Kiwanis Club of Clarksville welcomes Mayor Wes Golden, who talks windstorm, downtown and more

CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden paid a visit to the Kiwanis Club of Clarksville on Tuesday. Golden, who is a long-time Kiwanian, gave the club an update on the latest happenings within the county.

Mayor Golden began by talking about the March 3 windstorm that struck the area, saying there is still a lot of clean-up going on.

Windstorms and downtown

Golden said one of the questions he is often asked is whether the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) is going to declare it a state of emergency to allow funds to come in from the state for help.

“For TEMA to declare a state of emergency, the event has to total over $12 million of local government spending. We’re just waiting to see if they are going to call it a state of emergency or not to get reimbursed,” Golden said.

Talking about downtown, Golden welcomed the new Shelby’s Trio and mentioned that the new F&M Bank Arena is on schedule for its opening this July, with the nearby parking garage also on track for its opening in 2024.

“That arena is a catapult for what’s going on downtown,” Golden said.

The County Mayor mentioned the three Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts that both the City of Clarksville and Montgomery County have passed. One of those districts is along Riverside Drive, another is in downtown Clarksville, and the third is in the Vulcan area.

“With the TIF districts, we’re trying to promote and encourage building up. We’re trying to find ways to encourage development in these areas that have not been developed in a really long time, and right now that plan is working,” Golden said.

Montgomery County youth

Speaking about growth in Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools, Golden said over the past 20 years the school system has added an average of 670 students a year, and over the last two years that number has doubled to about 1,200 kids a year.

Golden said he meets with CMCSS Director Jean Luna-Vedder and school officials on a regular basis to try and brainstorm on how to tackle the problem because we are not slowing down and we need to figure it out.

“Right now, we’re in negotiations on some property on the north side of town for another elementary school,” Golden said.

On another matter involving youth, Golden said the county is trying to identify some land for a juvenile resource center.

“I think right now we’re going to spend about a quarter of a million dollars transporting kids all over the state of Tennessee,” Golden said. “We have to do better for our kids’ in this community. A lot of these kids are in situations with broken relationships, and some of them have never seen what a good relationship is supposed to look like, so we need to have something in place.”