By Rebecca Feldhaus
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-890467.mp3
Clarksville, TN – Richard Wilson starts his days early. He climbs into his 12-ton, hunter-green trash truck and picks up his first load at 5am. He's worked for Waste Management for four years now, but he's been a Clarksville resident since 1973. In his many years in the city, he's seen it grow considerably. Wilson said the first indicator was the steady increase of traffic. As someone who sees the city on a house-by-house level, he's acutely aware of the expansion.
"It's gotten a little longer to get my route, especially on Friday, it's my heavy day. I'm getting spread out a lot of subdivisions over there off of Tiny Town Rd. and Trent Rd. Subdivisions are springing up like wildflowers out there."
According to the census bureau's findings, ten years ago Clarksville's estimated population was just over 103,000. In just six years, the city's population grew by 13,000. The city has continued to blossom.
Along his routes around the city, Wilson says new subdivisions are difficult to miss.
"I noticed the city limit signs keep going further and further out towards the county lines."
Wilson's information is correct. The Regional Planning Commission from 2004-2007 steadily annexed more land. In those three years the city's swath increased by more than 1,200 acres. But the annexation didn't include the 13,000 new residents. New comers to Clarksville make up the increase.
This dramatic growth has helped the city weather an economic downturn that found most of the nation real-estate sales in the gutter.
Clarksville Native Britt DePriest recently moved back home to sell residential property with his father. Initially, he worried about economic recession affecting his success. When he began, Fort Campbell troops had recently been deployed to the Middle East, thus homes were not selling. He didn't have to wait very long for that to change.
"A month before the deployment's over, two months before the deployment's over, you're in a situation where you start seeing multiple offers on homes, people trying to buy homes from Iraq or from Afghanistan, wherever they're deployed."
As Depriest says, much of the City's growth can be attributed to the booming Army Installation, and its families moving off base. Though good for the city, some officials begin to worry about urban sprawl. Co-chair of the Master Plan's transportation committee Wayne Wilkinson says there are a number of benefits to utilizing the land the city already has, rather than expanding further. While Wilkinson believes in using what Clarksville has, there is some spending that the city cannot avoid.
"We're going to have to invest in some new roads. Because we cannot - we will have road failures, meaning that we'll just have gridlock, if we don't prepare for that now."
Back on his truck, Richard Wilson says he's seen a noticeable increase in traffic. Despite the climbing population, he says the infrastructure is dependable.
"The roads are in pretty good shape, I mean compared to Nashville or any other place, the roads in Clarksville are in pretty good shape."
Wilson says he doesn't mind the added length to his drive. By now, he's used to it. Whether or not the rest of the city keeps up with demand as well as Waste Management is yet to be seen.