City Council - Regular Meeting

gentlemen, we're going to read a proclamation tonight for radon month. Uh it's a very very harmful uh piece that we have in the community and it's all over the US and Councilman BZ is going to start out and I'll finish it up here on radar. Good evening everyone. We're proclamation in support of National Radon Action Month in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Whereas radon is a colorless odorless radioactive gas that may threaten the health of our citizens and their families. And whereas radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US. And whereas radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. And whereas the National Academy of Sciences estimates that up to 21,000 lung cancer deaths occur in the United States each year. And whereas one in 15 homes across the US have elevated radon levels. And whereas any home in Hopkinsville may have elevated levels of radon even if other homes in the same neighborhood do not. And whereas testing of radon, excuse me, testing of radon is simple and kits can be borrowed from for free from Hawkinsville Christian County Public Library and Christian County Corp Corporated extension office. And whereas identifying radar problems can be fixed. Whereas the city of Hopkinsville and the US Surgeon General and the US Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization are supporting efforts encouraging homeowners to test their homes for radon having elevated levels of radon reduce and have new homes built with radon resistant features. Now therefore I

James Arnight Jr. Mayor of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, do have hereby proclaim January 2026 as officially National Radon Action Month in Hawkinsville. Signed and sealed on this 20th day. Thank you. All right.

We call this January 20th council meeting to order. Invocation Ward One.

May we bow our heads? Heavenly Father, I just want to say thank you. Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace and your mercy. Heavenly Father, just want to say thank you for guiding us and leading us through 2025. Heavenly Father, thank you for letting us be able to overcome adversity. Heavenly Father, thank you for a city that put our hands together and and and work together through the floods. Heavenly Father, and now 2026, I just want to ask you, heavenly father, to keep your arms wrapped around our first responders, police department, fire department, public works, and on and on. Heavenly Father, we just want to give this day to you, heavenly father, in praising you and thanking you, heavenly father, with all these blessings in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Stand for the pledge, please. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the

clerk call the role. Council member Smith present. Council member Stallins. Council member Marsh here. Council member Crabtree here. Council member Craig here. Council member Martin here. Council member Summer here. Council member Meek here. Council member Bogard present. Council member Valz here. Council member Bell. Council member D here. We have a quorum.

All righty. We'll move into uh awards and recognition. Item A is Miss Bella Long right here. She's our mayor for today. She's Milbrook School and we've had a lot of fun today. She's been all over the city and all the city departments and seeing how it all works at CDS and over at the fire department and police department, public works, sports. Which one was your best one you like, Miss Long? The fire department. Oh man, it always that's always a deal right there. Are you sure? Well, I kept score.

There you go. First it was with the stuffed animals. There you go. Police department definitely went with that. There's my little husky puppy at home. His name is Blueberry. There you go. And so, but then it t down to the coins. Down to the coins. Oh, man. Which the fire department definitely won me over with that. There you go. And also, and it was also with the dogs.

Uhoh. Bola wasn't there, so I did get to see him sadly, but Toby was there and he straight up ran up to me and followed me around all day. So that's also why. All right, Miss Long spent the day with us and it's been a great privilege to h privilege to have her here with us today and we appreciate you there. And I'll have to take back over the seat now and let you go back to your mom if you don't mind. Well, I don't get to sit down, though, do I? All right. Chief,

good evening, Mayor and Council. We have a a few things tonight. We've got a few promotions and then one retirement. We'll start with our promotions. Uh Kyle Graves is being promoted to captain. If he'll step up. Kyle is from Hopkinsville, graduated from Christian County High School, was hired in 2014 and promoted on January the 5th of this year. Um his uh person that's going to be pinning him tonight is his wife Kimberly and his daughter Kinsley. All right, Kyle, raise your right hand, please, sir. I state your name.

Kyle Graves. As a citizen of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and of the United States of America, do solemnly swear that we'll faithfully perform to the best of your ability the duty of captain for the city of Hawkinsville, Kentucky, and will support, protect, and preserve life and property of the citizens of Hawkinsville, Kentucky. So, help you God. Got it.

All right. Thank you, Miss Grace. Will you come up, please? Bring that little angel with you. There we go. Got a grandpa over here if you need somebody to hold that baby. Let's pray. Next, we have three of our firefighters getting promoted to the rank of lieutenant. I'm going to ask them to step forward. Lewis Levelville, Brandon Isbel, Lane Thomas, and Bryce Bixler. Four. Yes.

Sorry. All right. Can I get you all to raise your right hand, please? All righty. I state your name. As a citizen of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and of the United States of America, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully perform to the best of your ability and duties of lieutenant in the city of Hoppkinsville, Kentucky, and will support, protect, preserve life and property of the citizens of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. So help me God. All right, you turn around. We ask your family members to step forward for the penny.

Thank you. All right. So, this one's the tough one. If we can have, uh, Curtis Nightingale step forward. He's here. So, uh, Curtis started with us 22 years ago. And there there's a whole lot on here. Um, I could read his achievements over the the next hour, but I'm going to talk about one achievement because I think it's what means the most to him in his 22 years of service. In 2010, Curtis along with his brother, who is also a retired command staff officer and some other firefighters, rescued a fellow firefighter, performed life-saving CPR, revived that firefighter. I think that, you know, that that is why we're here. It is it is the the most important thing I feel like he has done in his career. I think he would agree with that and uh what he is most proud of and again we we love Curtis His his whole career he's exemplified uh professionalism and his commitment to to safety and uh we we love him and we miss him and uh his his family the night andale family has meant a lot to this department and it's hard to see him leave. So we'll read the plaque. Curtis Nightingale, Captain Presented to Curtis A. Nightingale in recognition of in appreciation for 22 years, one month of loyal and faithful service. Your dedication and devotion to the Hopkinsville Fire Department has contributed immeasurably in saving lives and protecting citizens. We are proud of your accomplishments throughout your career. On behalf of the city of Hopkinsville, we thank you. City of Hopkinsville, Hopkinsville Fire Department.

Next on the agenda, we will be discussing Mayor's Youth Council and Miss Amanda Brunt will be reading the names of everyone that is part of Mayor's Youth Council this year.

Yes, we want to thank all the participants for Mayor's Youth Council. This is not only I hope it was a valuable experience for you all, but this is a great experience for the city to kind of get to know our youth, educate you about local city government, but get your input, too, because you have valuable input for the city. So, we appreciate you participating in this as well. So, as I call your name, if you all want to make your way to the front, just we want to recognize you. Evelyn Bangart, Kaylee Bangart, Anna Kamacho, Gabriella Sadano, Mallerie Cornelius, Chloe Gidoff, Briana Hendrickson, Lamar and Jeffers, Gabriel Naylor, Addison Peek, Samantha Prescott, Carson Steager, and Annayiah Wilford. And everyone wasn't able to be here this evening, but thank you all for coming. Thank you all for participating. And let's give them a round of applause. And Miss Nikki will get with you all later for a group photo. So you you all may have a seat. We'll let them finish exiting and then we'll start again.

Alrighty. Item six will be public comments. If anyone's in the public would like to come and speak at the podium, please state your name and your address and we'll be glad to hear from you. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening.

My name is Shaon Brody and I live at 313 Linda Drive. Two years ago, I stood in this very room in front of previous leadership and advocated on behalf of the people for the water park to remain open. Recently, I heard on the news that the current city council is once again discussing options for reopening the water park and I felt that it was important for me to be here today. As a community member and upstanding taxpaying citizen, I am here to advocate for the for the water park. Once again, I'm asking the council to form a committee and allow the citizens of this community to have a real voice in deciding what should be done and how our tax dollars should be used. Personally, I would love to see this water park torn down and rebuilt. But this shouldn't this decision shouldn't rest on my opinion alone. It should reflect the voices of everyone in this community. Please remember that I am only one person. I might not be an elected official and I might not have I might not hold a title, but my voice matters. and so does every other voice in this city. Thank you,

Mayor. I know it's unusual, but I would like to ask him a question. Yes, sir. If council decides to form a committee to study the water park, would you be willing to work with us on that committee?

Yes, sir. Okay. There you go. All right. Thank you. Anyone else like to speak at the podium on public comments? The floor is open. Okay, seeing none, we'll move into mayor's comments. All righty. We had a great town hall meeting with Lindseay Kpier. We had a great time with him with the tourism and we appreciate what he brought to Hopkinsville for us last week. Uh we had another great morning with human trafficking out at the silo. We appreciate everything they done out there and everyone that spoke there. We had a good meeting with the Sins Elements uh with Mark Fern and them out there at Sins Elements over the last week on Wednesday. We spent about four hours out there walking around looking where we were standing and what's been done, what people are out there working on. Now, they don't have a lot working out there, but they got 25 to 35 employees out there working every day doing something. It's not a lot, but they're doing something. Um, and also like to say thank you to White Flowers for their new location and their ribbon cutting that we had out on the boulevard. They're um out there behind the rule king and all there. And we also had the Rusty Pot had a re ribbon cutting up beside the uh Papa John's Pizza up there. We had a ribbon cutting there last week. And a lot of good food there to eat and go to White Flower. You'll find a lot of baby stuff and if you got babies, go see them. They got all kinds of stuff there on that. We had a great day with HRC yesterday morning. We had a good morning there. You know, council members were there. Uh judge executives were there. We magistrates were there. We had a great morning, but we had a great community there with us, too. You know, we had young people at the school

challenge with Tom Bale. We really appreciate what he does on that. And we had a lot of fun there yesterday morning. And Reverend Joe Level give us a good message while he was there and a good speech. If you couldn't get fired up over it, thin, you wasn't gonna get fired up on that. But on that, we had a lot going on. And we got some upcoming weather coming in this week. I've got four different models been sent to me on emails today. And as Mike Perry keeps telling me, we'll wait and see what happens closer to Thursday before we get too too carried away on this. But Mike and their crew have already out and got the plows on the trucks and everything's moving forward on it that we'll be prepared for it if it's 2 in or if it's 21. But we don't want 21 and no ice. But you know, and I know the Christian County Road Department, they're working hard and the State Department is too. We've had conversations with them, too. They're moving forward and getting ready for the bad weather to come in. something that we're not wanting to see, but it is something that the good Lord's going to give us on that. Nikki, I need these packets. Do you have them packets right there, Amanda, next to you? Should be about 13 of them. Okay, I'll be right there. They were they were buried.

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry for that folks. What you have in front of you, council members, is what I'm bringing up right now under mayor's comments. It's been brought up to me several times that my CFO, my city attorney, my CEO, and me have sold properties that were not sold properly. Every piece of property that we have sold as a city has been done by KRS and it's been voted on and an MO through this council in 2023 on March the 7th and let me get to this council members that were present that day was Natasha Francis, Don Marsh, Chuck Crabtree, Amy Craig,

Travis Martin, Terry Meeks, Jamie Limeberg, Steve Kill, Matthew Hamby. Absent that day was Bruce Smiley, Doug Wilcox, and Jason Bell. It's been put on Facebook that we did not sell properties correctly by council. And I want to bring that to the light. Right now, we sell everything by KRS through the through the sealed bid package. And Doug like to say there, sir?

Well, the the process that we've used is number one, it comes to council to sell any surplus property. So, you have to declare it surplus and then before it can be sold or transferred to another agency, um it it has to be to another entity, it has to be bid out. And that's what we've done on all of these properties. I think the last set was several years ago. Yes. And those properties were all sold pursuant to public bids. Right. But everything has been done above board and voted on by you, the council members. So please quit putting it on Facebook that we are selling properties property illegally. Thank you.

Hey Doug, mayor. Yes. Question. I don't know if I'm the only one that's never seen this. I don't even know what started this. Doug, I I'm This is an awfully gray area, I think, for us to be having just a meeting come up in the middle of nowhere. I mean, this is getting into legal issues potentially, mayor, that I've never heard of until you just brought it up, right? But to me, it's awfully dangerous just to come up and submit something like this thus without having time to go to public records without it. I just I just I don't want us getting in trouble being No, no. I printed it out there and it will be on on the in the minutes everything for Britney to have. I talked to

Lord knows if we're going to sit up here and worry about what every other idiot on social media says, we're going to have a lot more discussions like this. Well, no. This this come from a council member and that's the reason I'm putting it to bed right here right now on that the properties are sold legally and through KRS because when you're starting to question the CFO the CEO and the attorney I think we need to put this to rest publicly right now on that. Okay.

Yes sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. All righty. Under reports from officers and committees and guest speakers, uh, HS, would you please come on up, Mr. Jeff Herd? Thank you, Mayor. When I first walked in here and saw this full house, I thought there are a lot of people interested in HS report. That's right.

But once again, I was disappointed on the attendance. Um, I'd like to start and thank I always like to thank Mayor Knight and the city council. I know your time is valuable. uh appreciate having a few minutes here to to talk about what's going on and give an annual report what's happened at Hopkinsville Electric System and Energy Net over the past year and this and in during 2025 and I say this every year is always a lot of activity going on and just like in uh in this in this forum right here we have a lot of changes going on from the top down. Um, I won't go that's not part of my report tonight, but of course I've always talked about how TVA is our power supplier and generator and they're going through a lot of changes and of course what they do affects affects us directly and so we're uh we're constantly been vill diligent, but uh there's probably more changes in the utility world than there's ever been. Most of the time we're whether it's ourselves or the water company, gas, you know, we're we're in the background taking care of the infrastructure and making sure everything's working properly. But seem like here a lot of other changes are going on. So that kind of goes along with uh some of the things I want to share tonight. Would like to recognize several members of our management team here tonight. Leslie Washington, Dustin Love, Cody Ninger, and Timothy Griffy are here uh to lend moral support. or correct any information or fill in any gaps that I might have tonight. But um before we get started, I said, "Oh, I've I've done this presentation for several years, and when I started out, I probably had about 25 to 30 slides, and what I've learned, the more concise and the shorter and get your word out is the better." So, I made a concerted effort this year to keep it I I shot for 10. I got it down to 11. So, I call that a victory tonight. So, I'll try to be concise and fortunately there's no UK

ball game on tonight. So, I know that there won't be that same sense of urgency. But, uh, with that, I kind of start with the next slide, please. Uh, a major focus going into 2025 is creation of of a strategic plan to be kind of a comprehensive roadmap. And when you talk about that, you know, a lot of times you these are words that we throw around vision and mission and core values and all, but if if you don't take that and translate that into actions, uh, all it is is a book that you put on the shelf and and from time to time you dust it off and change a couple of verses in it and go ahead. But, you know, the the key for us has been connected, empowering our community and transforming lives. So whether that's on uh serving our electric customers or internet customers is still the same the same focus. And so is going back to there's so many changes going if you don't have a plan and a vision then you just kind of go along with with the waves and let them carry. It's very important that we have a strategy to move forward because everyone there's only certain amount of time and money and resources that we have and we want to make sure that we're putting putting those in in focus and where need to be. Uh, next slide please. The HS board and the management team established five major goals and so these are the benchmarks. So when you say we had a good year or a bad year or we're doing a good job or a poor job, how do you know that? The only way you know that is to have benchmarks and say, are we hitting the mark in these areas in our electric and and telecom world? And so that's what I wanted to focus on tonight are five major goals that we're we use to say are we doing what are we serving our customers and the city of Hopkinsville and our community as we need to. So the first one talk about dynamic service provider and you know

what's a tangible way that we can show about being a provider expectations when you read that notice point on their private provide services that support the necessary for community growth and s sustainability what does that mean and so um wanted to kind of highlight some things that we've done this year that show that next slide. slide, please. Uh, one thing we're very proud of is our hometown grid outage uh, map system. And so that's something we recently implemented and that was been a challenge for smaller electric utilities such as ourselves to have the technology available that you have real-time information. So we now we have by calling or texting that number, you can get real-time information. And I wanted to check this on a cold night talking to the mayor beforehand on a cold night. I want to make sure uh before I walked in here and started highlighting that it is showing zero outages and so a night like that I'm glad that uh glad everyone's warm and comfortable. But I think that's very important uh today being able to communicate and share information is more important than it's ever been. And everyone wants to know do you know that my power is out? Do you know where I live? And how long is it going to take before you get me back on? And so all all this is constantly updated and so text and this is interactive and so it serves several purposes. You know it allows our electric customers report real-time outage and get outage updates as we go along. So we share that and not only for customers but uh city council and and all of emergency management teams and being able to keep up with all that information that goes along with that. And also there's a safety factor. Um, in years past, we used our linemen to communicate with our customers because they're the frontline soldiers. But there's a safety element in that. And several of you in police or fire, you understand that. It's hard to be

focused on the task at hand and communicate with the customers. And so that was always a concern from the safety component that we had um several personnel that's working on our structures, but then someone else was trying to communicate that. So, we need everybody to be concentrated when you're dealing with high voltage and and heights and air and and dealing with the the dangerous situations that we have. It's very important that our linemen focus on the outage and we communicate that information on there. So, we're very excited about having that in place and so just the more we can get that information out the better. So, I wanted to kind of share that at the forefront. And then second bullet point we talking about on the on the energgetet local service and support. Uh it's just as important to establish the internet connection is it it's just as important to make sure that we have the technical support. So we have 247. So when you when you call that number you call it right now you'll you'll get a local voice. It's someone here that's uh completely familiar with our network system and something we we take pride in to make sure that we have expertise and they they know our service area. They they uh they understand what the needs are of our customers. And you know when we started down this track um 1999 internet was some people thought was just a fad, right? You get on there and they surf. We've come light years from that and it's it's not just entertainment purposes. It's so important for uh work, school, the there's so many uh uses now that it's uh it's critical. It's just as critical as having electricity on to be able to communicate and have that information. And so, you know, these are examples of what it means to be a dynamic service provider. And these are two areas that have always been important, but they've took the the forefront this year.

Next slide. Second thing was elevate communities. Investing in outcomes that strengthen the people and give hope for the future. What does that mean? It's building our communities and making a positive impv involved in the community. Um, you know, we uh we take great pride in being notfor-profit communityowned and being involved that the same people that work at HS Energy Net are same ones you see at your grocery store, church, at the ball games. And so we we know what the community needs are. And some of the highlights of that next slide, please. So I couldn't get it all on one slide, but there's just some of the some of the highlights when you look at uh our employees are committed to the community. And so you look at whether it's Christmas parade, the summer salute, stuff the bucket, public power appreciation, United Way is is uh very central and very close to our heart. Out of our 50 So we've every year continue to go above and beyond, but it's it's not just the financial contributions, but you'll see them you see like on the Christmas parades volunteer. I don't uh you I'm always amazed how our employees will say, "Do you need somebody at the chili cook off? Can we get a team?" The engineering department, the whole team went together and went in on that. So it's not just making a financial contribution, but it's being involved with your time. And a lot of times you'll find out where somebody is uh what what their passion is by where they spend their time. And so I'm always looking for a reason to to brag about our employees. And that's that's the first one I I I go to. Next slide. Third item on here was committed to people and culture. uh having dedicated employees and a culture of accountability, integrity, and compassion is what makes the difference between average organization and a great one. And so when you're talking about

developing relationships, you know, it starts at the top with our board. Um, next slide, please. Our board members, our chairperson is Colonel Reggie Davis, Margaret Prim, Amy Craig, Sharon Craft Children, and and Philip Eastman are our five board members. And so starts at the top of having being on one the same page and focused on what's important for the community and and and having one set agenda. And our management team assures we have trained professional employees. So it's important to have facilities and equipment. Without the bucket trucks and without all the technology we have, we couldn't do a job. But uh our 54 employees are the critical piece. Without them, nothing happens. you have to have that trained workforce and that's been a challenge over the past um six to eight years. We've went through a wave of retirement un not unlike uh many other organizations had served that had taken retirement and so we've had about 40 to 45% of our employees had went through a wave in the last eight years of retirement. So that I think have had 21 retirees. And so that's a challenge in our industry because it's so important to have knowledge and experience when you're out there knowing where the knowing where the weak spots are in the line, having the technical expertise on the internet side to know when something not working to go that. So we spent quite a bit of time investing on our employees. A lot of these uh training are are specific to our jobs. Uh it's not necessarily something that uh that you get in in the in a in a local venue. It takes a a commitment from the employees and the management team to see that through. Next page. Operational excellence. Um having safe,

reliable and and redefining industrial standards. investing in our facilities and infrastructure is fundamental to having a safe and reliable system. And so with that comes uh putting money into it. A lot of the a lot of the infrastructure we have we expect to get 10 20 30 40 years. Some of our substations been there for 40 years and so it's important to maintain not only purchasing them but our maintenance program trying to be a lot more efficient with the parts and pieces we have is as everyone's seen there's a challenge now uh the cost of things are rising exponentially and it's very very difficult uh to say well uh this is throwaway we'll we'll just uh purchase another piece of equipment any anytime we can extend the life of a of a substation breaker then we work towards that. So next slide please. So just give you some idea this is uh this has been a tremendous amount of infrastructure invest investments. We had a $4.2 million project to finish out building highspeed fiber to every to the have it possible for every home in Hopkinsville. And so we're not there yet. the uh the synergy of being able to work with between our electric and telekcom departments really came into play on this project because there were several areas that need we're always needing rightaway trimming, but we were we doubled our rideaway crews and went out in several areas and really focused on getting the trees trimmed. So, that was uh actually doubled our uh our investment right there by going there and trimming and getting out of the power lines and also giving us a route to run our fiber. So, we improved our electric reliability as well as clearing a pass for that. So, we're we're actually ahead of schedule and and we uh hopefully by the before the end of 2026,

we'll have our fi fiber all through Hopkinsville. And so, that was a it's been a huge undertaking uh by by our fiber team and our techn services and we keep pushing on. So, you see that um completion of the 1.2 on the back end of it. if you if you don't have your ISP source to feed the internet connection point is in our network operating center behind our office. And so from a reliability standpoint, um 99.9% is just not good enough. And so we've invested 1.2 in backup generators and and a second line to support not only our utility power, but having a automatic transfer switch. So within a matter of seconds it automatically transfers over. So we just you just talked about we might get a light dust in the snow or we might have two foot

right.

So it anything is possible and so you know we've hardened our our network operating center to be able to withstand you know that the storms and all. And so it seemed like every year we're challenged a little bit more from a weather standpoint, but anything that we can do to harden our system and that kind of leads into the $6 million FEMA mitigation project. And that's one engineering department and uh financial department were key in um getting this grant. And so we've actually already started the first phase of that where we've gone out and looked at our system and determined what poles, what old conductors need to be replaced and do that before they fall down. Um, that's where the engineering comes in. You don't, it doesn't take much engineering expertise to see a pole on the ground that's rotten. A big focus is being proactive and working pro uh proh problem spots beforehand. And so we're pushing forward with that. So system inspection report and uh and use that do system upgrades around. So all those factor in topping up and upgrading our not only our technology. So is talked about on from a maintenance standpoint our substations um sometimes talked about this with our operations manager. you don't get credit for the outages that you kept from happening and just re our major substations that we were able to fix during reg maintenance and swap offline uh without having one customer out that if we hadn't caught that and you had outage you'd had 25% of the city out maybe for hours at several hours but we were able to to find a problem before it happened. So sometimes it's uh uh it's difficult to do that but uh that's part of being proactive. Last but not least, stewardship. When you're talking about stewardship,

you think about using your how wisely use your resources. So trying to be intentional every day with the use of our time, finances, and our facilities. Um we've been entrusted by our customers in the city of Hopkinsville to be good stewards of what we have. Um and that is something that uh being responsible managers of our our resources. It takes on a a different viewpoint. You can look at it from several different ways. But the next slide I had, this is number 11. So I know this one we looking for. Uh maybe the first thing you think of when you think about stewardship is watching over your finances. And we we do an outstanding job with our finance and accounting team. Uh this year usually I asked uh Doug Gentry and Associates to come and report but we did receive a clean audit. Of course that's what you strive for. Not only that but uh TVA being a regulator we had a perfect score on our TVA annual report. So we have several different uh financial reviews that we go through and and I just show this chart up here just as a average winter bill. Uh, I think that shows good stewardship when you show we're at the lower end of finances. It's not necessarily trying to have a pecking order and say we're trying to be the cheapest and all. It's about having value for what you have what you're offering, right? Um, you still need to take the money and invest it in your system and keep it up. It doesn't help to have the lowest rates if the lights don't stay on, if the internet's not flowing. So, it's mixing those two together and making sure you've the reliability and the economics come together. And so, along with that, we had no rate increase in 2025. Many of our neighbors did. We were able to make some efficiency changes and and with some uh other other projects that happened, we were able to utilize some

of our assets a little bit better. And so, that's a big part of being stewardship. We know a lot of our customers are economically challenged. So two or three dollars a month might not uh in itself sound like a big number, but you multiply that by months and years and it has a cumulative effect. And so the more we can keep our finances in control, it has a direct correlation being nonprofit. You know, 75% roughly 75 cents out of every dollar we collect goes to TVA to pay our power bill. So, we're already operating off 25% margin. And so, between that, just making sure that we uh maintain our facilities and and uh take care of our employees and that and uh that that margin right there. Make sure that we can keep our rates as low as we possibly can. Um last slide questions said I would keep it at 11 slides. So, I do want to stop here, but I did want to give uh mayor and city council a chance to ask any questions or any comments you might have

of what's going on energy net. I don't have any question. I do have a comment. Yes, sir. I noticed through your presentation, Jeff, you got colors that are very similar to the Dollar General store. And I notice as I I look online, you kind of do like they pop up everywhere

and every time I look online, there's another neighborhood HS Energy net. HS. So you gota that's come a long way. I sat in on some of those meetings years ago. That's phenomenal the work that y'all done and and what that does for the community. So thank you for that hard work. Well, I'd like to take credit for all that, but you know, you build on the successes of your predecessors. And so, this started in 1999. So, it was a vision of former managers and the city council that said, "This is something this is direction we need to go in."

And so, that gave us a head start. And I like to think I'm trying to keep us us in a management team trying to keep us in that lead. So, as far as Dollar General, we've been here since 42. We've had those colors. So I believe I believe if anybody copied I believe Dollar General copied off of us. Thank you. Good work. Any other questions or comments for Mr. Her and his staff.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate your hard work. I would also like to thank uh not like I said I thank the each of you for for the relationship we have but also wanted to mention the street department, the police department, the fire department that was here tonight, parks and wreck, all of those we have a great relationship with. And so it's a team effort. You know, when you say, you know, there's certain pieces of equipment we don't have. If we're working around a sidewalk and the street department says, "Hey, we got a back hole. we can help you over here. Those type of things go a long way, right? When you when you have a a cooperation and working with each one, same way with all the departments I mentioned, everyone, if I call them uh tonight, they're going to be right there to help if it's police department uh blocking a street. A lot of times, you know, you think about from a safety standpoint with our personnel around high voltage lines and and heights, but traffic is we got to be careful. A lot of people don't respect those orange cones, but they do respect a police car with a light on there. So, there's many times we'll call them out there just from uh from a safety standpoint to protect our personnel when we're out in the streets working. So, I can go down that list, but every one of these is a collaborative effort and that makes it work so much better for everybody when we're all on the same page. And uh I appreciate your efforts, mayor. seemed like we've had more communication and and I know with Amanda having those communication links and and Troy, we've made u a lot of strides and making sure we're all on the same page and sharing information back and forth that goes a long way.

Thank you. Thank you so very much, Mr. Herb. Uh item B, that will be down to Melissa Clayton. talk about our finances. Felt like I was just here.

All right. Tonight we're going to do December's financial report. Um so during December we had one interfund transfer um to the Christian County Literacy Council for $5,000. Total inner funds year to date 35,415 and the remaining balance at the end of December was 64,585. Our payroll tax is coming in um below budget still and below what we were collecting this time last year. Um we're showing payroll of 4.2%. Um we've collected 10,962134. Um and last year we had collected 11,441 989. Property taxes are coming in above um last year's comparison. We're at 94%. Um we've collected 5,535860 in property taxes. Our insurance premium tax ended up evening out for the whole quarter. I usually like to base the insurance premium tax a quarter at a time because they don't really have a deadline as long as they get it in during that quarter. So, um the quarterly number was 3 million uh well the half year 3,791776. Um so that's showing a small increase over last year of 2.7%. And then our business licenses um we're actually showing a decrease. we've only collected 18% of um what we've budgeted at 894298. So in our general fund um we started the year with 317904. We collected through 6 months 28,541029 and our actual expenses are 27,224257. So we do have positive revenue over expenses of about 1,634 676.

um running slightly behind um last year's revenue over expenses still at 1,ion316772. Municipal road aid um we started the year with 353,000 in incumbrances. We've collected 271777 and we've spent 1,311637. So we have more expenses than we have revenue still in the MRA fund of 686325. We did make the second quarter transfer into the capital fund. Um so we have prior year incumbrances of 967863. We've collected into the capital fund or transferred into capital2,30,21. Um we've spent 2,134784. So we have positive revenue over expenses in the capital fund of $863170. As far as our departmental expenses, six months through the year is 50%. So admin was at 48.7, the tax department was at 48.2, information technologies at 57.6, legislative was at 51.4. In our public safety area, police department was at 48.4, ECC is at 49.9, the fire department was at 49.1, EMS is at 52.6, six and fire prevention was at 46.5%. Public works, everybody's looking good. We've got um public works admin at 47.6, city maintenance at 44.2, Fort Campbell contracts at 24.8, service center was at 45.5, parks and rec is at 49.1, sports plex was at 40.7, and the aquatic center is still at 64%. Overall expenses compared to our adjusted operating budget is 47%. Municipal road

aid is at 78% and the capital fund we have spent 47% of what's been budgeted. Cash fund balance. We started the year with 18,269128 plus our year-to- date receipts minus our year-to-ate expenses gives us our cash fund balance at December 31st of 19,585900. Um, subtracting out our incumbrances uh leaves us our available cash at 19,51180. Um, you see numbers you see November's amount there. We take that amount, we subtract out our two equipment, our two reserve accounts and our unassigned cash fund balance that December was 18,176093 and that is 38.7% of our adjusted operating budget. Compared to last year, we're running a little bit under where we were this time last year. our investment fund. Um, our cash balance as of December 31st was 1,233690 and our market value was 1,ion326084. Be happy to answer any questions you guys might have about the December financial statement.

That was expected, right? Not coming. It's not delayed still till it I expected it to come in. The deadline was November 3rd and I budgeted an extra like $1.5 million and it did not come in. So what was the thought behind that?

What what what do we as a city do for assuring it's being collected businesses are paying that tax on that? Okay. So, we are one of the few cities around we do 100% audit of every business in town, which means every business in town when they file to get their business license is required to turn into us their federal tax return. That's why our deadline coi coincides with the federal tax deadline. So, every year when you come to get your business license, you bring in a copy of your taxes and you bring in your net profit return and then we audit that. We make sure that you paid what you were supposed to pay. We look at your taxes and we compare that with what you were supposed we have a way we compare that make sure that you paid what you were supposed to and then we issue a new license. So you are you asking like what we do if people are delinquent?

I'm assuming then we've had a decrease in the number of license for businesses in the city. We have we've have several businesses that have closed. Um, we have I I mean I can bring you back a report on the business. No, I'm just trying to get an easy understanding of

So, I know years ago in the past before I was in this position, but council sat in here and talked about uh businesses operating in the city that we don't even know operate in our city. Businesses that exist that don't have a license. Uh, and I don't know what the what we do to asssure that because I remember the conversations back then really was really nothing that the council or the city was doing to assure those taxes or those businesses were filing for a business license to begin with. So, I'm just trying to gave us a position the council gave us a position. So, we have someone doing that now. Yes.

Um, so that was part under Mayor Lynch. He that was one of his big things was to be sure that all of the revenue we could collect we were collecting. And so part of that was to give us the revenue enhancement officer. That's Tiffany Terrell's position. And she now goes out. She's like our business license inspector. And she now goes out and make sure businesses are operating. Um we also just drive down she'll drive down the street and look at all of the signs of you know this handyman or that handyman or she'll send letters out and make sure they they are operating in the city with a license. We also contact those people. Um, but we are doing a lot a lot to make sure the city is receiving everything that we're supposed to receive on the license front.

Last question. How much does does that specific tax bring in for the city? Business license, just approximate. It doesn't have to be exact. I'm just trying to get an understanding of what it has been over the last three years. It has been all over the place. Um, so I think three years ago we collected like 2,500,000. The next year we collected like almost 4 and a.5 million, but then the last year it was only around 3 million. So I mean it has been down and then up and then down. And so it it's one of those numbers that has been very hard for me to project. Okay. So the assumption you use to project that then is

it it's I we have a inside VIP analytics which you use there's a projection thing that I can do on the revenues and project it out for five years and I I let the system do the projections but then I also rely on my own projections and then um me and the budget officer will go over those projections and we'll decide what we feel like is the best number. um looking at you know what's happened in the past and what's currently the trend the economy we we're living in a crazy world I agree thank you for explaining that you're welcome

council members um the gist of the retreat would be focusing on this revenue and expenditures so you can go as deep as you like any more questions for Miss Clayton All right. Thank you, M. Thank you. Thank you. All righty. We are moving into item nine, approval of minutes for January the 6, 2026 regular meeting. Motion. Second. Motion in a second. Do we have any discussion on this? All those in favor say I. I.

Likewise, none. Okay. Move into item 10, ordinance. Ordinance 1-2026 FY 2526 operational budget amendment. Second reading on that

amending the city of Hopkinsville, Kentucky annual budget for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 by estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the operation of city government. Summary. may now therefore be ordained by the city council of the city of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, as follows. Section one, by summary, section one of ordinance 26, 2022, adopting the annual budget for fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026 is hereby amended as follows. Revenues general fund 56,860,153. Municipal road aid fund 1,326,507. Prior year 1,20,394. Prior year revenue building maintenance reserves 38,500 total revenues 59,245,554 expenses general fund 57,919,047 municipal road aid fund 1,326,507 total expenses 59,245,554 surplus zero section two section 2 ordinance 172025 is amended to add EMS captain to pay grade 17 section three the full text of this ordinance is on file in the office of the undersigned city clerk of the city of Hopkinsville at 7:15 South Virginia Street, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where it is available for public inspection between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Got a motion. Second by Meeks. Righty. Any discussion? Right. I call the clerk to call the role. Council member Smith. Council member Stalins. Council member Marsh. Yes. Council member Crabtree, yes. Council member Craig, yes. Council member Martin, yes. Council member Sumar, yes. Council member Meek, Council Member Bogard, Council Member VeZ, yes. Council member D. Yes. That passes on second reading.

Right. Executive orders now. Item 11. Executive order A 06-2026. Hogenville Christian County Planning Commission. Effective immediately. Rachel G. Good Smith and Leon shall be reappointed to the Hopkinsville Christian County Planning Commission. These terms shall expire December 31st, 2029. We do need a motion and a second. Motion second. Motion by non. Second by Randy. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Likewise on the post. Right. That moving right along. Executive Order 07-2026, Board of Appeals.

Effective immediately, Natalie Adams shall be reappointed to the Board of Appeals created by chapter 110 of the Hopkinsville Code of Ordinances. This term shall expire December 31st, 2027. There's no action necessary. Okay. Item C, Executive Order 08-2026, Surface and Storm Water Utility Board. Effective immediately, Michael Langi shall be appointed to the Surface and Storm Water Utility Board. This term shall expire December 31st, 2029. And we do need a motion and a second. Motion. Motion second. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I.

Any oppose? All right. That carries. All right. Item D, executive order 09-2026, Hawkinsville Christian County Airport Board. Effective immediately, Robert Pickroll shall be appointed to the Hopkinsville and Christian County Airport Board to fill the unexpired term of Clay Travis. This term shall expire November 30th, 2028. And we do need a motion and a second. Motion second. Motion second by Clayton. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Right. Now we move into item 12. Other any other business that council would like to discuss tonight? Okay, we'll move into item 13. Councilman comments. Okay, no comments. Item 14, adjournment. Ward one. What do you got to tell me?

Ward one. Okay. Uh I have a quote here by Martin Luther King and it says I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is this is why right this is why right temporarily defeating is stronger than evil triumph. And that's your journment for today. Need a second. Second. Second by Don. All those in favor say I. I. All right. We are ajourned. Thank you ladies and gentlemen.