Moving from PA to Tn. NEED HELP!!! (Knoxville, Chattanooga: leasing, crime rates)

[busymomami]

Hello everyone, I work for Penske Truck Leasing and need help finding different towns around TN where there are Penske locations. I am also looking for towns with good collleges. I'm looking to rent a house in the country. I hate the city. I may be from the north but I'm a country girl at heart. I talk to people from TN everyday and ask all kinds of questions but I am at work and it's hard to really know where they are talking about. I am looking on the internet as well. I just thought I would ask for some help and see what happens. I have heard nothing but great things about living in TN. So I'm very excited.

Here are the different locations:
Blountville
Chattanooga
Clarksville
Cleveland
Columbia
Cookeville
Jackson
Knoxville
Lavergne
Lebanon
Morristown
Murfreesboro

Thanks for your help

[JMT]

Originally Posted by busymomami

Hello everyone, I work for Penske Truck Leasing and need help finding different towns around TN where there are Penske locations. I am also looking for towns with good collleges. I'm looking to rent a house in the country. I hate the city. I may be from the north but I'm a country girl at heart. I talk to people from TN everyday and ask all kinds of questions but I am at work and it's hard to really know where they are talking about. I am looking on the internet as well. I just thought I would ask for some help and see what happens. I have heard nothing but great things about living in TN. So I'm very excited.

Here are the different locations:
Blountville
Chattanooga
Clarksville
Cleveland
Columbia
Cookeville
Jackson
Knoxville
Lavergne
Lebanon
Morristown
Murfreesboro

Thanks for your help

There are only a couple of towns on that list that I would not recommend, Jackson and Morristown. But others might recommend Jackson and Morristown.

It might be helpful if you could tell us how large or small of a town you want. Also, what do you plan on studying in college? All of those towns in your list (except LaVergne) have either a public university, a community college, or a private college, so you need to tell us a bit more about what you want to study. For example, if you want to go to school to be a diesel mechanic we could steer you towards a different school than if you wanted to be a civil engineer.

In the mean time, you can do a forum search to find threads about those cities. You can also check out the city-data.com pages for each of those cities to see their crime rates, cost of living comparisons, weather patterns, etc.

Good luck!

[vivelafrance]

I would recommend Lebanon. It's a great small town with a good college (Cumberland University)

I would not recommend Lavergne. It's more of an industrial type city between Nashville and Murfreesboro.

[Jim37680]

Blountville is the unincorporated county seat of Sullivan County and the Penske facility there is not actually in Blountville (a small, historic village) but in a somewhat rural community called Gunnings. The Penske facility is directly on the side of I-81 and across the Interstate from Sullivan Central High School. This is about midway between the centers of Bristol and Kingsport (see Kingsport-Bristol-Johnson City forum here) and very convenient to both. There are many homes along the principal roads in this community and also a few scattered sub-divisions nearby so finding something convenient should not be a problem. In Johnson City (about 20 miles distant) is East Tennessee State University, a school of 10,000+ where you can get a degree in Accounting (for example) and also get a minor in Bluegrass Music or Storytelling (also, for example). Check this out:
YouTube - "Cotton Eyed Joe" finale- ETSU Bluegrass Band- There are several small colleges within twenty miles including Virginia Intermont, King Colledge, and Milligan. About five miles from Penske is the Tri-City Regional Airport and adjacent to the terminal area is Northeast StateTechnical Community College, a two year state institution. I've lived here my whole life and would have to recommend it if you like country living with city convenience.

[Cougargm]

Not sure what part of PA you're from but the tri-cities area that the above post refers to (Blountville) is very similar to NE PA in a lot of different ways. It looks like NE PA (lots of attractive country-farms, woods,etc) with a smattering of small towns and small cities (Johnson City is similar in size to Scranton and Kingsport is about the same population as Wilkes-Barre). Even a lot of the demographics (population, per capita income, etc) are similar. Seems like a great area to work, raise a family and even retire. One key difference, though-the winter is much milder and hardly any potholes, too!

[busymomami]

WOW Thank all of you for your help. I will try to detail what I'm looking for a little better. The college part is for my son and maybe my daughter. I haven't talked her into moving yet. My daughter wants to be a Vet Tech and my son an architect. So I'm looking for very good colleges. I would love to live in a small town. I live in the suburbs of a small city and about 45 minutes from Philly. So I'm looking for peace and quiet and friendly people. I really don't want to live where there is really bad weather. I have been looking into Kingsport but would like other options. Thank you again for all of your help.Have a great day

[Jim37680]

Originally Posted by busymomami

WOW Thank all of you for your help. I will try to detail what I'm looking for a little better. The college part is for my son and maybe my daughter. I haven't talked her into moving yet. My daughter wants to be a Vet Tech and my son an architect. So I'm looking for very good colleges. I would love to live in a small town. I live in the suburbs of a small city and about 45 minutes from Philly. So I'm looking for peace and quiet and friendly people. I really don't want to live where there is really bad weather. I have been looking into Kingsport but would like other options. Thank you again for all of your help.Have a great day

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has the closest School of Architecture, that I am aware of, in this region. They graduated their first class in 1970. I'm not sure of vet programs in the area. ETSU does have a med school (Quillen-Dishner). Good luck!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Jim37680

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has the closest School of Architecture, that I am aware of, in this region. They graduated their first class in 1970. I'm not sure of vet programs in the area. ETSU does have a med school (Quillen-Dishner). Good luck!

The University of Tennessee also has a very large veterinary school.

[knoxgarden]

The Veterinary College and Hospital at UT is excellent.
About the College
They work with many programs in the community including HABIT
The H.A.B.I.T. Homepage
Since a lot of the graduates stick around, we have a lot of vets and there are always jobs posted for vet techs and trainees.

[hiknapster]

I'm a country girl from Massachusetts. I hate city life.

Lo and behold I live in Knoxville and LOVE it. Country in Tennessee is extremely rural. I rented in the country and was not very happy. However, I was only 10 minutes from the city.

We bought a house in the "city" and my area looks like a small town. We've been here four years and love it. The people are very friendly.

Knoxville is more like a very large town and it gets very rural right on the outskirts. It's tiny compared to Philly and about half the size of Pittsburgh!

UT is an excellent school and their vet school is outstanding.