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Small City. Big Heart. Global Influence.
You probably don’t expect world-changing technology to originate from a small city in the Appalachian Mountains–but it does. Both Eastman and Domtar are heavily investing in the circular economy. What’s a ‘circular economy’? Recycling. In this case, plastics and containerboard. Just this week, Eastman welcomed the President of Normandy (France) to their headquarters in Kingsport…
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Fort Light.
The wide boulevard in front of Dobyns-Bennett High School has been a hub of community activity since the beginning. When I was growing up it was known as Memorial Boulevard. Those older than me may remember it as “New” Bristol Highway. When Brooks Circle was removed, it was renamed “Fort Henry Drive” because it became…
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Not borne from the pandemic
Many believe that “MoveTo Kingsport” is a pandemic era program, but it actually began as a strategic response to data shared at the Mayor’s 1999 Economic Summit that warned of our region’s impending status as a ‘rustbelt’ if we did not take action. City leaders were encouraged by a nationally recognized expert to diversify their…
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Portland has discovered what Kingsport has known for 106 years
For the past three decades, I’ve been trying to explain why Kingsport is called “The Model City”. Many think it’s because of the city’s physical plan that was laid out on a drawing board in Cambridge, Massachusetts by pre-eminent city planner John Nolen. In reality, it’s because Kingsport was the first city in Tennessee–and one…
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Local Swimmer Holds 16 National Records
I had an opportunity to catch-up with my fellow city retiree, Dave Taylor, the other day. Generations of residents would recognize Dave as one of the iconic ‘faces’ of Bays Mountain Park. As we were talking, I asked what he’d been up to in retirement. He told me that he’s an avid swimmer these days…
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Antebellum Ridgefields?
I bet many people don’t associate the name “Ridgefields” with “antebellum”. It’s best known as the Olmsted-designed mid-century golf community. That’s right, Olmsted, the same firm that designed Central Park in NYC, Biltmore Estate in Asheville, the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and White House, and the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, among…
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Time marches on
Some of my fondest memories of my parents were our annual beach trips. It was the only time they didn’t work. They would scrimp and save all year for that one week in Myrtle Beach. There were 12 years between my brother and I, so his daughters were more like my sisters. We doubled-up in…
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The little girl of Rotherwood Mansion
Virgelia “Jill” Ellis was a Kingsport treasure. I was blessed to be asked to deliver her eulogy in 2021. She freely shared her life stories of growing up in times that are hard for us to imagine and uncomfortable to discuss. A time of segregation and the struggle for civil rights. She was kind, optimistic,…
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Kingsport: Fiscally conservative since…forever
As a former city manager, I know the pressure to provide the highest possible service at the lowest possible cost. Each year staff and board members agonize to cut corners, stretch dollars, and provide value. If you’ve always lived here (like me), you may not realize just how relatively valuable that fiscal conservatism is to…
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What do Old Hickory, UVA-Wise, and I have in common?
I suppose if you go back far enough, we’re all cousins. But it never ceases to amaze me the nuggets I find on Ancestry.com. Each of us has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, and 32 great-great-great-grandparents, 64 great-great-great-great grandparents, and so on. William Roberson was my 4G grandfather. In 1821 he lived…
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