City gets prestigious community development honor
The city of McMinnville is quickly moving away from a period of stagnation and is gaining prominence as a place for innovative ideas.
McMinnville has been announced as a recipient of the Achievement Award for Excellence in Economic and Community Development by the Tennessee Municipal League (TML). The award, along with seven awards given to other cities, were presented to McMinnville officials this week at the organization’s annual conference in Gatlinburg.
“We only gave out eight awards, so that’s eight awards out of 345 cities,” TML communications director Carole Graves said of the significance of the award, adding McMinnville was nominated by the University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service.
“We basically look at the nomination and determine if some of the projects they have been nominated for are innovative,” Graves said. “We honor cities, for instance, if we see a lot of great improvements from year to year or if there is a particular outstanding department or program or something special as far as what they’ve done.”
The estimated $5 million Main Street construction project, which is funded through a variety of local, state and federal governments and agencies, is something that caught their attention.
“One of the determining factors of this award was the downtown revitalization project and how they incorporated so many people in the community and relied upon various state agencies and grant money,” Graves said, “and we thought that was very innovative how they did that.”
The efforts of the Urban Forestry Department were mentioned. Urban forester Nick Kuhn was hired in the spring of 2000 and not long after, a new city department was born. Since then, the department has created three arboretums, planted 2,400 trees, 6,800 bushes, 28,000 flower bulbs and 3,500 perennials.
“TML thought it was unique they recognized how important the nursery is to the community and to the area economy and they targeted that and went on to improve upon that,” Graves said. “Those were the two most significant ones that we saw, but there were still many other really good things.”
Other areas touted by TML were: a lower property tax rate after voters approved a local option sales tax increase in 2003; a lower insurance rating after a variety of fire-fighting improvements; the new city pool; the Barren Fork Greenway and walking trail at the Civic Center.
Mayor Royce Davenport said he was honored the city’s efforts are being noticed.
“It’s a community award and we’re all sharing it. Everyone who has been involved in the Main Street program and the Urban Forestry Department development goes back as far as two or three boards, as far as aldermen involved who initiated it, and we’ve carried it through,” he said. “I think it’s a great thing for all of us.”