January 29, 2025 – Hopkins County elected two new commissioners last year and those new terms started January 1st for Wesley Miller (Precinct 1) and Travis Thompson (Precinct 3). Both newly elected commissioners have already been to training in their first month of service and have hit the ground running with several regularly scheduled commissioner meetings and work sessions.
During the regular meeting of the Hopkins County Commissoner’s Court on Tuesday January 28th, Precinct 1 Commissioner Welsey Miller moved some money around paying off one piece of equipment (backhoe) and agreeing to purchase a new excavator in another transaction. Precinct 1 will soon take possession of a new Kubota KX080-5R3A excavator from Farm Country after the court agreed to finance the new equipment through City National Bank.
All four Hopkins County Precincts got a boost to their budgets as Hopkins County Auditor Shannah Aulsbrook reported the county had finally recieved some FEMA monies from an earlier disaster submission and those funds were distributed to each precinct in the following amounts. Precinct 1: 45,892.97, Precinct 2: 128,236.79 Precinct 3: 55,338.24 and Precinct 4: 45,504.38.
In addition to the FEMA funds, Precinct 3 settled an insurance claim receiving approximately $85,000 in settlement funds that will reduce the precinct’s debt load, and Precinct 4 received $168,969.49 from Delek U.S. Holdings presumably as a remainder of the settlement agreed to in December 2021 although the terms of that settlement were undisclosed. Delek owns a pipeline in Hopkins County that suffered a rupture and enormous diesel spill in October 2019.
In other county business, Civic Center director Alina Sanders honored outgoing Civic Center Board Members Kevin Gibson and Danny Evans thanking them for their valuable service to the board.
