La Vergne, Tennessee

6 7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 PREFERRED VENDORS/PARTNERS n Wascon, Inc. www.wasconinc.com utilizing their inline hockey, football, and baseball facilities. “There are events running all throughout the year,” Broeker says. “Our parks and recreation department does an excellent job. I don’t think you can go a weekend or two without something else that they are providing.” When there aren’t events going on, La Vergne still has much to do when it comes to recreational opportunities. The city sits along the 14,000-acre Percy Priest Lake, which offers opportunities for fishing and boating. Then there’s the aforementioned Veteran’s Memorial Park, which is the city’s largest park. It recently received a $200,000 upgrade to its playground space. It also has a recently renovated basketball, tennis, and pickleball courts, skateboarding, a walking trail, pavilions, and “probably the finest baseball fields in the country,” according to Cole. As the city continues to grow, residents and visitors alike can expect to see even more from La Vergne. While the city doesn’t currently have a typical downtown city center area, plans are in the early stages to remedy that. “We certainly have some visions,” Broeker says. “It would be along Murfreesboro Road because of the amount of land and where we see the interest is from retailers from business and where people want to do multifamily. It runs adjacent to our park and we feel that would be the most desirable for the future.” While La Vergne was incorporated as a city in 1972, its roots go back to the late 1870’s, so there is some history there. Taking care to preserve that history while allowing for growth is something La Vergne is taking seriously. “This area certainly has its share of history whether it be Civil War battles and so on,” Broeker recounts. “We sit along the Trail of Tears so there is some great history here and we are going to try and preserve that, but at the same time, moving forward and developing what most LA VERGNE , TENNESSEE towns have as a city center or a place where people can say ‘Hey, that’s La Vergne.” As La Vergne heads towards the future and its continuing growth, Cole says his number one goal is to see more retail and additional development. “We need both to attract new retail,” he says. “Our residents are clamoring for sit-down restaurants and at the same time we want to help our existing businesses grow and expand. “The other big item that we have is our infrastructure. We need to make sure that we are not just maintaining our infrastructure, but keeping pace with the growth of our city and our population to provide services that our residents need and expect.” Thomas Broeker, Economic Development Director Jason Cole, Mayor