As Dickson County heads into the new year, the Dickson Post sat down with local leaders to discuss the concerns and issues facing their constituents in the coming 365 days and how those leaders plan to address them.
In Part Two, the Dickson Post spoke with the mayors of the municipalities of Burns, Charlotte, Dickson, Slayden, Vanleer and White Bluff to hear their visions for the coming year. Recurring themes among them were building projects, emergency services, infrastructure and managing growth.
Dickson Mayor Don L. Weiss talked about several building projects coming up for Dickson County’s largest municipality. The city is currently in the design phases for a new recreation/aquatic center for Henslee Park, which will be operated by the Dickson County Family YMCA. Also in the works in the next 12 months is the replacement of the City of Dickson Fire Department #2 in Pomona. Weiss said in the early part of the new year, the city will be finalizing a donation of property on Marshall Stuart Drive from The Jackson Foundation for a new fire station, which will also include a new fire training center on the property.
Another focus for the city in 2025 is improvements to downtown. Weiss said the city is continuing its Downtown Revitalization Project, with the commencement of construction of Phases VI on Church Street and the beginning of design work on Phase VII on Frank Clement Place and W. Railroad Street, both being done with Tennessee Department of Transportation Transportation Alternative Program grants. TDOT is also providing Multimodal Access grants for the city to begin sidewalk improvements along W. College Street. Lastly, the U.S. Department of Transportation is providing a Safe Streets and Roads for All grant for the city to complete a Safety Action Plan for improvements to its streets and intersections.
Burns Mayor Rusty Grove said his focus in the new year is on city hall, downtown and Colesburg. The town is working on building a new city hill to replace the current location, which the town has been renting for several years and which Grove discussed during his campaign for hist first bid as mayor last year. The town is also working on a master plan for both a downtown district and for the Colesburg area in the coming months. Lastly, Burns is focusing on codes enforcement with the hiring of building inspector Bobby Burgess.
“People buy a home in a town and have certain expectations of people keeping their property up to code. I do believe you have certain rights as a property owner, but devaluing someone else’s property because you don’t want to keep yours up is not one of them,” Grove said.
The town of Charlotte, Dickson County’s seat, will be focusing on downtown renovations, growth management, its sewer system and traffic control, according to first-time Mayor Garland Breeden. One challenge the town faces, according to Breeden, is finding funding it needs for the projects, as the town relies mostly on property and sales tax revenues since it doesn’t have much in the way of industry in the area.
“We don’t have a corporation or anything like that, an industrial plant or anything, hotels, things like that. We don’t have those. There’s no revenue being generated. We’re dependent upon the smaller sales tax and even the property tax,” Breeden said.
The two main goals of the town in the coming year for Charlotte are expanding its sewer treatment capabilities and installing and upgrading several traffic lights in the area, including near Charlotte Elementary and Charlotte Middle Schools, according to Breeden. The town is working on expanding its spray fields this year with the help of a grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Breeden said the challenge with planning for expanding its sewer treatment capabilities, which are running almost at capacity now, is the need to plan for future growth in the area while dealing with financial constraints posed by the limited tax revenue.
Breeden said he’s also looking for ways to renovate the Lions Club building at Highway 48 and Spring Street.
Newly elected mayor of Slayden Michael Davenport said his focus for 2025 is re-starting the work to renovate the building which will become Slayden’s new town hall. Slayden Church of Christ donated its former home, located at 2691 State Route 235, to the town several years ago because it no longer needed the building. The cost to renovate the building at the time was approximately $63,000, with the bulk of the money coming from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Davenport said the efforts to renovate the building have stalled in recent days, so he wants to jumpstart work on it, especially since the town currently doesn’t have a town hall. The next steps in renovating the building are installing a new septic system and replacing the siding, according to Davenport.
The Town of Vanleer is working on strengthening its volunteer fire department and expanding its water service, according to newly elected Mayor Derrick Lynch.
The challenges for many volunteer fire departments, including Vanleer’s, is finding volunteers and making sure they have what they need to not get burned out.
“You can’t put a price on the safety of folks, and having somebody there all the time is really great. Through the week we have an ambulance that stays there. It’s something that we have to keep them up on current personal protective equipment to keep them safe when they’re working, and then also working with the big departments within our county, also,” Lynch said.
Vanleer Water Works, the town’s water utility district, is also expanding some of its water lines this year to accommodate new growth in the area. Lynch said the town just purchased a mini-excavator to help with the work. Vanleer Water Works serves roughly 1,200 customers in not only northwest Dickson County, but portions of Houston and Montgomery Counties, too.
The Town of White Bluff is working on improvements to its fire department and supporting its businesses, according to first-time mayor and former town councilwoman Stephanie Murrell. The White Bluff Fire Department, which consists of both paid employees and volunteers, will be replacing a ladder truck and tanker truck that have aged out, and the funding will come from a bond through the Tennessee Municipal League that will be paid off in 20 years, according to Murrell.
As for promoting local businesses, Murrell said that, in addition to the town’s annual Main Street Festival, she wants to help promote the area with more farm-to-table events, which the town began recently, and explore establishing a local arts festival.
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