Hopkinsville Water Environment Authority President and CEO Derrick Watson will retire at the end of the year, board chairman Jim Blair said Friday in a press release.
During his employment with HWEA, Watson developed more than $250 million of infrastructure projects. These included the Lake Barkley raw water intake and transmission project in 2008, the McKenzie T. Moss Drinking Water Plant expansion in 2012, the Southpark Industrial Park Natural Gas project in 2019 and the Hopkinsville Clean Water expansion and renovation project in 2024.
“I am so very grateful to have had the wonderful opportunity to serve our customers and this community for the past 28 years,” Watson said. “I will be forever grateful to Chairman Blair, the HWEA Board of Commissioners, and all of those whom I have had the opportunity to work with to make our community a better place to live. It has also been the highest honor to have worked alongside the amazing men and women of HWEA. All the great things we accomplished during my career, were because of them, not me.”
Watson said he plans to spend more time with his family, in addition to traveling and pursuing his hobby as a musician and songwriter.
The release does not include details about a possible successor.
On Aug. 1, HWEA announced the promotion of Melissa Spurr to a newly created position — chief operating officer to “manage all departments and coordinate day to-day operations.” She joined the utility in 2013 as director of finance and business.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
