News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
UCDD conducting a community tour to understand local needs and, hopefully, provide solutions to the region’s issues.
The tour features visits across 14 counties of the Upper Cumberland. UCDD Executive Director Mark Farley said the tour allows the district to meet community leaders and help them brainstorm ideas.
“This is a good reset that we can do every year so they can know and understand what all is available to them,” Farley said. “It’s also good for us as regional partners that we know what their initiatives are what it is that’s important for them and then everything we do we try and support them and make sure those projects get done.”
Farley said the biggest issue that has plagued all communities in the Upper Cumberland is workforce participation.
“We’ve got a lot of individuals that just are not engaged in the workforce the way they need to be,” Farley said. “So we are trying to look at ways to support our communities and get people back to work.”
Farley said childcare and affordable housing also create issues for the region. He said community leaders are engaged in these issues, and others that will come from the tour.
“Our elected leaders do a really good job of that, especially the county mayors they are very much coordinated in a lot of things that they do,” Farley said. “They understand what each community is going through, I think that the very highest level in each one of our communities, that the leadership understands that most of their citizens don’t see county lines or city lines, they may work in one community but live in another community, they want a seamless life and I think that they do a very good job of coordinating to make sure that programs offered in one are offered in all.”
Farley said the community meetings will be completed by the end of the summer.
