So where am i looking for? (Kingsport, Cookeville: crime, job market, construction)

[DreamingOfSouthDakota]

Looking for a certain town, requirements are:

Has to be in eastern tn or in the mountainous area of tennessee
has to be within 25 miles of a larger town pop between 10-100k
Decent crime levels dont want a town where people are commiting crime alot of the time low levels of major crime.
Good schools are a must and i would like somewhere with private schools.
Parks for kids to play at, lakes near by,state parks, etc
Somewhere i aint gonna get looked at weird for openly carrying or carrying a concealed weapon.
Employment growth not somewhere thats dying i want a growing town or a steady town with job opputunities.
No Tourist Areas! I live in one now and its very crowded in the summer with, older folks from florida coming up and thinking they own the town.

The towns i am not interested in are

Newport
Mountain City

I have already seen them and do not like them that much.

Also i should mention i am attending school for computer information technology pretty much its to keep computers up and running and networks up and running so somewhere or close to somewhere that i can find decent work, most school systems need these kind of workers so should be simple.

[kamoshika]

A few suggestions: Greeneville, Rogersville, Colonial Heights (unincorporated area next to Kingsport) and Gray. Good luck w/ your search!

[DreamingOfSouthDakota]

Thank you. Anyone else have a suggestion?

[DreamingOfSouthDakota]

Well i like gray and colonial heights so far without actually seeing them, can anyone give me the border of where the mountainous areas start in tn? Like from top to bottom give me the first county all the way down, ill look up the towns in each county and go from there and come back and ask questions.

[kamoshika]

Originally Posted by DreamingOfSouthDakota

...can anyone give me the border of where the mountainous areas start in tn?

As I suggested in this post, you can pull up a Google terrain map of East TN to see where the most mountainous areas are. In NE Tenn. that includes pretty much every county (Greene, Hawkins, Sullivan, Johnson, Washington, Carter & Unicoi).

[Psychop1]

I'd have to suggest my hometown of Crossville. Still one of the fastest growing counties in Tennessee, which is somewhat impressive considering the population is 50,000 plus. Crossville has two high schools, six elementary schools, and five private schools. Also, there is TTC and a satellite branch of RSCC. As far as mountains go, Cumberland CO (county Crossville resides in) is located on top of a plateau. Cookeville and Harriman would also be good options, though Cookeville is closer to Nashville (middle TN).

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Psychop1

I'd have to suggest my hometown of Crossville. Still one of the fastest growing counties in Tennessee, which is somewhat impressive considering the population is 50,000 plus. Crossville has two high schools, six elementary schools, and five private schools. Also, there is TTC and a satellite branch of RSCC. As far as mountains go, Cumberland CO (county Crossville resides in) is located on top of a plateau. Cookeville and Harriman would also be good options, though Cookeville is closer to Nashville (middle TN).

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with Crossville because the OP wants good schools. Not only are Cumberland County schools average at best, the fiasco with funding them this year has been an embarrassment for the entire state. The fact that the schools opened weeks after they were supposed to open because the county refused to fund them is inexcusable.

The web site greatschools.net gives Crossville's schools a score of 6 out of 10. By comparison, Cookeville's schools have a score of 8 out of 10 and include 2 elementary schools with perfect scores of 10 out of 10.

The OP also wants a place with job growth, and Cumberland County has been losing jobs like crazy the last year. The August 2008 employment figures show that there are 1500 fewer jobs in Cumberland County than there were in August 2007.

Crossville is a good place if you're retired and enjoy playing a lot of golf. But if someone needs excellent schools and good job opportunities, there are other places in Tennessee that would be better.

[DreamingOfSouthDakota]

Where would you suggest?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by DreamingOfSouthDakota

Where would you suggest?

I think kamoshika offered some great suggestions. In that same area check out Jonesborough, Blountville, and Elizabethton.

[Psychop1]

Originally Posted by JMT

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with Crossville because the OP wants good schools. Not only are Cumberland County schools average at best, the fiasco with funding them this year has been an embarrassment for the entire state. The fact that the schools opened weeks after they were supposed to open because the county refused to fund them is inexcusable.

The web site greatschools.net gives Crossville's schools a score of 6 out of 10. By comparison, Cookeville's schools have a score of 8 out of 10 and include 2 elementary schools with perfect scores of 10 out of 10.

The OP also wants a place with job growth, and Cumberland County has been losing jobs like crazy the last year. The August 2008 employment figures show that there are 1500 fewer jobs in Cumberland County than there were in August 2007.

Crossville is a good place if you're retired and enjoy playing a lot of golf. But if someone needs excellent schools and good job opportunities, there are other places in Tennessee that would be better.

The stats you are quoting are quite misleading. Putnam County has great schools, and for that reason alone, would be a great option to live, but the comparisons to Cumberland County's better schools are similar. The exception is that some of Putnam's test scores are omitted.

Tennessee schools - TN elementary, middle and high school information

Tennessee schools - TN elementary, middle and high school information

As far as the job market goes, you'd have to have been living under a rock to not realize that we are experiencing economic problems nation wide. Even so, our unemployment rate actually looks like normal fluctuation, and jobs are already back on the rise as we speak. Here's some info on that.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

The "fiasco" with funding the schools wasn't that big of a deal, though it was completely political, and a bit divisive. That was simply the county commission making a stand against a very ambitious board of education. It seems like a new school is being constructed every two or three years (one being constructed right now). That's not necessarily a bad thing, simply unnecessary at this time. Some of the schools have close to half the capacity they can handle at this time, and the continuous construction of new schools eats away at the budget for other projects, such as the skate park being built. Not by far the first city to have growing pains.

You do make a good point about golf though. Eleven courses in the area.