Corbin

Corbin is a home rule-class city in Whitley, Knox and Laurel counties in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,304. Corbin has a troubled racial past, including a race riot in late October 1919 in which a white mob forced nearly all the town's 200 black residents onto a freight train out of town. The event is the subject of a 1991 documentary, Trouble Behind. In March 2022, the Corbin City Commission approved an annexation request for a property in Laurel County. In October 2019, city leaders marked the riot's centennial with a proclamation acknowledging the riot and former sundown town policy. The city is in the London, Kentucky micropolitan area, whose current boundaries were established in 2013 by the Office of Management and Budget in coordination with the United States Census Bureau. The Knox County portion of Corbin was outside the former CorbinLondon statistical area but is now included in the redefined Londonmicropolitan area. The town was incorporated under that name in 1905. The first post office was called Cummins, for community founder Nelson Cummins. It was discovered in 1885 that both Cummins and Lynn Camp were already in use as names for Kentucky post offices, and postmaster James Eaton was asked to select another name for the Rev. James Corbin Floyd, a local minister. The region experiences four distinct seasons. Winters are cool to cold, with mild periods of mild periods. Summers are generally hot and humid, with variable spring and fall seasons.

History

Corbin is the primary city name, but also Keavy, Woodbine are acceptable city names or spellings. The first settlement in the Corbin area was known as Lynn Camp Station. The first post office was called Cummins, for community founder Nelson Cummins. Corbin has a troubled racial past, including a race riot in late October 1919 in which a white mob forced nearly all the town's 200 black residents onto a freight train out of town. In October 2019, city leaders marked the riot's centennial with a proclamation acknowledging the riot and former sundown town policy. For most of its history, the urbanized areas of Corbin in Laurel County were not incorporated into the city limits due to a state law prohibiting cities from being in more than two counties. However, a 2021 change to state law allowed cities to voluntarily annex property in a third county if the city already provides public infrastructure to that property. In March 2022, Corbin City Commission approved an annexation request for a property in Laurel county. The city is located in the eastern part of Laurel County, near the Kentucky-Tennessee state line. The city has a population of about 2,000. It is in the Laurel County portion of the Kentucky Bootheel, which is home to the Kentucky Caverns National Scenic Area. The town's population is about 1,200. It has a history of racial unrest, including the 1919 race riot, which was the subject of a 1991 documentary, Trouble Behind. In the late 20th century, the city had a sundownTown policy, which lasted until the end of the century.

Geography

Corbin lies in the Cumberland Plateau region of Appalachia in southeastern Kentucky. The Pine Mountain Overthrust Fault, a geologic fault system several miles to the east, produces occasional tremors. I-75 provides access to the city from exit 25, leading north 89 miles to Lexington and south 86 miles to Knoxville, Tennessee. U.S. 25W runs through the center of town leading north 14 miles (23 km) to London and south 21 miles (34km) to Williamsburg. Corbin exhibits a humid subtropical climate, typical of southeastern Kentucky, with four distinct seasons. The region experiences cool to cold winters, with mild periods. Summers are generally hot and humid, with variable spring and fall seasons. Precipitation is common year-round but more prevalent in the summer monthsthe surrounding mountains somewhat moderate Corbin's climate. The city has a total area of 7.9 sq mi (20 km²), with only a tiny fraction, or 0.56%, of that area consisting of water. It has a population of 1,071. It is located on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The town is located in the eastern part of the Cumberlands Plateau, near the border with Tennessee and the eastern edge of the Kentucky Bootheel. It lies along Interstate 75 and U.S. Route 25W, which runs north to Kentucky and south to Tennessee. It also has a small portion of the Appalachian Mountains, which can be seen from Interstate 75.

Demographics

As of the 2010 census there were 7,304 people, 3,093 households, and 1,903 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 97.41% White (96.69% non-Hispanic), 0.26% African American, 0.31% Native American or Alaska Native,0.64% Asian, 1.11% from two or more races. The Knox County portion of Corbin was outside the former CorbinLondon statistical area but is now included in the redefined London micropolitan area. As of the 2000 Census, the median income for a household in theCity was $22,203. The median income. for a family was $32,784. The per capita income for the city in 2010 was $14,200. About 15.5% of families and 21.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.3% of those under age 18 and 16.4% ofThose age 65 or over. The city is in the London, Kentucky mic Metropolitan Area. The current boundaries were established in 2013 by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in coordination with the United States Census Bureau. The CSA had a combined population of 94,486 at the 2010 Census. The population of the Corbin Combined Statistical Area (CSA) was 94,485 as of the census of 2010. It includes Laurel and Whitley counties, as well as parts of Knox County.

Economy

Rail transport was the backbone of the local economy in the first half of the 20th century. The decline of the rail industry, as well as the loss of some manufacturing jobs, has prompted the community to begin diversifying its economy. CSX continues to play an important role in the town's economy. The town's population has grown to more than 2,000 people. The population of the town has grown by more than 1,500 people since the start of the 21st century, and is expected to reach 3,000 by the end of the year. The city has a population of about 1,200 people, with the majority of the population living in the downtown area. The majority of residents live in the city's central business district, which was once dominated by the L&N Railroad. The community has also seen a decline in the manufacturing industry, which has led to a loss of manufacturing jobs. The area has seen a rise in the number of non-traditional jobs, such as construction, in the last few years. It is also the first town in the state to have a large percentage of its population living outside of the state of New York City, and the first to do so in more than a decade. It has also been the most successful city in the U.S. in terms of economic growth, with a growth rate of more than 7% in the past five years. The state's economy has also grown in recent years, with an average annual rate of 2.7%.

Culture

Each year in early August, Corbin hosts a festival called NIBROC (Corbin spelled backward) featuring open-air concerts, carnival attractions, a beauty pageant, parade, and other events. The festival is featured, if anachronistically, in the play Last Train to Nibroc by Arlene Hutton. Despite being in dry counties (Knox and Whitley), the city of Corbin allows full retail alcohol sales, following a successful local option election on February 14, 2012. Corbin has an association with Kentucky Fried Chicken, having been the location of the chain's first restaurant, opened in 1930. In episode 10 of the American reality-documentary television series On the Road with Austin & Santino on Lifetime entitled "We Love a Parade", the fashion designers visit Corbin to custom-design a dress for a local woman participating in the NIBrOC parade. The city is depicted as located in a lush rain forest in a parody of the 1983 film Scarface, wherein Tony Montana and Omar Suarez visit Bolivia to meet with a drug kingpin.Corbin appears in the animated cartoon South Park's episode "Medicinal Fried Chicken", wherein Eric Cartman visits the town to meeting with Harland Sanders. The town is featured in the episode "Corbin and the Blackhearts", in which Joan Jett and theBlackhearts perform at the festival. In the episode, Kansas, The Marshall Tucker Band, Percy Sledge, Rick Springfield, Starship, Styx and The Turtles also perform.

Government

Corbin is one of the few cities in Kentucky that lie in two countiesWhitley and Knox. Many built-up areas in neighboring Laurel County have a Corbin postal address but lie outside the city limits. The city receives a portion of the occupational tax collected in Whitley County. Knox County has refused to give Corbin any tax collected there. Corbin is considered home rule-class under Kentucky's city classification system that took effect in 2015. Susie Razmus is the current mayor. Trent Knuckles, David Grigsby Hart, Ed Tye, and Andrew Pennington are its four current commissioners. Currently, Marlon Sams is the city manager. The mayor, Willard McBurney, vowed to carry the fight to the state Supreme Court to keep Corbin's tax revenue within the city limit. The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that the "Stivers amendment", passed as part of KY HB 499 "Tax Amnesty" legislation in 2012, did not violate the state's constitution. The measure essentially canceled the effect of court rulings that would have enabled Corbin to keep all the revenue from the tax generated inside the city Limits. It is in Kentucky's 5th congressional district. It does not have a mayor/alderman form of government, and is governed by a mayor and city commission and a city manager who runs the departments' day-to-day operations. It has a population of about 2,000 people, with most of its residents living in the Laurel County area.

Education

The Corbin Independent School District was officially established in 1916. The 100th class graduated in 2017. Corbin was formerly home to Saint Camillus Academy, a private pre-K-8 Catholic school affiliated with the Diocese of Lexington. Eastern Kentucky University opened an extension campus in Corbin in 2004. The annual Battle for the Brass Lantern, a college football rivalry game between the University of the Cumberlands and Union College, was played at Corbin High School's stadium in 2006 and 2007, as a neutral field roughly equidistant from the two campuses. Its original schoolhouse, built in 1913, was demolished in summer 2008. The new school building is still situated atop a prominent hill overlooking the town, providing a striking backdrop to the streets of downtown Corbin. The school closed in 2012 after 99 years of service. The property and grounds of the school were sold to the Corbin School System to house a new Corbin Middle School due to the rapidly increasing student population and age of the current building. The community and school system place considerable emphasis on the success of academics and high school athletic teams. The Corbin Public Library has a lending library, the Corinne Public Library. It is located on the corner of Main and Main Streets. The town is home to a number of businesses, including a bank, a restaurant, a gas station, a convenience store, and a bowling alley. It also has a golf course, a baseball diamond, a swimming pool, a basketball court, and tennis courts.

Transportation

Corbin straddles Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 25 (which splits into US 25E and US 25W in North Corbin) The town is served by the CSX rail line. Corbin is home to the Corbin High School football team, which won the state championship in 2010. The town also has a high school football team that won the district championship in 2008. The school's football team also won the national title in 2008, 2010 and 2011. The football team's team won the title in 2010 and 2010, as well as the 2011 state championship. The team's 2010 state championship win came against the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which claimed the title for the first time in the history of the state. The 2007 state championship was won by the North Carolina High School Football Team, who won the championship for the second time in their history. The 2010 state title was won when the team claimed the crown for the third time in its history, beating the previous record-holder, which had stood for the previous two years. The 2006 state championship came in the town of Corbin, which also had the distinction of being the first town to win the state title in the state of Kansas. The 2008 state championship game was the first state title for Corbin since the town was founded in 1881. It was also the first to be won by a state school team in the United States since the state was created in 1883. The state's first high school team was formed in 1885.

Sites of interest

Harland Sanders Café and Museum, the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken, is located in North Corbin. Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, the site of a waterfall, is 19 miles (31 km) to the southwest. Laurel River Lake, created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1974, is a popular recreational site for boating, fishing, water skiing, and scuba diving. The Arena at the Southeastern Kentucky Ag and Expo Complex, a multi-purpose venue on top of a hill across from the Baptist Regional Medical Center, sits above the Corbin Center. The Corbin Tourism office is located on the second floor of the Arena, which also houses the town's tourism office. The town of Corbin is located about 50 miles (80 km) south of the Tennessee border at the border of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. The city's population is about 4,000. The county seat is Corbin, which is about 20 miles (32 km) from the Tennessee state line. The state's largest city is Louisville, which has a population of about 6,500. The largest city in the state is Lexington, Kentucky, with about 3,000 residents. The population of the state's second largest city, Louisville, is about 2,500, with the population of Lexington about 1,800. The region's largest employer is Kentucky State University, with more than 2,000 employees. The local economy is based on agriculture, manufacturing, and services.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Corbin, Knox County, Kentucky = 87. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 60. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 89. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Corbin = 4.6 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 7,856 individuals with a median age of 41.1 age the population grows by 4.27% in Corbin, Knox County, Kentucky population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 988.42 residents per square mile of area (381.64/km²). There are average 2.17 people per household in the 3,561 households with an average household income of $24,833 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is of the available work force and has dropped -3.42% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 21.46%. The number of physicians in Corbin per 100,000 population = 187.8.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Corbin = 46 inches and the annual snowfall = 9.6 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 134. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 201. 86 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 23.9 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 36, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Corbin, Knox County, Kentucky which are owned by the occupant = 53.48%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 38 years with median home cost = $80,880 and home appreciation of 0.02%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $5.65 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $4,753 per student. There are 18.3 students for each teacher in the school, 476 students for each Librarian and 793 students for each Counselor. 2.97% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 9.97% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 7.86% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).