New Year’s Day tornado
It was our very first story of the year: Just weeks after two long-track tornadoes devastated much of Western Kentucky and crossed through southern Christian County, an EF-2 touched down on New Year’s Day in the heart of downtown Hopkinsville.
- RELATED: An unexpected start to the new year
It was one of at least five to hit Kentucky on Jan. 1 and was determined by the weather service to have been the strongest. While no one was injured, the tornado ripped the roof and gas pumps from the Marathon station at Ninth and Campbell streets and damaged several homes and businesses from about 18th Street to Fourth Street. Parishioners at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church described the storm as “roaring like a freight train and the church booming like a drum.”
Local elections bring sweeping changes
This year saw an unprecedented number of local races on the ballot and sweeping changes to elected offices, as well as electoral processes in Christian County.
In August, the county election board voted to double the number of voting centers in an effort to expand access for all residents. Voters were given the option to cast their ballot at any one of 16 locations in the county.
On Nov. 8, several new faces were elected to local office, with the Republican party capturing the majority of seats, including mayor, judge-executive, county clerk, all 12 city council seats and five seats for county magistrate. Longtime judge-executive Steve Tribble was defeated after serving in the role for 28 years and the county elected a new clerk following Mike Kem’s announcement that he would retire from the office after 24 years.
Local development boom
It has been a banner year for development in Hopkinsville and Christian County.
Among the most significant was the announcement in August that Massachusetts-based Ascend Elements had chosen Hopkinsville as the site for a plant that would manufacture materials for electric vehicle batteries. The $1 billion development that is expected to create 400 jobs is the largest investment in Western Kentucky’s history. The plant is among several popping up across the country as the United States works to catch up in the global EV battery supply chain competition.
Other notable developments include a $1.9 billion expansion for Casey Jones Distillery that’s expected to create 15 new jobs; a $1.2 million investment at Legacy Metals that will generate 100 new jobs; a $32 million project at Jennie Stuart to expand the emergency department and renovate the E.C. Green Cancer Center; and a $14 million grant to Pennyrile Rural Electric to expand high-speed internet to 5,598 unserved homes and businesses in Christian and surrounding counties.
Consolidated high school
In August 2021, the Christian County Board of Education approved the first of many steps in a multi-year plan to build a consolidated high school at Fort Campbell Boulevard and Lovers Lane with a capacity for 2,500 students. The plan grew out of discussions about aging buildings at Hopkinsville and Christian County high schools after voters’ rejection of a nickel tax that was proposed to finance two new high schools over a span of 10 years.
The project continued to unfold in 2022, with the community weighing in and deciding to name the new school “Hopkinsville Christian County Academy.”
But it took a surprising turn in July when, despite initial construction of approximately $115 million, bids came in nearly 100% higher — around $200 million. The school board rejected the bids and, now, the project remains in limbo.
Sunday alcohol sales approved
Despite previous arguments that selling alcohol on Sunday was unacceptable because of long-held religious traditions, the Hopkinsville City Council in May unanimously approved such sales. The effort was led by resident Daniel Brechwald, an aviation officer at Fort Campbell who stressed the freedom of consumers to choose when they buy alcohol, as well as the economic impact.
A hometown legacy honored
Following bell hooks‘ death on Dec. 15, 2021, her younger sister Gwenda Motley, a retired educator who serves on the Hoptown Chronicle board, began thinking of ways to celebrate her life and legacy in their hometown.
Her legacy was celebrated during Black History Month and Women’s History Month with screenings of hooks’ interviews, writing contests and a History on Tap event, among other efforts. In April, hundreds flocked to Hopkinsville for a celebration of life at the Alhambra Theatre that set out to remember the author and activist born Gloria Jean Watkins on Sept. 25, 1952 in Hopkinsville.
Efforts were also made to ensure more permanent representations to the trailblazing author. In August, a mural on the west exterior wall of the Christian County Historical Society at Ninth and Liberty streets was dedicated in hooks’ honor. The next month — on what would have been her 70th birthday — Hopkinsville Community College unveiled a statue honoring the artist at Round Table Literary Park.
Also worth noting
Kentucky lawman Bill Dillard dies: Bill Dillard — Kentucky’s first Black sheriff, elected twice in Christian County before he became caught up in an FBI drug investigation — died on Tuesday, Jan. 11. He was 83. At the time of his death, he remained one among a small number of Black residents who have won election to a top office in Christian County.
Ted Poston honored: Another notable Hopkinsville native, Ted Poston, was inducted in March to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. Poston, who began his career at his parents’ newspaper in Hopkinsville and went on to cover the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement for the New York Post before his death in 1974, became known as the “Dean of Black Journalists.”
Hopkinsville museums recognized: After weathering years of closure due to renovations and then the coronavirus pandemic, the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County won the Thomas C. Clark Award of Excellence for their resilience and resourcefulness in uniquely trying times.
Julia Hunter is the engagement editor for Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at julia@hoptownchronicle.org.
