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Bluegrass Passings

As we lost two music icons, I was reminded of my economic development 'Why'

By Clay Walker, CEcD

The past quarter has been a very busy time for us at NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership. Among the headline-grabbing activities have been the LeClerc Foods expansion announcement, celebrating Domtar’s re-opening, and the second Site Development Grant of $1 million to be awarded by TNECD for the improvement of property in Partnership Park II as we finished up site work on the 35-acre rail-served site that was awarded the first $1 million grant.

That’s quite a bit for a quarter. In the meantime, we have also had an in-person existing industry meeting and an industry appreciation golf outing, obtained a workforce development grant in addition to applying for another, presented several sites as part of TNECD’s Property Evaluation Program, and hosted a handful of other prospects.

On top of all of that, we have been preparing for a live announcement that will occur, as fate would have it, later today – today being July 12, the day this quarterly report goes out to the world.

All of these endeavors made it easy to lose sight of some of the things that have happened in the world. I am pleased that two news items didn’t escape me, although neither was news I was thrilled to hear. Two Bluegrass music legends passed away in recent weeks, both of whom I feel a unique connection… a sort of kinship really.

While I enjoy Bluegrass, I can’t say as I am its biggest fan. I usually prefer more traditional country music, but being from Western Kentucky, the Birthplace of Bluegrass, it wouldn’t be right for me not to appreciate the genre. I was fortunate to meet one of the early stars of Bluegrass when I lived and worked in Gallatin, just outside of Nashville. That was the home of Jesse McReynolds, who along with his brother Jim (who passed away many years ago) made up the Grand Ole Opry duo Jim and Jesse. For several of his later years, Jesse and many of his musical buddies performed a radio show right from his kitchen every Friday morning, open to whoever happened to walk in.

Once I learned of this, I wasted little time in joining some city council members and others for a show. There was no admission charged to attend, other than each guest having a quick conversation with Jesse. Mine went a little longer than the norm when he learned where my roots were and that I knew a little about Bluegrass. In my honor, he and the boys played John Prine’s Paradise, in honor of my dad who taught the tune to my brothers and me anytime we passed through Muhlenberg County, the coal community that inspired the hit. As a bonus fun fact, one of the McReynolds’ grandfathers played in a band that was recorded at the Bristol Sessions.

Another sibling act, The Osborne Brothers, lost their final member, when Bobby joined his younger brother Sonny, in the hereafter. Around Northeast Tennessee, the Osborne Brothers will always be best known for recording the quintessential version of Rocky Top. They also recorded My Old Kentucky Home, which means they recorded the state songs for both the states I have called home.

Mostly though, I think that I have such reverence for these great duos for being brothers since my love for Bluegrass was born from trips to our family farm or across the state to visit relatives in Lexington when Dad would teach these songs to his three boys. These memories have become more precious to me and my younger brother Brad since we lost our big brother Greg some six years ago. They are also a way to connect with Dad, who has struggled with dementia in recent years, but still remembers most of the words to the music we play during our visits, particularly Paradise.

So, what is this reminiscing about two Bluegrass Brother groups’ longest surviving members passing away doing in an economic development organization’s quarterly report?

The work our team does day in and day out is done with the ultimate goal of helping provide opportunities for families to better their lots in life, as they pursue their own American dreams. Just as my dad - whose office equipment business's biggest clients were manufacturing plants - was able to buy the car and the gas that went in it to take his family across Kentucky, belting out lyrics about the world’s largest shovel, shooting at pop bottles, and exploring the banks of the Green River, companies like LeClerc and Domtar, and those that eventually will populate our other developing industrial sites, offer those opportunities to our neighbors. From such commerce, other families are able to make their own such memories. Memories – as I heard a 76-year-old Jesse McReynolds so joyfully sing all those years ago – that can be so often remembered that those memories are worn.

One final note, if the last line of the previous paragraph doesn’t register with you, please click here. You will thank me for it.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter, and Leclerc Foods Tennessee LLC officials announced on April 27th, the company will expand manufacturing operations at its U.S. headquarters in Kingsport, Tennessee.

Leclerc Foods will invest $3.4 million and create 48 new jobs in Sullivan County.

In addition to job creation, the food manufacturer will expand by adding machinery to support a new production line in both of its facilities on Airport Parkway.

Click for more

Watch highlights from the event

TNECD press release

Domtar executives and employees joined state and local dignitaries for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Kingsport Mill grand reopening celebration.

The event marked the completion of the mill’s conversion into our first 100 percent recycled containerboard facility. The two-year project transformed the mill’s uncoated freesheet paper machine into the second-largest 100 percent-recycled containerboard machine in North America, capable of producing approximately 600,000 tons of high-quality recycled linerboard and corrugated medium annually.

Read more here

Click for more about the conversion

Watch highlights from the event.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter announced today 10 new Site Development Grant recipients.

The grants, totaling approximately $5.9 million, are designed to help communities invest in infrastructure and engineering improvements to land economic development projects and achieve Select Tennessee site certification.

“We’re committed to providing rural communities with the resources needed to support continued investment and create quality jobs for Tennesseans,” said Lee. “I thank the General Assembly for partnering with us to fund these 10 additional industrial sites and look forward to the economic growth and opportunity that will result from these projects.”

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NETWORKS was excited to get back to a live and in-person industry event.

Thank you to Domtar for hosting over 30 company representatives for our Existing Industry Networking event which featured information from Nicole Townsend with the U.S. Chamber, about the Hiring our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program.

We had an extra bonus by taking a tour of the newly converted Kingsport mill.

NETWORKS and its partner communities recently participated in TNECD’s Property Evaluation Program. The main goal of the Select Tennessee Property Evaluation Program is to expand the state’s inventory of both industrial sites and existing buildings through an evaluation of a community’s existing inventory that prioritizes where investment may be most beneficial and what steps may be needed to address issues and shortcomings.

Prepared and available industrial properties are essential for a community to be competitive for industrial recruitment. However, developing and maintaining this inventory is difficult and many communities have few quality properties available for the market. To address this need TNECD, through the assistance of Austin Consulting, has developed a service to assist communities with evaluating properties under consideration for development. Built on the principles and foundation of the Select Tennessee Site Certification program and incorporating Austin Consulting’s experience in corporate site location work, the Select Tennessee Property Evaluation program has been developed to assist communities by providing professional advice about the value and the potential for new investment in various industrial properties. This program will benefit communities by emphasizing the importance of and assisting with planning for the future. This includes both readying industrial properties for near-term development as well as creating a pipeline of properties for future development. Additionally, this program serves as a prerequisite for Site Development Grant funding.

What has become par for the course at the golf outing, we started with a bit of rain. However, that did not deter forty industry golf diehards from enjoying a day of golf, food, and fun. The sun did make a cameo appearance towards the end.

Thank you to the Northeast TN industries for investing in the community and its citizens; we appreciate all you do.

We welcome Bristol City Manager Kelli Bourgeois from Columbia Heights, Minnesota to the Tri-Cities.

“My primary goal is learning and getting to know people,” Bourgeois told News Channel 11. “One of the [most fun] parts of my job and a big responsibility is just to get out and meet people and see what we should be doing and what we could be doing to help and make sure businesses and residents have the best experience living and working here that they can.”

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Get to know Kelli Bourgeois

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