By Becky Manley / Staff Writer
Eighteen years ago, the city of Corbin adopted a city seal based on a design by Christy Helton, who was then a Corbin Middle School student.
Monday night during a Corbin commissioners meeting, the colorful seal that boasts several elements came under fire.
Corbin Police Chief David Campbell told commissioners the seal has sometimes made the city a “brunt of jokes.”
On Tuesday, Campbell said he has fielded complaints about the seal from his officers since he took charge of the department about a year ago.
Some have said the yellow flourishes around the seal and the moonbow over Cumberland Falls resemble the yellow brick road and the rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, Campbell said.
Other comments seem more sinister, with the yellow flourish resembling an outline of a goat’s head, hinting of a more Satanic theme.
However, Campbell’s primary concern is that the embroidered patch version of the seal worn on the sleeves of police uniforms seems to portray a racist stereotype.
“I don’t care for the chicken bucket and what appears to be a black man in a boat fishing,” Campbell said.
While the seal displayed on city vehicles clearly shows a white man in the fishing boat, the man on the embroidered patches seems crafted entirely of black thread.
City sought consistency
The seal was adopted by city commissioners in Dec. 1992, according to minutes provided by Corbin City Clerk Erin Wylie Blount.
Blount said she served on the committee that helped select a winner from among the entries in a contest launched in March 1992.
At that time, the city had no seal, Blount said.
“They wanted something uniform for everyone because they were just using different things,” Blount said.
The original contest entries are kept in a file in Blount’s storage room at Corbin City Hall.
The entries include about 18 pieces that appear to be original artwork as well as an about 1/2-inch stack of entries that appear to be computer generated.
Several of the original pieces incorporate Cumberland Falls, CSX Railroad, Nibroc and the Redhounds into the designs.
Blount said she can’t recall what made Helton’s entry a winner.
For her effort, Helton received a $500 savings bond and a key to the city, according to the minutes of the Dec. 1992 meeting.
Blount said the man in the boat was never portrayed as a black man and that he probably appears to have darker skin due to shadowing in the smaller embroidered patch.
Campbell said the fisherman seems to be fishing beneath a blue sky, which he said would diminish the chance for his face to be shadowed so completely in black.
“I don’t think that’s a shadow,” Campbell said. “I swear, I don’t.”
Emergency responders
seek change
Late in 2009, Campbell said he was at in-service training with other police officers when the Paducah police chief asked to have a closer look at the city’s patch.
Campbell gave a Corbin city patch to the Paducah chief — who is a black man — along with an explanation that he hopes to change the design.
“He thought it was humorous,” Campbell said. “But he’s got a good sense of humor.”
While Corbin Fire Department Chief Barry McDonald said he doesn’t like the seal, he never thought the fisherman was a black man.
“I just didn’t like it ‘cause there’s nothing in it that’s in the city,” McDonald said.
Both Campbell and McDonald said they each have staff members with the artistic ability to craft seals unique to their departments.
“I think it’s (the city seal) served its purpose and it’s time to change it,” Campbell said.
Meaning revealed
As of Tuesday, the artist, Christy Helton, who is out-of-state attending college, was unavailable but her mother, Connie Helton, explained her daughter’s work.
Christy Helton incorporated some beloved elements into her design: it shows her father, Calvin “Bud” Helton, fishing from a boat dubbed “Christy” as well as Bud’s favorite food — Kentucky Fried Chicken, Connie Helton said.
The yellow flourishes do represent a real road in Alabama, Connie Helton said. The road is made of some material that makes it appear yellow when the sun shines on it, Connie Helton said.
While Connie Helton couldn’t recall exactly how it was portrayed in her daughter’s work, she said Christy Helton did include a goat in the image as a tribute to her beloved pet, “Granny Goat.”
When it comes to the race of the man fishing in the boat, Connie Helton said Calvin Helton is a white man.
“And we’re not racist,” Connie Helton said.
