Named for a prominent Covington eye doctor, Wilder, Ky., has been anything but wild.

        From its dairy farm beginnings, the city incorporated as a steel town more than 65 years ago. Since then it has been best known as the home of Bobby Mackey's, a country-western barn reputed to be haunted.

        That's all changed now.

        The barn and its ghost stories are still there, but the town has grown up around it, so rapidly that it is considered one of the fastest growing in the Tristate.

        In just 10 years:

        • Its population of fewer than 700 exploded to nearly 3,000.

        • Its two longtime major employers have been joined by several others and numerous smaller companies.

        • Its haunted juke joint is no longer the top draw. Instead, its 1-year-old sports complex hosted about a million Tristate athletes and their fans last year.

        • Just three weeks ago, one of the Tristate's largest and most modern multi-screen theaters opened, attached to a games center.

WILDER PROFILE

Located along the Licking River and Ky. 9, this fifth-class industrial city was incorporated in 1935 around the Andrews (now Newport) Steel Plant. The city adopted the name of a local L&N Railroad station that had been named for William Hamlin Wilder (1860-1931) a Covington-born ophthalmologist.   Major employers:   • Newport Steel, about 400 (after recently seasonal layoff of about 250).   • Castellini Produce, about 300.   • Display Specialties, about 130.   • Carlisle Construction, about 120.     In 1996, Wilder was deemed the fastest-growing Kentucky city.   As of March 2000, it was the fastest-growing Tristate city or township, based on population growth from 1990-1998.   Wilder's population grew 284.9 percent, from 691 to 2,660.   Next fastest-growing was Liberty Township in Butler County, with 78 percent growth, from 9,249 people in 1990 to 16,472 in 1998.   Deerfield Township, in Warren County, grew 41.7 percent, but it attracted the highest number of new residents in that period, adding 10,983 people to total 37, 342 in 1998.*   *Figures are based on census data, rankings from Business Courier's book of Lists Winter — 2001.

        City Manager Terry Vance boasted about the growth recently.

        “We're averaging about one new business a month,” he said. Actually, according to city records, that's 20 new businesses in the past 24 months.

        Alliance Entertainment, the New Albany, Ind., company that opened its 14-screen movie theater, finds Wilder “a tremendous opportunity for our little company,” said John Miller, its vice president.

        “This is our first megaplex endeavor,” he said. “We felt the location was ideal for attracting people from the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati areas. There is easy access from all directions, and it's relatively uncongested.”
       

Look to Licking Pike
               Congestion would be foreign to Wilder.

        City Treasurer/Clerk Michele Meyer has lived in Wilder 38 years. She says the city named fastest growing in the nation in 1996 owes much of its new life to new highways.

        “I can remember when you drove along Licking Pike and saw the shanties on the side of the road 30 years ago,” she said.

        Licking Pike, or Ky. 9, is no longer the twisting little strip of asphalt that once followed the contours of the Licking River - and occasionally tried to fall into it.

        Now it's a smooth, four-lane lifeline linking Northern Kentucky to eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. Renamed the AA Highway for its hubs, Alexandria and Ashland, it intersects Interstate 275 and U.S. 27.

        Still visible from the AA Highway are Wilder's longtime major employers - Newport Steel and Carlisle Construction - employing a combined total of 700 to 950 workers, depending on the season.

        But on the way are a strip center with stores and restaurants, a shiny new government center and the Town & Country soccer complex.

        The 120,000-square-foot development includes a soccer field and exercise facility, as well as a re freshment area and offices - all under one roof.

        Then there are six outdoor soccer fields, which are home to the Northern Kentucky University and Thomas More College soccer teams and get near-constant use in the summer from Tristate youth teams. The bright lights of the complex are clearly visible from the interstate.

        Owner John Toebben estimated that close to 1 million people used the complex in its first year of operation.
       

Where the jobs are
               Other new employers have settled in - Castellini Produce, W.J. Baker Co., W.B. Jones Spring Co., and Kraus Awning.

        Castellini moved from Cincinnati's riverfront in 1999 to make way for Paul Brown Stadium. The company's owner found the I-275/AA interchange ideal for a major produce company drawing constant streams of trucks. Castellini brought with it about 300 jobs.

        W.J. Baker, which makes industrial steel tubing, and Kraus Awning, which sells furniture and awnings, were longtime business residents of Newport that chose to move south to Wilder in the past three years to take advantage of lower taxes and easier road access.

        “There's no question that the location, with I-275 and the AA Highway here and I-471 nearby, has been a major attraction for businesses,” Ms. Meyer said.

        “But we were also fortunate in having city officials and administration with the foresight to plan for the infrastructure needed to support the commercial growth.”

        Ten years ago, the mayor and city council overhauled the comprehensive plan. The city began working with neighboring Cold Spring and Highland Heights to get a $1.2 million sewer line put in along the Licking River, where most of today's industrial growth is occurring.

        “The sewer line running through the south end of the city made it possible for companies like Castellini to move here,” Mr. Vance said.
       

Location, location
               During the mid-1990s, homebuilders were attracted to the city, too. Literally a few minutes from Cincinnati, Wilder added several hundred homes and dozens of condominiums to its otherwise longstanding neighborhoods.

        Some of the new homes overlook the river or have a view of Cincinnati.

        With the higher incomes and younger families came Alliance Entertainment.

        Its movie theater opened next to the soccer complex in mid-December, but crews are still finishing part of the interior of the block structure. The stadium seating is tiered and staggered by rows for unobstructed views.

        That's not all. The cinema includes a two-story, 5,000-square-foot game room with about 50 video and arcade games for younger kids. Called GameScape, it has access from the theater and an outside entrance.

        “The theater has the potential to be a teen-age hangout, and we want to nip that in the bud,” said Wilder Police Chief Hobert Strange.

        “We'll probably have off-duty police officers working the theater lobby and parking lot. We've already had discussions with Mr. Miller about our concerns.”

        The little community where dairy farms once flourished is being pushed into the 21st century, with all the advantages and disadvantages of growth.

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