Full Transcript for Let's Find Out About Maryville City Manager, Greg McClain

I enjoyed the work. They I think felt that I was competent enough to to follow him, so the rest is history. And and Gary started as city manager in like seventy-nine, I think. Yeah, yeah. He was twenty twenty-eight years, I think, city manager. Long long two yeah, two city managers in the city of Maribel in the last I'm not to do math in my head, yeah, fifty years almost. Since nineteen sixty seven there's only been five. What wow. Yeah. That's quite a run. What s so Many folks, maybe n maybe not when you were growing up, but I I know many folks sort of go leave Blunt County and come back. Yeah. to raise you you never left. Once you got established here, you never left. What was it about it that made you stay and and made you want to I think it was family, mostly family. I grew up f in a very large family. My dad was one of seven, mom was one of nine. And very blue collar. So all of the men and and many of the women in that group of folks, which you add that all up, it's you know, thirty, thirty plus, they were all very blue collar. And much of what I knew was blue collar work. So going going to school and taking architecture was not something many of my family had ever done. and even though I was moving towards a white collar type progression, I still never got past blue collar, the love for blue collar work. so I was a bro block mason, I laid brick and block as a young kid. I still like to do that on occasion actually. So I've got a couple of projects I was thinking I did too. We might have to talk after the podcast, but no. But just wanted to stay close to family, I think is what really drove me to stay in there. Yeah. You we We wanted to focus this episode on more of the history of Blunt County. you obviously you had a long tenure with the city of Maryville in in this area in what you have done in in your career, but we have been told by multiple people that that you're quite the historian that you you have a really good grasp on the history of Blunt County and sort of what has made it what it is. And so you know, going forward we may talk a little bit more about city manager, but we want to focus on the history. And sure the one thing I wanted to ask is if if you were introducing someone to the history of Blunt County today as as we are, hopefully, where would you start? What would what are the stories that people living here now need to know? Well, I had written a couple of notes down here and I think something that's very significant. that a lot of people probably wouldn't know is that we're two hundred and thirty one years old. So that makes us one of the oldest cities in the state. We're actually older than Tennessee as a state. So when we were formed it was still part of the territory south of the Ohio River. And just by virtue of that, just the r the the deep rich history that we have here, can't be told in one setting or two settings or it'll take a lifetime to tell it. Yeah. But the I I think it's to me, and you'll probably hear me say that many times, it's all about the people. When you look back through the history of the folks that were here, the type leaders we had, the folks that have given of themselves not just to make money, but gave themselves to the community itself is what's really i is is what the history is all about. Yeah, I think we we get hung up sometimes on this old building or that old building or some business. But behind all of that was somebody, some person that that invested themselves and we see it just continuing today. So we're just part of this long continuum of history and all of us need to leave our mark as well. Sure. Do you have e an example of of that w one person or a couple of people that You you sort of point to. There there are hundreds that we could talk about. But but one that's real special to me, I wrote a an article about him. His name was AK A. K. Harper. Andrew Nott Harper. he was a mayor at one time for the city. He was also a businessman. He owned a business on the corner there at Cusick and in Broadway, which is where Bill Cox furniture is today. at one time it was struck by lightning and burned down. They bought the lot behind him, built another building. what's really intriguing about A.K. Harper to me is the fact that he invested himself in government, he invested himself in business, he invested himself in his church, he invested himself in all things community, was very much the giver and helper of other people starting other businesses. he and his wife Pandora raised their children, but there's as much as there's wonderful parts about the story, there's lots of tragedy too. that again make it very rich, that even amidst all the tragedy that they they did a lot. AK's first wife died just after she gave birth to her son Edward. he married Pandora, who became the stepmother. They had two more children. their son Milton died in France on the battlefield. Eleven days later their son Fred died of diabetes. So if you go to the A. K. Harper Library, Dandelions today, and you walk inside, look up, you'll see the plaque that Pandora had left in there for her husband and two sons. And that's just one story of just literally hundreds of hundreds of stories of people that made their their life here and dying here. Eric does an excellent job of laying out questions for and so we can prepare our guests. I am more of a, hey, that reminds me of something someone throw something else out. So i is there obviously when I think back 231 years ago as a pre-rural community, were there significant developments the Alcoa plant, I mean, obviously was big for the city of Alcoa. were there significant things along the way that really boosted the city of Maribel? Yeah. So Up until about nineteen hundred, this is a sleepy, sleepy place. All everything that ever happened that was entertainment or you did your banking or anything governmental was all downtown. That's all around Maribel. Up to about nineteen hundred. So the first hundred years very

sleepy. And then things really began to change as the industrial age came along. some of the significant things that really made a huge difference in our town was when the park was formed. Mm-hmm. And they made a national park. As you know today, most visited park in the whole country by far. So that was in nineteen twenty six. Nineteen thirty-three T VA came in and harnessed power, harnessed the rivers, not so much to generate power and electrify the valley, which it did, but it was much more developed to stop flooding. It was just destroying farmlands and and low lying areas. And the damage of that was horrendous. so getting that under control allowed a lot more development and the spreading out of development. They helped the farmers understand how to farm better. taught about fertilizers and all this kind of thing and how to rotate crops. made a huge difference. The airport came here in nineteen thirty nine. what a wonderful asset that is, right? Then the airbase in nineteen fifty shows up and brings that economy into us. So Yeah, there's tremendous amounts of significant things that have happened. Yeah. Especially that's a fairly short period of time for all that like fifty years to all that stuff to happen. Not to mention the aluminum company of America coming in here and changing everybody's world. Yeah. one thing you may not know, and I think I've got it written down here, is the population of our town of Maribel was two thousand one hundred and fifteen in nineteen hundred, right? Just twenty years later. Our population went from twenty one hundred to thirty three eighty thirty three fifty eight. And Alcoa hit that didn't exist in nineteen hundred. Mm. It came in in nineteen nineteen. When it was formed, it had a population I'm sorry, we were thirty seven hundred from twenty one hundred to thirty seven hundred, but Alcoa was thirty three hundred and fifty eight. Almost immediately. Immediately. Within a within a a very short period of time, our population well over doubled in this community. So back in the thirties people were like, Good gosh, it has taken me forever to get from one side of town to the other, which is yeah, my whole whole memory today. You say that, Jess, but I we I I spent a fair amount of time reading the old newspapers from back then, nineteen twenties and and the fifteen and and i even in the eighteen hundreds. And it's like you're reading it today. Yeah. People did not want the aluminum company to come in here. They were gonna tar and feather Sam Everett, who was the mayor at the time. literally gonna tar and feather him because they just didn't want this little town to change. Yeah. They didn't want the impacts. So how did the aluminum company w because we you know, we go to Townsend, you know, we've been to Alcoa, we've been to all different parts of Blunt County. not all different parts. We we've still we're still working on it. But so we'd we'd like to try to spread the love a little bit, but how did it that seems a to be a really significant piece of history? How did that company change people in Alcoa specifically? Well it's very interesting that when the plant that was sought after Sam Everett, Raw, Hannah, and some others, John Clark's grand great grandfather was one of them. They went and pursued this new company called the aluminum reduction company out of Pittsburgh. And they knew they were looking for some place that had the ability to harness power. they needed lots of energy to smelt aluminum. So they sought after them, they came here, a lot of people didn't want here. But the idea was you bring in this great company, they'll pay a lot of taxes. at the time they brought them in here, the roads were still dirt. there was not a whole lot of sewer in and around the town. So, you know, to be a progressive community, you want to, you know, bring in a big company, bring in the taxes. So in doing that, Alcoa had other ideas. They, being a big company and sophisticated company, decided to form their own city and not be a part of Maribel. So Jay Walter McMahon, who's the doctor for the plant, was also a state House of Representative that then was elected senator. He took the incorporation bill to Nashville and got it passed to incorporate the city of Alcoa. And all of Marival thought it was up at Calderwood. So it was a little shaky when he came back. And he was the representative of Marival and he pulled this fast one the way it felt. And the city of Alcoa is formed. So when it was formed, they there was no intention to give any taxes to Marival. But Marival was teaching all their children. So they said, Well, if you're going to be a bona fide city, you need to teach your own children. So we're sending your children back to you. And they had to convert an old mule barn really quick as a school until they could get one built. so lots of impacts, not just financially, but socially and relationally. The sleepy little town went to a you know became a very sophisticated, complex community overnight. Yeah. And so not not to jump ahead a lot, but you mentioned that, you know, when you read the paper back in the twenties, it sounds very similar to the issues because they're like we don't want big companies here w we don't need any more people w the number of people that we have. I mean, these are things that you hear today. Yes. So I would assume as city manager, that is a give and take. So how do you how do you deal with that? Well it's very interesting. I think what's bringing people here today has changed. You know, it used to be that when you're looking for some place to to go or, you know, if you if you look at how we've grown over the years, it's been somewhat up and down and up and down, but the trend line is less than a percent a year. If you go all the way back to 1795, we're we're from a percentage standpoint, we're not growing crazy. We've had our moments which have been high, but we've also had our moments like in eight when we had no build no

growth. So people used to come here for lots of different reasons. In the last number of years with the politics being what they are, yeah, a lot of people we call refugees. They've tried to get out of the big s big cities. That have somewhat lost their mind, you know. taxes are very high, cities are being burned down. it's just caused people to say, I need to I need to go somewhere else. And then they look on the internet and say, any place sane and marable pops up. if you look at what we have to offer as a community in in light of the fact that our cost of living is lower than national average, our wages are better than the national average. our crime rate is lower, education is superior. we have four seasons. We have the mountains, we have the lakes, we have the proximity to a big city, but we're not a big city. it's just a perfect place to come. And so as a city manager, you do your very best to try to manage the the what you're dealt, the hand you're dealt. I think it's a misnomer to say control growth. I'll get drummed out of some people's social media page by that. But the truth of the matter is, if you want to control growth, what tell me how to do that. Is there a gate you put up somewhere? There's really not. I will tell you how you stop growth. And the way you stop growth is don't fix potholes, don't conjure schools. Make it a less desirable place to live. Less desirable. Become the kind of place that people don't want. Yeah. Yeah. It's either that or take away property rights because if someone has a piece of property they want to sell or a piece of property someone wants to buy, how do you say you can't do it? The closest we can come to is zoning. to put zones on there. So as city staff, as city council, everybody's trying to get their arms around how to deal with this. And the really sad thing is that I watch is the vilification. The vilification of elected officials, the vilification of anybody in development. whatsoever. and that's really, really unfair because what makes cities great, what's made marable great over the years, are people willing to come and invest their own money, risk risk themselves, risk their wealth, to not only do for themselves, but to do for the community. AK Harper, same kind of guy. I mean, he invested his whole life savings in into his business to watch it burn down. And what's he do? He he crawl in a hole and blame somebody. No, he just went and got a loan and built another building. And it was to serve the community as well and make a living. So as a city manager, it's a it's a difficult day-to-day process to try to manage what you're handed. A lot of people I love I love it when they say, Well, we want red lobster, just go get it, or we want this, just go get it, or we don't want that. Stop it. That's not how that's not how it works. Yeah. You've had sort of a front row seat to all of this growth and you as a historian have have r I think looked at way more of where we have come from than most people.

is there anything that surprises you maybe in our history here in Blunt County, and and you know, going back as far as you want to go and even in into you know modern day but anything that surprises you in change wise that has made a difference here I don't know surprise is maybe the term maybe it's I'm somewhat disappointed in the changes that are coming. Again if you read the paper back in the twenties and eighteen hundreds, there were the same type of reactions that people have and and even back then that seemed to be what the press would write about. I think the vast majority of us see it for what it is and embrace it. Our life's too short to go through it negative and this life's too short just to want to complain all the time about our lot in life, but to make make good on it. So I guess I'm disappointed in the fact that there is the vilification of people just doing their jobs, just doing what has created wealth for the community and wealth for people who've made a lot of jobs for folks. so I don't know that I'm surprised by it, but disappointed a little bit that then struggle goes on. and I I'd love I I wanna believe that at some point that will turn and people will get back to, you know, appreciating one another and appreciating what we have here. I don't buy it that this, you know, this is a bad place or or it's you know it's not what it used to be. It's a better self of what it used to be. It just continues to grow and it'll be what we make it. And I'm just the eternal optimist in that regard. It's funny and that that's the word I was gonna use about myself because a lot of times what you th the negative is the minority. And so and but they're louder than the positive people. and so it's unfortunate, but it's yeah. hey, you know. Yeah. Our message to people that are not living here like Hey, we're fine. Right, right. Right. Yeah. We we we talked with Brian Daniels in a previous episode and and he said one of the things that makes this community great is that you know we we talk to each other and we are for the most part willing to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. and that's those are a couple of things that make our community great. In in in Blunt County's history, What what are th some of the things that have made us great? I think in your opinion. I think you've said it. It's kind of selfless participation. if the only thing I care about is making money, the only thing I care about is me and mine, then I can accomplish that here. but that's not what we've had here. We've had mostly throughout our history, and I would tell you even today, we have mostly people that are want to make money and and do good by their family, which we all want to do that, but they give of themselves. This is probably one of the most generous places I've ever seen. you have a need in this community, it's met pretty quickly. And I'm not just talking about just the churches, they're doing that too, and just United Way, they're doing that too. But

there's so much help going on just person to person a lot of people don't even know about. I've I've got people in my mind right now that I won't tell you their name 'cause they wouldn't want me to that have given away more to people than I'll probably ever make in my life. They're just that kind of people that are generous and giving. And these are some of the same people that have made investment into the community and some of the same people that have been vilified. And again, this is a great town and great people and I think better days are actually ahead of us for sure. So another thing that that probably comes up generationally is the young people. You know, we talk about the next generation. do you have an opinion? Do you do you see an evolution of generations here and is it different or is it just like it always is? Every generation is different. I remember when I was growing up, believe it or not, I had long hair parted in the middle down shoulder length. My mom and dad used to just it used to just drive crazy. and so I think every generation looks at the other generation and thinks you're missing it. Mm-hmm. so I don't I don't put a generational think on a as spin on it as much as I do cultural. our culture today is so dependent on this technology. We spend way too much time looking at screens and way too much time caring about what somebody else is doing, how many likes I might get. And I d I understand that's I guess I understand that's where we're going, but it's taking away that humor and interaction. I was s I was in a restaurant, I th I thought this was just fascinating. I'm in a restaurant, there were four teenage girls sitting at a table together and they were all four on their phone. Mm-hmm. And I punched my wife, said, Look, they're they're sitting right there and all of a sudden they all looked up and started laughing at the same time. So it's obvious that they're on their phone together, sitting at their table. Now maybe they had others with them in that chat, but It's kinda like put your phone down and just reconnect w with each other. So I am concerned about what what does that do culturally to us? I'm much I'm older than you guys. I remember when there wasn't anybody on my street that I didn't know. I knew well by name. And we'd see out and we'd talk and we'd go visit. And today you you ask people, Do you know your your neighbors? They don't know their next door neighbor. Mm-hmm. When's the last time you checked on whatever? So I hate to see that. Yeah. I really hate to see that because of I think that fabric of what makes the community is that human connection one on one and not what we're becoming. you I know you're you're sort of outgoing at at this point in in your tenure. but but you still I I'm sure are thinking forward on how what Blunt County should do, what Marville should do, how we should move forward as a community. what are some things that you think are important as we go forward that we need to do as a community to to keep our the the heritage of this place, the the the community I I f fabric together. what can what are some things that we can do based on what you know of the history? Well let me start with one I don't think we can affect but it's what should happen. But I don't think it it will. I don't know how we do it. And is the an understanding go back to the fundamentals that founded the country. Go back to the fund Fundamentals that made us so great in a country, understanding civics and how they work. One good example is we're a republic. So what that means is we're organized in such a way the governmental folks are are elected to represent the community. The community, Maribel's an example, 32,000 residents. There's no way possibly that you can educate 32,000 residents to understand any issue. but social media is trying, right? Social media, TikTok, Facebook, Marvel speaks out. Everybody's quick to rush out as an expert, and here's how I feel, and I'm gonna let everybody know. And what that does many times is generate a an uprising, political uprising. And I would tell you, that the vast majority of that I talk to are very passionate. When you really pin them down, they know very little about the issue. And that's a grave concern to me. Because as politicians, it's gonna be really easy to cave under that pressure. It may not be the right answer, but to get past it, I'll I'll I'll just go that way. And that's very concerning to me because we have become this great nation over many years by representatives really doing their job to fully investigate, fully understand. And then make the right decisions and not make political ones. Again, the world's come to a place now. It's so easy to get in front of people, it's so easy to put pressure on people, and so easy to to generate a cause. again, without a lot of understanding. I I was watching the news last night and they were interviewing some people on the street and they were in France and they were saying, What's this all about? Why are you destroying the city? They couldn't tell you. They they weren't really sure. They couldn't be articulate enough to say, Well, it's this specific thing. So that's troubling, you know. But that's not what America was built on. So I don't know how you change that. Yeah. But what are some things we could change? Maybe double down on the way we try to educate people, maybe double down on how we prepare people to run for office. Maybe it's just a revisiting Civics like it was taught years ago. So we understand how it's supposed to work. Mm-hmm. As as you've done your research into Blunt County and have thought through things, obviously in a much deeper way than than a lot of people have, you know, we always say the let's be blunt is about the people and places that make this county such a great place to live. What is it going to take, or what do you think makes Blunt County special today and that we need to continue to make Blunt County such a special place

to be. Well, that's a tough one. And I think we've touched on a lot of pieces up to this point. Try not to repeat myself, but I do think educating folks, getting folks involved, to understand how it really works, the vast majority of people that I know today will make a decision very, very quickly. Mm-hmm. And that's always a a bad that's that's bad, particularly if you're making public policy. Public policy is meant to go slow. flock cameras. You've probably seen a lot about flock cameras. And hard to miss that. Hard to miss it. Yeah. And a group that's come in is pretty much demanding you need to make a decision, you need to be right now. Without a full understanding by all of city council, and I would submit even to them fully that they fully understand the whole thing. But we just gotta do it right now. You gotta hurry, hurry, hurry. And governmental public policy is never made meant to be made quickly because you will you will mess that up. so again, I think we we have to return to civility, number one, and we need to quit vilifying people and quit pressuring them and just have a dialogue, a a civil dialogue, and be willing to look at all of the the issues top to bottom. Or we will mess it Let me let me give you a real good example. Traffic's an issue, is it not? Mm-hmm. Can be. Terrify. For sure. If I were to ask you why, what what's what's the cause? What's the root cause of the traffic? People. Yeah. Yeah. More people on the same roads, basically. Mm-hmm. So most of the time when I hear that from people, it's it's all these people moving here. It's just drive just causing the roads. The truth, the reality is, yeah, more people, more cars, more traffic. But that's not the the whole story. We live close to a national park that has more people coming to it than anywhere in the country. And it's somewhere around five million trips in, and that's five million trips out. Right. That went up during COVID. Mm-hmm. So this big spike of traffic that it's become very obvious and it's just awful. I would submit to you that part of that is the traffic that's just going has increased since not people living here, it's just people passing. Well, it's certainly people living here too, because we're all on the streets at the same time. But that extra million and a half or so at that one year from the COVID year, the visitations went up over a million. That's a million in, a million out. So a total of five in and five out. That's a lot of people. And then you remember when they four laned the highway three twenty one through Lenore City. And got the two lane off the dam. Now when you're in an you're using your navigation, you're coming out from Atlanta and the traffic's really bad in Chattanooga, what's it gonna tell you? Takes you there. Take you four eleven. Yeah. Or now that you when you get to Lenore City and you've said I'm going to the Smokies, because that's now a four lane divided highway and not a two lane. It'll send you that way. So it used to be if you were coming from Nashville, you would cut past through Knoxville, get off on the Smoky Mountain exit. Now it takes you off three twenty one and brings you. It's steering you right through us. Yeah. If you're in Knoxville and you want to go to Chattano to to Atlanta and Chattanooga choked, it'll push you on to one twenty nine. Right through the heart of us. So the truth of the matter is it's more than just the growth. And our traffic would likely continue to get worse. Because this is a much bigger issue than just that. So you can make public policy all day long. You can say, public policy, if there was a way to do it, nobody else gets to move here. Put the gates up, stop everybody. And then as you know, we know that the birth rate is the lowest it's ever been in our country. so schools begin to suffer. If you don't have children coming into them. Baby boomers are stepping out. We're already having a hard time keeping workers. So my point is you can do public policy that could really injure you and never touch the issue you thought you're dealing with. But people are not willing to consider anything anymore. Just get come to a quick decision and have a passionate argument and demand fast decisions. And that'll that'll hurt us over time if we're not careful. 'Cause I have two questions and I meant to ask you this before we started, if it was okay to ask. Yeah. But there's a great big hole in the middle of the city. Yeah. That seems to be a talking point of everybody. So Yeah, and and rightfully so. People want to know what's going on there. let me start out with this couch it before I answer it. Development is hard. Particularly right now, development's tough. Money is hard, banks are very scrutinizing today. interest rates very high. So people going into development are going in at many times at great risk, again at their own their own money. And they have to think a long time. That project that you see sitting out there started before COVID. Yeah. it actually started with this company and they had every intention to to move on and get that done. COVID just knocked it in the head. So then it delayed it. you had to let everything kinda clear out. You had to let materials and delivery of materials sort out. there were things like electrical boxes you couldn't even order and get. so that had to clear you know, employ employees were hard to to hire. Finally that began to make some sense and they were back on track. They started preparing the site and they actually started foundations. And in that process of finding foundations, we said we need to see your soils report. And the soils report said, you know, the soils won't handle this building. So, all right, stop. You're gonna have to remove everything you've done, uncover the soil and you're gonna have to figure out how to amend that soil so the hold is building up. So they did, they went away. Now there was part of me that thought that could be enough to kill a project. You know, and just

any typical project that could be dramatic enough to kill it. But it didn't. They came back and they punched four hundred holes in the ground or poured in concrete and they have four hundred piers down to bedrock now. So it's now ready for foundations. In that process though, they lost their financing with the bank. And they've been trying to get their financing back. well a lot of people say, well just you know, just you know, just cut loose. Okay. We have a contract. Yeah. So if there's a cutting loose that takes place, it'll have to be a failure of the contract, a breach in that contract. Which may or may not come. We'll see. everybody speculates the project's done. I I've heard it. I've I've sit in restaurants and hear people say the project's dead, project's this or that. And I always encourage people, particularly once you know me, pick up the phone and I'll tell you. Sure. But we like to go to our social media and get there because it's a lot more fun to listen to that. But the truth of the matter is th that it could fail. But I would say that about every development project out here. there's been a number of projects just recently open that were delayed for, you know, six and eight months. And fortunately they were able to pull it together and get financing and and get their deals done and move on forward. So it's not un unusual for for developments to struggle. and on occasion they fail. But we shouldn't wish that on anybody. Because typically when it fails or somebody's taken taking a lot of pain. I can tell you the city's not going to be out any money if it does. and let me describe the project, because that's been really misunderstood too. This was a partnership because the city was going to continue to own the dirt and after they built the parking deck that would be ours as well. And then it would just be air rights for a hotel above it. not an uncommon thing in a city to do, but it was our first one here to do that. so we wish the contractor well if they can pull it off. Great, if they can't. Then we'll just back out of it and move on to the next group. We've got other interested parties if something were to go awry. Do they have a timeline on on their side that the developer? Yeah. We've told them it's gotta be soon. Yeah. We we can't let this drag out a whole lot longer. We've been we've been gracious. we feel like in the contract itself, we're probably to a place now to call it a breach if it does fail. because there's some language about when it's got to finish. Mm-hmm. so again, we're we're not wanting to be punitive. We want to give every benefit of the doubt. But there you know, there may come a time where the the clocks run. Yeah. What was your other one? Do you have my other one's like way off the track. So you're a you're a historian basically in the city, I would say. You would consider yourself that I don't. Okay. What I consider myself is somebody just loves history a lot. And I've done a lot of reading. it would be unfair for me to call myself an historian because that's a real that's a real job title. And people that are real historians are folks who spend a lot of time deep diving, studying, researching, documenting well. I just love it and I love to tell about my community. So So do you know some of the history of some of the buildings in the area? This'll seem like an off the wall question for you. Eric will know where I'm going. There's an Old White House on Broadway with white columns in front of it. Do you know anything about the history of it? 'Cause I live there. really? Well, I can tell you this that we know we have all the resources to tell you everything you ever want to know about that house. Yeah, I will be looking into that. So you come see us. We have all the deeds so we can tell you who's on that dirt from the beginning, probably back to the land grants. Yeah. we can tell you by the in some cases by newspapers if you have you know, a name of anybody that lived there, which we can get by the deeds, and we can search by that who they were. so one one thing seriously, you need to come to the office and let us show you what we're doing. I think you'd be blown away. Yeah. Like A.K. Harper, I was talking about him, I can type it in and everything about him will come up in chronological order. every house he built, every property he owned, every business he had, everything about him. Have to come visit. I have w I have one one more question. Can't be as wild as mine. Well, no, I mean it's I mean, it's about the history. I and I and I wanna because being America's two fifty, we we've tried to hit on history in different areas of Blunt County. And so I I wanna end with a question with for all of our guests that talk about the history. But what's one story about Blunt County that you hope will never be forgotten? Well, can I tell you one before I answer that? Yeah, absolutely. I I like to tell this because we were really good about telling all the good stuff about ourselves, right? But our namesake, William Blunt, he was a senator. He was actually the territorial governor when it was territory south of the Ohio River. And he was the one that gave permission or authority to name the county, named after him, and the city after his wife, Mary. What a lot of people don't know is he was the first impeached congressman in our history as a nation. He was actually impeached for working with the with I think it's Spain or f or maybe it was Great Britain, but it was a around the Louisiana, which wasn't part of the the nation after the Revolutionary War, and he was trying to work out a deal 'cause he had over a million acres of land that he was trying to To save from being lost if it were taken over by another nation. So he was found that to be treasonous. And John Adams brought impeachment charges and he was impeached and he left left the office. and maybe I can tie it into that, that that everybody that has lived here before had really great things about him,

and we all have. issues. Sure. We all do. And we ought to give each other a whole lot of grace about about that because it's imperfect people that have built this community and will continue to be that. And we need to be gracious to one another and compassionate and caring and forgiving. that's the that's the heart of an of a community, heart of a nation actually, is willing to serve one another and put up with all our faults and and being fallible. Mm-hmm. not take ourselves too serious. I love what many people have said and Steve West says it all the time that you know, it's really great when somebody Does something good but doesn't take the credit for it. You know, it's just we just do it because it's the right thing to do and not be seeking seeking the credit. Right. So it's a great place here. Don't buy into those who would say this is a you know, not the beautiful place that it is. And though it's a beautiful place. Well, we agree and and that's part of the reason we're doing what we're doing. We you know, it's not like we're getting Paychecks are are are not so great for this, but but we have a great time doing it because we learn something about Blunt County every time we meet with someone over the last three years and talk to seventy some guests and you know, just l learn just a little more about the area in which we live and and hopefully get to share it with people, you know, out there and so it's been a it's been a labor of love, I think, for us. Well, I think we all appreciate greatly that you give your time to this and document and for all time, you know. Yeah. Thank you. wouldn't it be great if we had this going back the last hundred years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well I don't know, then there'd be no reason for us. That's right. So yeah, we're groundbreakers right now. So but yeah. So Greg McClade, thank you for your time and great information. Well thanks for having me out. And good luck to you in your future as well. I've got a little less than eight months now. There you go. Good for you chapter. Yeah. Make grant do you have grandkids? I have two. There you go. There's your next job, I guess. Yes, absolutely. It is ready. That's awesome. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks. Here we are. All right. Great. Yeah, you're just it's I'm still turning around and look at this going, that's kind of cool. That is pretty it's pretty nice. They did a nice job. They did. I would I would imagine that this would that this would mm evolve maybe over the next I don't know few months and and and to our final this is how it's I definitely yeah yeah. There's some growing pains every time we change something. Yeah. But yeah. This is yeah. This is a good start. And it it gives us a place. I if people knew the things that we try to I mean we we did a we and if if you haven't seen it you should go back and and because the guest was fantastic. but we went out to Tremont and in a downpour tried to record a you know, a a podcast. We said issues before with

our and hopefully at I I think the editing is gonna take a step up. The sound quality hopefully will take a step. Yeah. We haven't done any of this. Right. So we'll see. But I I'm optimistic. But yeah, every time we go through some kind of a you know, when we went from when we first started out, then we went from audio to video and then now this is like I think there's Yeah. Just bear with us. The guests are great. Greg did a just a great job. I mean, he's Yeah. Yeah. Like he you know, he mentioned, yeah, there's only been five city managers since nineteen sixty seven, I think he said. Yeah. Well p three of those were in the first twelve years. You two guys have been in the last fifty kind of Yeah. That was I was trying to do math and they're like, Wait a minute, there's if he's been here since two thousand seventy nine is when Gary Hansley started. Yeah. and he's been here since Two thousand six or twenty that's forty seven years. Yeah. So the other you know, eighteen or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. no, that was good. And I I you know, part of the somebody mentioned to us at one time, you know, somebody really ought to sort of record some of these stories, you know, and and and talk to some of these people before they you know, move on or whatever and or and they're they're lost. And I don't know that they're lost forever, but you know, it might it's just another way that people can access, you know, the people and the stories and the history of Black County. And I think I think it was a great idea. Hopefully we'll talk to a few more folks that have There's a historian that we talked about that we're gonna get yeah. Yeah. So all in celebration of the two fifty. Yeah. I mean so the the country's only the two thirty one. Yeah, I was gonna say the country's only nineteen years older than this city. Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. but yeah, he did the probably the most interesting thing, I mean, for just like that he shared to me was it is an excellent point that he brought up about the fact that everybody's like, the traffic's so bad. Well, yeah, it's not necessarily us yeah that's making the traffic. It's we are a destination and a means to a destination, especially with the park. Right. but you know, it's like I always say, Yeah, the traffic's bad. It probably took us a whole nine minutes to get across town, you know. I know. As opposed to driving into Atlanta or Nashville. And it's like it is. It is b it is bad. It it's it's and it's gotten worse. I think it's gotten worse everywhere in Tennessee that you go. yeah, people are moving here and and East Tennessee is no different. Black County is certainly a great place to be and and continues to be a great place. n no places without its issues and and problems and and that's but I do I do agree, you know, with and we've had guest after guest say that what makes it great is not what we offer, you know, not the buildings or the restaurants, although those are great things, but j the people behind those and the

generosity of I I just I've never lived in a place where the the spirit of generosity has been quite like it is in Blunt Cat. I agree. You did a great job of can you quote it again, Brian Daniels? well, he he said that I don't know if I quoted him, but paraphrasing that it's great because we continue to talk to to each other. We we we continue to communicate with one another and solve problems. and you know I think that's a the if you're if you're I don't know if you can judge that in in any sort of way or I I don't know if you can what am I trying to say? You know i i a community can be judged on how well they communicate with each other. Yeah. You know, I don't know if and you know, and like kinda like he said, and it's just a problem of the generation is the way people communicate with each other is getting to be different and it's not yeah a percent factual. So yeah. but yeah, still a great place. Greg McLean, thank you again. You know who's a great person in the community? Michelle Macaulay. Michelle Macaulay, Movement Mortgage. we should see what she has to say. How optimistic can she be about the interest rates? well, let's find out. Hello, this is Michelle Macaulay with Movement Mortgage, and I'm bringing you this week's mortgage market update. Rates have eased slightly over the past week. The national average for a 30-year fixed mortgage is 7.37, which is down from 7.4 last week. One thing I haven't mentioned is that the interest rate does depend on your credit score, the loan program, the points you pay, and a few other factors. It is a buyer's market right now, and I know I've mentioned rate buy downs before, but I wanted to explain further the difference between a permanent rate buy down versus a temporary rate buy down. A permanent rate means paying more upfront, called discount points. To lower your mortgage interest rates for the entire loan term. A temporary rate buy down lowers your payments for a limited time, like with a 2-1 buy down, your payments based on a rate 2% lower the first year and 1% lower that second year, but in the third through the final years, it goes to the loan's fixed rate. Permit equals long-term savings, temporary equals lower payments at start, but it gives time for rates to drop and you can refinance. Don't forget to get pre-approved before house shopping and call me to get started at 865-806-6113. Well, that's about as optimistic as you can be. I mean she always has a good job. She does. With always with a smile on her face. Yeah. If you and I would encourage anybody that this is, you know, what I found out over the the years that I've done that I've been in real estate is if if buyers will Just talk to a lender and talk and talk to a couple of l just have a conversation. Determine right now what can you afford, what you need to do to be able to afford what you want. That I mean, it saves a a lot of h headache for you and it just it's like it's not a mystery. I mean, it it doesn't have to be. And so just talk to somebody like Michelle and let her, you know, guide you. and I I think I don't know if we've ever talked about that. I think the best way to afford more is to buy one now. Because people wait and wait and it's like all of a sudden it's more expensive to buy the first one. You buy your first house, build some equity. ask David Talley if it's if it's a good idea to buy and sell houses. That guy changes houses when the wind blows. That's right. yeah. No, I mean it you know, when we st started this whole thing real estate was or houses were less than a hundred dollars a square foot. Mm and it wasn't that it's not been that long ago. And so, you know, we're up around two hundred and a square foot. yeah, I think over time. Yeah, and 'cause you change I mean that, you know, dollars a square foot, but you know, instead of buying a two hundred thousand dollar house, now you're buying a four hundred thousand dollar house. Right. That's big. Exactly. You're buying the same house for for double and and and you're paying more for financing. Mm. so yeah, don't don't waste a lot of time trying to figure out when it's the best time. The best time is is probably now. but again, we sound a little biased, but I I still agree with that. We do, we do sound a little biased, but I I I I believe it. I do too. I mean so anyway. But that's enough, I guess. And we've been here for a while. So absolutely. That's a wrap on another episode, right? Join us in two weeks for our next one. Who will our next guest be? And what topics will we discover? And what's changed in the real estate market? Well, let's find out.