Posts Tagged ‘Blount County’

PlanET Gears Up for Regional Forum Series 2 Events: Shared Values and Aspirations for 2050

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

Knoxville, Tenn. – Plan East Tennessee, or PlanET, urges community members throughout the region of Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon and Union counties to participate in its upcoming Regional Forum Series 2 events in all five counties, to take place the week of April 23, 2012, focusing on five areas of long-term livability: jobs, housing, transportation, a clean environment and community health.

PlanET is a regional partnership of communities building a shared direction for the future of Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon and Union counties.

The initiative is about to conclude Phase One of the process, which began in late summer 2011 and will continue through late 2013.

During Phase One, which officially concludes this spring, PlanET hosted regionwide Series 1 events in all five counties to gather citizen input and to identify common themes about regional assets and challenges.

A written summary of these themes is located on PlanET’s website.

“While PlanET’s Phase One process asked citizens ‘where are we now?’ as a region, Phase Two will ask, ’what kind of East Tennessee do we want future generations to inherit?’” said Mayor Tom Beehan, City of Oak Ridge.

The Regional Forum Series 2 dialogue events will take two hours each, beginning with a 30-minute open house to welcome citizens, who will be able to visit five stations relating to the PlanET focus areas and view presentation boards and hand-outs about the Phase One findings for each focus area.

Participants can also talk individually with members of the PlanET team as well as local leadership who are involved.

Next, a 10-minute presentation will recap the top strengths and challenges identified in Forum 1 and highlight the PlanET Livability Report’s “scorecard.”

From there, 50-minute small-group discussions will enable participants to answer three questions related to a regional vision. Following a short break, group responses will be consolidated, and members of each small group will be able to vote on priorities they think are most important.

As a final point, the forum meeting will conclude with an overview of what will happen with that meeting’s results. Participants will also be urged to continue providing their ideas on PlanET’s free online “town hall” tool, MindMixer, which provides continuous access for citizens to contribute their ideas – whether or not they attend an actual forum meeting.

“We’re now getting to the really fun part and some of the most substantive elements of PlanET, and that’s the conceptual thought about what the people of this five-county East Tennessee area want their region to be,” said Mayor Beehan. “We hope to see a big turn-out at each of the regional forum dialogue events in all five counties – plus participation online through MindMixer.”

About PlanET
Plan East Tennessee (PlanET) is a regional partnership of communities building a shared direction for the future of Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon and Union counties.

PlanET seeks ideas about preserving valuable resources and addressing challenges regarding jobs, housing, transportation, a clean environment, and community health. The goal: to create long-term solutions for investments in the region and to define the next chapter in the region’s rich history, leaving a legacy of optimism and opportunity for future generations.

PlanET is overseen by the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) and managed through the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO), through a grant awarded from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program to the City of Knoxville.

UPCOMING KEY DATES:

PlanET Regional Leadership Dialogue and Board of Mayors Meeting:
Thursday, April 19, 2012, 1:30-3:30 p.m. / Flatwater Grill, Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Forum Series 2 Community Events:
Doors open 15 minutes prior to forum; public invited to come early.

April 23 | Blount County | 6 p.m.
Alcoa Service Center
725 Universal Street | Alcoa

April 24 | Anderson County | 5:30 p.m.
Anderson County High School
130 Maverick Circle | Clinton

April 25 | Knox County South | 6:30 p.m.
South Doyle Middle School
3900 Decatur Drive | Knoxville

April 26 | Loudon County | 6 p.m.
Loudon County Technology Center
4380 Harrison Rd | Lenoir City

April 27 | Knox County East | 10 a.m.
O’Connor Senior Center
611 Winona Street | Knoxville

April 28 | Union County | 10 a.m.
Union County High School
150 Main Street | Maynardville

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PlanET Kicks off 2012 with Focus on Expanding Opportunities for Community Input–“MindMixer” Online Tool Provides Easy Forum for Idea Exchange

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Knoxville, Tenn. – As Plan East Tennessee, or PlanET, broadens its 2012 regional planning efforts for Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon and Union counties with continued community face-to-face dialogues, the initiative also has launched a free online town hall tool to spur citizen participation, “MindMixer.”

A regional partnership of communities building a shared direction for the future, PlanET is seeking ideas about protecting valuable resources and addressing local challenges in five key areas: jobs, housing, transportation, a clean environment and community health.

“We have been pleased with the turnouts throughout the five counties to gather citizen input from all walks of life about the long-term direction of our regional community,” said Mayor Tom Taylor, City of Maryville, PlanET Board of Mayors Vice-Chair.

“While our face-to-face input sessions are an ideal way to gather peoples’ ideas, we also offer a supplement to these in-person forums through our online town hall, MindMixer,” Mayor Taylor said.

MindMixer is a virtual town hall forum that facilitates community planning dialogues online. Accessible through the PlanET website (http://engage.planeasttn.org/), anyone can join the dialogue and contribute ideas.

“The PlanET virtual town hall is a great way for folks to weigh in with their own ideas, in their own words, about specific regional issues,” Mayor Taylor said. “For people with busy schedules who can’t attend a meeting, it provides terrific interactive access to the PlanET process of generating community input.”

The online forum allows participants to help prioritize ideas by voting with “Love it!,” “Like It!,” “It’s OK,” or “Neutral” feedback buttons – with a certain number of points assigned to each level of feedback. This forum enables community-supported ideas to rise to the top of the discussion.

Participants online also can earn their own points for a variety of prizes such as gift certificates and free passes by registering with MindMixer, contributing ideas, responding to others’ ideas, and referring friends to participate – making the system fun and motivational.

Citizens also can view a schedule of all upcoming community events on PlanET’s online calendar: http://www.planeasttn.org/Participate/EventCalendar.aspx//

Community Participation is Essential
“A big part of our goal with PlanET is to hear from a diverse and active base of citizens and organizations throughout the region and maintain their participation in this long-term planning effort,” Mayor Tom Beehan, City of Oak Ridge, PlanET Board of Mayor’s Chairperson said. “We want them to get fully engaged in this process and become active partners for the most ‘livable’ East Tennessee possible, from now through many decades in the future.”

While a key result of PlanET centers on developing an actual plan for the region, one of the most important outcomes is to establish a committed coalition of leaders, organizations and individuals who will follow through the plan to implementation and continue regional involvement that extends beyond the 36-month PlanET project, Mayor Beehan said.

Differentiating PlanET From “Nine Counties, One Vision”
According to Mayor Beehan, one of the most common misperceptions is that PlanET is simply a repeat of “Nine Counties, One Vision,” which isn’t accurate.

“Many people remember ‘Nine Counties, One Vision’ from over a decade ago, which was a large-scale visioning effort that had a variety of positive outcomes for the region,” Mayor Beehan said. “However, PlanET is much different.”

Unlike “Nine Counties,” PlanET focuses on a more cohesive economic region – the Knoxville region, defined in part by worker commuting patterns showing a strong degree of economic interdependence across county lines.

While “Nine Counties” was based on an immediate regional visioning process, PlanET is focused on long-term community involvement and actual implementation of a plan that will continue long after the three-year PlanET grant ends in 2013.

Over the three-year PlanET process, which began in late summer 2011, three phases will lead to a targeted, meaningful outcome.

Phase One (August 2011 – July 2012) will bring East Tennesseans together to establish a shared identity and vision. Phase Two (April 2012 – March 2013) will take that vision and will develop a shared direction with continued citizen input. Phase Three (January 2013 – December 2013) will produce and report the final product, again with continued citizen input, and focus on implementation activities.

About PlanET
Plan East Tennessee (PlanET) is a regional partnership of communities building a shared direction for the future of Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon and Union counties.

PlanET seeks ideas about protecting valuable resources and addressing challenges regarding jobs, housing, transportation, a clean environment, and community health. The goal: to create long-term solutions for investments in the region and to define the next chapter in the region’s rich history, leaving a legacy of optimism and opportunity for future generations.

PlanET is overseen by the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) and managed through the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO), through a grant awarded from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program.

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Communities Have to Know Who They Want to Be for Economic Future

Monday, March 28th, 2011

By Mary Beth West, APR

We’ve focused some of our blog posts this month on the topic of public relations’ impact on local community development. 

As business enterprises in and of themselves, municipal entities and the organizations that support them – such as chambers of commerce, industrial boards and special economic development initiatives – must have a cohesive business plan in order to achieve prosperity for a local community.

Some interesting and rather challenging aspects drive how these entities must operate along these lines:

  • Achieving buy-in and unity – Because of the diversity of stakeholders within any community, one of the foundational pieces of getting a cohesive business plan together rests with the buy-in part.  Different stakeholders inevitably want different things from their community’s future, and even if the end-game is relatively agreed-upon, there may be a dozen different opinions as to strategy and methods.  Strong, collaborative leadership in a community is absolutely essential in arriving at the core business plan, inclusive of goal, objectives, strategies and tactics.
  • Looking long, long-term – Local cities and regions know better than any other types of organizations that you can’t just flip a switch with the creation of a business plan and suddenly achieve all you’ve set out to be.   These groups’ leaderships must be visionary in their approach, easily looking 20, 30, even 50 years into the future to develop their game plan for infrastructure development.  That infrastructure ultimately has to build, attract and retain the types of business and industry that will make their community produce the quality of life desired for current and future generations.
  • Creating an effective brand – Mobilizing a city or region’s business plan with an effective marketing program represents a critical component of building the area’s future.  So few regions get to the point of creating a strategy that works.  Often, a cohesive brand and supporting message never gels because the community just can’t ever agree what they want to be or how they want to leverage their assets (i.e. the buy-in and unity problem).  Other times, the message that’s ultimately developed just isn’t authentic . . . it doesn’t ring true with the decision-makers potentially locating their businesses in the area, for example.

I participated a few weeks ago in a terrific program hosted by Leadership Blount, “Generations at Work,” which was hosted at the Blount campus of Pellissippi State.  Attendees from late-teens in age through four generations up (Millenials, Generation X, Boomers, Matures) were in attendance, all discussing how Blount County will be impacted by the needs of an age-diverse community.

Each generational group was asked to break into individual sessions to discuss what the top community priority should be.  Interestingly, all of the groups unanimously arrived at education as a priority, if not the priority, of the future.  

This type of exercise involving community members as well as decision-makers is an excellent example of how communities can launch an effort to develop a strong business plan for their futures.  For an initiative of this sort, the best public relations plan evolves from the inside-out.

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PR’s Impact on Local Economies for Better Business

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

by Tyra E. Haag
@tyratuckerhaag

As Mahatma Gandhi  once said, “Speed is irrelevant if you’re going in the wrong direction.”

Public relations creates a lasting impact for local businesses and savvy business owners to understand the credibility PR creates when implemented properly.

In an October 2010 article posted on Hispanic PRBlog, Gary McCormick, APR, Fellow PRSA, immediate past chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), was quoted as saying, “From other studies and anecdotal information, we have found that the strategic value of public relations continues to outpace that of other professional service industries, and that within the Los Angeles area, the public relations profession is offering an economic boost, clearly benefiting the local economy.”

Similar sentiments can be found within a December 2010 blog post on CommPro.Biz by Scott Harris, president of Mustang Marketing. According to Harris, “PR has the power to reach people in a way ads both cannot and do not, and today, when the name of the game more than ever before is ROI, PR has the solid track record.”

With this month’s blog topic surrounding PR’s impact on local economies for better business, I asked Tammi Ford, executive vice president for the Blount Partnership, the following question:

How has the Blount Chamber of Commerce used public relations strategies and tactics over the years to attract business, industry and tourism to Blount County?

Here is Tammi’s response:

The Blount Partnership, which consists of the Blount County Chamber of Commerce, Chamber Foundation, Economic Development Board and Smoky Mountain Convention & Visitors Bureau, develops an action plan for the year.  Our PR strategy is based on our yearly action plan. 

While each organization’s mission and audience are different, the end result is the same – economic prosperity.  Whether it’s helping area businesses to be successful, recruiting new business or increasing tourism dollars, the bottom line is building the Blount County economy. 

The Chamber offers a variety of benefits, services, and programs to help area businesses grow.  We develop a yearly communications/PR plan to promote these activities, which includes a monthly newsletter printed in The Daily Times, two monthly e-news campaigns (with tracking capabilities), face-to-face contact, media events and press releases to area media.  We also push information out, including member news, through our website and social nets such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Chamber blog. 

How do we measure the success of our communications plan?  Business growth, business assistance, new members, retention, attendance, participation, website visits, and social media interactions.

To promote tourism and business travel, the Smoky Mountains Convention & Visitors Bureau (SMCVB) has a yearly marketing plan coupled with a PR plan.  The SMCVB has been very aggressive in hosting events throughout the year where thousands of people flock to the area.  For these events, our PR schedule includes:  email campaigns to past festival “go-ers,” media releases, targeted tourism/travel publications, website and of course, social media. 

How do we measure success?   By the number of heads in beds and the increase in revenue for area retailers.

The Economic Development Board (EDB) uses strategies to recruit new business to the area.  One of the target audiences are site selectors.  Our organization has face-to-face time with these selectors every year, but their preferred method of communications – e-mail and website.  To stay in front of them on a regular basis, we have an e-news campaign with tracking capabilities that keeps them updated on Blount industry news.  We’ve also given these site selectors flash drives packed-full of Blount County information (i.e. demographics, maps, available sites and buildings.) 

Additionally, our website – www.blountindustry.com – won the International Economic Development Council best website award for our demographic.  The EDB also uses social nets to spread the word. 

How do we measure success?  By increased prospect activity and site visits.

The Public Relations Society of America also offers the following message point about the impact of PR within an article titled “Communicating Public Relations’ Value: Business Value and Public Good are Essence of PR Today.” Below is a portion of the article:

  • A survey of chief marketing officers at major national and global advertisers conducted by the Association of National Advertisers found that the value public relations delivers as part of the overall marketing mix is increasing. Why? A few reasons. Public relations is closer to the perspectives, objectives and concerns of corporate CEOs than any other communication or marketing discipline. Public relations also sees “the whole corporate picture,” as it relates to issues that CEOs worry about. Finally, public relations is a key driver of business outcomes critical to organizational success, including crisis mitigation, reputation and brand building, consumer engagement, sales generation, wealth creation, issues management and beneficial shifts in constituent attitudes and behaviors.

When implemented properly, it seems pretty clear how impactful the public relations profession  can be while boosting the all-mighty bottom line – for local businesses and the economy.

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New West Fleet Service for Commercial Vehicles Now Open

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Facility will service any make or model of medium to heavy-duty vehicle; Offers latest technology in truck repair equipment

Alcoa, Tenn. — West Fleet Service, a new division of Alcoa-based West Chevrolet, announced today the opening of its service center for any make or model of commercial medium to heavy-duty vehicles in operational fleets of businesses, government agencies or non-profit organizations.

Previously, no auto dealerships in Blount County offered large-scale commercial vehicle fleet parts and service for maintenance and repair, forcing many local companies to venture to Knoxville.

“We’ve identified this niche sector as a viable way to grow our overarching business while meeting a significant need in our marketplace,” said Charles West, president of parent company West Chevrolet. 

“With today’s regulatory requirements for diesel engines in new commercial vehicles driving sales prices up by $3,000 to $4,000, many fleet managers are holding on to their vehicles longer,” West said.  “Keeping older vehicles in service requires steady attention to maintenance and repair, and this facility is here to provide that.”

In addition to servicing Chevrolet and GMC vehicles, West anticipates at least 80 percent of trucks serviced at the facility will be non-GM branded, including Ford, Dodge, Volvo, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, UD/ Nissan Diesel, Mack, International and Sterling, to name some.

The facility will service most any vehicle under an 18-wheeler in size, such as dump trucks, delivery trucks, flatbeds, RVs, buses, forklifts and emergency service vehicles.

To assist companies with existing service agreements elsewhere, West Fleet Service will honor most service agreements for any leased fleet vehicles, such as Enterprise, GE Capital and ARI.

West Fleet Service recently began operating in former warehouse space on Northpark Boulevard in Alcoa, behind the West Chevrolet dealership’s Alcoa Highway / Airport Motor Mile location.

With nearly 19,000 square feet, the center includes four service bay areas, staffed by three experienced mechanics for now, with more mechanics to be added as the business grows.  Annual contributions by West Fleet Service to the local and state tax base are anticipated to be more than $100,000.

The facility operates with some of the latest truck repair equipment available.

“West Fleet Service is the first and only fleet service provider in the Greater Knoxville area with electric, above-ground, portable lifts – which means we operate our lifts with no hydraulic fluids, making the facility more environmentally friendly,” said Service Manager Doug Reynolds. “In addition, we always recycle engine oil.”

The new, portable electric lifts are made by Rotary and can lift up to 52,000 pounds, which is roughly the weight of a fire truck loaded with water.

West Chevrolet has offered fleet truck service on a limited basis for years, with two large in-house work bays within the dealership’s service department devoted to truck service, as well as a veteran full-time mechanic.  All commercial truck servicing will transition to the West Fleet Service building.

West Fleet Service will operate Mondays through Thursdays, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.   A grand opening event is set to take place Tuesday, March 29, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

About West Fleet Service
Launched in 2011 as a division of West Chevrolet, West Fleet Service (http://www.westfleetservice.com/) provides full maintenance and repair services for any make or model of commercial medium to heavy-duty vehicles in operational fleets for businesses, government agencies or non-profit organizations.

About West Chevrolet
Celebrating 80 years in business serving Blount County and East Tennessee, West Chevrolet (http://www.westchevrolet.com/) is a fourth-generation, family-owned franchise dealership in Alcoa, Tenn.

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Quality of Life and Lifelong Learning

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

By Joe Bogardus, Director of Client Service

“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
                                                                  – Mark Twain

Like Mark Twain, I am a former resident of Elmira, NY. That is where I received much of my “schooling” and for 22 years the bulk of the “education” referenced by Twain. It was a great place to grow up. Safe. Secure. Friendly. A quality environment that shaped my value set and where I learned about life.

Community environments have a large impact on the perceived quality of life. This is a perception of many Blount County residents as well.

Last year, working with Bryant Research, we completed a research study for the Blount Education Initiative.  In the study, residents were queried on the importance of living in a community where you can keep on learning to ensure your quality of life was achieved. More than 80 percent of Blount Countians thought it was very important to live in such a community.

This allegiance to learning is being engrained in Blount County’s younger generations. In corresponding surveys completed with the graduating classes at the area’s four local high schools in 2009 and 2010, the vast majority of seniors – more than 95 percent – reported that they planned on continuing their learning experience in college, the military or vocational training. Many of them plan on returning to the county after completing their “schooling.”

If this generation does return to Blount County and they perpetuate this commitment to lifelong learning, it bodes well for the long term quality of life we all enjoy here in our section of East Tennessee.

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New Blount Education Initiative Survey Confirms Parents Play Key Role in Influencing Students to Graduate from High School

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Maryville, Tenn. —   Note to parents: your children are listening. Encourage them to finish their high school education. Note to graduating seniors in Blount County: you have a jump-start on the rest of your life, with more than 90 percent of you planning further education and training after high school.

This information comes from the second annual graduating senior survey by the Blount Education Initiative (BEI), released today and including the area’s four high schools:  Alcoa, Heritage, Maryville and William Blount. Questions ranged from post-high school plans to level of interest in staying in Blount County to join the local workforce.

The survey results confirmed the vital role that parents play in influencing a child to graduate from high school. When asked “Who influenced you the most in your decision to complete high school?” 76 percent of students ranked parents as the most influential, up slightly from BEI’s 2009 study of 75 percent.

“Research consistently tells us that when parents are involved in their children’s educational lives, more positive outcomes are achieved,” said Bonny Millard, executive director of BEI. “A great deal of research is available to validate the profound benefits for both students and schools when parents and family members become participants in their child’s day-to-day educational experience.”

The BEI survey results substantiated the fact that young people look to their families, particularly their parents, to set the example and the expectation about education.

“Blount Education Initiative’s goal is to make education the number one priority in the community, but that can only be achieved if parents are aware of their role in their own child’s educational achievement and actively fulfill it,” Millard said.

The results of the survey revealed that students understand the importance of post-secondary training or education. More than 90 percent said they planned to obtain some type of training, certification or education after high school to help prepare for a career. This includes two- and four-year colleges, career technical training and military service. Only 2 percent said they planned to join the workforce immediately after high school compared to 7 percent in 2009.

Since its inception, one of BEI’s key messages is that students will have to have additional training or education after high school in order to be successful in today’s global economy.

“During the past few years, BEI has urged students to continue their education after high school to prepare for a career and ultimately a better quality of life,” Millard said.  “We’re thrilled that not only do our graduating seniors understand this message, but also that they are following up with action.”

When asked whether or not students felt prepared for life after high school, 87 percent of respondents reported they felt very prepared or somewhat prepared. Up two percentage points from last year, 82 percent of Blount County’s graduating seniors from the four high schools reported plans to attend a two- or four-year college. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning “do not agree at all” and 10 meaning “completely agree,” seniors ranked their level of agreement with several statements regarding educational attainment as follows:
• “It’s important to have a high school education.”  (9.50)
• “Education should be a top priority in Blount County.”  (8.52)
• “It’s important to have a college education.”  (8.12)
• “It’s important to have job training after high school.”  (8.07)
These results were largely comparable to results from the 2009 survey.

“BEI certainly is pleased that seniors from our four high schools widely agree about the importance of graduating from high school and the need to pursue further skills and knowledge after graduation,” said Matt Murray, president of the Blount Education Initiative. 

When students were asked to rate their level of interest in staying in Blount County after high school or moving back after completing college or other training, 50 percent of the graduating seniors said they were either somewhat interested or very interested in either staying or moving back to Blount County.

ABOUT BLOUNT EDUCATION INITIATIVE:
The Blount Education Initiative’s (BEI) mission is to make education the Blount County community’s top priority by developing a sustained public awareness campaign focusing on the critical issues related to education, supporting local schools in their efforts to provide a top-notch education for all students and serving as a bridge between the educational community and businesses to develop meaningful collaborations. 
Achieving consensus about education’s vital importance, and what forms of support are required to achieve educational excellence, requires an organized, concerted campaign involving information exchange, dialogue, learning and persuasion.  That’s why BEI exists – to facilitate this process.

METHODOLOGY FOR BEI SURVEYS IN 2010:
Each of the four high schools in Blount County (Alcoa, Heritage, Maryville and William Blount) asked graduating seniors to complete a one-page written survey for BEI in March 2010.  A total of 876 surveys were completed and returned to BEI.  The survey data was not weighted.

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BEI: Local Educated Workforce Means More Personal Income Plus More Top Businesses Choosing Blount County with New Jobs

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Maryville, Tenn. — Want more jobs in Blount County?  If so, then it’s important for all citizens in the local area to ask a critical question – of themselves, according to the Blount Education Initiative (BEI).

BEI urges citizens who want Blount County to attract and retain employers that offer well-paying, secure jobs to first ask themselves, “Does my own education level offer enough to attract a new employer to Blount County?”

The reason: every resident’s education level is included in local-level statistics on Blount County’s overall educational and workforce readiness.  And for Blount County, the current statistics are not always competitive.

“Many local residents don’t realize the responsibility that we all share in helping this community put its best foot forward to attract new employers here,” said Bonny Millard, executive director of the Blount Education Initiative.

According to local experts, employers weigh local workforce education levels as a major site selection factor.  The lower the average numbers of a local community’s high school and college-educated workforce, the less chance the community will be chosen for a new corporate or facility location.

“It’s tremendously competitive,” said Bryan Daniels, executive vice president of the Blount County Economic Development Board.  “Blount County goes toe-to-toe with other communities across the state, the nation, and sometimes even the world when we compete for great companies to locate here.”

Daniels said he hears more and more from manufacturers and other businesses that a secondary education is a minimum, base-level workforce qualification for the jobs they intend to bring to a local community.

“Most employers require at least a two-year degree or some type of certification just to consider a candidate for hire in this day and age,” Daniels said. “Employers look at the local stats on education when making site selection decisions, and they expect those numbers to reflect a community with well beyond a high school diploma.”

“The jobs they offer require employees to have a solid education,” Daniels said.  “And because of many highly educated communities across the United States and the world, employers can not only expect it, they can demand it.  And they do. Blount County has to compete in a tough marketplace.  The global economy is struggling, and everyplace wants those jobs in their own backyard.”

Matt Murray, chair of the Blount County Economic Development Board, agrees.

“Businesses are attracted to an area because of the skill and education of the workforce, and if a community can prove it ‘has the goods’ from a workforce-readiness standpoint, then the local economy benefits tremendously with companies choosing to locate there,” said Murray, who also serves as president of BEI and associate director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Univ. of Tennessee.

Unfortunately, when competing with other locations across the nation and world, Blount County cannot always tout its workforce as being educationally on par with other communities.  In fact, even within Tennessee alone, statistics from the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau show that Blount County ranks below the 19.5 percent state average for bachelor’s degrees, at just 17.9 percent locally.

The good news, however, is that a wide range of local resources exists for Blount County citizens to ratchet up their educational credentials. 

In addition to college-degree programs, non-traditional educational opportunities are available for working adults who do not have the time or resources to attend classes on a regular basis.  Such non-traditional options include online courses and evening classes.

According to the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at the Univ. of Tennessee, counties in Tennessee with a more educated population have a higher percentage of their working-age adults participating in the labor force, which will make a community more attractive for the location and expansion of business. This situation, in turn, means more job options for community members.

Stronger businesses help feed the local economy through taxes.  The taxes these businesses pay help alleviate some of the strain for local citizens and provide relief for everyone.

Also, according to the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the personal economic benefits are overwhelmingly positive of attaining a college degree, versus only a high school diploma.

In 1975, earnings for workers with a college degree were 50 percent higher than the earnings of similar aged workers with only a high school education. By 2002, college graduates earned 88 percent more.

In addition to higher personal earnings, the 2007 “Education Pays” College Board study reports that the availability of employer-sponsored health benefits and pension plans increases with every level of education completed.

For example, almost 70 percent of full-time employees with at least a bachelor’s degree have access to pension plans, while only 53 percent of high school graduates have that access. The percentage drops to 32 for employees who do not have a high school degree. Likewise, the level of participation in available pension plans increases as education levels increase.

“Investing in education is a sensible way for a community to ensure the well-being of future generations,” Millard said. “Communities must have a vested interest in their local students’ pursuit of higher education to obtain a positive economic impact.  A better-educated workforce is crucial for economic success.”          

About Blount Education Initiative
The Blount Education Initiative’s (BEI) mission is to make education the Blount County community’s top priority by developing a sustained public awareness campaign focusing on the critical issues related to education, supporting local schools in their efforts to provide a top-notch education for all students and serving as a bridge between the educational community and businesses to develop meaningful collaborations. 

Achieving consensus about education’s vital importance, and what forms of support are required to achieve educational excellence, requires an organized, concerted campaign involving information exchange, dialogue, learning and persuasion.  That’s why BEI exists – to facilitate this process.

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