This week’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Knoxville was held at Bearden Banquet Hall. The meeting began with the recognition of guests in attendance, including Cindy and Judy Waters of Orbit Village and form Knoxville City Mayor and Ambassador to Poland, Victor Ashe.
Past President Frank Rothermel presented Paul Harris Fellow pins to three Rotarians for their contributions to the Rotary International Foundation. The recipients were David Long, Blanche Nicoll, and Kim Denton. Next, Rush Johnson introduced our newest member, Stella Bridgeman. Stella is the Dean of Pellissippi State’s Magnolia Campus and a lifelong educator. Stella spoke briefly about her passion for serving others and her eagerness to become involved in Rotary.
David Winstrom then introduced our speaker for the meeting, Knox County Major Glenn Jacobs. Mayor Jacobs spoke extensively about Economic Development in the community. He emphasized that he views his number one priority to be job creation and career development in the community. He spoke of the recent acquisition of the Midway Business Park by Greenheck Group. This corporate campus will bring more than 400 new jobs to the area and Greenheck has committed to investing $5M into Knox County Schools for the advancement of CTE programs.
Mayor Jacobs also spoke about the importance of Oak Ridge National Labs to our economic development. He mentioned Orano’s plans to build a new enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, bringing more jobs to the area. He envisions East Tennessee being at the forefront of nuclear energy in the years to come.
Mayor Jacobs then spoke about the importance of having world-class education in Knox County as a means for attracting world-class companies to the area. He mentioned the importance that education is to companies when they are looking to relocate or expand. These companies are looking for their future workforce. He spoke of the 865 Academies and the importance they bring in the area of career readiness. He also mentioned the importance of literacy numbers to our community, correlating 3rd grade reading levels to a multitude of future metrics that determine an individual’s success.
Finally, Mayor Jacobs spoke of Knox County becoming a magnet for new residents. This is spurred by our quality of life as well as advantageous tax code, especially for older people. He mentioned the infrastructure challenges that go along with a growing community and spoke about his administration’s efforts to update our archaic zooming policies into one unified development ordinance. He also spoke about the importance of civic furniture in attracting more young people to the community, using the new baseball park as an example. He stressed the importance of public/private partnerships in bringing these types of amenities to the community.