The following is a guest column from Dennis Houser, who is a Sullivan County commissioner and retired educator.
In the early 1990s, a committee was selected to study and to make recommendations for the creation of a metropolitan government in Sullivan County. The proposal to form a consolidated government was defeated overwhelmingly by residents. A similar proposal was also rejected in the early 1980s.
An analysis of the vote would reveal that the city residents were strongly opposed to this idea, while county residents were in favor of this concept.
The Smart Growth Plan was passed by the Tennessee legislature to formulate an organized and structured plan for cities and municipalities to grow. After the passage of this law, the Sullivan County Commission passed a resolution requesting that Kingsport and Bristol not annex any adjacent territory outside their city boundaries for 10 years. The cities agreed to comply with this ordinance.
When the moratorium expired, the cities went on a rampage to make up for lost time. The intent of the Smart Growth Plan was good; however, county governments were left at the mercy of the city governments without any legal means to stop annexation.
In the past 25 years, city leaders of Kingsport and Bristol proclaimed they wanted to do what was best for all students of Sullivan County; however, previous annexations have given little thought or consideration to the residents and students that live in the unincorporated areas of the county. The Sullivan County Board of Education and County Commission cannot provide any long-term objectives to provide a quality education for county students.
The cities choose only to annex the areas that have high property values, including residential and commercial infrastructures that are usually tangent to major highways and corridors. If the city leaders truly believed in their proclamation regarding the welfare of county students, they would have annexed all the land within the proposed expansion and the entire school zone.
As a former teacher at Gravely Elementary for 10 years and former principal of Lynn View Middle School for 10 years, I experienced the negative impact of school closures upon the community, parents, and students. As a past member of the 1983 and 1993 Committee to Study School Consolidation and the Creation of a Metropolitan Government, I have been involved in many conferences and meetings that concentrated on the detrimental effects of annexation and school closures.
And as a county commissioner for 15 years, I have seen commissioners and the county Board of Education struggle to procure funds to provide a quality education for county students.
In light of this experience, I believe that I have the expertise and knowledge to make the following recommendations:
1. Renew the efforts of creating a consolidated school system within Sullivan County.
2. Request that the cities of Kingsport and Bristol provide the Sullivan County Board of Education a list of areas they intend to annex and a timeline to initiate the proposed annexation.
3. Appeal to state senators and state representatives to amend the Smart Growth Plan in order to provide county school systems a legal recourse to curb annexation into unincorporated areas.
4. Ask state legislators to pass a private act empowering the town of Blountville to annex all the territory that lies within the unincorporated areas of Sullivan County, thereby creating an independent school system.
5. Request that the state legislature pass a law permitting only one school system within a county.
The County Commission has been too passive and conservative in generating new sources of revenue to provide essential county services. Therefore, I offer these recommendations:
1. Request that NETWORKS develop an incentive and initiative package to attract small businesses and to offer tax breaks for existing small businesses that are willing to expand within the unincorporated areas of the county.
2. Implement a progressive and aggressive campaign to recruit hotels and restaurants at Exit 69 and other highways that lie within the unincorporated areas.
3. Install signs on I-81 that advertise and promote historical sites, recreational opportunities, natural resources and military parks.
4. Pursue development and promotion of special events, festivities, fishing tournaments, boat shows, athletic competitions and historical celebrations that would attract tourists from Interstates 81 and 26.
5. Install placards along State Route 394 that list small businesses.
6. Develop corridor zoning which would make it more financially feasible for businesses to relocate.
Residents of Sullivan County cannot withstand another tax increase. Kingsport, Bristol, and Johnson City must agree to stop annexation into unincorporated areas of Sullivan County.
Our state representatives and senators must amend the Smart Growth Plan to formulate a means by which counties can protect their boundaries. The County Commission must seek creative ways to generate additional funding for essential services. In addition, cost-efficiency studies should be implemented to evaluate expenditures and debits for each county department.
It is imperative that county officials, city leaders, and state legislators make a cooperative and corroborative effort to design a plan that would assure the survival of the county school system. It is my hope and desire that all the concerned parties and legal entities involved will make a conscientious endeavor to formulate a means by which all county students will be guaranteed an equal opportunity to achieve their academic potential.