By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-873790.mp3
Memphis, TN –
Despite the national downturn in building, there is construction going on in two small towns in West Tennessee.
Cars had to slow to drive on the ripped-up road that rings the courthouse in downtown Ripley. Men at work screwed in a doorknob, sawed wood, and dug in the dirt.
The road has now been repaved, the shops that run along the square's edge have new facades, and the courthouse at the center of it all is completely refurbished.
Ripley is one of six towns in Tennessee two in the west, two in the middle, and two in the east to receive a rebate from the state on all of the sales tax generated in the area surrounding a downtown courthouse. The Executive Director of the Ripley Downtown Development Corporation, Perry Williams, says Ripley is getting a lot of money back from the state.
"It's pretty close to three quarters of a million dollars each year through 2023," Williams said.
But that's only a lot of money if you're a small town. In order to be eligible for the state's Courthouse Square Revitalization Pilot Project, towns had to be small, and they had to be the center of a county with no more than 120,000 people.
Ripley was chosen and is probably more in need than most. Ripley lost about 600 jobs when a manufacturing plant closed last May and it's located in Lauderdale County, which has an unemployment rate almost double the nation's. Still Williams insists Ripley's problems are the same problems facing most rural towns geographically most of West Tennessee.
"If we didn't do it, we knew things weren't going to get any better." Williams said.
That's because, in the past eight years, while the nation and Tennessee have continued to grow in population, population growth in most of the counties in West Tennessee has stagnated. Lauderdale County has actually shed people.
The other place in West Tennessee receiving money back from the state is Bolivar, located in Hardeman County.
Hardeman County has also lost population, and thus faces a shrivel and decline if nothing changes.
Bolivar is taking a musical approach to its revitalization. There was live music in a new amphitheatre behind Bolivar's courthouse each Tuesday and Friday night this summer. Crowds as large as 1,000 people gathered.
Flags advertising the live music ring Bolivar's courthouse square. Anderson Humphreys of Bolivar's music commission, pointed to one of the flags, and raised his voice to speak over the din of construction, "Hardeman County live, but it's also live Hardeman County," he said. "Those are the two elements that we are pushing and driving home. Because it's a great place to live."
The music commission also put brightly painted pianos outdoors four around the courthouse, and one nestled in the farmer's market. Any passerby can stop and play. But Humphreys doesn't play piano. "Heaven forbid," he said.
Neither does Anne Wallace-Crighton, another member of the Bolivar music commission. "Being on the commission gives us the opportunity to promote the county," she explained. "And as president of the Chamber of Commerce which I am that is a big dot deal to me."
Wallace-Crighton says they picked live music to brand Bolivar because it appeals to so many people. "Whether you're black, white, rich, poor, society status, or low man on the street everybody loves music," she said.
Bolivar needs to bring in some of those people to grow and survive. So does Ripley. So does most of West Tennessee.
The ribbon cutting for the refurbished courthouse in Ripley is Friday December 4th at 4pm. Bolivar will have its holiday concert on Saturday December 5th at 7pm in the amphitheatre behind the courthouse.