The Hopkinsville Committee of the Whole voted unanimously Tuesday night to forward a portion of the CARES Act funding to be used for the Small Business Program to the city council for consideration at the next meeting.
The City of Hopkinsville received $2.23 million of CARES Act funding from the state and was set to vote on how the money would be allocated at the city council meeting on September 1. As part of the amended budget presented by Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin at that meeting, $1.5 million would be set aside to cover future pension costs with $335,000 for the Small Business Program. The remaining funds would be disbursed for first responders and other areas. However, councilman Travis Martin disagreed with how the remainder of the funding would be allocated including using $60,000 to pave the parking lot of the Sportsplex. He made a motion to defer action on the CARES Act funding and send it back to the Committee of the Whole. He also asked for a committee to be created to take a second look at how the money should be disbursed. His motion passed by a 9-3 vote with Patricia Bell, Phillip Brooks, and Darvin Adams casting the nay votes.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Travis Martin again explained why he asked for this to be returned to the Committee of the Whole. He said he feels there is a misunderstanding of how the city qualified for the funds.
He added that this money does not belong to the City of Hopkinsville but belongs to the taxpayers and city council needs to start listening to what is being said.
Martin said the committee to be established includes himself, Terry Parker, Tom Johnson, Jason Bell, and Phillip Brooks.
After a motion was made to establish the committee, the discussion continued. Amy Craig said she doesn’t want the committee to prolong this process because they need to get the money to small businesses who apply for the funding assistance.
Craig added she would also like to keep the $1.5 million for pensions and she does not want agencies and charities to be eliminated from receiving funding to help offset costs related to COVID-19.
After some more discussion, Parker amended the motion to go ahead and forward $335,000 in the Small Business Program to the council.
The amended motion forwarding the funding for small businesses to the city council and the motion establishing the committee was unanimously approved.
The next Hopkinsville City Council meeting will be Tuesday evening, October 6, at 6:00 at the Municipal Building.
