etricities.com

Mark your calendar!  A great day to shop in Kingsport!

Friday Aug 3 12:01 a.m. - Sunday Aug 5 11:59 pm

School art supplies are now exempt, too!

Info at www.tntaxholiday.com

Please share with a friend! 

To subscribe to "good news" emails about Kingsport, please write to jeff_fleming@earthlink.net

Discovery Ice Cream is now open

231 Broad Street, Kingsport, TN 37660

Phone 423.863.8901

Allan.Jones@discoveryicecream.com

Check out pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=yxr8u60.4yojsd74&x=0&h=1&y=nn5q6

Feel free to share with a friend!

If you would like to subscribe to "good news" emails about Kingsport, please write to jeff_fleming@earthlink.net

A number of years ago, I left my home in northeastern Tennessee, I am, after all, a member of the clergy and one either goes where the churches are or one plants and pioneers a new church. In those days, I went where the opportunity presented itself which, in 1980, was in Colorado and, in 1983, to Georgia. 

   Author Thomas Wolfe once wrote, “You can’t go home again.” Recently, however, I spent the better part of a week in Kingsport, the hometown of my youth. I found myself driving around the area remembering, reflecting, and rediscovering the hills and valleys of the first two decades of life. I had forgotten how breathtakingly beautiful the land really is. The first thing that strikes one about the area in which I was raised is color. The dominant color is green — green of all shades from a thousand varieties of lush vegetation. In the springtime, wildflowers, blossoming trees, and carefully cultivated plants in well-tended lawns add to the beauty in an explosion of rainbows of color. 

   As I drove through the outlying areas, farmhouses that have served several generations stood near ancient barns and fields that were still homes for horses and cows who grazed on the seemingly endless supply of grass.

   I rediscovered how much water was hidden by the trees in Tennessee. It seems that nearly every country church is erected next to or near a stream, creek or brook. Some were so slow-moving as to appear utterly still. In others, the water flowed so rapidly that the rocks under the surface had all been smoothed and rounded by eons of relentless pressure. Life teemed in and near these streams. I could imagine generation after generation of believers making the joyful walk from the church sanctuary to the flowing water near the property and reverently, yet with songs and expressions of prayer and praise, stepping into and being placed under the waters to receive the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. 

   One also notices the churches — thousands of churches — ranging from Roman Catholic to Methodist, to 17 different shades of Baptists, to the more recent charismatic fellowships — and everything in between. Sunday, for the most part, is still a holy day, reserved for God and family, with a little pro football and NASCAR thrown in during the afternoons. Country radio stations still outnumber rock and roll stations, although there is also an ample offering of both Christian and public radio. 

   And the mountains! It is small wonder that the ancient Israelites often sought God on the mountains. But in eastern Tennessee, the mountains are bursting with trees and foliage. Look in any direction, and the mountains are there. The mountains are rich with the history of the Cherokees and other tribes, the Colonial settlers, the battles of the War Between the States, the immigrant Scots, English, Irish and others. But these hills and valleys also are home to a unique culture that is not so much “Southern” as it is “mountain.” 

   “My people” do not really have a drawling Southern accent. It is, instead, a distinctive, slightly twangy, mode of speech that starts around Knoxville, travels eastward toward Asheville, and heads north to Roanoke. I can be anywhere and instantly recognize the dialect of home before four words are spoken. But do not underestimate these people. They are bright, hard-working, tough, canny, innovative, hospitable, patriotic, and God-fearing folk. 

   The area is home to a number of colleges and universities but, regardless of where or if one went to college, on Saturdays in the fall, the region turns from green to orange and white as the rabid fans of the University of Tennessee Volunteers pack one of the largest stadiums in the country and, in homes, the TV is tuned in to watch the vaunted Vols seek the championship of, arguably, the toughest football conference in the nation, The Southeastern Conference. The fans stand when the national anthem is played and give near equal reverence to the Tennessee fight song, “Rocky Top.” 

   Tennesseans are proud of the fact that more Tennesseans than Texans died in the Alamo and that Sgt. Alvin York and Davy Crockett are native sons. I am a product of these hills and of these people, and that fact fills me with both pride and humility. Once in awhile, we really do need to go home again. Thomas Wolfe was wrong.

www.MovetoKingsport.com

Jeff -

I love your informative messages about important facts and rankings for the City of Kingsport. The other day I was responding to a person about all that Kingsport has to offer and the numerous projects going on in and around the city. I was trying to put everything you had recently shared with us via your e-mails into one note. I started off with your list:

Total City & County property taxes on a $200,000 home in Kingsport, Tennessee = $2,395 per year

For a family of 4....

- No solid waste, garbage, trash or recycling fees
- No special school tax
- No special district tax
- No wheel tax (in Sullivan County)
- No state income tax on salaries/wages
- No personal property tax
- No vehicle inspection fees
- No annual vehicle taxes of any kind
- Water/Sewer = $65 per month
- Electricity = $64 per month
- Natural Gas = $100 per month
- Digital Cable = $60 per month
- Internationally accredited police and fire departments

Then, I added a compiled list based on messages you have sent to the e-mail list over the past few months:

- Kingsport ranked 95th nationally as the best place to do business

- Forbes ranked Kingsport 3rd in the nation this year as the lowest cost to do business

- Kingsport/Bristol ranked 45th in nation for home price appreciation

- Kingsport ranked first this year in the region in best tasting water

- Kingsport/Bristol ranked 70 in nation's top 100 places to retire

- Kingsport's Dobyns Bennett ranked in the top 5% of America's high schools

- Kingsport ranked by Medical Economic Magazine as one of America’s Best Places to Practice Medicine. The unsolicited ranking had Kingsport as the only Tennessee city to qualify, one of only 6 cities in Mid-South / South Atlantic, and one of 29 nationwide.

- Sperling’s Best Places for 2007 ranked Kingsport/Bristol and Johnson City as the state's 2nd and 3rd best places (respectively, behind Knoxville)

- In 2007, 8 of the region’s Top 20 busiest non-interstate roadways were in Kingsport, 4 were in Johnson City, 4 were in Greeneville, 3 were in Elizabethton, and 1 was in Gate City/Weber City, VA

THEN I added items related to current development and redevelopment:

- East Stone Commons (former Kingsport Mall in final phase of occupancy)
- Kingsport Pavilion (former Mason-Dixon truck terminal)
- Reedy Creek Terrace (former bakery)
- Crown Point Shopping Center (Food City/Shops/Restaurant Redevelopment)
- Riverbend Centre - Dining and shopping complex on Ft. Henry Drive overlooking Holston River
- Second Lowe's being built in West Kingsport

New and Planned Restaurants:

- Edo Sushi Bar and Grill
- Kaffe Blue
- Panera Bread
- Starbucks

And I added the new housing projects:

The Edinburgh – A planned neighborhood of 300+ home sites surrounding Kingsport’s newest elementary school

Skyland Falls – A 15-acre gated community being built off Alderwood Drive featuring 72 ranch-style condominiums

The Villas at Netherland Lane – A Mitch Cox Development Group planned community featuring 40 villa homes across from Asbury Place

Settler's Ridge – A patio home development featuring 110 units on Woods Way off Memorial Boulevard in Kingsport

Other patio home developments include Cooks Point at the corner of Harbor Chapel Road and Cooks Valley Road; Pinebrook Place off Stone Drive; and Cobblestone Place off Stone Drive

Who could forget the EVENTS:

The Santa Train
Funfest
Twilight Alive Thursday concerts
Bluegrass On Broadstreet Friday concerts
Sculpture Walk
Parades: 4th of July, Funfest, Christmas

Planned Sites:

Kingsport Landing
Tennessee Interstate 26 Welcome Center

Legacy Sites:

MeadowView Resort and Conference Center (recent expansion of facilities)
Allandale Mansion (ongoing improvements via City leaders and Friends of Allandale)
Bays Mountain Park
Exchange Place
The Netherland Inn House Museum and Boatyard Complex
Kingsport Greenbelt
Kingsport Renaissance Center

Regional Items:

Allegiant Air – The Tri-City Regional Airport's first-ever low-fare airline with direct flights to Orlando

I'm sure I left some things out, but I am so proud of our city and of the efforts of the city leaders to make Kingsport even better!

Sincerely yours,

Steve Cook

As Kingsport continues to attract new retail businesses, it begs the question: "With all of the stores in the pipeline, how much more can we sustain before we start eroding the existing retail base?"

To answer that question, Basile Baumann Prost & Associates was commissioned to conduct a "retail market gap analysis".

Although the Tri-Cities' retail markets overlap to a certain degree, Kingsport's primary market area was defined as western Sullivan County, eastern Hawkins County, and parts of Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentucky.

BBP determined there was $1.1186 billion in retail market potential in 2006 and existing Kingsport retailers were satisfying 50% of market demand.

By 2009, BBP projects that demand will rise to $1.315 billion.  After factoring in all of the stores currently in the pipeline (Target, Kohls, Lowes West, etc), BBP projected that we will still only satisfy 64% of market demand!!!

So, while we've made great strides in Kingsport, we still have many more retail opportunities!

Congratulations to the 11-under Kingsport Indians who won the Tennessee State Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken State Baseball Championship in Nashville last night!

The team will represent Tennessee  in the regional tournament in Jacksonville, FL on July 26.

Team members are:

Austin Hubbard, Kyle Reeves, Jamin McCann, Grant Cross, Dalton Price, Logan Gentry, Sam Stewart, Landon Jones, Austin Dayton, Luke Tyree, and Dezmond Chaffin.

Coaches: Lance Sawyer, Kelly Morton, Jerry Stewart

KINGSPORT – Architects, representatives from the downtown business community, key city staffers and representatives from Northeast State Community College met in a day long planning, design and site selection process Thursday as the city works hard to meet construction timelines.

“I think we got off to a solid start with the Thursday’s design charette,” Assistant City Manager Jeff Fleming said. “We’ve narrowed the sites from four to three, with a preferred site and two backup sites, and developed several potential building layouts that flow nicely into the downtown area.

“Given that the concept now includes two buildings, it was decided at this point that the Shelby Street parking lot was too small for a campus plan, so it should be held to support future economic development opportunities, such as a parking garage or mixed-use project.”

Plans currently call for the site selection decision to be made by the first of August, with a late September groundbreaking for the New Allied Health building expected to house 400 students in a number of nursing and medical technology programs that are being relocated to Kingsport.

A final site cannot be determined until environmental evaluations and appraisals are completed.

In order to meet the needs of NESCC, the Allied Health building will ideally be ready for opening by fall 2008.

Kingsport recently retained McCarty Holsapple McCarty, whose team includes local architectural firms Beeson Lusk & Street and John Fisher of Fisher & Associates. Together, this design team will develop the academic village master plan as well as design the new Higher Education Center and Allied Health buildings, with a total estimated project cost of $16 million.

According to the latest news release of the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development, Kingsport-Bristol is the 5^th largest labor market and has the 5^th lowest unemployment rate in the state: