Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs’ Weekly Update

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs’ Weekly Update

TRANSCRIPT:

"It’s Friday. Time for another weekly update.

This week, I spoke to the senior class at Fulton High School, helped cut the ribbon at Covenant Health’s new primary care clinic in Powell, judged burgers at the Farm Bureau Burger Grill Off and spoke at the Tennessee Valley Fair luncheon. The Fair kicks off today and continues until Friday, September 14th, with lots of stuff to do and see, so please check it out.

I also hosted regional county mayors for tours of the Covenant Health Park and the S.T.A.R.T. Center. Speaking of Covenant Health Park, it appears that sales tax revenue from the stadium will exceed projections for this first year. That is great news! When we put together the stadium’s finance package, we envisioned the facility would largely pay for itself through sales tax it produces and property tax from the apartment and condos which were built along with the stadium. This year, property tax will be a little lower than expected because construction on one of the buildings was slightly delayed. However, we anticipate that the apartments and condos will appraise at a higher value than we projected. Additionally, there are plans for at least one other structure to be built in the stadium’s footprint. And none of our projections included development AROUND the stadium itself. We deliberately kept our revenue forecasts conservative so it’s no surprise that the numbers are exceeding expectations. That’s when we want. At the same time, we have been very pleased with how healthy the return has been so far. And speaking of the Stadium, baseballparks.com named Covenant Health Park its 2025 Baseball Park of the Year! A prestigious award given each year to the best new stadium in pro baseball.

Operation Hero’s Hill took a big step forward this week as construction officially began on the tiny homes. In case you missed it, Operation Hero’s Hill will create 20 tiny homes and support facilities for veterans who are having a tough time finding housing. What’s really cool about this project is Knox County students studying the construction trades are helping build the homes. For more information or to see how you can help, please visit OperationHerosHill.com.

Speaking of OperationHerosHill.com, this month’s employees of the month are the folks responsible for creating that website and the graphics and content surrounding Operation Hero’s Hill, IT’s creative team: Jon Guymon, Pat Middendorf, Chris McCoy, Rob Link, and Daryl Hobby.

Finally, the Tennessee football team’s first home game of the season is tomorrow as they face the ETSU Buccaneers at Neyland Stadium.

Until next Friday, I hope everyone has a great week and GO VOLS!"