Greetings!
East Tennesseans are blessed (and perhaps spoiled) with the abundance of beauty that reveals itself in each of the seasons. This season brings an array of local community festivals that are on display across our region. But also on display is the rich cultural and historic heritage that makes up East Tennessee and the rest of the country is taking notice. In late August, Knoxville was recognized on a national stage for the vision and execution of the downtown region. This story celebrates the combination of deliberate planning combined with a focused desire to create a place that honors its heritage. andt makes room for the future. Knoxville’s vision continues when ULI visits the City in October, but this story is a story that can be re-told in so many of our local communities. Visits to Dandridge, Maryville, the greenways in Alcoa, the small town of Harrogate, HOLA Festival, and the recent Recreational Trails grant award in Morristown speak to the growing local leadership that is investing in placed based planning.
Julie
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UPCOMING EVENTS
October 9 -10
RAMP Trade Conference
and Expo
http://www.ramptn.com/
October 10: 9A-12P
Urban Land Institute at Historic Bijou Theatre.
Review of ULI report.
October 12
Little River Watershed Association–
2nd Annual Protect and Paddle, a fundraiser and organized float trip from
Perry’s Mill to River John’s Island on Little River. October 22
Disability Employment Awareness
Breakfast with Guest Speaker, Vallie Collins, Survivor on USAir flight 1549.
For more information contact
Tina Jones at jonest@utk.eduNovember 5
November 13
Retaining and Attracting Talent- Panel will include ETQG Board member Patricia Robledo
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Accolades and Opportunities!
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Congratulations to:
- Monroe and Morristown: Recreational Trails Program grantee recipients
- City of Luttrell: Safe Routes to Schools grant recipient
- ETQG Board Member, Lisa Rutherford who has successfully completed course work for to become a Certified Economic Developer.
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Public Lands Day, September 27th
As part of Public Lands Day, ETQG partnered with the Norris Lake Project, TVA, Claiborne County Sheriff’s Department, Tennessee State Parks, TDEC, Narrow Ridge Sustainability Center, Hickory Star Marina, Food City, Norris Lake Paddlers, Union County FFA, Jellico High School fishing club, TWRA, and volunteers from community and businesses such as Green Mountain Coffee for a fun/ educational day on Norris Lake
The “Island Invaders” helped clean up popular camping spots on the islands. Lunch and t-shirts were provided to all participants who collected at least one bag of trash.
TDEC Launches New Technical Assistance Program
TDEC has started a new program to stimulate energy improvement investments in Tennessee’s Local Jurisdictions and Public Housing Authorities. The program is available at no cost to local jurisdictions, including city and county governments, and public housing authorities in the State of Tennessee through January 2016. Interested agencies are encouraged to contact Luke Gebhard, Senior Program Manager of TDEC’s Office of Energy Programs,
at 615-741-2994 or luke.gebhard@tn.gov.
ETQG Watershed Activities
ETQG president Berny Ilgner discussed ETQG’s work with environmental watershed activities and distributed the Grey Water brochures developed in cooperation with TDEC and TVA. The TDEC public event was held at Roane County City Park on September 22. This brochure has been presented to numerous community members in the region over the last two months. Any group wishing for copies for distribution should contact Julie at julie.etqg@gmail.com.
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Welcome New Board Members!
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ETQG is proud to announce the addition of 13 new board members:
Kathryn Baldwin, Community Development Director, City of Oak Ridge
Amy Brooks, Senior Planner Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization
Mark Donaldson, Executive Director, Knoxville/Knox County
Metropolitan Planning Commission
Kelly Ellenburg, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Campus Coordinator for Service Learning, Office of the Provost
Darren Farquhar, Owner/Manager Right By Nature Farm
Leslie Henderson, President, Top Shelf Consulting Services
Dr. Gary Jacobs, Retired ORNL research scientist and manager,
Senior Environmental Scientist , Strata-G
David Matlock, Professional Engineer,
Michael Brady, Inc
Todd Morgan, Director of Preservation Field Services, Knox Heritage/ East Tennessee Preservation Alliance
Cindy Pionke, Knox County Engineering & Public Works Planning & Development Division
Grant Rosenberg, Vice President,
Denark Construction
Lisa Rutherford, Executive Director,
Morgan County Economic Development
Jack Qualls, Community Transportation Planner, Tennessee Department of Transportation
See the full list of ETQG board members here. |
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National Register Additions
The Tennessee Historical Commission has announced five Tennessee sites have been added to the National Register of Historic Places of which two are located in this region. The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. It is part of a nationwide program that coordinates and supports efforts to identify, evaluate and protect historic resources.Happy Holler Historic District – Happy Holler is one of seven existing community based shopping areas centered on the streetcar trolley routes in Knoxville.
Norris Dam State Park Rustic Cabins Historic District – The buildings in the Norris Dam State Park Rustic Cabins Historic District in Anderson County were built as a New Deal project between 1934-1937.
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Ongoing Work
The City of Knoxville Communications and Sustainability offices joined the ETQG Executive Director for a two day workshop focused on Community Resilience. To review resources from that meeting see this link.
The Knoxville team will be convening to debrief and discuss strategies that the team drafted during the working session. These strategies include communications and actions.
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The East TN Rural Development would like to invite ED partners to join them for a fun filled event on October 24th, 2014. In May of this year ETRD held an Economic Development Bike Ride at the Virginia Creeper trail. In October they plan to hike in the Great Smoky Mountains. Organizers are planning a 5-6 mile roundtrip hike. Please RSVP or send questions to Chuck Morris at charles.morris@tn.usda.gov by October 10th. |
Seeking assistance with Gear-UP Business Visits:
One of the wonderful grant programs in the region is Gear Up. GEAR UP, which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, is a federal program funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
GEAR UP provides federal funding for 213 state and partnership grants serving over 748,000 low-income students in 48 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Palau, and Puerto Rico. The goal of the program is to significantly increase the number of low-income middle and high school students who are prepared to enter and succeed in secondary education.
There are 15 Gear UP programs in Tennessee and 5 are in our region. Grant communities include Anderson, Claiborne, Campbell, Union, and Grainger Counties. One of the components is that students are to be exposed to careers in the region.
The challenge is finding a way to arrange these visits to companies. For some of the counties, there are not many industries, so trips must be arranged to surrounding counties where future jobs are located.
Many thanks to the Morristown Chamber and Roane State who are assisting with reaching out to businesses. If you can help with “opening doors” to local businesses, please contact Julie at j ulie.etqg@gmail.com |
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