La Follette;Jacksboro;Caryville Info Sources? (Knoxville, Newport: real estate, home, jobs)

[onlyme]

Anyone willing to provide insights into the "quality of life" in these towns and the adjacent areas surrounding the lake? I'm considering purchasing property in the area as a retirement residence and would really appreciate hearing any and all feedback and reactions to the notion. Also, if anyone is considering selling their property and has not yet listed with a real estate agent, it might be a great opportunity for us to talk before you do so. Optimally, I'd like to be close to the lake. I plan on spending a large portion of my time fishing.

[NewSeeker]

Be careful in looking at lakes in Tennessee due to many of them being TVA lakes, i.e., formed by dams. If the water level is maintained all year, that would be fine. Some of them are lowered to the original river flow during a goodly part of the year. Case in point: My husband and I very nearly bought some "lake property" back when it was highly affordable (in ****e County, near Newport). Fortunately, on a subsequent trip to E. TN to look for property, we saw the lake in a "drained" condition. It STINKS big time then, and needless to say, if you have "lake front property" it is no longer "lake front property." It is necessary to have "floating" piers that lie down towards the water front when the lake is trained, and slowly rise to horizontal again when the lake is allowed to be filled. I don't know if Norris Lake is like this, but it is worth checking into.

[NewSeeker]

I don't know why the system will not seem to accept the county name, but if ****e County will not print, then you can find the lake I am describing by looking by Newport.

[onlyme]

Thanks so much for the insight about water levels. I'd certainly not considered that thus far. The county name doesn't print for some reason but I can certainly track down the body of water as you suggest. Thanks again for your response..

[Mr. Bighead]

Norris lake is never drained to the original river level, but the level does fluctuate quite a bit and sometimes it gets really low. it's a deep lake, so it never gets that low.

I grew up in Lake City, which a few miles south of Caryville, Jacksboro, and Lafollote. I guess it's an ok place to live if you have family there, but I wouldn't want to move back there. It's full of poor, backward, inbred hillbillies, with a few normal people mixed in. It's the kind of place where people are suspicious of anything unfamiliar, like education or nonhillbilly accents for example. The economy of those three towns basically consists of the schools, the hospital, walmart, social security checks, and crank. The campbell county police department is primarily funded by speeding ticket revenue generated by a nice, wide four-lane highway with a 45mph speed limit.

I know, I'm just a ray of sunshine. You did want an honest opinion, right?

[onlyme]

Mr. BH,

I'd read about the drug problems in the area and suspected that I would encounter rather conservative, if not extremely narrow perspectives. So, thank you for your confirmation of those things.

[local IQ]

Having lived in the Caryville, Jacksboro, LaFollette area most of my life. I find it offensive to paint such an awful picture of the area with such a broad brush. I graduated Campbell County High School with a g.p.a. of 3.86 having 4 advanced mathematics courses and 2 quarters of college level calculus. I was not an exceptional student just mainstream. Did I grow up poor. Yes by most standards I did. I own a local business which was not listed by Mr. BH and there are quite a few "homegrown" businesses which service venues internationally such as trauma center "crash carts", body armor, tents for our troops, The lake levels by the way do drop but what NewSeeker needs to know is that there is a difference in true lakefront with year-round water or just seasonal water. Mr. BH may not know that the average lakehome in our poor pitiful area now exceeds 500K and rises at an average rate of 18% per year. Poor dumb inbred hillbillys?

[Mr. Bighead]

You're right, IQ, I forgot to mention that there are some factory jobs Campbell County. There are still quite a few hillbillies around whose work ethic hasn't yet been destroyed by meth and disability checks, and they'll work cheap. They're lucky if they make about $9 an hour.
I find your $500k figure pretty hard to believe, but I suppose it's possible. Maybe the price is inflated because there are so few lakefront properties available on norris lake. Most of the lakeshore is TVA land. I also neglected to mention that Norris is a really nice lake. The level fluctuates sometimes, but it doesn't matter a whole lot because the lake is deep and it's HUGE. It's a great place for boating. I live in Knoxville now, but I still drive up to norris lake. As I said, there are some normal folks among the hillbillies. Some of them have money.
If still you doubt the validity of my point-of-view, I can draw on my vast collection of hillbilly stories (some of which include me) to show what this area is really like.


btw- If a 3.86 gpa is not exceptional, then Campbell County can add grade inflation to its list of problems.

[Littlelady]

Hi all,I'm new to this forum & juat wanted to say hello to everyone.

[Littlelady]

Originally Posted by Mr. Bighead

Norris lake is never drained to the original river level, but the level does fluctuate quite a bit and sometimes it gets really low. it's a deep lake, so it never gets that low.

I grew up in Lake City, which a few miles south of Caryville, Jacksboro, and Lafollote. I guess it's an ok place to live if you have family there, but I wouldn't want to move back there. It's full of poor, backward, inbred hillbillies, with a few normal people mixed in. It's the kind of place where people are suspicious of anything unfamiliar, like education or nonhillbilly accents for example. The economy of those three towns basically consists of the schools, the hospital, walmart, social security checks, and crank. The campbell county police department is primarily funded by speeding ticket revenue generated by a nice, wide four-lane highway with a 45mph speed limit.

I know, I'm just a ray of sunshine. You did want an honest opinion, right?

How can you be so negitive about a place you grew up??It sounds as if your ashamed of your home town.I bet you still have famile of sorts still living in Lake City.