Johnson City is "Stimulating"! (Franklin, Bristol: crimes, loan, university)

[rccrain]

A small snippet from this article: An Unequal Disbursement of Stimulus Funding in Tennessee? | TriCities (http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/an_unequal_disbursement_of_stimulus_funding_in_ten nessee/33167/ - broken link)

As of last week, the state reported that Washington County had received more than $49 million – more than 50 times as much as Unicoi, with whom it shares a border.

As of August, Smith said, Johnson City has scored the following awards:

* $1.4 million for a public transportation grant, mostly for new buses;
* $835,00 for a road-resurfacing project;
* $400,000 for a bicycle/pedestrian trail on State of Franklin Road;
* $1.1 million for affordable housing renovations;
* $661,000 for upgrading the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system of Freedom Hall;
* $153,000 to fund special prosecutions of major drug crimes;
* And a $434,000 grant, combined with a $434,000 low-interest loan, for the water infrastructure in the Gregtown area of the city.

In stark contrast, officials in Unicoi County and the town of Erwin have barely identified a grant that would match one of their projects.

East Tennessee State University has so far banked nearly $30 million in stimulus funds – the fourth highest total in the state for higher education, and nearly $10 million more than Virginia has allocated to any university. ETSU’s haul is approximately equal to the stimulus funds Sullivan and Carter counties have received from the state combined.

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It's an article worth a full read. In this case JC elected officials are actually leading, while other TriCities counties and cities seem to be dropping the ball.

But what part of JC is considered "Gregtown"?

Other thoughts?

[jabogitlu]

That was my question too. Where the hell's Gregtown?

[dreamofmonterey]

Woo hoo-ETSU needs more funding so they can hire more professors

[mbmouse]

Anyone ever figure out where Gregtown is???

[jabogitlu]

Johnson City minutes mention a "Gregtown Road" (per a Google search) but I can't find it on Google Maps.

[rccrain]

I also found the following database that tracks every dollar that comes into the TriCities region very interesting.

Stimulus Spending in Virginia and Tennessee | TriCities (http://www2.tricities.com/tri/special_sections/recovery - broken link)

[rccrain]

Mystery solved:

The best information I’ve found is that the water project refers to Greggtown Road (extra “g”), which is near Hartmantown Road , which is within Washington County but well outside of Johnson City .

Thanks for your inquiry,

Daniel Gilbert
Staff Writer
Bristol Herald Courier


See on map:
greggtown rd - Google Maps

[jabogitlu]

Oh, it's in Ducktown. That's surprising!

[mbmouse]

So.....am I reading correctly....not one penny of stimulus money JC is getting (that we will be paying back for generations to come) will be going to address the flooding issues of downtown JC??
Does JC even WANT a downtown? Is it just being ignored totally?
I just don't get it.

[rccrain]

MB, I don't think we can assume that. I think JC turned in the downtown water project, it just has not been funded yet. Perhaps it doesn't qualify?

However, the optimistic way to look at it is with these funds coming in, it may free up other budgeted funds to be concentrated on the downtown area.