meet local leaders
ON THE FRONT LINES OF DIRECTING MAURY COUNTY’S GROWTH
Maury County is a proven hotspot for people moving to Tennessee. Like other counties surrounding the fast-growing city of Nashville, it’s felt the ripple effect of people moving farther out from the bigger city. Over the past five years alone, the population here has grown almost 19 percent, with experts predicting a similar increase between now and 2025. Businesses are also gravitating to the area. Will Evans, President and CEO of the Maury County Chamber and Economic Alliance, says people have discovered what this part of the state has much to offer.
“We have access to everything that Nashville has to offer such as world class entertainment, world class travel out of the airport, and all of that,” he explains. “But we also have a very genuine sense of place with our own unique shopping, dining, entertainment, quality healthcare, and so forth. Then, when you drill down into the various cities, whether it be Spring Hill, Columbia, or Mount Pleasant, you get a different feel, all positive but different. You can go from more suburban to rural depending on what you would like to have in your community.”
Nashville isn’t the only nearby metropolitan area influencing Maury County’s population boom.
“What differentiates us from some of the other Nashville MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) counties, is we’re also uniquely positioned next to Huntsville, Alabama," says Evans. "So, that provides additional opportunities for our residents, whether it be professional job opportunities or additional entertainment opportunities."
Evans and his team are on the front lines of helping Maury County’s economy grow, attracting new businesses, and supporting existing businesses as they evolve or expand. They have a strong track record over the past decade.
“2014 is when the tide started to turn for Maury County, and we started to see growth and new companies come to town. If you look back over that ten-year period, our partners at the local and state level have announced forty-three new companies or current companies expanding. That totals over six thousand new jobs and $5 billion dollars in new investment in the county."
As they’ve worked to attract new businesses and industries, it’s been important for them to get strategic input from local business owners, city and county government leaders, investors, and others.
“When it comes to recruiting businesses in the county, we spent the better part of 2022 and 2023 engaging with our community stakeholders," Evans says. "We wanted to know what they would consider a successful economic development project. What would they be excited for us to announce, as a new company coming to our community."
He says it gave them a lot of insight and helped narrow their focus. They came away with three priorities: higher wages (higher than the average county wage), a diversification of industries and job opportunities, and a responsible use of the community’s resources.”
Attracting new businesses requires a strong workforce. Evans says they realize the need to pool resources to help train and prepare the local workforce for the technical job skills some of these companies will require.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time with what we call Align Maury,” Evans explains. “It’s our workforce program where we’ve brought together the education partners, the technical colleges and community colleges, and employers in the county to figure out what we can do to fill those gaps and really develop some strategies to help the employers find the workforce they need.”
It's an exciting time for Maury County, and Evans says he and his staff are currently working on the plan for the next five years. The goal is to embrace growth but maintain a balance.
"We know we're growing, but how can we grow responsible, and how can we make sure the entire community's input is sought in determining where we want to go as a county in the future.
That skill set has come in handy in his efforts to help promote and develop Columbia. It’s been rewarding to see the growth so far, while continuing to build for the future.
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meet local leaders
A Passion for Preservation and History
By Jason Zasky
As the owner and chairman of the board for Columbia-based WireMasters, Inc., David Hill has long been a fixture in the local business community. But in the past 15 years, he’s also been pursuing his passion for preserving the history of Columbia and Maury County.
Most notably, Hill and his wife currently own three historic properties in Columbia, namely: the Mayes-Hatcher house; the Skipwith-Harlan home; and The Depot at Union Station.
The first of his purchases was the Mayes-Hatcher house—aka Mayes Manor—in November 2007, which was built by Samuel Fulton Mayes on the eve of the Civil War.
“I was in Florida considering retirement, and upon returning home, I learned that the Mayes House (in Columbia’s historic district of West 6th St.) was going to be sold at auction two days later,” recalls Hill. Long story short, Hill paid $480,000 for the property, “which everybody thought was crazy,” because the home was a “total mess,” as he puts it.
“The house was basically used as a warehouse from 1968-2007, and the roof was leaking, and the plaster was falling in, and the chandeliers were gone,” relates Hill, “so I restored it back to its glory. Now, if you go inside, you think you’re going into a museum. All the furnishings are to the period when it was built.”
Similarly, the Skipwith home—which was built circa 1811 for Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Greene’s daughter and her husband—was dilapidated and in danger of falling down.
“When I bought Skipwith in 2011, it had been on the market for at least three years. If I hadn’t purchased it, the house wouldn’t have lasted three or four more years,” opines Hill, before adding that he did a “complete restoration” and “got it out of the situation it was in.”
Last but certainly not least, Hill went on to purchase Union Station, which opened on Nov. 13, 1903, and
was used for passenger travel until 1966 and freight traffic through 1982.
“It was brought to my attention that it was on the Top 10 list of the most endangered historic properties in the state of Tennessee,” says Hill, which motivated him to purchase it and begin searching for the materials needed to restore the building to what he describes as “better than new” condition. That included a trip to East Tennessee, where Tennessee pink marble is quarried.
“(The Depot) had been totally stripped of every beautiful aspect that was once there. All the doors were off the hinges, and all the glass was broken. All the plaster was coming off. It was a complete restoration, and no expense was spared in doing it right. I tell people now that’s it’s better than it ever was, and it really is,” says Hill, before noting that the station now has marble baseboards and marble dividers in the bathrooms, like it did in the distant past.
But Hill’s interest in preserving history isn’t limited to architecture.
He also has three authentic log cabins (built in the 1820s-30s) that he moved to his farm, which also happens to be home to a small herd of Buffalo.
“They are beautiful to see—majestic animals—and fit in with my love for American history,” says Hill, who values the idea of “preserving history for the people who come after me. After I’m gone, these things will hopefully be around for a long time.”
And while The Depot and the above-referenced homes aren’t open to the public, tours are available from time to time. For instance, the Skipwith-Harlan-Hill house will be on the Maury Home Christmas Tour this year.
“We finished the restoration of The Depot in 2014, and it’s been on the Maury Home Christmas Tour at least twice,” says Hill, before revealing that there’s a third-floor conference room that Wiremasters uses for executive meetings.
“I’ve always said that WireMasters is one of the best-kept secrets in Maury County. A lot of people don’t even know we’re here,” offers Hill, despite the fact that the company has grown exponentially since he got his start in the warehouse when the operation was just three years old.
“The company was small when I purchased it,” notes Hill. “It had 11 employees and was doing about $9 million in annual sales with one location. Now we have 14 locations in three countries, and we employ over 400 people globally and are knocking on the door of $300 million annually.”
That said, Hill’s philosophy about hiring—and who to hire—hasn’t changed in the intervening years.
“I enjoy helping people to try and get ahead, and we should share our blessings because if we do that, everybody wins,” he begins, emphasizing how WireMasters is always looking to hire.
“We love to hire local people and people we know in the community,” he concludes. “It’s all about commitment. I believe if you really commit to something, you’ll be successful.”
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If you have a great story ideas let us know! Send your ideas to jbryant@wilcolocal.com
For more information about WireMasters
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