Category: Motivation
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Kingsport’s Best: Russ & Joyce Brogden
Over the next several weeks, we’ll be recognizing the 2026 recipients of the Kingsport Community Fund’s “Kingsport’s Best”, celebrating those whose service, generosity, and commitment make Kingsport a better place to live. While you’re thinking about it, mark your calendar for the next round: August 6, 2027. Kingsport Community Fund is the new name for…
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The Good Old Days Won’t Win Friday Night
Any given Saturday. It’s more than a football cliché. Look at the Southeastern Conference. Ten of its 16 teams have three losses or fewer. Good teams have taken turns beating one another, and sorting out the College Football Playoff contenders could be almost as difficult as playing the games. That’s parity. And it isn’t confined…
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Solid Rock(y Top)
Tennessee’s Financial Foundation By Jeff Fleming As a retired city manager, I’m conditioned to keep an eye on the finances. I’m all for optimism, celebrating accomplishments, and marketing those Instagram moments that make our communities shine. I’m also a believer in “Love Where You Live.” That sense of belonging gives a community its soul. But…
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Standing in the Gap: A Tribute to Kingsport 9-1-1
I recently completed my four-year term on the Kingsport 9-1-1 Board as “Citizen Fleming.” It was a tumultuous time in the aftermath of COVID, and the mayor thought my experience might be useful. So I was happy to take a turn. But I came away with something more valuable than I expected: a renewed appreciation…
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Be Still
I was raised by a World War II veteran who loved me deeply and did everything he knew to set me on a positive course. Without him, I would have been lost. He gave me discipline, direction, and responsibility. His leadership style had been forged in the military. Two sayings reflected that: “Yours is not…
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A City Is Something We Build. A Community Is Something We Create.
I can’t tell you how many times people stopped me during Fun Fest to say “thank you” and express how they felt about living in a place like Kingsport. They did not necessarily mean the City of Kingsport. They meant the Kingsport community. They were not really thanking me personally. I happened to be a…
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The Tri-Cities: Inside the Perimeter
Sometimes a map can say what a thousand words cannot. For example, I recently created a map superimposing Atlanta onto the Tri-Cities, TN+VA region. It takes the familiar geography of Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, Greeneville, Elizabethton, Abingdon, Blountville, Jonesborough, and the surrounding communities and places it over a region most people already understand as a…
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The Model City Rewind
Former Mayor Pat Shull has been after me for years to write a follow-up to Margaret Ripley Wolfe’s 1994 book, Kingsport, Tennessee: A Planned American City. That book was not a “Chamber of Commerce” piece that simply celebrated the good points. In many ways, it was a warning. Wolfe captured Kingsport at a turning point.…
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The Children Behind The Numbers
Sometimes we get desensitized to the noise. We are bombarded from every direction with snippets, tweets, posts, shares, headlines, and half-truths. So many people I know have either tuned out or turned it all off at the very time we most need to be paying attention. I understand that. It is a defense mechanism. But…
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When Efficiency Serves the Human Heart
Back at the beginning of my career in the mid-1980s, our community’s largest employer, Eastman Chemical, was going through a transformative process in total quality management. It was based on the management principles that helped Toyota rise from being viewed as an affordable alternative to American-made cars into a global benchmark for reliability, quality, and…
