News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Crossville Mayor James Mayberry said cooperation and good character have been key to moving Crossville in the right direction.
That’s part of the reasoning behind September’s Cooperation Month. Mayberry said it was not always easy to reach an agreement within the city council and with Cumberland County. However, Mayberry said the relationships have grown strong to reach goals benefiting the tax payers.
“It’s kind of a unique place you’ve got both the city and county mayors working together,” Mayberry said. “So it’s just a good thing for the community as a whole to not be stagnant and to move forward to get the citizens the amenities they ask for.”
Mayberry said recently the county and city have been coordinating together on spending COVID funding for water system improvements. He said these strong partnerships have been critical while trying to navigate federal and state regulations together.
“I got elected and we started working with our county and chamber by meeting every Monday, first thing in the morning,” Mayberry said. “Working towards a goal of improving the community and advancing working together on projects in industrial development, retail recruitment, helping to support our local industry with any type of expansion or any help that we can.”
Mayberry said when he looks at downtown Crossville he can see the payoff from those efforts.
“It’s actually created a positive attitude for the whole community,” Mayberry said. “Which has improved occupancy in our downtown area. All of our storefronts are all occupied and busy now, where we used to have several empty, dirty storefronts. We had a couple of somewhat vacant shopping centers that are now occupied and full and productive.”
Mayberry said it was really as simple as having a realization moment that butting heads, even if an agreement is reached, slows down the process to get things done. He said this can be credited to resurrecting infrastructure projects in the area that started years ago.
