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Over the past few years, East Tennessee as whole has been experiencing a growth in population and McMinn County Mayor John Gentry recently discussed the impact on McMinn County from that growth.

“We have probably seen a mix of population growth and traveling population in the county,” Gentry noted. “East Tennessee as a whole is growing and our location is right in-between two metropolitan areas, so we get a lot of through traffic.”

He noted the number of registered vehicles in McMinn County is currently over 62,000.

“If you go back to the 2010 census it was around 50,000. There are a lot of different trains of thought when looking at the growth. Growing is a good sign, but obviously there will be growth pains that come along with that,” he said. “It puts increased burdens on your infrastructure, be it transportation or utilities, but all communities that grow have to deal with that.”

Gentry believes the increase in rural areas could have been spurred on as a by-product of COVID-19.

“COVID brought about the ability to work from home and a lot of companies found out that their employees preferred that,” Gentry stated. “Once they could work from home it made more rural areas more attractive because their headquarters may be in a metropolitan area but if they can stay at home in a rural area then you get the best of both worlds, especially in a place like McMinn County with our natural beauty.”

Gentry believes the time frame of 2020 to 2030 will show one of the “fastest growing” windows for McMinn County.

“I think most communities will say that we are undercounted in the 2020 census,” he stated. “The census counters weren’t able to go door to door because of COVID, the sales tax is up significantly, which there are many factors involved in that, but the amount of goods and services have increased and inflation has also contributed to that.”

According to Gentry, McMinn County offers many ideal perks that are drawing new people into the county, ranging from being a rural community, natural beauty, local shops and being close enough to larger cities to make everything accessible without having to deal with a highly populated area.

“The flip side to growth is that while the population grows our boundaries don’t. We are still going to be 430 square miles, so when you put more of a percent in the population into the same land area we are obviously going to be closer together,” Gentry said. “With that obviously comes some tension. What used to be a few acres between neighbors may now be a few hundred feet, but if our folks will follow the golden rule and treat others the way we want to be treated then we will be OK.”

Gentry expressed his excitement on seeing what kind of new people this growth will bring to the county.

“As new people come in, new talents come in and new retail tends to follow,” he said. “If you inherently believe that people are created in the image of God and have value and you see people as having value then having more of them makes things better.”

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