Christian Fiscal takes action for tornado shelters, hears Jail report

It was a packed agenda for Tuesday’s Christian Fiscal Court meeting, as magistrates approved measures to pave the way for tornado shelters and heard an update from the Christian County Jail. 

But before that, Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam and Christian County Regional Animal Shelter Director Melissa Goff made a special presentation to Hopkinsville Mayor J.R. Knight with a certificate recognizing Hopkinsville as a Better Cities for Pets Certified City.

Goff worked on getting the designation for some time, and while it paves the way for future grant funding to benefit our pet population, it also highlights the community’s commitment to creating a pet-friendly community.

Then, Jailer Adam Smith gave an update on the Christian County Jail, saying their inmate population has fluctuated over the months, but they’re implementing new ideas and agreement to level it back out, including a partnership with Fort Campbell.

The agreement would allow for the housing of incarcerated soldiers in Christian County. 

Magistrates approved a measure setting is for the Pennyrile Area Development District to put out a Request For Proposal to enter into the engineering phase of construction 13 tornado shelters throughout the county. Amy Frogue with PADD says it is a sizable project that includes six 500 person shelters and seven 110 person shelters.

The goal is to have those tornado shelters be as easily accessible to people throughout the county as possible. 

In other action, magistrates approved a recommendation to rename Watts Road to Cutt Road, to achieve more continuity of the name of the road throughout the county and with Todd County, as right now, different parts of that road bear different names.