Last week, Montgomery County government announced a proposal to consider building a multi-purpose event center. While most people in the community gave very positive and supportive feedback, there were some who were not quite as excited about the prospect of an arena downtown. City Mayor, Kim McMillan, called the proposal, “shocking and unwise.” She, along with a small group, voiced concerns that the county should focus on building schools and not event centers inside of city limits.
There are several reasons we as county government should pursue an event center. The city of Clarksville resides inside of Montgomery County. Everything done inside Clarksville directly affects the county as a whole. Also, while educating children should be the top priority of any local government, providing the public with services that increase quality of life should also be a priority. We can have the best education system in the world, however, without career opportunities and a high quality of life we will be unable to retain any of our educated youth. Instead, they will leave for other communities that do offer entertainment and opportunity.
Building an arena will create much needed foot traffic downtown. Increased foot traffic will lead to new restaurants and shops. This will create a lively downtown that corporate offices will potentially want to locate to, leading to better paying jobs and generate higher revenue. Higher revenues would allow us to fund schools and community services without the need of a tax increase.
Finally, as an elected official, one of the biggest complaints I receive is that there is nothing to do in Clarksville. An arena with a lively downtown surrounding it would change that. I believe the time has come for our community to think bigger. In order to have the community we all desire, we will have to abandon our hesitant past by not just studying big ideas but implementing them.
Jason Hodges
County Commissioner, District 17