Governor's Square Mall

Several men enter the mall, moving quickly towards the mall office. A suspicious activity call goes out to the police department. The intruders pull weapons from under their clothing. One a pistol another a shotgun. Gunshots ring out sounding unbelievably loud in the confined space. People panic, some hide while others attempt to flee! 35 people are killed or injured. Several minutes later the police start to arrive. After organizing they enter the mall as a mass with guns drawn. They find a scene of carnage and chaos. The less severely injured, some in shock have started to try to make their way from the mall. Officers order everyone to the floor, they have no way of knowing who is a victim and who may be a perpetrator. Some of the officers are left to manage the survivors while the rest continue their sweep. Bodies are strewn everywhere. Two explosives device are found! The bomb squad is called out. A suspect is located in the mall office. Negotiations begin…

One of the gunmen (in black) shoots a Mall Patron

Over 200 local emergency responders, Gateway Medical Center personnel, and volunteers took part in a full-scale crisis response training exercise at Governor’s Square Mall this morning. The exercise was set up for a scenario involving “Black Friday” at the Mall. This allowed for a unique opportunity for many agencies to interact that don’t operate together on a routine basis. The training exercise was successful in identifying ways to improve procedural and operational methods during a critical incident response.

This multi-agency drill was the first of it’s kind held in Montgomery County, but will most likely not be the last. The Drill involved the particpation of the Clarksville Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department and Bomb squad, the Clarksville Fire Department, Governors Square Mall Security, TEMA, The Department of Homeland Security, Montgomery County EMS, First Call Ambulance Service, and the staff of Gateway Medical Center among others. Evaluators from organizations across several different states also participated.

The Exercise was suggested by Governors Square Mall management who loaned their facility to the City and County to serve as the location for the drill.

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The investigation is ongoing and there is no further information to release at this time.  The lead investigator is Detective Tim Anderson, 931-648-0656, ext. 4003 or call the TIPSLINE, 931-645-8477.

Qualifications for Staff Chaplain

• Experience in Ministry – addressing the needs of persons dealing with illness, death and dying, grief and loss
• Denominational ordination, endorsement, or certification
• Theological Education – A bachelor’s degree and Master of Divinity or its equivalent is preferred.  Other educational backgrounds will be given consideration in view of the broader range of qualifications.
• Demonstrated ability to minister effectively in the context – this is the overarching criterion by which all applicants will be considered, regardless of their particular formal education, training or experience.  It is essential that persons in this role be able to relate appropriately and effectively to our patients, family members and medical staff in providing pastoral care.

The Staff Chaplain position of Gateway Medical Center will be a contract position, therefore no benefits will be offered.  This position is recognized as exempt and will be paid as such.

Those interested in the position should submit a resume and letter of interest to:

Sandy Wooten, Director of Volunteers
Gateway Medical Center
P.O. Box 31629, Clarksville, TN 37040

Please submit resume and letter of interest no later than May 8th.  Resumes may be hand delivered (addressed to Sandy Wooten), but do not come to the Medical Center with the expectation of discussing the position. Resumes will be reviewed by the Pastoral Care Committee of Gateway Medical Center and they will conduct the interviews.  Details of the position will be discussed then. Gateway Medical Center hopes to fill the contact position by June 1 but will delay if applicants do not meet the requirements of the Pastoral Care Committee.

Once selected, the Staff Chaplain will complete an orientation including TB skin test and drug screen, background check, safety, and a confidentiality review.

For more information

If you need more information you can contact:

Sandy Wooten, CAVS/CDVS | Director of Volunteers | Gateway Medical Center
651 Dunlop Lane | Clarksville, TN 37040

The charges arose from an incident on January 9, when at approximately 6:38 p.m. officers responded to a 911 call where a subject that referred to himself as Tim Atnip stated that he had shot his wife. The caller also stated that his wife was lying on the floor bleeding very badly and he had put the gun down. 

Police Officers arrived at 243 Collier Road and found the victim, Yon Atnip, 53, lying on the floor bleeding. Timothy Dale Atnip was also at the residence. Timothy Dale Atnip made several spontaneous statements that he had shot his wife. Yon Atnip was transported to Gateway Medical Center then transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to be treated for a gunshot wound.  The latest status available on Yon  Atnip was that she is in critical condition.

Timothy Dale Atnip was taken into custody and booked into Montgomery County Jail.

The investigation is ongoing and the Lead Investigator is Detective Tim Anderson, 931-648-0656, ext 4003.

The City Council Transportation Committee will meet August 25 at at 4:00 p.m. in the City Hall Conference Room One Public Square, 4th Floor, to review adjustments made by CTS to the original budget including fare increases and route changes.

An August 11th Public hearing provided opportunity for give and take in confronting higher fuel costs and demands of public transportation needs. Citizens voiced their concerns and found sympathetic officials willing to hear them.

The Clarksville Transit System public hearing August 11 at the Public Library lwas a bright example of citizen outreach being given a receptive audience by public officials. The meeting was attended by about 50 CTS riders and supporters. Able-bodied and mobility-impaired alike were well represented in the attending gathering.

CTS Director Jimmy Smith (at right) chaired the meeting, which opened with discussion of the proposed new fare structure. Additionally, CTS staff members Arthur Bing-Operations Manager, Linda Travis-Operations Supervisor, and Elizabeth Black-Administrative Assistant were present, assisting Smith in answering questions during the course of the meeting. In opening, Smith noted that Nashville and Chattanooga have both eliminated the ride transfer ticket option due to higher operating costs. Since the introduction of its Day Pass, CTS has seen its own transfer purchases decline from twenty-eight percent to fifteen percent of daily revenue intake.

Fare Increases and Founding Sources

Review of the strong prior public response in the media and to the CTS administration itself about the proposed elimination of transfers has resulted in a rethink of that idea. Instead, an modest overall general fare increase has now been structured into the rate schedule. This option retains the transfer provision and was warmly received by the public. The restructure allows CTS to increase its revenue stream to offset the higher fuel expense it has suffered and still provide the publicly favored transfer ticket. Riders will see a fare increase but will not be hit with a doubling of their daily transportation costs as had been originally proposed.

Smith told the gathering that he favors and has advocated for a free public transit system but that simply is not in the cards. Smith said that with its population size, Clarksville has a 115 square mile transit serviceable area. CTS is operating 14 buses to service that area. Chattanooga has 128 square miles and runs 42 buses with its public transit system. Chattanooga has a higher population density than Clarksville and that, along with its larger population, gives it some advantages over us. Smith told the group that the city council, even in this tight budget year, had increased funding to CTS by forty-nine percent over last year’s level. That additional $31,000 will allow CTS to purchase an additional bus to augment its rolling inventory. With the growth development along the Northeast/Tiny Town Road corridor and the new hospital on Dunlop Lane, ridership demands have increased and are only likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Citizens asked about increased funding sources, such as TDOT and the federal government. Smith responded that these entities had actually reduced their funding for mass transit support. With all the current talk about seeking fuel independence and increased fuel economy, there has been no mention of increased funding for public transportation in the public clamor and debate. Director Smith noted that, “public transportation is very green!”

Unlike Chattanooga, Clarksville does not have an advocate fighting for it in the halls of Washington D.C. Appeals to federal representatives could be very influential in garnering a stronger voice for more funding support for mass transit in Clarksville. State government representatives could also be prevailed upon to support increased funding for our community. Politicians pay attention to voters, not other lower level public officials. The riding public can greatly influence these officials to work to increase and support public transportation funding for our community. By contacting elected federal and state officials and expressing your concerns, “aggressive” voters have clount.

Service Areas Questioned

Questions about extending service into the county were raised. Essentially, the focus is to achieve a more complete level of service within the city boundaries before looking to county expansion. With limited dollars and restricted revenue sources, CTS must focus on city residents transportation needs as its first priority. Smith said that CTS needs to put more buses on the roads to properly meet the demands of the public. Sunday service and night service past nine o’clock are long-term goals of the system. However funding levels must grow dramatically before such options can become reality.

The continued growth of the city means CTS must continually re-evaluate its operational structure. The city’s growth alters demands for its services. Bus service to the industrial park area has not proven to be a self-sustaining service operation. Several efforts have been tried but faced the same dilemma: once the ridership had secured a few paychecks via the bus service, they invariably brought their own personal transportation and abandoned the bus service. Firms in the industrial park,with their spacious parking lots, were not interested in providing a shuttle service to rendezvous with workers departing a CTS bus at the park entrance as a way to encourage public transit usage by their employees. The fact that the various industries do not have synchronized shifts further frustrated the concept of bus service to the park area. CTS is aware that minimum-wage workers need transportation beyond the start of the second shift and on Sundays. However it currently has no provisions within its means to address those needs.

New Routes

CTS has recently introduced bus service to the Gateway Medical Center on Dunlop Lane. It has detailed three buses to cover the route. The increased bus coverage was necessary because the route, which originally serviced the Governors Square Mall and eastern Wilma Rudolph Boulevard, has gone from a sixty minute run time to ninety minutes. Additionally, the Fort Campbell Boulevard route has been expanded to service the Great Escape/Northeast/Tiny Town Road corridor of the city. This service was achieved with the elimination of service to the Oak Grove Wal-Mart Center. Smith informed the citizens that while CTS does receive federal funds to provide service in Kentucky, that service is designated for Fort Campbell. The city of Oak Grove has never provided any funding to CTS to support the bus service in its community. Additionally, ridership from Durrett Plaza to the Supercenter was poor, despite the tax break offered by Kentucky’s lower rate of sales tax. The new Tiny Town Road-Great Escape route was developed due to high demand response to CTS surveys.

Starting in September, CTS will provide the APSU campus with a student trolley transit service. The service will operate weekdays from 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM. In addition, APSU students will be able to ride off-campus CTS buses free through a contracting arrangement by the Student Government Association and CTS. Students, faculty and staff will present a special APSU pass to be able to use the services. APSU and CTS have signed a contract with an agreed price tag to cover the proposed costs of the service. Non-APSU personnel may ride the trolley at regular CTS fares.

CTS' Legion Street Transfer Center

Questions were asked about rumors of relocation of the transer center, currently on Legion Street. Smith admitted that there has been some discussion of that possibility. The Legion Street has grown too congested with the number of buses CTS now runs. A larger space will be necessary in the foreseeable future. Possible relocation sites are under study for development in the future. However, there are no plans to change the base operations center at this time.

The revisions garnered from the public hearing and comments submitted earlier will become part of a final presentation to the City Council Transportation Committee for approval. The public is invited to attend the committee meeting, which meets on the third Tuesday of the month. Smith said, that barring any further delays, approved changes should be effective by September 2nd.

Proposed Fare Schedule

Gateway’s new “waiting room”

To provide for a safe and efficient transfer of patients, incoming traffic to the new facility will be kept to a minimum in order to make the patient-move process as smooth as possible. Patient family members will be instructed on how to enter the new hospital property.

Other important changes:

The Emergency Department at the Madison Street location will permanently close at 6 a.m. on June 7.

The new Emergency Department at 651 Dunlop Lane will open at 6 a.m. on June 7.

These former off-site services will open at the new GMC on Monday, June 9:

• Gateway Outpatient Rehabilitation
• Business Office
• Breast Health Center

New phone numbers effective June 7:
Main — 931-502-1000
Emergency Department — 931-502-1300
Patient Information — 931-502-1010
Breast Health Center — 931-502-1510
Business Office — 931-502-1160
Human Resources — 931-502-1016
Family Birth Center — 931-502-3300
Occupational Health — 931-502-1181
Outpatient Rehabilitation — 931-502-1400
Preregistration — 931-502-1161, 1162
Medical Records — 931-502-1961
Scheduling (outpatient testing) — 931-502-1180
Sleep Disorders Center — 931-502-4090
Volunteer Services — 931-502-1055

The public will have the opportunity to view the new Gateway Medical Center at 615 Dunlop Lane in St. Bethlehem on Sunday when the facility hosts a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and Open House at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 18. Tours of the facility will be available from 1-4 p.m..

The new $200 million facility will include 128 private rooms and 65 semi-private rooms, accommodating 258 patients, exclusive of emergency room patients. The new emergency room is double the size of that at the old Madison Street Hospital with state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment.

Visitors will have the opportunity to view patient-friendly labor and delivery rooms, the new neo-natal intensive care unit, and all the departments that will begin serving the greater Clarksville community on June 7.

The new Gateway Hospital facility was designed by the Gould Turner Group, P.C. (GTG), a Nashville-based full-service architectural, planning, and interior design firm.

A new Gateway “family waiting room”

One of the new Women’s Center labor and delivery rooms

My family lived 1400 miles away in Tennessee, and my mom was in the first stages of Alzheimer’s. I was alone, but for a few friends who tried to visit me, a county away, when they were not working. I was just far enough away to be inconvenient and difficult to get to.

It was the kindness of people just like Ella Mae Arnold, a “fired” Gateway Hospital employee of 30 years standing, who made a difference, kept me sane. Ella Mae Arnold, the face of Gateway’s front desk services, having toured the new Gateway Hospital (at left) and viewing the area in which she expected to work, was fired, a move that has left her distraught, her world turned topsy-turvy. Ella Mae was a breathe of humanity, someone real to connect with, even for a moment, when events unfold that are frightening, foreign, and overwhelming.

On my third day of immobility, an elderly woman entered my room and said she’d heard I was “by myself.” This stranger sat and talked with me, and began a ritual of dropping in for a minute in the morning but coming back every afternoon for an hour or more to chat, read the headlines to me from the local paper that I could not hold up and read myself. This stranger was the face of humanity, empathy, kindness that made a difference.

When I was well enough to be transferred to a rehabilitation nursing facility, facing the arduous task of learning to put one foot in front of the other again and climb stairs, I was blessed a second time: a roommate close to my age, also there for physical rehab and not the ravages of aging sans grace, with a boisterous family who “adopted me.” They were my Ella Mae’s.

I was blessed with several nurses who took the time and trouble to position us in the last room at the end of the hall, a hall with double French doors and a view of rolling pastures and Morgan horses, a place where my roommate and I eventually could have our meals privately, away from the chaos that was the dining facility. Another kind nurse worked with me after hours with holistic treatments that made a significant difference in my recovery. They were my Ella Mae’s.

“Friendly Visitors” in the form of staff, off duty employees, and strangers with heart found me, visited, and a chaplain stepped in to arranged for someone to subtly check on my mom, who was lost in the chaos of that time. They were my Ella Mae’s.

When I learned of Ella Mae’s termination (and showing someone where they will work and then terminating them is the height of insensitivity and callousness), I could not help but think that while business is business, and while medicine is big business, the business of health care is also about heart, and Gateway is not showing any. Are they so caught up in financial organization that they missed the fact that what people are paying for via insurance is “care?”

I wonder if after 30 years the lovely Ella Mae was too expensive or, at 73, too old to be considered a viable employee.

She was a front desk “fixture,” familiar to many, always going the extra mile for the staff and the pubic she served. She is one of 28 people who are now jobless in the advent of the great Gateway move.

The truth is that people like Ella Mae are the first face many see at the most stressful of times. The kindness, patience, understanding and gentle wisdom, the people skills acquired over a lifetime, coalesce in the form of assisting others with refined abilities and a warm smile. You won’t find that in an “unseasoned” person.

I am curious to see who does staff that front desk position, and if that person has an Ella Mae “heart” or is simply an automaton that checks off paperwork and shuffles people with bureaucratic efficiency. Because it does make a difference.

The 21st century has seen some wonderful changes in the way business is conducted in Clarksville, including some refreshing progress in settling some old baggage. Specifically, the City Council approved settlements for the lawsuits filed by Kenny Austion and Tony Blakely.

The Clarksville Police Department has long been struggling with the multiple lawsuits that have been filed against them. No one could say “there’s not a problem,” after the City started losing these suits, one by one. Action was needed. Thankfully, action has been taken.

Further, this isn’t the only area where we’ve seen progress in Clarksville. No matter what one’s opinion is regarding the current or previous mayoral administration might be, it’s clear that things are beginning to change. Clarksville is growing up, and we’re starting to see some much-needed progress in several areas in town. To be fair, I don’t think any one mayoral administration can lay claim to most of these projects, since they’re often the result of years of planning:

• Trenton Road at Exit 1 is being improved and widened. The intersection of Trenton Road and Tiny Town Road is getting some much-needed improvement. This has been a long time coming, and those of us who live in the area are anxious to get the project finished. It’s anyone’s guess as to when the rest of Trenton Road will be widened (from Northeast High School to Wilma Rudolph Blvd.).
• CDE is installing fiber optic lines throughout town. The high-speed internet (100 megabytes per second capability) and telecommunications system will be a boon for the entire city.
• Peacher’s Mill Road will be widened with 4-foot sidewalks on both sides. The “meandering sidewalk” idea was nice, but not very practical. With this new plan, the city will save almost three-quarters of a million dollars.
• Dunlap Lane improvements will be cost-effective. Mayor Piper had hoped to have underground utilities in the area surrounding the new Gateway Medical Center, but the savings will help the city in the long run.
• Hilldale “Midtown” designation: Alumni from Leadership Clarksville’s latest class have been hard at work to revitalize the area surrounding the existing Gateway building. Their work has been to be proactive (imagine that) to restore the area long before the hospital even moves. Kudos to Jimmy Mann and others who have been working diligently on this project.
• Downtown revitalization: In the last two or three years, there have been literally hundreds of new apartments and condominiums under construction. The largest of which is the University Landing apartments built primarily for APSU students. There are new condominiums on Main Streetand new apartments and condos being built near the Smith-Trahern mansion.
• 101st Airborne Division is currently in the midst of a major widening project (in case anyone in Montgomery County lives under a rock). This project will also lead to the eventual widening of Warfield Blvd and Richview Road.

This is just scratching the surface of projects in development in Clarksville and the surrounding areas. This is all progress, and every step of the way, we’re getting closer to becoming a stronger community. This leads me to ask the one question that seems to be on the tips of a few tongues around town: Is it time for consolidating the city and county governments into a metro government?

It’s certainly not a new idea. It was first proposed back in 1958, where it was rejected. It came up again a few years back, with voters in the city limits overwhelmingly approved the measure, while County residents rejected it. Having lived in both the City and the County, I can understand both points of view. County residents are very apprehensive about adding more taxes to their income, and aren’t convinced that the city services will be adequate for their needs.

A metro government would effectively combine all of the communities in Montgomery County into one consolidated government. As it is right now, the City has plans to move a little further east of I-24, but there are no plans to move south or west of the Cumberland River.

With the coming completion of the 101st Airborne Division Parkway loop that would extend from Dover Road to Highway 149, there will be much greater access to the south side of the county. This will open up the metro conversation even more, and I think maybe it’s time.

Thankfully, the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System has already been combined, so there’s not a lot of concern there. In fact, we can look to the CMCSS as a great example of how city and county residents can work with each other. Their years of success in integrating the school system shows that consolidated government can work.

There are any number of considerations that would have to be discussed before any viable plan would be offered:

• How would the police jurisdiction be handled?
• How would the governments be combined? Would there be a Mayor and a City Executive?
• How would gas and water services be expanded?
• Would CDE and CEMC merge? How would they work together in transition? Or would CDE buy out the Montgomery County CEMC customers?
• Would sewer services be expanded to County residents?
• How would the City Council be redrawn? Would there still be 12 members?
• How would the judicial system be adjusted? Currently, we have three General Sessions/Juvenile court divisions and one part-time city court. Clearly, this would need some serious discussion.
• The Montgomery County Highway Department and the Clarksville Street department would have to be merged. How could this be done effectively?
• Would there be a revamped sign ordinance? Our existing ordinances are outdated and have resulted in an extremely gaudy crowd of signs, especially near the Mall. I’d talk about how irritating those animated signs are just plain ugly, but that’s another article.
• Would growth be managed?
• How would county residents benefit from consolidation? There are still people in the St. Bethlehem area who have not received sewer service, even more than 20 years after the area was annexed.
• Would the fiber optic network be moved into the county as well?

These are but a few of the considerations we’d have to mull before taking the plunge into a metro government, but I am absolutely convinced that the time to start those discussions is now.

Our city’s future just may well depend on it.