Which Way Do We Go?

Which way do we go? For as many years as I have been writing editorials, that has been the prevailing question in Jefferson County. Be it city or township or county, defining ourselves has been a long standing issue. Are we agricultural? Well, with dwindling working farms and the absence of even a Jefferson County Fair it would seem that agricultural is no longer our defining moniker.

So, are we industrial? We have open industrial parks in both cities and the county. I would say that we are as far from being industrial as a mongoose is from a king cobra. Cosmopolitan? Laughable. Suburbs? Of where? Knoxville, maybe. Morristown? Not really big enough to have it’s own suburb, Morristown is more like a suburb itself.

The problem that we suffer is that without a clear definition of who we are we simply cannot anticipate or plan where we are going. What we know is that growth in inevitable. Smart places plan years ahead and don’t just let life happen. No one can argue that we have been on the ball regarding a solid plan for Jefferson County. We let the mid nineteen nineties happen and we let the mid two thousands happen. Now here we are, in deep into 2022 and we are still getting run over by life.

We have some decisions to make in the near future. Where do we want growth and what kind of growth do we want. What kind of growth can we accept. I hear a lot of chatter from those that ran to Jefferson County from somewhere. Be it near north or far north, be it near south or far south or east or west. It doesn’t matter where from, it matters that this is where they ran to escape whatever they were escaping from. Some ran from regulations. Some made financial decisions that benefited them and took advantage of coming to a place where life is slower and less expensive. This is their new reality. Like starting over or having a really great vacation, you don’t want the new to end. But for us, those of us who have been watching the change in our cities and county, we are still living our old life. The life where our families need to be able to afford to live in their hometowns and they need to be able to shop without fear of the checkout and turn on the heat when it’s cold and the air conditioning when it’s hot without worry about the cost of the bill. This isn’t starting over, it’s day to day eking it out.

I really believe that we must have controlled growth but we also have to have houses that are not $400,000 and up. We welcome those that choose our place to retire and want a slower pace but the more that want a piece of our pie, the more mouths we need to feed, the more people it takes to make our little space functional. Retirees are not working because that is not the nature of being retired. But retirees do need the services that are provided by a young work force and we have just about priced them out of the market in our county and cities.

Young people need jobs and schools for their children. They need opportunities so their families can grow and prosper and hopefully love and live here. So maybe it is time that we take a real, good, hard look at where we are and where we want to go. We need to look at housing needs. What is the high end of the market and what is the low end of the market? Do we have enough inventory in the middle because that is where most families fall, in the middle. We need to look at school needs. Where are our students located? How do we look zone to zone? Where do we need schools that will meet our future selves and not just an in the current situation build? We need to look at medical needs and livability Recreation beyond ball fields and things for people to do are necessary, as are reasonable shopping places.

What we don’t need is more pricey contracts for outsiders to tell us what we need. We are not stupid people and we can find the information ourselves, disseminate it ourselves and act on it ourselves. What we cannot do is make any more knee jerk reactions or simply look the other way and let life happen to us again and again. What is that saying…Making the same mistake over and over is not a mistake. It is a choice.