Cannonball Run Subdivision Breaks Ground in Cayce
Community Ventures’ Cannonball Run development will create seven homes through a partnership built around disaster recovery, rural housing and Fulton County’s long-term future.
Nearly five years after a devastating tornado tore through Cayce, Kentucky, a patch of ground once marked by damaged homes and uncertainty is beginning a new chapter.
On August 12, Community Ventures joined Fulton County leaders, state officials, economic-development partners and community members to break ground on Cannonball Run, a new residential development that will create seven homes in the Fulton County community.
For a community that has spent years navigating the long work of disaster recovery, it was a tangible sign of progress and an investment in the families, schools, workforce and future of rural Western Kentucky.
“The measure of this project will be the homes that rise here and the families who make their lives inside them,” said Bart Horne, President of Real Estate Development at Community Ventures. “We’re humbled by this community’s trust and grateful for the opportunity to help deliver on it.”
A Recovery Years in the Making
The December 2021 tornado left extensive destruction across Western Kentucky, including Cayce and Fulton County. The physical damage was immediate. Rebuilding has been anything but.
Fulton County Judge-Executive Jim Martin recalled driving through the area in the hours after the tornado, when electricity was outand much of the community was still trying to understand what had happened.
“About 4:30 in the morning, everybody had kind of calmed down. There were no lights anywhere,” Martin recalled. “I had a big spotlight, and I drove up and down the roads I could. Everybody was scared. I was scared for them.”
He also remembered what the future Cannonball Run property looked like in the aftermath.
“I remember standing out in this road looking at this rugged property and these old, dilapidated houses that the tornado had smashed around and thinking, ‘I wonder if we’ll ever do anything with this?’”
The answer did not come overnight.
County officials introduced the property to Community Ventures, beginning a process that included assembling and purchasingproperty, securing funding, completing approvals and environmental work, and preparing the development for construction. Martin noted that even unexpected environmental requirements affected the schedule, including restrictions associated with bat habitat.
“You have to buy land. You have to go through the grants process. You have to go through the environmental process,” Martin said. “It just takes a lot of time. But we’re here today, and we’re ready to go.”
Seven Homes and What They Mean Beyond Seven Addresses
Cannonball Run will initially create seven new homes.
The number is modest compared with the region’s overall housing need, but speakers at the groundbreaking repeatedly emphasized that the impact of housing extends far beyond the walls of an individual home.
State Senator Jason Howell, whose district includes Fulton County and who grew up in the area, described the project as deeply personal.
“This whole community is where I grew up,” Howell said. “It is almost incomprehensible what we went through with that tornado and the destruction it caused. To be able to build something out of this—and build something of quality—is really important for us.”
For Howell, quality housing is essential to reversing population loss and strengthening communities throughout Fulton County.
“We can’t have people staying home, and we can’t have people moving here and bringing families into our communities and into our schools, without a good place to live,” he said.
Howell also emphasized the importance of collaboration between government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector.
“There aren’t any silver-bullet answers,” he said of Kentucky’s housing challenges. “There are a lot of things we have to do. Public-private partnerships and groups like Community Ventures are absolutely essential to this process, and we’re so fortunate to have them here in the community.”
Then he issued Community Ventures a challenge.
“You don’t have to stop at seven,” Howell said. “We’ll keep finding you ground as long as you want to build houses down here.”
Housing as Economic Infrastructure
That connection between housing and the broader economy was reinforced by Mark Welch, president of the Fulton-Hickman Counties Economic Development Partnership and a Community Ventures board member.
“For those of us working in economic development, we see every day how housing is a foundation of a strong local economy,” Welch said.
At the request of federal partners, including USDA, housing has been identified as a signature project for Fulton County, Welch told those gathered.
When companies evaluate a community, housing is considered alongside workforce, transportation, utilities and schools. Families make a similar calculation.
“When a family considers staying here or moving here, they’re asking many of the same questions: ‘Can I build a good life here? Is there a home for my family? Is this a community with a future?’” Welch said. “Cannonball Run helps us answer yes to all of those questions.”
Seven houses alone will not erase the region’s housing shortage, he acknowledged.
But they demonstrate something important.
“Seven new homes will not solve every housing challenge in our region, but they will be tangible proof that this community can meet a need, bring the right partners together, secure resources and move from planning to construction,” Welch said.
“In a small rural community, especially a small rural community, partnership is one of our greatest competitive advantages.”
Public Investment, Local Cooperation and a Shared Commitment
Cannonball Run Subdivision reflects precisely that kind of partnership.
The project has been supported by Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery resources from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Kentucky Department for Local Government, along with Kentucky Housing Corporation and the Rural Housing Trust Fund. Local and regional partners include Fulton County Fiscal Court and the Purchase Area Development District, with additional support from public, nonprofit and private partners.
Community Ventures recognized the Kentucky Department for Local Government and Travis Weber during the program, along with Kentucky Housing Corporation, Fulton County officials, the Purchase Area Development District and the people who helped carry the project through its many stages.
The county’s cooperation was particularly important.
Martin described a process in which Fulton County helped bring the property and Community Ventures together and stayed engaged as the project navigated the lengthy path toward construction.
“No one organization and no one public office can rebuild a community alone,” his prepared remarks summarized. “This project is the result of partnership, persistence and a willingness to keep working through the difficult parts.”
During his delivered remarks, Martin gave special recognition to former Community Ventures real estate leader Brenda Weaver, who worked extensively on Western Kentucky recovery and housing efforts before semi-retiring earlier this year.
“If I had the money, we would have a statue of Brenda Weaver here,” Martin joked. “She did so much for us, furthering our goals.”
He added that Horne had continued that commitment since assuming the leadership role.
Community Ventures also recognized Joshua Wessel, the organization’s local contact in Fulton; Jon Brooks, who has served as project manager; and building partner Michael Ross for their work moving Cannonball Run toward construction.
Martin also recognized the Purchase Area Development District and its executive director, Jeremy Buchanan, as well as the Fulton County FACE program, whose inmate construction-training crew has previous homebuilding experience and may have opportunities to contribute to construction.
Why “Cannonball Run”?
Even the development’s name connects what comes next to the community that was already here.
Cannonball Run Subdivision was suggested locally as a reference to Cayce’s railroad heritage and legendary railroad engineer Casey Jones, who grew up in the community.
For Community Ventures, Horne said, that history represents “service, courage, responsibility, and remembering where you came from when you move forward in life.”
Welch saw a similar connection.
“I appreciate the name Cannonball Run because it ties this new investment back to Cayce’s railroad heritage,” he said. “The families who eventually call this development home will become part of that continuing story—honoring where this community has been while helping carry it forward.”
It is an unusually fitting name for a project born from recovery: rooted in the community’s history while pointed deliberately toward what comes next.
The Dream on the Other Side of the Groundbreaking
For Martin, who will leave the judge-executive’s office in December but regularly travels past the property on his way to Cayce Baptist Church, success already has a picture.
“I’ll be coming through here every Sunday,” Martin said. “I want to look over here and see children out here in the street riding bicycles. I want to see houses. I want to see neighbors being neighbors to other people.”
“That is the dream of this project,” he said. “That will be the dream come true.”
Cannonball Run is seven opportunities for households to establish roots. It is housing near jobs. Children in local schools. Neighbors on a street. New property returning life to land damaged by a disaster. And it is evidence that rural recovery, although rarely quick or simple, can move from plans and funding applications to foundations, front porches and families.
“This is a good day for Cayce,” Welch said. “It’s a good day for Fulton County, and another sign of confidence in what we can build together.”
Interested in Cannonball Run Subdivision or other housing and homeownership opportunities through Community Ventures? Contact Joshua Wessel at jwessel@cvky.org to learn more.
