we are working together very aggressively to land that next investment for Hopkinsville and Christian County. The more jobs we create for our area the more everyone will benefit including our nonprofits. Our community is such a caring and giving community and the more people/jobs we bring in, the more giving these companies will be to nonprofits such as United Way and the Boys and Girls Club just to name a few. Growing our community is the answer to almost every financial issue we have, and we are working every day to sell Hopkinsville!

If elected, how would you prioritize the reduction of gun violence in Hopkinsville?

Gun violence is a huge issue nationwide and we are seeing the uptick here in Hopkinsville as well. And what blows my mind is that a lot of crimes that involve firearms are involving our youth. It seems there is no respect for life when it comes to criminals. They'd rather pull a gun than to fight it out physically which is very concerning. We have to start educating our youth that gun violence is a permanent answer to a temporary problem. There are other ways we can work through issues that do not involve guns. I also support the FLOCK cameras that our city has installed. I think in the past, criminals have believed it was "safe" to come to Hopkinsville and hide out. Now with the help of these cameras, hopefully the word is getting out that we are cracking down on criminal activity in Hopkinsville and they need to find another place to hunker down. These cameras have done a great job so far and I support getting more.

If elected, how would you work to revitalize downtown Hopkinsville?

Simply put, I'd continue to support the downtown revitalization incentives that are set in place now. We have had quite a bit of success with a few investors who have purchased these older buildings and remodeled them back into a functioning retail space and/or residential space. I'd love to see more investors and property owners take advantage of these incentives.