Five weeks ago Nolensville hired Ken McLawhon as its first ever town administrator, and at a special event on Thursday, about 60 people showed up to meet and have lunch with the man who is helping to shape the future of one of Williamson County’s fastest growing communities.
McLawhon was chosen from a pool of 78 applicants that came in from across the country. He officially started his position as town administrator on January 5, and wanted to hold the lunch event to hear some feedback from the people of Nolensville.
The town administrator position was created by the town of Nolesnville last year with the intent for the position to have responsibility for “enforcing all ordinances and regulations, implementing new and more efficient methods of operations and making recommendations for improving the quality and quantity of public services, among other items,” according to the bio handed out by the Williamson Chamber.
McLawhon has worked in government for over three decades, most recently being the town manager for the small, 4.2 square mile town of Warrington, Virginia, which has about 10,000 citizens in an upscale suburban setting. McLawhon managed day to day government operations for the historic town. He drew some similarities between the two towns, but also talked about how towns across Williamson County do a good job of working together.
“In Warrington we built a $25 million recreation complex,” McLawhon said. “We did it solo. We tried to create a recreation authority. We tried to get the town, the county and other stakeholders not to replicate or duplicate departments, but ultimately we had to end up creating our own rec department. And when you can avoid doing those things, there’s value added to the synergistic partnerships, and it benefits everybody.”
When asked how he sees commercial growth in Nolensville, McLawhon cited the land use map in saying that both that urban development areas on the north and south sides of town are areas that can be “tweaked and modified” to meet their potential. He also said that he has heard from multiple community members that they want a grocery store, and that he found the potential for growth in the area very attractive when applying for the position.
“It’s not just growth, but the right kind of growth. It’s a beautiful community, still pristine, still some green view sheds and I think those are some things people care about as well. So it’s sort of balancing all of that and trying to make a good thing even better. There’s potential everywhere you look,” McLawhon said.
Questions from the audience included concerns about senior housing, the business and historic district, as well as meeting transportation needs as growth happens.
“A healthy community has variety,” McLawhon said. “There are always a lot of different perspectives on how those things should develop, but I think we’re fortunate in Nolensville we have a great design committee. A lot of it depends on how the community feels about these things.”
The Williamson Chamber’s Nolensville Business Council put on the event, and said this crowd of 60 was a record breaking crowd for their Nolensville events. The event was held in Providence Baptist Church, and lunch was provided by Martin’s Bar-B-Que.
