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Brad and Danielle Dawkins, County Judge Robert Newsom and Joel Newsom attend the Lunch and Learn. Photo by Tammy Vinson
The Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce hosted a “Lunch and Learn” meeting Wednesday, August 16 to discuss the total solar eclipse that will make Hopkins County a front row seat, so to speak, for the celestial event. The meeting featured a panel of speakers that included Callie Bradshaw, a Plano woman who owns seven AirBnB properties in Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County, along with Jason Tully, owner and principal agent of Tully Insurance Agency.
The main event
The total solar eclipse will occur on Monday, April 8, 2024. The track begins over the South Pacific Ocean and crosses North America from Mexico to Texas to Maine.
The event will last for approximately two and a half hours, but totality (the maximum point of the eclipse when day literally turns to night) will last about four minutes. The closer to the centerline of that path a viewer gets, the longer totality will last and the better the view will be. The centerline will pass directly over Hopkins County, making Sulphur Springs.
Viewing safely
To avoid damaging your eyes, it’s absolutely critical to avoid looking at the sun with the naked eye or using binoculars or telescopes without a filter–unless it’s during the four minutes of totality. Doing so could result in permanent eye damage and vision loss. And worse yet, you won’t even realize the damage is happening until it’s too late, because the retina doesn’t have pain receptors to alert you.
Signature Solar has purchased 50,000 pairs of solar viewing or “eclipse” glasses.
Most will be donated to the Sulphur Springs Independent School district, to be sold during various campus organization fundraisers. The Chamber will also have eclipse glasses available for sale at their office. Burney encouraged local businesses to purchase their own glasses to sell.
Mass influx
“Astronomy magazine has listed Sulphur Springs as the eighth best place in the western hemisphere to view the 2024 eclipse. We’ve been told to expect anywhere up to 40,000 visitors,” Chamber President/ CEO Butch Burney told the attendees. “To put that in perspective, we have 37,000 people living in Hopkins County right now. We could potentially double our population in one day.” Burney stressed that he could not guarantee how many people will be visiting Hopkins County that day, or even how to get an exact count.
“This is one of the top viewing sites. People are flying in from Seattle and California, from Germany, from Great Britain, flying in to DFW Airport,” Burney said. “Many of those people will be heading here to Hopkins County and Sulphur Springs.”
City and county officials are making arrangements to safely host the influx of visitors combined with locals who will also attend the festivities. Triage sites will be staged around the city, particularly the downtown area, and ambulances will be posted in various locations around the county. Officials are considering closing the downtown area to foot traffic only for the day of the eclipse, Burney told the audience.
Lodging for visitors and vehicles
Lodging will be a major need, Burney said. Most local hotels are already completely booked. He said one hotel has 67 rooms booked at $600 per night with a four night minimum stay and no refunds for the event. Another hotel had four rooms available for the same timeframe (as of the meeting time Tuesday) priced at $169 per night.
This could be a great opportunity for local people who have an extra bedroom or space and are interested in renting it for the eclipse. But there are a few things to think about before opening your doors and welcoming guests.
Signing up is the easy part
“It’s very easy to start an Airbnb account,” Callie Bradshaw said. “Ratings are everything, so it’s important to maintain high ones. As a host, I take a [rating] hit if I cancel a booking. I don’t like to, but I have done it when I feel it’s necessary.'
Insurance protection
Tully Insurance Agency staff created a Hopkins County Short-Term Rental Insurance Guide, which briefly lists steps property owners should complete before allowing guests on their property in April. To get a free copy, contact Tully Insurance at 903-4393286 or visit www.tullyinsurance. com.
Owner and principal Jason Tully said, “First and foremost, make sure you and your property are protected.”
Have a detailed conversation with your insurance agent no later than 60 to 90 days before the event [in this case, January or February 2024] to obtain an endorsement or a standalone special event policy. Estimates are typically good for about 30 days, but, again, be sure to check with your agent. Also, be honest with your agent about what you’re looking to do– whether it’s renting out one room or our entire house for the weekend or just allowing automobiles or RVs to park in your pasture.
If you’re renting out your own home for the event, know that your regular homeowner’s or property insurance policy may not cover property damage or your personal liability in the event of injury or damage. You will absolutely need liability insurance in place ahead of time, before you’re held responsible for bodily injury, property damage or some other type of harm to another party. Most standard homeowner’s insurance policies don’t include property damage or liability for short-term rentals. Airbnb, for example, offers its hosts $1 million in liability insurance coverage if a host is found legally responsible for bodily injury to a guest (or others), damage to or theft of property belonging to a guest (or others) or damage caused by a guest (or others) to common areas, like building lobbies and nearby properties. But if you use another site or handle arrangements yourself, make sure you have the right amount of coverage in place before your guests arrive. Even using your land as a temporary parking lot may require additional liability coverage. You may need to purchase special event liability insurance.
For more information about how Hopkins County plans to celebrate the eclipse, visit the Chamber of Commerce's website at www.hopkinschamber.com or the eclipse website at www.totaleclipsesstx.com.