Hebron Estates

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Let me continue today with my stories about the eight cities of Bullitt County by telling you a little about the city of Hebron Estates.

Hebron Estates is one of a cluster of five cities in the northern part of the county and the third smallest, with a population hovering around 1100. Formed in part to prevent being annexed by the nearby cities of Hillview and Pioneer Village (which in turn had formed partly to resist annexation by Hillview), Hebron Estates city founders such as Pat Burke also simply wanted the neighborhood to be the master of its own destiny.

And so, on February 15, 1984, Bullitt County's youngest city of Hebron Estates was incorporated from a collection of five small residential subdivisions such as Burkland Gardens and Prestige Estates that had been built in the early 1970's on farm land. Today, the primarily residential .62 square mile city also includes several small businesses including the notable Skate O Rama roller-skating rink.

Three major public schools are located within the city limits. Those are North Bullitt High School, Hebron Middle School, and Freedom Elementary School. Camp Shanituck Girl Scout Camp is nearby.

Within the city limits is the historic landmark Hebron Cemetery, established in 1894, located at Hebron Lane and the now "Old" Preston Highway (recently replaced by a new limited-access Preston Highway a short distance to the west). I had not verified this by publication time, but I am told that the historic nature of Hebron Lane entered into the naming of the city. I'll have to tell you more about the Hebron area another time.

Small cities such as Hebron Estates often have a more relaxed atmosphere when performing city business. Though done professionally, public meetings are fairly informal. Over my 30 years of visiting city council and other government meetings around the county, I particularly enjoy the informal small-town attitude of the meetings at Hebron Estates. Sure, they can get hot sometimes. But such a town is small enough that everybody knows everybody, and friendly enough that stories and jokes can be told while conducting business. There are many long-term residents in the city, and most problems are relatively small compared to big government. So, for example, when an issue such as drainage comes up, people don't bother with addresses. Instead they might describe the location as "that ditch down by Fred's place." I love it! There can certainly be very serious times, but by and large everybody knows one another and are glad of it. I like that small-town issues are big issues in a small town. Issues like fixing one sign post is worth discussing, and worth reporting that the mayor repaired it himself.

Hebron Estates maintains good relations with neighboring cities, maintaining that with regular meetings among mayors. The city contracts its police service from Pioneer Village, avoiding the massive cost of maintaining its own force. A new meeting hall was built in 2004 and city leaders pride themselves at having low tax rates with solid financial stability.

Another example of the size of the town, or perhaps the efficiency of how it is run, is that city hall office hours are only from 6-7 p.m. on Thursdays, and that seems to be plenty of time to conduct city business. Of course, in a town of this size, "office hours" can also be a friendly discussion among neighbors on someone's lawn.

More information can be found about Hebron Estates by visiting the city hall at that hour, by calling the office at 957-3106 and leaving a message, or emailing at Hebron01@Windstream.net. The city has no web page but they can be found on FaceBook.

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Copyright 2016 by David Strange, Shepherdsville KY. All rights are reserved. No part of the content of this page may be included in any format in any place without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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