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This is how Tax Increment Financing (or TIF) works
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) has been in the local news recently, so I’d like to take the time to explain how this governmental funding tool works and where it’s been used in Kingsport in the past. Tennessee, like all 50 states, uses TIF to assist eligible development projects. In simple terms, TIF is borrowing against…
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John Campbell: 4th Quarter
April 10, 2024. Today is John Campbell’s 75th birthday. The start of his 4th quarter. If you know John, you know he loves sports, especially UT football. So, 4th quarter seems like the most appropriate reference. 4th Quarter is a rallying cry. Players hold up 4 fingers. Fans respond with applause. You can acquiesce or…
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Ross N. Robinson
Generations of Kingsport eastside students have grown up singing, “Let’s give a cheer to RNR, to the colors white and blue”. As a John Sevier alumnus, RNR’s archrival, I never gave much thought to the man behind the school’s name. In my formative years, RNR might as well have been in a neighboring city. The…
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The Little Girl of Rotherwood Mansion
Virgealia “Jill” Denny Looney Ellis was a leap year baby in 1928. Since 2024 is a leap year, I wanted to honor her. Mrs. Ellis was the counselor for generations of students at both Douglass High School (before integration) and Dobyns-Bennett High School (after integration), including me. She made a lasting impression, and I was…
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Beyond ‘We’re Full’: Understanding the Complexities of Population Growth
“We’re full”. It’s a quick comeback from Tennesseans frustrated with the rapid rate of newcomers gobbling up housing inventory. But are we? It depends on what part of the state you’re in. Let’s look at the most recent population trends released in 2023 (for 2020-2022). Natural increase is defined as births exceeding deaths. The places…
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The Bachman Legacy: How a Kingsport son became Chattanooga’s ‘First Citizen’
The Brainerd Mission is featured on the cover of this month’s Tennessee Historical Quarterly magazine, published by the Tennessee Historical Society. So, how does this relate to Kingsport? Read on. The article is based on the remembrances of Chattanooga historian Anne Bachman Hyde (1868-1959) as told to her by her father, Jonathan Waverly Bachman. A…
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Catalyzing Kingsport: Strategic Responses to Demographic Shifts
Reflecting on the past year prompts us to delve into the underlying rationale behind the inception of the Move To Kingsport program, which began 24 years ago, predating the seismic shifts caused by the pandemic-driven “Great Relocation”. It was a proactive response by community leaders who foresaw our region grappling with a recurring issue seen…
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Roots of Change: Nancy Garrett’s Green Legacy
When I first began working as a naive city planner, I was under the false impression that the city had the ultimate say on all things related to building a city. I quickly learned that what matters most is private investment and the city’s ability to influence it. The city’s professional staff can propose practical…
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Rivers of Legacy: Tracing Tennessee’s Origins from Kingsport to Nashville
Recently, my son was traveling from Kingsport to Nashville for a business trip. To break up the monotony from time-to-time, he would call and say, “I just pulled off at this exit, tell me about <insert city name>.” In this case, it was Carthage, Tennessee. I explained that Carthage was located on the Cumberland River…
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Who was Glen Bruce?
With all of the beautiful decorations in Downtown Kingsport at Glen Bruce Park, someone asked me how the park got its name. When I first heard, “Glen Bruce”, it sounded like the name of a Scottish manor house from Braveheart or Outlander, but in reality, it’s a first and last name. A 1968 Times-News article…
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Kingsport Spirit 