Mayor Dan Kemp announced today the City of Hopkinsville was approved for a $4.9 million loan through the Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet and the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority.

The twenty-year loan, carrying a 2% interest rate and yearly payments of $309,000, will be used to make stormwater improvements within the city as well as pay for new river gauges, surface and stormwater projects and facilities improvements within the Hopkinsville area. 

Mayor Kemp said, "I am pleased to announce that the City has been successful in obtaining major financing to complete stormwater projects which we have needed for many years.  The fees residents and landowners are paying will be used to pay back the loan.  Improvement of the stormwater and flooding problems in Hopkinsville is a major goal of mine and City Council.  I believe this loan will help tremendously toward achieving that goal."   

City Council authorized the KIA loan application in May of this year.  The loan assistance will be administered by the Surface & Stormwater Utility created by the City of Hopkinsville to reduce the frequency of flooding and to improve water quality through projects and programs set forth in the Master Drainage Plan adopted by City Council on January 23, 2007.