Carter County is Better Off from 5 years Ago

Political season is in full swing and, just like any other major election year, we hear politicians from the local level all the way up to the national level talk about the economy. Inevitably, the party currently holding office will talk about how great the economy is, how many jobs were added, and have stories about all of the businesses they have helped. And, in response, the challenging party will talk about how awful the economy is, how we need to create more jobs, do more to help our grow businesses, and also have stories about establishments that went out of business. So, which is it? Are things good or bad? Well, let’s look at something that can’t lie – the numbers.

Let’s specifically take a look at Carter County over a 5 year time-frame (2010 to 2015). We’ll look at three different measures – jobs, number of businesses, and average annual salaries. The number of private sector jobs in Carter County has grown 6.7 percent over the last 5 years from 7,704 jobs to 8,222 jobs. The creation of over 500 jobs in 5 years in Carter County is a good growth rate, however this does trail the state growth rate of almost 13 percent. Add in local, state, and federal government employment to the County’s job growth numbers and we’ve added almost 650 new jobs in the last 5 years.

The number of businesses in our county have also grown by 4.8 percent with the creation of over 30 new businesses. Compared to the state average 7.7 percent growth in new businesses, Carter County still lags the rest of the state in growth of new businesses.

Lastly, and most importantly, is salary. Over the last 5 years the average annual salary has increased over $4,000 to $32,117! The salary growth rate of 14.5 percent beats the inflation rate for the same period of 8.7 percent and even beats the state average salary growth rate of 12.4 percent. The impact of salary increases means people have more money to shop in our local economy, have more money to save for traumatic life events, and more money to improve their homes and property. Salary increases have a rising tide effect.

There, of course, are other factors that can be considered to determine the viability of our economy, but for right now I think it’s safe to say Carter County is better off than it was 5 years ago. We’re in a stronger position and we must continue keeping the momentum moving forward. Let’s talk about it!

The Role of Public Art in Elizabethton

Sprucing up and revitalizing a city can be a very difficult task. There are many different aspects to a community that can have a real negative or positive impact on it. One aspect that can have a positive impact is public art.

Public art is a common placemaking tool. Because no two pieces of art are the same, public art helps identify, ground, and make a community unique. Anyone in the Tri-Cities knows they are in Bristol when they pass the giant guitar sitting at the corner of State Street and Volunteer Parkway. That one piece of public art alone gives Bristol something grounded, identifiable, and unique. The Veterans Monument in Elizabethton, while not a piece of public art, performs a similar function.

Many studies have also shown that quality of life is impacted by public art. People desire to live in an area that is unique and different. Businesses and industries like to see that a community is unique, diverse, and has culture. Public art is an ideal way to communicate this to these audiences.

Tourism can also be impacted by public art. How many times when we are in different cities and see a mural, statue, or maybe just an odd configuration of shapes made out of metal do we point, make a comment to our spouse, or move in closer to take a look? Additionally, it creates a memorable experience in that city or town and triggers the comment, “Remember when we saw that cool mural in Elizabethton?” perhaps even leading to visiting again.

Currently, the city does not have a public arts program, but we have put in place administrative policies to ensure that certain types of public art are not confused with certain regulations. As we all remember, murals in Johnson City are all but prohibited. Here, we have created specific policies on murals so they are not confused with sign regulations.

Public art can play an important role in recreating and revitalizing our downtown. The Downtown Business Association is currently working on improvements to make downtown a unique area of the city. Some of the bikes around downtown are a unique start. What are your thoughts? Should more public art be included as a component of our downtown and our community or do we have enough? Let’s talk about it!

Local Governments must serve all Citizens

Local governments are an odd form of government. Unlike what we see at the State and Federal levels of government, local government decisions typically have very little to do with political sides and more to do with operating a business. As the saying goes, there is not Republican or Democrat way of picking up the garbage!

The one thing that does apply to local governments as well as the State and Federal governments is the Constitution. Many, I’m sure do not fully recognize this, but local governments (cities and counties) must also analyze the Constitution when developing policies and laws.

An element that specifically applies is the Fourteenth Amendment. Section 1 of the amendment states, “[…] nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Local governments must comply with this amendment to the Constitution and ensure that services, policies, and laws are provided and enforced equally to all citizens regardless of who the citizens is.

An extension of this is Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title 6 requires that local governments and state governments do not discriminate against a person’s race, national origin, or color when they provide services or make policies or laws. An example of this would be if someone who was born in China, cannot speak fluent English, and comes in to turn their water on, the city must make accommodations to ensure that the citizens can get water service at their home. This may even mean retaining a translator to help translate from one language to English. If the local government fails to comply, it risks getting federal and even some state funds cut off. Recently, City Council approve a Title 6 compliance manual to ensure that services will be provided without discrimination.

Another area that local governments must ensure that services can be provided is those with disabilities. This is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and requires that local and state governments provide services without discriminating against persons with disabilities. In City Hall, we have recently changed all door handles and have made exterior doors easier to open to better accommodate those with physical disabilities. We are continuing to work on improving other city facilities as well to ensure that all facilities and services can be accessible to those with a disability.

In addition to my job as Planning and Economic Development Director, I also serve as the Title VI and ADA Coordinator for the City. If you believe that you have been discriminated against based on race, color, national origin, or a disability, please feel free to contact my office so we can work to ensure that the city is compliant with Title 6 and ADA requirements. Let’s talk about it!

What it takes to be a Councilperson

City government is one of the most influential governments to most people in the United States. Every time you flip a light switch, turn the water faucet on, build a building, or start looking for a job, your local city government is involved. Every two years about half of the City Council comes up for election and this November is another one of those years. Being a City Councilperson make you the driver of how electricity and water is provided and how much industrial recruitment should be funded, but with this responsibility comes difficult decision making.

The role of a city councilperson and the city council is to make policies and laws that they feel are in the best interest of their constituency. They are also entrusted with making sure that the city government stays on the right path towards the future that they desire for our community. A City Councilperson works with the City Manager, rather than directly with city staff, to ensure that the needs of their constituents are met.

Ask any city councilperson and I’m confident they will tell you there is a steep learning curve to serving on City Council. Annually the Council approves the city budget for the next fiscal year. A Councilperson should have a basic understanding of finances, debt management, and be able to read a balance sheet.

Additionally, within that budget will be several requests by the City Manager and Department Heads. Although broad, having a basic knowledge of administrative functions of an organization (procurement, human resources, and management), development processes, and construction processes will be extremely helpful in being able to better assess decision making about various departments and projects.

In Elizabethton, our service providing departments include Streets & Sanitation, Water Resources Department, Electric Department, Planning & Economic Development Department, Parks & Recreation Department, Public Library Department, Fire Department, and Police Department. As a councilperson, it is helpful to have basic knowledge of all of these areas, but the best part about the Council-Manager form of government is that the Council have professional staff people who specialize in these areas and can provide advisement to Council on a decision.

The City Council regularly makes extremely difficult decisions. Some may be between the best of two bad scenarios; others may be between two positive situations. Often times you must be open to compromising. You may see that a certain decision may be best while other councilpersons view another option as the better option. While being a councilperson may not be easy, it can be very rewarding to know you have served your community, completed your civic duty, and helped keep our democracy alive. Let’s talk about it!

The Future of Elizabethton's Economy

Thank you for the great feedback I got from my last column! I heard a lot of constructive comments and a few negative comments and I’m glad. I think it is extremely important for our citizens to be educated on and have these types of conversations about the future of our community.

With all of the feedback I received, I wanted to expand on the conversation from last week. I had a few comments along the lines of, “So what you’re telling me is Industry is dead in Elizabethton?” The answer to that is absolutely not! Elizabethton currently has many industrial businesses which employee a high number of people. As a matter of fact, 14 percent (over 1,500) of all of the jobs in Carter County are manufacturing jobs making it the third largest employer industry in the county. We must continue to build a symbiotic relationship with these industries and help them to grow and expand here locally.

With regard to recruiting a new industry, this also is still possible! There is, however, a realty that we must face. All of the low hanging, cheaply developable land has already been developed; therefore, the development of new industrial land (which I outlined last week) will be extremely expensive costing hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars and those dollars will have to come from local city/county governments and possibly some local businesses. This must be something you, as a tax payer, must consider when you demand new industrial jobs from your elected officials. Are you willing to sacrifice city or county services or face a major tax increase to get those industrial jobs?

Another comment that I heard a lot was, “What alternatives do we have to industry?” Well, there are some tactics that can help grow the economy without large industry and we can look to economic theory to provide those answers. Economic base theory divides all businesses into two categories – basic and non-basic industries. Basic industries bring money from outside the local economy in and non-basic industries help keep the money brought into the local economy stay within that local economy.

Locally we can look to this theory and strengthen our basic businesses to serve as an alternative to industrial jobs. Tourism is a basic business that injects money into our local economy by bringing people from outside Elizabethton/Carter County to our area, having them spend money, then leave the community (think Blowing Rock, NC). Agricultural related production, such as vineyards, wineries and large scale farms hire local people and sell the produce in other communities and counties (think Scott’s strawberry farms). Industrial construction firms employ locals to run the business and send workers off to work in other cities and counties (think Whitehead Construction).

Bringing in and starting these businesses locally can provide the same impact that industries currently provide. Couple these industries with strengthening non-basic businesses by encouraging people to shop locally in Elizabethton and Carter County and this strategy could be a realistic path to economic progress in Elizabethton and Carter County. No progressive path forward is easy, but no one else is going to do it for us! Let’s talk about it!

What an Industry Wants, What an Industry Needs

Sometimes I feel this column has turned into an economic development column! I do think, however, it is very important for our citizens to understand the reality of economic development in Elizabethton and Carter County. This is information you can use to make household decisions and use when you go to the polls to vote for your local politicians. This time, I want to talk about what industries (specifically manufacturing, warehousing, and assembly) look for in a location and how that relates to future prospects for Carter County.

First, they want access to a 4-lane highway. This qualification immediately eliminates three-quarters of the county leaving only Hampton, Elizabethton, Hunter, and Happy Valley/Central areas with potential locations. Ideally, industries want to be near (usually within 10 miles) an Interstate. Many will locate away from an Interstate, but this would be a preferred or ideal site. This preference would eliminate all but Happy Valley/Milligan/Central and the Okolona area.

Secondly, industries must have access to utilities. Water, of course, is a must and usually most would desire to see a minimum of an 8-inch water line with the preference of a 10-12-inch water line. Access to sewer service is also another must. Phase 3 power must also be available at the industrial site in order to operate the electric sucking equipment. Not all industries need access to natural gas or fiber optics, but these are typically considered must-haves especially if sites in other communities offer access to these services. Access to water and sewer eliminates some of our remaining potentials leaving Elizabethton, parts of Milligan/Pinecrest and the Okolona area.

Now that we've narrowed down a few potential areas, let's look for some sites. A potential industrial site must be flat (ideally less than 6 percent grade) so we would start looking for as flat a site as we could find in the remaining areas. The flatter the site that can be found, the less grading that will have to be completed by local governments in order to sell the site. The site will also need to be around a minimum of 10 acres with a preferred size of 20 acres. It's starting to get a little tough now! Where around Elizabethton, Milligan/Pinecreast, or the Okolona area is there 10-20 acres of relatively flat (less than 10 percent grade) land that is owned by one, two, maybe three people. Ideally, we would like to see more like 50+ acres of relatively flat land owned by 4 maybe 5 people in order to spread the expense over multiple properties and industries.

Assuming there is such a site, the land owners must agree to sell at a reasonable price, the cities and county will need to work together to purchase the property, pay to grade the property, and pay to extend utility services to the site. After all of this is done, an incentives package will need to be put together and we must make sure there is an available, educated or trained workforce to meet the needs of the industry.

As you can see, this process has a lot of moving parts! I hope this gives you an idea of what it takes to recruit and bring new industry into a community. Keep in mind this whole process may take 10 years or more from start to opening day of a new industry and require hundreds of thousands of tax dollars. While we most certainly continue our efforts growing and working with our existing industry, it is my opinion that Elizabethton and Carter County must begin looking at other forms of economic infusion in our local economy and tourism is a great start! Let's talk about it!

UPDATE: Read my follow-up column to this one -- The Future of Elizabethton's Economy.