Small Town Turned Big: Behind the Scenes of Hernando’s Rapid Development

Hernando is known to be a fairly small city, but in these past few years, there have been several big changes. In the past few years, Hernando opened a Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and most recently a Whataburger. All these popular places, not to mention the new High School being built, have citizens asking, “What will Hernando add next”. Mayor Chip Johnson has the answers to Hernando residents’ burning questions.

One of the biggest issues for residents is the tight drive underneath the bridge on Commerce Street. This has been a problem for Hernando citizens for years. Mayor Johnson stated he is aware of the “Hernando squeeze” and is trying to come up with a plan to widen it. Unfortunately, expanding the road will cost 40 million dollars, which is Hernando’s entire budget. Not wanting to close Hernando for an entire year, he’s devised an alternate plan.

He said he plans on, “taking our exit out of phase three and making it its [own] project so we don’t have to wait twelve years.” The original plan was to widen the interstate from Goodman Road to Hernando. The county separated it into three phases, making Southaven first. The project would take up to 12 years to reach Hernando. Instead, Johnson wants to take the exit ramp in Hernando out of the Desoto County project and make it its own project. Although this plan would still take four years, it’s his best solution. Once the idea is passed by all the board members, the city will go ahead and start designing and working to get the road issues resolved.

In the past few years, there have been rumors circulating about Chick-fil-A coming to Hernando, but it has yet to happen.

“Chic-Fil-A wants to be here, but there’s no lots on Commerce,” Johnson explained. Chick-fil-A originally planned to move into the building where Goodwill is currently located, but Goodwill did not want to give up their real estate. Johnson continued by stating that Chic-Fil-A will most likely move in near the new high school when it is finished being built. Although they are still waiting for the traffic count near the new school to go up before they make any definite plans.

Hernando wouldn’t have all these new places without the population almost doubling in recent years. In 2005, when Mayor Johnson started his first term as mayor, the population was roughly 10,562 people. Since then, the population has grown by 8,004 people. Before this year, Hernando hasn’t had enough people living in city limits to justify opening some of these businesses. With the population continuing to grow, the city will continue to build more houses and restaurants.

Mayor Johnson told The Golden Report, “Our growth is about to explode, we just think we’ve grown [so far, but] it’s about to get strong.” With the new school that’s coming, there is a great chance that people from all over will want to move to put their kids in the new school.

Within a small town, there are bound to be questions and sometimes even criticism circulating amongst residents. During Mayor Johnson’s first term, the popular Facebook group, “Hernando Happenings”, did not exist. However, with the changing times, people are now more vocal than ever through the use of social media. Every day, new issues are being presented on the Facebook page. Although he has to deal with daily criticism on the page, he states it does not affect his decision-making. However, he does try to be available to the members if they have questions or concerns. If he gets tagged in a post, usually, he will leave his phone number for the member to contact him personally about the issue.

Hernando has changed tremendously in the past few years with everything from population to real estate. Mayor Johnson ensures to keep working hard to grow the city in the best ways possible.