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Behind the Headlines Podcast · WKNO/The Daily Memphian

1618: Millington leaders talk Navy Road comeback, big-box growth

·32 min·2 clips
Millington is “an engine of growth for Shelby County and West Tennessee,” with 6,500 to 7,500 Naval Base employees daily.
The episode centers on growth and development in Millington. Eric Barnes opens with Chris Thomas, Frankie Dakin, and Bill Dries at the table. The conversation stays on how the city handles development and what it can realistically support. Thomas brings the chamber perspective, and Dakin speaks from the city-manager side about infrastructure and capacity. Barnes keeps pressing on what comes next, while Dries adds reporting context around the changes. The discussion keeps circling infrastructure. It also keeps circling authority and who is actually responsible for making growth work. Shelby County's federal intervention enters the frame as part of the wider local picture. Dakin says Millington has not seen crime bleed over, though the guests leave open the possibility of future action by the Memphis Safe Task Force. The county clerk dispute with Wanda Halbert comes up, along with 201 Poplar and the argument that nonviolent misdemeanors should not be held there. Mental-health diversion is part of that concern. The panel closes by warning that making more local offices partisan, including school boards, could be disastrous for a community like Millington.

As heard by us

A local-growth conversation that keeps asking who pays, who decides, and what changes next.

Millington's growth story is handled as a practical civic question, not a pep rally. Behind the Headlines brings together the Millington Chamber of Commerce and the city manager to talk through development in Millington, and it keeps circling back to infrastructure,…

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Why you'd press play

You want a Millington growth-and-development chat with infrastructure worries and county politics in the mix.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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