The candidates running to be the next Hopkinsville City Councilmember for Ward 10 met in a League of Women Voters Debate Forum last week. 

Democrat Andra Gold and Republican Mike Velez will face off on the ballot come November 5, but before then, they faced off in debate, fielding questions concerning public safety, infrastructure, growth in the city and more. 

Both men agreed there needs to be a renewed focus on improving quality of life efforts in Hopkinsville that would attract people to settle in the city, or keep from moving away. Velez says he’d like to find a way to attract higher-paying jobs to the city.

Gold says we need to find ways to make people feel welcome in Hopkinsville, while finding ways to be more competitive with Clarksville.

On public safety concerning the Greenway System, Gold urged for people to not let a couple of bad incidents turn them against such a valuable community asset.

Velez agreed, saying the Hopkinsville Police Department does a tremendous job in patrolling the Greenway System often, and there are emergency call boxes and cameras all across those trails.

When it comes to challenges in his ward, Velez says he’d like to see more done to encourage roadside safety, specifically getting the sidewalks fixed so people can safely walk.

Gold agreed that the sidewalks do need to be addressed, and he feels that the ward as a whole would benefit from a clean-up effort, especially where construction or roadwork has been done but not fully cleaned up before crews left. 

You can listen to the debate in its entirety on the League of Women Voters—Hopkinsville, KY Facebook page.