Littering Has an Impact on our Economy

I recently attended a Keep Carter County Beautiful (the former Carter County Proud) meeting and was astounded by the reports of the group on some of their street and highway cleanups. Milligan Highway, Old Bristol Highway, and other various roads around the county (including the city) which individuals had collected multiple full garbage bags worth of random trash just sitting in the ditch-lines. Both of these roads are secondary entrances into our county and, while not likely, very well may be used by tourists visiting us. But, logic would imply that if these roads are like this, our major entrances (think 19E and 321/Elk Avenue) very well may be worse.

Once a year, the Chamber of Commerce has sponsored a river clean up. Every year they pull bags worth of garbage, tires, larger plastic toys, and other household items from our rivers. Similar efforts occur at Watauga Lake and Wilbur Lake each year. If you’ve visited any of the little coves on Watauga or Wilbur lake via a boat or kayak, you know what I’m talking about -- plastic bottles, styrofoam cups, and random pieces of plastics from who knows what. Some of this comes from boats on the lake, while some of it flows into the lake through rivers and streams, but regardless of where it comes from it makes us look bad.

Imagine you plan a family vacation in the mountains out west. You’re looking for something affordable, yet relaxing with things to do nearby. When you arrive, however, you find fast-food bags thrown in the ditch lines, rubber tires trapped along the side of a river that you’ve paid to float down, or a plastic bottle floating beside you on the lake you're paddle boarding on. I don’t know about you, but that would probably be the last time I would visit that place! Sure, the scenery is great, but the trash just ruins that picturesque image of that place.

This could easily be Elizabethton and Carter County. As we work to improve the tourist economy in our county, we must keep in mind that we are opening our home to others. Surely you wouldn’t invite friends over and leave your house a mess. We need to do the same to our community. Save that fast-food bag in the car until you get home or your destination. Many businesses and restaurants have garbage cans right outside their entrance that you can use. Take advantage of our free, County operated recycling centers, return used fluorescent bulbs to Lowes, or plastic bags to Ingles or Food City. Help keep our home ready and prepared to accept visitors. After all, they’re helping us and our economy more than we’re helping them! Let’s talk about it!

An Attractive Community Starts with Us

About 4 years ago, the Planning Department conducted a series of community visioning initiatives. These included public meetings at all the elementary schools and various surveys requesting feedback from the community. All this information what compiled and a master list of goals were created. The purpose of this initiative was to identify what the citizens and residence of Elizabethton desired in their community and what they wanted their community to look like in 10 to 20 years.

One of the goals that came out of this initiative was to improve building frontages and appearances throughout the city – essentially, people wanted a more attractive city. So, the question becomes how do we do this? How do we make a more attractive city and what will it cost? Well, unfortunately, this is going to be an unpopular answer but it is through regulation.

It is our citizens, residence, local businesses, and elected officials job to determine what we want our city to look and feel like. It is then up to our elected and appointed officials to ensure that we are working to create that look and feel in our community.

Many of the developers and businesses we see come into Elizabethton don’t live here. They come in, want to know the cheapest way they can build what they want to build, build it, then turn around and leave the community having a check from the business or development mailed to them. And, quite frankly, I don’t blame them! That’s part of their goal, to invest as little as possible and maximize how much money they make. But the point is that they don’t have to look at the development daily or live with a negative reputation in the community, because if they receive that check they’re not setting foot in our community.

When I first started there was one statement I made that I thought was extremely pivotal in how we think through a potential development. The statement is, “Do not give in on what your standards are just because you think a business or development won’t build here. The developer will be here today, collect their money, and be gone tomorrow, but you and your fellow citizens will have to live with that decision every day. Make sure it’s something you can live with.”

If we desire a more attractive community, we need to create regulations that require developers to make buildings that are more attractive. Maybe we require them to use traditional Appalachian building materials for the facades to make Elizabethton unique. Maybe we require more trees and less parking spaces. Maybe we require that they install a bike rack and sidewalks so that others without vehicles can easily visit their business, because that’s the type of community we desire. There are many things we can do, but our citizens must support and stand behind elected and appointed officials when we enforce these requirements. They must be willing to say to a developer, “If you don’t want to create something that will make our community attractive, then maybe our community isn’t for your business.” Let’s talk about it!

Is it time to prepare for Renewable Energy Sources?

During our last Presidential election (and likely to be a topic in every election into the future), one vision for the future of the US electric consumption placed a strong emphasis on renewable sources of energy. And why not – after all, they provide a non-polluting, automatically renewing, low-impact source of electricity. Even in the early days of Elizabethton our first sources of electricity came from a renewable source – hydroelectricity from Wilbur and Watauga Dams.

While large-scale renewable source of electricity is much more efficient, we are starting to see more and more small-scale renewable sources appear in our community. We have a bank and veterinarian who have solar panels on their roofs and a residence that has placed solar panels in the back yard. Coming on the US market are Tesla’s new solar shingles, a stand-alone solar panel unit called SmartFlower, and varies wind turbines which can work in high and low wind environments. As these technologies become more popular and the prices become cheaper, we will likely see an increase in local usage.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, small-scale solar (think residential or small business solar units) is expected to increase by 23 percent nationally during 2018 and it makes good sense! Adding a solar unit lowers or possibly eliminates your electric bill depending on your electric usage and how efficient your house is. Additionally, in natural disasters like we saw in Puerto Rico recently, buildings and homes that had solar and wind capabilities were back up and running in a day or two compared with others connected to the grid who still may not have power weeks after the disaster.

A concern the community may have as these small-scale energy sources grow is the location and appearance of these sources. Solar panels may not look bad on the top of a building, but what about in your neighbor’s back yard, or what about a 30-foot pole with a turbine on top in your neighbor’s back yard? Aesthetics and appearance of these renewable sources can have a negative impact on home values and even the community as a whole.

What are your thoughts? Is it time for us to start considering aesthetic and location requirements for small-scale renewable energy sources? Tell us what you think we should require. 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!