City council receives funds to fix flooding on West Seventh Street

Hopkinsville City Council heard the monthly financial report at Tuesday’s meeting and was awarded funding from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to address flooding issues.

The $300,000 in discretionary funds will go towards correcting chronic flooding problems on West Seventh Street near Second Street Baptist. KYTC District 2 Chief Engineer Deneatra Henderson spoke to council and says this is a perfect example of state and local partnering together to improve communities.

The work will take place at the intersection of West Seventh Street and Kentucky Avenue, with city officials saying the flooding has become dangerous and recently even caused the evacuation of rooms at Second Street Baptist Church. The City has committed $115,000 for a share of the drainage improvements.

The flood abatement work includes improvements to several drop boxes and reworking of the drainage system to allow water to more efficiently drain into nearby Little River, just south of the intersection.

In other action, Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin gave the financial report, saying the city collected $7.3 million in revenue in September but had $8.9 million in expenses. He says that is pretty normal for this time of the year, and will become positive again since property taxes start coming in in October.

An available cash balance of $6.4 million exists in the general fund. There were several recognitions at council, including the introduction 2018-2019 Mayor’s Youth Council and of Freudenberg Filtration and Stanley Engineered Fastening for their recent community service projects in the city.                                                                                **