August/September Business View Magazine

192 193 recently launched an initiative to become a ‘Gig City’ (having citywide gigabit internet speeds) through a partnership with our Hopkinsville Electric System. We have a three-year implementation model, so in the next three years,we will officially be a Gig City, and that process is underway right now. “So, those are some exciting projects of a city/ county partnership that we call WINS,which stands for ‘Wellness, Infrastructure,Neighborhood equals Success,’ and we think they are making a tremen- dous impact on the walkability, the livability, and the desirability of visiting and living in Hopkinsville and Christian County, and we’re excited to see our residents and our future residents enjoy these new opportunities.” Troy Body,Hopkinsville’s newCityAdministrative Officer, is impressed by the investments that the city has made and to which it stays committed.“When you look at towns this size, you don’t see this kind of money being moved into quality of life and historic preservation,”he remarks.“It’s usually pulling teeth to get a government to invest in the buildings and its infrastructure. So it’s a big deal.And, for a town this size, it’s a really big deal.” While Hopkinsville’s leaders are investing in amenities for its residents, they are also focused on attracting new businesses to the city.“We take great pride in being a very business-friendly community,” says Hendricks.“We believe we provide a competi- tive tax structure; we have four rates in our city and we rarely raise them.When we do, it’s very sporadic and we take great deliberation before we make any HOPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY kind of tax increase. In fact, over the last 25 years, there’s been a collective four total tax increases on the effective rates.We also offer very aggressive incentives and land opportunities for new business- es and for industry expansion. In fact,we just re- cently approved another incentive package for one of our local automobile manufacturers,Denso,who is doubling the size of their workforce and adding onto their physical infrastructure, as well.We’re also developing our second commerce park site.This will be the fourth industrial park in our community.The Commerce ParkTwo site is located at the south end of our community and we hope to be able to fill it up in the coming years.” Hendricks then cites some of the community statistics that he believes makes Hopkinsville even more attractive to businesses that are seeking an already strong and stable environment in which to set up shop: “Over the last four years, our crime rate continues to trend down; our educational attain- ment levels continue to trend up; our payroll and our budget scenario, here, continues to be positive. We finished our fiscal year with a surplus.Our op- erating surplus, before onetime transfers to supple- ment funding for major initiatives, finished in the black for eleven consecutive years.These surpluses have allowed us to invest in some of these quality of life initiatives,more public safety, and more infra- structure. So, there are some trends that are putting us in the right direction, and we think that’s some- thing that the business world should be interested in.They know that if they invest in Hopkinsville at this particular point in time, they’re investing in a community that is not only investing in itself, but is seeing the tangible results of those investments.” Hendricks adds that another drawing card is