Fighting Drug Addiction in Elizabethton

Elizabethton and Carter County has a problem – a drug problem. Now, I’m not telling you anything new, but the reality is that it affects our whole community not just the families of those addicted. But first off, let’s talk about drug addiction. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), drug addiction is a brain disease (emphasis on disease). Drug addiction actually changes the brain’s “structure and how it works.” Similar to heart disease, you can never truly be “cured” of drug addiction, but it can be treated to help prevent a relapse from occurring, just like treatment can help prevent another heart attack from occurring for those with heart disease.

The first and probably easiest step to healing our community’s drug problem is to prevent it from happening in the first place. This has to start at a young age. As the NIH states, “if we can prevent young people from experimenting with drugs, we can prevent drug addiction.” In a National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2011 and 2012, significant increases for first-time drug users started at age 12 and didn’t significantly drop until age 25. More importantly, over 8% of first-time drug use fell between the ages of 14 to 20. This means a drug addicted adult has likely started using before they graduated high school making college or any other post-high school training an uphill battle for them. This sets up a future workforce will little or no skills for us as a community to market and recruit new businesses to provide new job opportunities.

According to the NIH, “risk of drug abuse increases greatly during times of transition.” For an adult this could be a recent divorce, being laid off or fired from a job, or the death of a parent or loved one. If this is a family, friend, or even a neighbor, step-up and offer to help! Support them during this time of transition and keep a keen eye out for signs of drug use.

Teen and adult resources are available here in our local community via the Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition (CCDPC) (www.CarterCountyDrugPrevention.org). In addition, the Elizabethton Police Department provides officers and support to the Drug Enforcement Administration Taskforce and assigns an officer working with the Sheriff’s Department locally to investigate and break-up drug supply circles. We must understand that the solution to our drug problem is a multi-pronged approach. The Police alone, CCDPC alone, city government alone, and major employers alone cannot solve the problem. It requires all of us as family members, friends, neighbors, or church family to solve this problem.

Drug addiction and abuse in Elizabethton affects us all. When it comes to creating more jobs, recruiting new businesses, and attracting tourists in and to our community our reputation precedes us. Word of mouth travels fast in business circles. Wouldn’t it be a shame to discover a business decided to located elsewhere because one business told them, “Don’t go there! It will take you forever to hire. People can’t even past drug tests.” To my knowledge, this hasn’t happened yet but I do know our industries and businesses are aware of this problem and it could easily lead to this type of comment. What steps can you personally take in our community, at your church, or in your neighborhood to help prevent and treat drug addiction? Let’s talk about it!

The Way Forward for Downtown Revitalization

Downtown revitalization has been a popular topic since I first started working for the city back in 2006. Since 2006, downtowns have become even more popular destinations as we are now seeing people living in them. But here in Elizabethton we have some large hurdles to jump before we will likely see the full revitalization of our downtown.

Unlike many other smaller cities, Elizabethton, luckily, has never really seen drastic inactivity in our downtown. Sure, businesses come and businesses go, but all-in-all our downtown isn’t starting from a bad place. We also see some activity still occurring. The Downtown Business Association had committed to improving the two walkways in our downtown. Additionally, the city and the Elizabethton Community Foundation have partnered to renovate the old Bonnie Kate Theater providing variety and entertainment to our downtown. But as I mentioned earlier, we still have a way to go.

There really are a few key elements that are critical to successful downtown revitalization projects. The first is the image of downtown. Often, this is one of the most important catalysts. For our downtown this means development façade improvement programs to fix up and improve the looks of our buildings in downtown. This also means streetscape improvements with tree-lined streets and beautification projects.

We also must nurture the quality of downtown placemaking. We must make downtown a destination and a place people desire to go and visit, whether they intend to make a purchase or not. Put simply, a place you would like to go and simply “hang-out” on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Common placemaking elements include sidewalk cafes where you can enjoy a cup of coffee or a beer and people watch. Public art in and around downtown that you can visit and admire. These are not new things. These are techniques old cities such as New York City, London, Rome, and Washington D.C. have been using for years!

These things can be done and countless case-studies have proven this to be true in both big cities and small towns! It does, however, require investment. Investment by the city government, investment by business owners, and investment by property owners. The city can only go so far and only do so much. Downtown properties owners must be champions wanting to see these improvements and improve or sell downtown properties so others may make the investment. Downtown businesses must be willing to tolerate the growing pains of revitalization which may mean a downtown under construction or turbulence business environment as kinks are worked out. In the end it will all be worth it.

The key to downtown revitalization is that we must start with the end in mind. It will be expensive; there will be trying times, but no one else is going to do it for us. If we want it, we must commit to doing it. In the end I am confident that we will see a positive return on our investment. Let’s talk about it!

2016 Accomplishments - A Year In Review of City Activities

I know I say this every year, but wow, it seems like this year has flown by! 2017 is just around the corner and this will be my last article for 2016. As usual, I want to take some time to reflect on what we as your local government have accomplished this year. Aside from the usual annual renewal and activities it’s been quite a year for us!

The Twins baseball team has been a hot topic this year as staff have worked diligently to develop options and alternatives for improvements, talked with Minor League Baseball Officials, had countless discussions with Twins Officials, and presented the Twins needs to groups in the community. All of this culminated in the creation of a committee dedicated to keeping the Twins in Elizabethton and City Council approving an improvement plan this past fall. It appears 2017, if the Twins dedicate to staying, will be a year of hard work getting a facility improved and prepared.

This past year also saw two organizations working together for the betterment of our community – the Elizabethton-Carter County Community Foundation and the City. Together we were able to work with the Community Foundation in order to purchase and take ownership of the Bonnie Kate Theater with the goal of renovating the facility into a performing arts center. Such a facility in Elizabethton has great potential! This would allow various plays and shows as well as other entertainers to perform in Elizabethton bringing cultural opportunities for local residents and enhancing the quality of life the city can provide.

2016 also saw some construction projects as well. Construction started on the new restrooms in downtown. The restrooms will provide an opportunity for us to have bigger festivals and encourage visitors to stay longer without the fear of needing to find a restroom. We also saw the development of some new recycling centers this year. One being located at Lion’s Field and the other being located at the Elizabethton Housing Authority. These additions as well as the one located on Mill Street and the Cherokee Park Drive recycling center provide additional opportunities for citizens practice living “green” and reusing non-renewable resources.

I am also very proud to say that at this time last year our Water Resources Department has replaced just over 15,746 feet of old, leaky water lines, but this year so far, they have replaced over 19,897 feet of these older water lines and are on track to beat last year’s replacement record of 31,492 feet in one year by over 8,300 feet to 39,794 feet replaced by the end of this year, hopefully setting a new record for the department.

A few other items of accomplishment this past year has been the creation of a new Joint Economic and Community Development Board as well as joining the new regional Northeast Tennessee Regional Economic Partnership, the Planning Commission and City Council adopted new sign regulations city-wide, and the city applied for and received over $530,000 in grants for Tweetsie Trail crossing safety, a new splash pad, and safe school crossings on West G Street.

What would you like to see accomplished in 2017? Be sure to let us know! Through next year, let’s continue to talk about it!