It appeared that our community of 72,000 citizens was pretty much healing and doing a lot better from the recovery of the covid outbreak across the nation and the world. Especially, in a political sense, it appeared that many of our citizens had a gained a certain level of acceptance that this is the way it was going to be from now on-virus outbreak preparedness. And it appeared that the mood in our town was that the covid outbreaks had calmed down quite a bit in 2021 and the high number of vaccinations in our community were up and coming along pretty good is the main reason that there has been a sense of calmness politically in the community where there had been some major divisions amongst friends, neighbors and coworkers. It had also appeared that healing was taking place physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually in our community with a lot of Hope for 2021.
And there had been some good news for 2021 just before the new year. When 2021 arrived, it was announced the Livability magazine had selected Bowling Green as one of the Top 100 Places To Live in the United States. This award is given to to communities that offer a high quality of life at an attractive cost of living for both individuals and families. So after covid struck in 2020, in 2021 we started noticing a lot newcomers moving into town from all across the nation such as California, New York, Maryland, Texas and amongst many other places across the country. Then of course, Bowling Green has always had a long history of manufacturing with new plants springing up more rapidly in the new industry Transpark located across town near Warren East High School as new subdivisions and apartment complexes where popping up everywhere too in town and in the county. However, some of our citizens have been worried and are still concern about the rapid growth and the effects on the community with too much traffic and the roadways not being designed correctly to handle the heavy flow of automobiles and trucks. Capitalistic hardworking business people have found Bowling Green to be a gold mine for real estate and development as we have become a basically bedroom community of Nashville since we are only 60 miles away from that major big city in the American South. Nashville has experienced tremendous growth in the last 20 years also. Then we also have new shopping centers and restaurants springing up too lately along with many other types of businesses and small businesses also. We also have a large and very diverse immigrant and refugee community in town. The City of Bowling Green and the Warren County government and our schools systems have done a tremendous job to accommodate them also. Let's just say, our college town where Western Kentucky University is located with an enrollment of 20,000 students, is booming these days in-spite of setbacks in the last two years.
But then two deadly tornadoes hit Bowling Green recently in the early morning hours of Saturday, December 11th, killing 17 people and 76 across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The one big tornado basically cut a path through town starting at I-165 (formerly known as the Natcher Parkway) cutting across Whisphering Hill subdivision, Russellville Road area, Creason Avenue, Sumpter, Nashville Road at WKU, U.S. 31-W By-Pass, Maganolia Streets and the Cemetery Road and Indian Hills. This is probably one of the worst tornadoes to ever strike Bowling Green with this much death and destruction causing millions of dollars of damage to our homes and businesses. But again, there is much Hope for Bowing Green this Christmas season and for the New Year of 2022. Hundreds of volunteers, organizations, the City of Bowling Green, the Warren County government, FEMA, BGMU, Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Spectrum Cable, the National Guard, the Salvation Army, churches, volunteers from across the county, the Bowling Green Fire Department, the Bowling Green Police Department, the Warren County Sheriff's Department, the Kentucky State Police, Med Center EMT's, Warren County Coroner's Office and hundreds of others have given many hours of their professional time and dedication. And many thanks to businesses and restaurants in our college town that has donated their time and money to help the community such as Walmart, Hickory & Oak restaurant and Hughes and Coleman law firm just to name few who are helping out with some major donations and necessities.
Needless to say, we as a college town, will help put our community back together along with the help of our local, state and federal governments in 2022. We will get it everything back to together one way or another, I am sure. And we hope and pray that the healing process will continue for the victim's families of the tornadoes and homeowners and business owners who have suffered losses can rebuild ASAP. Material things can be replaced but human lives cannot. So let's remember those Bowling Green citizens who lost their lives this Christmas season. Light a candle and say a prayer for them and their families. And let's continue to pray for our College Town and let's continue to be involved and let our let "Heartlight" shine through. I have lived in Bowling Green almost 34 years-now and I wouldn't want to live any other college town in the world except ours. God Bless and Merry Christmas! Peace-Galen A. Smith Sr., Bowling Green, Ky.
