Lawrenceburg area (Loretto, Huntsville, Ethridge: fit in, power lines, insurance)

[MomsTn]

Ok, we decided to switch areas.
Instead of moving to Northern middle Tennessee, we'll be moving to Southern middle Tennessee. To the Lawrenceburg area. Perhaps living in Lawrenceburg, Ethridge or Loretto.

Does anyone have any personal insight about the area?
How about pictures? I've checked all over the forum, and can't seem to find any.

I think I've exhausted about all of my google searches for information.

What I have found out so far.
Lawrenceburg has a population of around 10,000, the county of Lawrence is around 40,000.

Ethridge is an Amish community of around 500, with one elementary school, grades 1 through 8.
Lawrenceburg has dsl, while Ethridge may not have it yet.
If they do, please let me know.

An interesting fact, Fred Thompson was born there, and went back to visit while he was still running for President.

I've downloaded the Lawrenceburg phone book, and they have everything that we are looking for.

The land and home prices are reasonable.

Anyone else have any personal experience with the area?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by MomsTn

Ok, we decided to switch areas.
Instead of moving to Northern middle Tennessee, we'll be moving to Southern middle Tennessee. To the Lawrenceburg area. Perhaps living in Lawrenceburg, Ethridge or Loretto.

Does anyone have any personal insight about the area?
How about pictures? I've checked all over the forum, and can't seem to find any.

I think I've exhausted about all of my google searches for information.

What I have found out so far.
Lawrenceburg has a population of around 10,000, the county of Lawrence is around 40,000.

Ethridge is an Amish community of around 500, with one elementary school, grades 1 through 8.
Lawrenceburg has dsl, while Ethridge may not have it yet.
If they do, please let me know.

An interesting fact, Fred Thompson was born there, and went back to visit while he was still running for President.

I've downloaded the Lawrenceburg phone book, and they have everything that we are looking for.

The land and home prices are reasonable.

Anyone else have any personal experience with the area?

I hope you're not making your decision just from what you've seen in the phone book.

Lawrenceburg is in a beautiful area, but the economy there is pretty lousy. A couple of large factories have closed there leaving Lawrence County with an unemployment rate approaching 9%. The area has been hit hard economically and is too far from Nashville and Huntsville to commute.

If you don't need to find a job, then go for it. Otherwise, you might have a hard time.

Good luck!

[MomsTn]

Originally Posted by JMT

I hope you're not making your decision just from what you've seen in the phone book.

Lawrenceburg is in a beautiful area, but the economy there is pretty lousy. A couple of large factories have closed there leaving Lawrence County with an unemployment rate approaching 9%. The area has been hit hard economically and is too far from Nashville and Huntsville to commute.

If you don't need to find a job, then go for it. Otherwise, you might have a hard time.

Good luck!

Oh, no. We don't have to worry about jobs.
My husband can retire next year if he wants to.
He may want to get a part time job, but it wouldn't be anything big.

I'm a transcriptionist, so, I can go anywhere in the country since my job is totally provided through the internet.
I know that Lawrenceburg has dsl, so, I'm not worried about the internet connection.

The phone book from that area shows me that what we basically need is there.
It shows restaurants, feed stores, plant nurseries, a medical center, they have a Walmart, and a J.C. Penney, more Mom/Pop stores, a community theatre, movie theater, banks, my insurance company, and much much more.

You see, we want to get away from large populated areas.
My daughter is a singer, so we want to be close enough to get to Nashville within a two hour time frame, if we have to.
Our daughter is 8, and she also does theatre.
She just finished a run in Sound of Music as Gretl, at a community theatre here.
Lawrenceburg has a community theatre, also there is a community theatre not too far away in Alabama.

When I looked at the statistics and saw that the area had gone down in population that was exciting.
Why? Because that means it won't be rapidly changing.
The area we live in right now has doubled in population in the last 10 years.

I'd like to drive down to the area and see it this year.
I have looked everywhere for pictures, but have only found a few.
I've also watched the youtube video's when Fred was there.
All I can see is mainly the downtown area of Lawrenceburg.

I'd like to see some of the scenery.
I did find a blog of a trip through the area and the two pictures that I did see showed some of the area.

Before we moved here, we lived in a country area with acreage and animals.
We want to get back to that.

I don't need Starbucks, and malls, and traffic, and noise.
I want quiet and country, and country smells, yes, even cows.
Having an Amish community nearby is a plus.
No, I'm not Amish or Mennonite, but I do realize that the pace will be a little slower living near that community.
Something that we are so craving.

So, basically thank you for your input, it has strengthened more of my reasoning for moving to that area.

[eulalie]

The Amish are leaving. They've never been welcome here. The people really resent them. They make a lot of money from tourists and they don't pay wheel taxes & things like that. They aren't that quaint. They shop at junk stores, and Wal-mart, and they eat at McDonald's. The only way you know an Amish farmhouse is because it doesn't have light poles & power lines running to it. It is not some 18th century village, or anything like it.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by MomsTn

Ok, we decided to switch areas.
Instead of moving to Northern middle Tennessee, we'll be moving to Southern middle Tennessee. To the Lawrenceburg area. Perhaps living in Lawrenceburg, Ethridge or Loretto.

Does anyone have any personal insight about the area?
How about pictures? I've checked all over the forum, and can't seem to find any.

I think I've exhausted about all of my google searches for information.

What I have found out so far.
Lawrenceburg has a population of around 10,000, the county of Lawrence is around 40,000.

Ethridge is an Amish community of around 500, with one elementary school, grades 1 through 8.
Lawrenceburg has dsl, while Ethridge may not have it yet.
If they do, please let me know.

An interesting fact, Fred Thompson was born there, and went back to visit while he was still running for President.

I've downloaded the Lawrenceburg phone book, and they have everything that we are looking for.

The land and home prices are reasonable.

Anyone else have any personal experience with the area?

I'm kind of surprised you didn't ask about the area's tornado activity (they had an F-5 in 1998) and other weather issues. Their tornado activity is above the state average and 122% higher than the national average. They've recently had a major weather-related incident.

Here's the most recent activity:

FOXNews.com - Tornadoes Reported in Tennessee as Line of Thunderstorms Sweeps Through - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

And here's the story about the worst one:

The Forgotten F5-Lawrence County Tornado, April 16, 1998 - Lawrenceburg Tennessee

[MomsTn]

Didn't need to ask what I already knew.
That doesn't deter me from the area.

I live with tornadoes where I live now.
Here are some of the tallies from my county:

Date: Event Time Dead Injured scale
JUN 19, 1951 001 1900 1 9 F4
JUN 24, 1952 003 2000 0 9 F2
MAY 06, 1965 012 1906 3 175 F4
MAY 06, 1965 013 2040 0 0 F4
MAY 24, 1965 016 2130 0 0 F0
SEP 17, 1965 030 1645 0 0 F1
JLY 05, 1966 011 2000 0 3 F1
JLY 18, 1970 013 2035 0 2 F1
JLY 03, 1983 018 1205 0 4 F4
JUN 16, 1985 020 1625 0 0 F0
JLY 18, 1986 016 1551 0 0 F2
AUG 06, 1995 026 1607 0 0 F0

Here are some of the many tornadoes that have hit.

The St. Peter tornado of 1998
St. Peter Minnesota Tornado Photos by Eric Foss

The Benson tornado of 2001
http://www.aos.wisc.edu/uwaosjournal...CS_Kjernes.pdf


Northern Plains 2006
'Wicked' Tornadoes Hit Northern Plains, 1 Man Killed In Minnesota; Homes, Cars Damaged By Severe Weather In Several States - CBS News

Rogers 2006
Girl dies in Minnesota tornado - Weather - MSNBC.com

Nicollet 2006
August 24 2006 Nicollet County Minnesota Tornadoes

Nicollet 2007
August 24 2007 Nicollet MN tornado part 1 - AOL Video

We live with tornadoes every year.
We never know when the sirens are going to go off, how bad it is, or where it's going to hit.
A few years ago, we had one go through a few blocks from my house.
It went in a straight line, and knocked down over a hundred 50 + beautiful oaks, and elm trees.
The hail was the size of baseballs and larger.
The storm hit so fast.
We were watching a softball game, and it suddenly clouded up.
We only live less than a mile from the field.
We decided to go home.
Halfway home, we had to pull off the road. We couldn't see two feet in front of us.

We finally managed to inch our way home.
The storm didn't last long, but left a large area of destruction.
When the hail came down and started hitting our windshield, we thought it was going to come right through the glass.
Somehow it didn't.

Once a month, the sirens go off, on the first Wednesday to test the system.
Last week, the sirens went off suddenly. It was freaking everyone out. They had forgotten that it was severe weather prepardness week.

The area that I want to move to in Tennessee doesn't have even half the severe weather or tornadoes that we live with here.

Originally Posted by LauraC

I'm kind of surprised you didn't ask about the area's tornado activity (they had an F-5 in 1998) and other weather issues. Their tornado activity is above the state average and 122% higher than the national average. They've recently had a major weather-related incident.

Here's the most recent activity:

FOXNews.com - Tornadoes Reported in Tennessee as Line of Thunderstorms Sweeps Through - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

And here's the story about the worst one:

The Forgotten F5-Lawrence County Tornado, April 16, 1998 - Lawrenceburg Tennessee

[MomsTn]

Hmmmmmmm, you must not live near Ethridge.
The Amish there have made quite a contribution, and have improved the farmland tremendously.

I know people in the area that enjoy the peace and quiet.
As far as, the wheel tax. Why should they pay for something that they don't use? They drive horses and buggies for heavens sakes.

I shop at junk stores, you can find some pretty good bargains there.
I also eat at McDonalds, don't make a habit of it though.
Mainly it's a treat for my 9 year old.

Living without electricity. Well, you should go visit my grandma's house.
She didn't even have indoor plumbing until recently.
She lives in West Virginia.
She seemed to manage just fine.

Seems to me, that my family will do just fine living there.

Originally Posted by eulalie

The Amish are leaving. They've never been welcome here. The people really resent them. They make a lot of money from tourists and they don't pay wheel taxes & things like that. They aren't that quaint. They shop at junk stores, and Wal-mart, and they eat at McDonald's. The only way you know an Amish farmhouse is because it doesn't have light poles & power lines running to it. It is not some 18th century village, or anything like it.

[Beretta]

Let me quote out of our the TOS (Terms of Service):
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Please make sure that you debate the issues without making personal attacks.
Terms of Service - City-Data Forum

Back to your regularly scheduled posting.

[eulalie]

I live in lawrenceburg & have for 30 years. As for the amish paying wheel tax: they do use the roads. The city even widened the north road to make extra wide shoulders so their buggies would be out of the way of regular traffic. As for everything else you said, it doesn't make any sense. Are you saying you'd fit in with amish people because you buy second-hand and eat at fast food places? I was using that as an example to say that they are just people, not freaks from another century & they really aren't that much different, or quaint. They also don't speak to people, or have any association with the "english" unless you are buying something from them. Don't think you are going to move into some 18th century Mayberry, because it isn't like that at all.

Originally Posted by MomsTn

Hmmmmmmm, you must not live near Ethridge.
The Amish there have made quite a contribution, and have improved the farmland tremendously.

I know people in the area that enjoy the peace and quiet.
As far as, the wheel tax. Why should they pay for something that they don't use? They drive horses and buggies for heavens sakes.

I shop at junk stores, you can find some pretty good bargains there.
I also eat at McDonalds, don't make a habit of it though.
Mainly it's a treat for my 9 year old.

Living without electricity. Well, you should go visit my grandma's house.
She didn't even have indoor plumbing until recently.
She lives in West Virginia.
She seemed to manage just fine.

Seems to me, that my family will do just fine living there.

[eulalie]

Oh yes--the traffic, there is a good bit of it here. The town's population doubles+++ during weekdays because people commute here to work in the factories. There are two main roads--hwy 64 & 43 and traffic is tight most of the time.