Moving to Tn. from Pa (Cookeville, Crossville: lawyer, house, find a job)

[movingtotenn]

Hello everyone,
We are moving to Tn. from Pa. in the near future. We have a friend in Crossville we visited and we loved it... Everyone is so friendly down there, unlike up here. We are looking into the areas of Crossville, Cookville, Sparta and Livingston. Does anyone have any info on if these areas have high speed internet, good hospitals, good schools, playgrounds, good cell phone connections for verizon?? Were looking for some land also like around 10 acres for growing veggies and my flowers =), Do they have good soil for that? I only moved once and that was 5 min from the house I grew up in and currently live now. We are 26 and 31 and we have a 6 yr old daughter. Thanks sooo much for all your help
Sabrina

[JMT]

Originally Posted by movingtotenn

Hello everyone,
We are moving to Tn. from Pa. in the near future. We have a friend in Crossville we visited and we loved it... Everyone is so friendly down there, unlike up here. We are looking into the areas of Crossville, Cookville, Sparta and Livingston. Does anyone have any info on if these areas have high speed internet, good hospitals, good schools, playgrounds, good cell phone connections for verizon?? Were looking for some land also like around 10 acres for growing veggies and my flowers =), Do they have good soil for that? I only moved once and that was 5 min from the house I grew up in and currently live now. We are 26 and 31 and we have a 6 yr old daughter. Thanks sooo much for all your help
Sabrina

You've picked a beautiful part of Tennessee! The Cumberland Plateau has lots of lakes, waterfalls, deep gorges, natural bridges, and beautiful farm land.

Cookeville and Crossville are the two largest towns, Cookeville is by far the largest. Crossville is the most popular retirement area and has a much older population. Cookeville has a university (not a party school, don't worry) and a lot more younger families. It also has the bulk of the region's shopping, restaurants, and other entertainment. Crossville has more golf courses.

Cookeville and Crossville both have good hospitals. Cookeville's is the largest and has one of the state's 5 busiest heart centers, but the Crossville hospital is also highly regarded.

High speed internet is available all over the Plateau. Verizon is available all over the Plateau, too, although Cookeville and Crossville would probably have better strength because they're right on an interstate highway. According to Verizon's coverage map, Sparta and Livingston are also covered although some of the more rural areas north of Monterey don't have good coverage particularly Fentress County as well as areas south and east of Crossville.

As far as schools go, Putnam County has the highest rated system in that area, easily one of the highest rated in the entire state. According to greatschools.net (which uses standardized tests to rate every school in the country) here's how the towns in that area of the Plateau stack up (10 being the highest):

Baxter (Putnam County schools): 8/10
Cookeville (Putnam County schools): 8/10
Crossville (Cumberland County schools): 6/10
Livingston (Overton County schools): 6/10
Monterey (Putnam County schools): 7/10
Sparta (White County schools): 7/10

You can check the state Department of Education report card for individual systems and schools here:
Tennessee Department of Education - Report Card - Profile

Of course, any school can offer a solid education as long as the parents are involved in their kids' education, but it's also helpful when the parents have such good schools to work with.

Good luck!

[Wordy]

Boyertown, huh? I know right where that is. I have a close relative who recently moved to TN from Boyertown.

I would think Cookeville/Putnam County would be a better fit for you than Crossville, but I don't know anything at all about Livingston.

There are lots of parks in Cookeville and tons of activities for children. I would say the hospital in Cookeville is the main one for the region--it takes transfers from Crossville and Livingston all the time and it has a very busy OB dept because some of the other hospitals (not sure if Crossville is one) are closing their OB units.

I wish you the best of luck with your plans. Boyertown's OK, but I think you'll really like Tennessee!

[movingtotenn]

Thank you everyone for your help!!!

[CaptMarvel]

Originally Posted by movingtotenn

Hello everyone,
We are moving to Tn. from Pa. in the near future. We have a friend in Crossville we visited and we loved it... Everyone is so friendly down there, unlike up here. We are looking into the areas of Crossville, Cookville, Sparta and Livingston. Does anyone have any info on if these areas have high speed internet, good hospitals, good schools, playgrounds, good cell phone connections for verizon?? Were looking for some land also like around 10 acres for growing veggies and my flowers =), Do they have good soil for that? I only moved once and that was 5 min from the house I grew up in and currently live now. We are 26 and 31 and we have a 6 yr old daughter. Thanks sooo much for all your help
Sabrina

Hi there, I just come upon your thread. I am originally from Pa, and I've been living in Crossville for over 4 years now. To answer a few of you questions. Crossville does have highspeed Internet, I am pretty sure that Cookeville has high speed internet, as for Sparta and Livingston I'm not sure. There are good connections with verizon cell phones, depends on where you are at tho, all in all I can't complain about reception. As for hospital, Crossville has the worst, but Cookeville hospital is good. Crossville schools are ok, but this past August they couldn't come up with a budget for the 08-09 school year, due to the county commission not wanting to fund a lot of money for the schools. Crossville has a big park called Centenial Park, it's a nice park for a small town. Soil for growing things is ok, it's mainly Rocky, specially here on the Mountain, the further south you go you run in to red clay. Crossville is a nice place to live, they do have some ups and downs here, but that's like everywhere else just about, work here is hard to find and if you find a job in Crossville the pay isn't all that great unless you are a lawyer or doctor, some places pay alright but not the greatest. Anyway have a good day, and what's the persons name you saw here in Tennessee? What part of Pa do you live in?

[PeacefulOnLakeCherokee]

There is life beyond Crossville. Seems like a large percentage of the natural progression of people moving here from the north is to start at Crossville/Cookeville and slowly move towards knoxville as they get tired of driving an hour to a major dr. or better shopping/dining.

In short, expore other areas (besides tellico village), scenery, weather, recreation, lifestyle imroves as you move east towards the gorgeous mountains, lakes and rivers. You may end up finding out Crossville is the spot, if you do, great! welcome to TN!