Clarksville area 2nd in growth rate
Census tabs Clarksville, Tenn.-Ky. MSA as second-fastest-growing in
America
Jimmy Settle
Leaf-Chronicle March 14, 2013
Rich Anderson, left, owner of Anderson Real Estate, and Leslie Sullivan, regional operations manager,
talk with resident Natasha Mitovich about why she chose to reside in Clarksville. / THE LEAFCHRONICLE/ROBERT SMITH
CLARKSVILLE, TENN. — Combine local military influences and retirees with expanding
civilian job opportunity, and it’s easy to see why the Clarksville, Tenn.-Ky. Metropolitan
Statistical Area is still putting its foot on the accelerator of population growth.
Census figures released this week show that the multi-county Clarksville MSA, as designated by
the Census Bureau, is now the second-fastest-growing in the entire nation at 3.7 percent growth
region-wide.
Purchase ImageZOOM
Todd Young, left, Henry Hampton and Tim Beymer discuss a bindary cover at Jostens. All three men have only been
in the Clarksville area less than a year, moving from different parts of the country. / THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/GREG
WILLIAMSON
Clarksville, Tenn.-Ky. MSA
Montgomery County:
(2011 pop.) 176,837; (2012 pop.) 184,468; (increase) 7,631 people or 4.3%
Christian County, Ky.:
(2011 pop.) 73,553; (2012 pop.); 75,427; (increase) 1,874 people or 2.5%
Trigg County, Ky.:
(2011 pop.) 14,235; (2012 pop.) 14,447 (increase) 212 people or 1.5%
Source: Census Bureau
This is based on Census data for the period of July 2011 to July 2012, calculating growth within
the Bureau’s MSA region of Montgomery County, and Christian and Trigg counties in
Kentucky.
Singularly, Montgomery County is leading the way in this MSA when it comes to head counts. It
has bested all other Tennessee counties in percentage of population growth from 2010 through
2012, posting nearly 7 percent growth over the two-year span.
That gives Montgomery County, alone, a ranking of 30th in the nation when compared to all
counties in all of the states.
Fort Campbell fuels growth
Rich Anderson has a strong sense of where all the new faces are coming from. His Anderson
Real Estate firm is a small, private company that also handles short- and long-term home and
apartment rentals – and it’s no big secret that Clarksville has seen an apartment construction
boom lately.
Anderson has been here, working in the vibrant Clarksville real estate sector, since the 1990s.
But he is also intimately aware of the growth trend because of his own military background. He
served in the 101st Airborne Division in the 1980s and then married into a prominent local
military family.
The Anderson family stayed here, Rich Anderson attended Austin Peay State University and his
three children attend Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools. Fort Campbell is still the solid
foundation for Clarksville’s economy, Anderson said, and it is the largest source fueling a
windfall of retirees here.
“A lot of people who have served at Fort Campbell end up coming back to Clarksville and
calling Clarksville home. This is a trend that is increasing, because our cost of living compares
well to other areas of the country, and while Clarksville is a growing city on its own, we’re also
sort of a bedroom community to Nashville, which offers our residents that unique convenience.”
Natasha Mitovich lives in one of Anderson’s Sango apartments. She works for Goodwill and
commutes to Nashville for part of the week. Mitovich, a member of Hilldale Baptist Church, said
she enjoys the quality of life here and, having lived elsewhere including Europe and Texas, this
area has the added advantage of being near relatives in Middle Tennessee.
“I really like it here. Clarksville is well-located,” said Mitovich, a Goodwill digital literacy
trainer.
A magnet for retirees
Randy Worcester, broker and owner of Avalar Real Estate, is a “numbers man” who watches
community demographics closely, and constantly. He is somewhat surprised that Clarksville’s
population increased as dramatically as it did since 2010, considering the frequency of Fort
Campbell troop deployments over the past few years.
But he isn’t at all surprised that Clarksville is a magnet for retirees.
“We do get a lot of inquiries about Clarksville, from people who just ask about this community
and want to know more about it,” Worcester said. “The word is getting out among the military,
particularly, that Clarksville is a great place to retire, and it’s also a great place to work.”
There have been some signs of trouble, with this winter’s massive layoffs at the Hemlock
Semiconductor plant that has yet to manufacture its first shipment of polysilicon, and with the
looming federal spending cuts for the Fort Campbell work force. Worcester acknowledged that
this week’s Census report comes with an asterisk.
“The Hemlock news, especially, will put a little bit of a damper on it,” he said, “but as the
government pulls back a little on military spending, that actually might mean an increase in our
growing military retirement population.”
More veterans expected
Many military veterans stay in the area after leaving the Army or come here because of the
proximity to Fort Campbell. The area around the post has long been recognized as having the
second-highest number of military veterans in the nation.
And the numbers are expected to grow.
“We actually in November went before the County Commission to request the money to hire a
part-time person to help out because our appointment calendar had backed up to three or four
weeks out because of the volume of people coming in,” said Stacey Hopwood, assistant director
at Montgomery County’s Veterans Service Organization, which assists veterans and military
retirees with filing VA claims.
She expects the trend to continue with the military’s drawdown of troops.
One barometer of how the population of veterans has increased in Montgomery County is the
amount of money paid in benefits to recipients.
In fiscal year 2005-06, a total of $22.5 million came into the county via retired military benefits,
and in 2011-12, the figure had increased to nearly $201 million. The higher number is tempered
somewhat because, last year, more VA claims were allowed for a number of new conditions,
some of which apply to an aging group of Vietnam veterans.
School system growing
For the past couple of years, 600 to 800 new students per year were projected to enter the school
system, but for an unknown reason, the growth for the current year has been only 200 more.
While school officials think the sudden decrease is a blip on the radar rather than an actual
slowing of the community’s growth, planning for the 2013-14 school budget will account for it.
“We will have to be very conservative in our projections for next year,” said Elise Shelton,
spokeswoman for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System. “We’re still working on a
projection; nothing has been firmed up yet.”
The growth projections are crucial for planning a budget with enough money that new students
can be absorbed with an adequate number of teachers and supplies.
For more than a decade, it has been necessary to practically open a new school every year in the
county.
Pisgah Elementary will open for next school year, and renovations at Northwest High are
expected to be completed in 2014. Even so, the school system will seek approval of four more
elementary schools and another high school by 2017.
“We have to closely monitor growth,” Shelton said. “It can be somewhat unpredictable for us.”
More local jobs
Taking advantage of and contributing to the population growth are several local companies,
among them Jostens.
After their move to the Industrial Park in 2011 following consolidation of other plants across the
United States, Jostens has seen a steady growth in employment, from 364 to 849, and plans to
hire more.
The consolidation brought in employees from all over the country, including Virginia, Ohio,
Iowa, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Kansas and California, said Ron Struble, senior human resources
director. Struble said the influx of people from different areas has created a unique culture that
he feels echos the culture of Clarksville.
“We’re bringing people in from all over through various circumstances,” he said. “Some tragic,
like a location closure, some because people are just looking for a better place, a better job. ...
It’s been a good adventure.”
Lee Persinger, employee relations manager at Jostens, said the location of their new facility has
helped create a diverse culture.
“We are able, with this location, to get more diversity because we’re on the interstate and we’re
drawing from different areas that we weren’t drawing from at our other location even though it’s
in the same zip code,” she said. “We still have a good core of people who have been with us for
years and some of them have a longer commute, but they’re sticking with Jostens and we’re glad
for that for sure.”
Henry Hampton, Todd Young and Tim Beymer, all new employees at Jostens, agreed they are
happy with the move to Clarksville and were pleasantly surprised by the friendly nature of the
city.
Young recalled a visit to a furniture store with his wife just after their move. The couple arrived
too late, and found it closed, but there was another car in the parking lot.
“So I went over to them and said, ‘Do you know anything about this?’ and they said, ‘Oh yeah,
we know the owner,’” Young said. “The lady and the boy were in there, and they were eating
cupcakes and they offered us cupcakes. ... I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. This is
incredible that these people are like this.’”
Both Young and Beymer came from facilities that closed in Pennsylvania and Kansas,
respectively, but Hampton came to Clarksville because his wife is in the military and he was
looking for a good job.
Montgomery among top 100 counties
While the Clarksville MSA was the second-fastest-growing metro area in the nation, Census data
shows that the Montgomery County growth came at a faster pace than the MSA as a whole.
Montgomery County’s revised Census population estimate for 2012 is 184,468 people, reflecting
a 4.3 percent increase over the previous year.
In 30th position, Montgomery is one of four Tennessee counties to make the nation’s Census top
100 fastest growing counties, based on population growth rate. Others are Williamson in 57th,
Rutherford (87th) and Wilson (96th).
James Chavez, president and CEO of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Economic
Development Council, said it’s noteworthy that all of the Tennessee counties that appear in the
Census top 100 are Middle Tennessee counties.
“I just see our growth as the result of a combination of a whole bunch of things, including
business expansion, and people outprocessing from the military and wanting to stay in the
region,” Chavez said.
“We’re in the center of the population (growth) for the state and have been for some time,” said
David Penn, director of the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State
University. “This is where the bulk of the job growth has been occurring.”
University of Tennessee economist Bill Fox agreed that jobs and population spur each other on.
“It’s a two-way street,” he said. “People go were there are jobs. Jobs go where there are people.”
Long-term growth in Middle Tennessee and Clarksville area has been sustained, Fox said. The
success of prominent brands in the area, including Nissan in Nashville, helps bolster the
community’s image.
Fox said the tumult at the Hemlock Semiconductor plant, where nearly 300 were laid off,
probably wouldn’t have a large impact on population because it was a relatively small slice of
the work force.
Chavez agreed, saying the diversity of the city’s population, industry and appeal make it more
durable. That kind of durability helped Clarksville navigate the recession without great fallouts,
he said.
“There’s just so much going on,” Chavez said. “It’s kind of insulated us.”