State of Robertson County
White House Chamber of Commerce Luncheon 4/18/2023
Tuesday afternoon the White House Chamber of Commerce hosted Robertson County Mayor Billy Vogle, Chief Economic Development Officer Vonda Gates, and Director of Schools, Dr. Chris Causey at their monthly luncheon in the Don Eden Community Room. Before I dive into the topics, let it be noted, that the chamber puts on a lovely event. Mandy Christensen, president, stated that this was the largest lunch they have had in the new building, and either the 3rd or 4th largest luncheon to date.
Billy Vogle started his portion of the address with a football story. He went to high school at Jo Byrns and remembers playing White House High School back in the day. He loves Robertson County and has lived here his entire life. Robertson County has more cities than any other county in the state. We are in the top five counties for agriculture. Our taxes sit at $2.57/100 in excess value. In RobCo, that only brings in $190k a year. RobCo has a great fund balance, which equals borrowing power. We are the “go north” of middle Tennessee. Currently RobCo has 9% of the population in the Nashville greater region. Right now we are in the process of upgrading 911. $7.3 million has been allocated to 911. The county needs new towers and are now in on the state Motorola deal. Right now, officers cannot be reached in dead spots. The county was able to use state stimulus money to get state troopers on the same signal as RobCo EMS. The county did not use tax money, they were able to fund the project with stimulus money. White House will need an ambulance. Right now a new ambulance costs $200k and takes two years to get. RobCo ordered one and went ahead and ordered a second since they are two years out. As far as the sheriff’s department is concerned, the jail in RobCo is the most awarded. It can hold 350 prisoners a day. The jail makes money by taking in state and federal prisoners when they have empty beds. At any point, roughly 3.2% of the population is incarcerated. The county is in need of another courtroom. Currently, the county shares with Montgomery County. The sheriff’s department takes 45k calls a year and serves 1k warrants a month. There are 26 school resource officers and the budget for this upcoming year will add four more. That adds $2 million to the budget. The county is responsible for $478k the schools will pick up the rest.
Trash is the biggest facing middle Tennessee right now. In RobCo the scales keep traffic moving at the transfer station. People out of county dumping trash have to pay to dump theirs. RobCo hasn’t raised prices in years. The trash from the transfer station is taken to KY. That costs the county $270k per year. The county moves 7k tons of trash per month.
The county clerks office also stays busy. They tag 75k cars per year, and just last year they handed out 400 marriage licenses.
Mayor Vogle states that he is honored to be the mayor and growth is coming. The growth has to be smart. Population is expected to grow by 46% in the next ten years. We want to do this growth right.
Tourism is bringing in money for RobCo. The mayor stated he is shocked at how much money ball tournaments bring in to the county. Vonda Gates has more to say on tourism.
Vonda Gates is the newest Chief Economic Development Officer for the RobCo Economic Development Board.
Vonda Gates moved here from Clarksville. She has only been in RobCo since November. Before that she was working in the same capacity in Hopkinsville KY.
The mission of the board is to help the county provide jobs with a “living wage,” while still supporting local businesses. Is the county business friendly? That is part of the goal of the board. The other side of their business is tourism. Sarah (last name not provided) is in charge of the tourism for RobCo. She has been in that role for a year now. As a board, they are constantly looking at how to make the communities better. They work with the chambers of commerce, the cities, the TVA, the utilities, and the state. They respond to companies that are looking for land and inventory in RobCo.
Looking at these numbers, the number of employees in each sector, transportation and warehousing have not had a dip in numbers. All of the sectors took a dip during Covid. With that in mind, there is a 200 acre site here in White House that is being looking at for industry.
This site has had help from the TVA and the state. The due diligence is complete and the corridor is prepared for development. All of the preliminary work is done. The board is now hoping that a company will choose this site. Companies are looking for many things in a site selection, and RobCo is business friendly.
Tourism is big in RobCo. Each year tax payers save $200 by having tourism dollars. The county also takes in grants to promote tourism. Ms. Gates thanked the chamber for the time to speak and gave the floor to Dr. Chris Causey.
The first thing he let the audience know was that the last day of school for Students will be that last Wednesday. Thursday will be a no student day, and Friday is still report card day. Retakes for the TCAP will also be coming up.
This new law is a big item for discussion in all districts around the state. Parents are allowed to appeal if their child is selected for retention. The parent will have more power than the school in the appeals process. The school will be supporting the parent that decides to appeal. In the 27 years that Dr. Causey has been in education, he has only seen retention beneficial, twice.
Summer learning camp will require a 90% attendance. Dr. Causey recommended that if you were going to vacation over the summer, to do so during the TSSAA dead period at the beginning of July. He also said that summer learning camp was open to all students. Even to those parents that just didn’t want to deal with their children all summer.
As per safety of the schools, they are adding more SRO’s. The RobCo Schools partner with the Sheriff’s office to provide security at the schools.
Facilities are the other pressing issue in RobCo. The county has lost out on property opportunities because of the cost of land currently in the area. The schools are still looking for property on 76 for an elementary school. Woodall is at capacity and Heritage Elementary is close.
They are also considering going back to the original idea of building a middle school behind Heritage HS. The schools are working with city administrator Herman and are appreciative of his help. They do need to do something soon as most of the new homes have small children. Adding a MS would make Woodall K-1, Heritage ES 2-4, and the new middle school 5-8, and Heritage HS would just be a high school. A new school can cost close to $100 million. It would obviously be cheaper since the schools already own the land behind Heritage. The Greenbrier MS remodel and addition was $8.5 million. That was paid for with Covid money.
On Monday the school board will be voting on a charter school application. Last year’s budget was $134 million. The starting salary for a teacher is currently $44k a year in RobCo. The state would like that minimum to be $50k in the next few years. Robco is low and is losing teachers to other counties. An apprenticeship program has been started that allows participants to work as classified staff for 3 years on the journey to be a teacher. The program is full with 20 people. The county received a $5 million grant. Heritage HS has been given $500k to spend over the next 4 years. Each school has different needs so they have been given leeway in how to spend the money. Overall, the district is in a good spot and the schools are trying to get students to earn an AS even before they graduate high school, build the school to work programs, and a pipeline into the teaching field.
Honestly, Vonda Gates was a little hard to follow. The entire presentation was live streamed by the Chamber of Commerce. If you would like to see it, you can visit their Facebook page.