David Hamilton

Last Friday I got to pick the mind of the CEO/President of the Chamber of Commerce, David Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton is a friendly and down to earth type of guy, so from here out, I’ll refer to him as David. We had a great conversation. It’s really surprising all the planning, time, and effort that goes on behind the scenes. We spoke about growth and planning in the community, the “Be Local” campaign, and then had some theoretical and entertaining discussion. This will be a three part article, so make sure you check back.

Sean: First if you don’t mind, tell just a little about yourself. Wife, kids?

David: I’m David Hamilton. I’m 49 years old. I’ve been here in Dickson just over eight years now. I have a wife Barbara who works at the Tennessee Department of labor Career Center here in Dickson. I have a daughter, Allie Hamilton Wingo. She got married a little over a year ago. She lives in Nashville. She’s 27 years old and she’s a med tech. I’ve got a son Blanton Hamilton who’s a sophomore at UT of Martin.

S: So you’ve been in Dickson for about eight years. From your point of view as president of the Chamber of Commerce, how has Dickson grown or changed?

D: Well obviously it’s growing. I don’t know if it’s changed a whole lot. I think we’re seeing some new retail development, industries, and medical facilities. I think it’s a reasonable growth for where we are in relation to Nashville. If you look at Nashville, everybody is growing around Nashville. I think because of that location we’re going to see growth like most counties in Middle Tennessee won’t because they don’t have that economic engine to draw them. But we do. It is changing a little, and we are starting to see more people from outside the community move in. And as that happens it changes your community, but it’s for the good. I don’t think it’s a negative when people come in here. I think the more people you get in here with the different ideas, the stronger your community can be.

S: So you are really open for the growth and the change?

D: I’m for growth. But I don’t want to get run over by it. I don’t know how you can prevent that. I don’t know that answer, but I think growth in the community is a positive thing. If you’re not growing, you’re going backward. There’s no question about that. Where I see Dickson and Dickson County, [including] White Bluff, Charlotte, and all them, I think we’re at a point where we can raise the bar a little bit so when we have development, we can make it a little nicer. Have more green space. It’s not like we have to have it now; if we don’t get it we don’t get sales taxes. People now want to be here. So, we’ve raised the bar a little bit. I think we’ve already done that some. I think eventually it’ll raise a little bit more. I don’t think we need to get to a “Franklin” type deal where everything has to be brick. But I think we’re in a position now that we can kind of dictate to some of these developments, “We want you, and will do everything to help you, but we want it to reflect positively on the community.”

S: You’re looking more for the growth but not exactly the urban atmosphere.

D: I don’t think most of us want to see Dickson County grow to 250,000 people. We like the rural quality of life. I think we want to maintain that as long as we can. It’s getting harder and harder as we continue grow; we’re at 53,000 people in the county. We saw a 27% growth during the 1990 – 2000 census. We’re probably going to see that same growth or more in this next census, I think. We’re in a good situation. We’re sitting right on I-40. We’re 30 minutes from Nashville. The land cost and housing cost here are lower than most of the counties around Nashville. I think people are starting to discover Dickson County. We’re an opportunity that really was not thought of in the past. I think we are starting to see some benefits of the activities the Chamber has put forth. We try to promote Dickson County in the Nashville market. I just think we are naturally going to get some of that attention.

S: Explain to me what the Chamber of Commerce does.

D: Well the Chamber is basically an organization that is made up of private members, private businesses, and individuals. It’s also supported by local governments, county government, and the City of Dickson. Basically we’re an advocate for businesses. We’re here to market Dickson County, to promote it to new business, and to assist existing business and industry here by helping them to grow and produce jobs. We’re really here to help encourage investment and to promote economic development in the community. We do that through tourism and industrial recruitment. We get involved in leadership to make sure we have good, educated leaders coming up to run the county. We inform them about different things that are going on. I look at it as though we are the sales people for the county. We’re out there letting people know what a great place Dickson County is and what a great opportunity it is to come and move here. It has a good education system. It has job opportunities. It has a good medical center, a good retail base that’s growing. Our job is to make sure that everyone knows what a great place this is and that there’s opportunity here. We assist them any way we can to help them make those moves easier.

S: How long has the Chamber of Commerce been here?

D: I think it’s been here 74 years. Yeah, it’s been here a long time.

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Make sure you check back for part 2 and 3. Also, if you guys are liking the interviews, leave some feedback.