More than 120 people — Democrats, Republicans, Independents and the apolitical, alike — gathered on Hopkinsville’s west side of Little River Friday afternoon, and roared as a Murray State University blue-and-gold themed drape was pulled to reveal a sign on W. 7th Street: “The Steve Tribble West Side Bridge.”
Christian County’s proud judge-executive from 1994 until 2022, he called it the “honor of a lifetime” — because his entire childhood spawned from the west side of town, and his entire professional and political career took root in the east.
A bridge in his name, he said, married the two — and perfectly symbolized what he tried to do while in office.
Many hands were responsible for the honor, including the honorable Judge John Atkins, but the decision ultimately came to the City of Hopkinsville’s body — where Mayor J.R. Knight and council members unanimously approved the decision.
Current Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam did defeat Tribble in the 2022 election, but not without first serving underneath his tutelage as one of his magistrates.
Gilliam said he had a “good example set before him,” and that a lot of Christian County’s positive momentum stems from Tribble and his previous courts.
Still, it didn’t mean Gilliam — and others — haven’t playfully tried to get him over into the Grand Ol’ Party over the years.
Others who spoke on Tribble’s behalf included Rep. Myron Dossett, who credited his early term as magistrate before moving into the state house, Sen. Craig Richardson, Peg Hays (who, along with AJ, passed along a 250th celebration bourbon), former county attorney Mike Foster, and others.
While Tribble and his magistrates are credited with major growth in the downtown area — particularly with the jail, justice center and sheriff’s office — it’s his “Chapel of Love” that perhaps has the most notoriety.
During his tenure, he is credited with overseeing more than 11,000 marriages, and Magistrate Magaline Ferguson has taken up the mantle — herself having conducted more than 700.
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