Mayor Knight addresses cuts to inner city program, community weighs in

Several Hopkinsville residents spoke up at the June 3 Hopkinsville City Council meeting, voicing their concerns about the city's failure to include the Inner City Residential Enterprise Zone in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Christian County NowHopkinsville Municipal Center and city council chambers. May 7, 2024 (Daynnah Carmona)

HOPKINSVILLE, KY (CHRISTIAN COUNTY NOW) – Several Hopkinsville residents spoke up at the June 3 Hopkinsville City Council meeting, voicing their concerns about the city’s failure to include the Inner City Residential Enterprise Zone (Inner City REZ) in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Also known as the Legacy Program, this initiative was created and is funded by the city in an effort to revitalize and rehabilitate targeted inner-city residential neighborhoods and the downtown business district.

Four individuals, including former council member Natasha Francis, directly addressed the council during public comments, speaking in favor of continuous funding for the program.

“With the cutting of the budget, and the cutting of the funding for the Legacy Program, you guys are going to be hurting a lot of people, and it’s the people in the neighborhoods that need help the most,” said Hopkinsville resident Barbara Stevens to the council. “So, I beg you to reconsider the budget and find something in there for the Legacy program.”

Mayor response, forming committee

Mayor J.R. Knight immediately addressed these concerns, sharing that he intends to establish a committee as soon as possible that will focus on best utilizing existing funding from the Inner City REZ. This may include reallocating funding that the program still has. Vance Smith, Brandi Stallons, Don Marsh, Brittanie Bogard, Jason Bell, and Amy Craig were all appointed to the committee due to their ward’s proximity to inner city neighborhoods.

“We are going to look at this. It is not forgotten about because we do see the need and the help that you all want and ask for,” said Knight. “It’s not falling on deaf ears…what they (Inner City REZ) have done in the last 20 years has been a great thing, but it’s always time to take a look at new things too.”

Holly Boggess with Community Development Services shared that as of April 30, the Inner City REZ has an available balance of around $112,000 that has not been allocated to other projects. Since the inception of the program, $8.7 million has been allocated to them from the city. Boggess added that she feels this program is beneficial and necessary to the community, also agreeing that it requires more oversight.

“I feel like we’ve been given the runaround on what money is here versus what money we are being told is here,” said council member Louis Clayton Sumner. “I’ll be quite honest, it’s confusing. I don’t like the idea of us sitting on money for three, four, five years that’s been allocated. After a certain amount of time if that money is still sitting there, we should bring it back in and figure out something else to use it for.”

Despite the mayor’s promise for funding and the creation of the committee, the council still voted to approve the second reading of the city budget as is. Vance Smith and Jason Bell voted against.