Hopkinsville City Council received an Ascend Elements construction update, accepted zoning recommendations and approved a bond agreement with Toyota Boshoku at their Tuesday meeting.
Before the meeting got underway Hopkinsville Mayor J.R. Knight read a proclamation recognizing April as Fair Housing Month.
Then the Hopkinsville Fire Department was spotlighted for recent graduations and promotions. Firefighter Jacob Newby was recognized for recently graduating from the Fire Academy with his Firefighter 1 and 2 certifications and completed HAZMAT Operations and Awareness training.
Then Lieutenant Anthony Richardson and Captain Chad Taylor were recognized for their recent promotions.
Turning toward Ascend Elements, the battery material manufacturer has become a hot topic in town because of the current construction pause at the Apex 1 Facility and a recent lawsuit against them allegedly concerning unpaid design work.
Apex 1 Facility Plant Manager, Mark Fern says they paused construction to allow the facility’s design phase to be completed. Fern says the design and construction phases were occurring at the same time which posed some difficulties, so once the design is complete construction will resume.
Fern says they intend to be operational by the end of 2026, pushing back their original completion date by around a year.
Further concerning industries with local facilities, the council approved an industrial revenue agreement with Toyota Boshoku. Mark Franklin, the city’s public finance attorney, says the bond agreement allows Toyota Boshoku to receive property tax incentives.
Then Tom Britton, the executive director of Community and Development Services, presented a couple of zoning recommendations to the board. Britton recommends that property along Cadiz Road near Old Major Lane to be zoned as an agricultural transition district and then the other half of the property closer to Benjamin Lane to be zoned as a single-family residential district.
Then concerning a housing project called Barrow Development, Britton is recommending for a parcel of land off of Lafayette Road near Tie Breaker Park to be zoned as a multi-family residential district. The housing development is already underway and is set to include 132 units.
The council accepted both recommendations and will vote on them at a future meeting.