By Roger Alford
The Associated Press

INDEPENDENCE - As a small-town mayor, Chris Moriconi would like to know each of his constituents personally, but new ones have been moving to his city so fast that he just can't keep up.

The Kenton County city added people faster than all other like-sized towns in the state over a 12-month period ending on July 1, 2002, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau found that several other towns across northern and central Kentucky also grew rapidly during the period.

Independence led the way among those with populations of at least 10,000 with a 4.5 percent increase. The total population grew by 696 people to 16,309, according to the census estimates.

"There are new faces just about every day," Moriconi said. "It's exciting."

Growth in Kentucky's small towns may reflect a nationwide trend of baby boomers' selling their suburban homes and returning to smaller houses in more traditional neighborhoods, said Ron Crouch, executive director of the Kentucky State Data Center in Louisville.

"Older boomers no longer want a five-acre lot out in the country," he said.

"Boomers are about to experience something called old age. They want to live closer to town. Small cities with good lifestyles are attractive."

Nicholasville added 846 people over the period, according to the census estimates. That pushed the population to 21,343, a 4.1 percent increase. Berea grew by 2.9 percent, up 307 people to 10,838 for the period.

Other Kentucky cities with populations larger than 10,000 that grew by at least 1 percent were Bowling Green, Campbellsville, Elizabethtown, Florence, Georgetown, Glasgow, Richmond, Shelbyville and Somerset.

Doug Garner, sales manager for Century 21 Garner Properties in Independence, said his agents are selling many of the homes to young professionals moving into Northern Kentucky from other states.

Others, he said, are buying in Independence to get away from more densely populated areas of Northern Kentucky.

Garner said most of the homes being sold are newly built, primarily in subdivisions.

"People want to live where it's a little more open," he said.

Meanwhile, Moriconi, like mayors of other growing towns, stays busy meeting new residents and visiting new neighborhoods that come with the addition of each new subdivision.

"Growth has its challenges," Moriconi said. "We added 30 new streets to our city in 2001."