Roane County has seen a decline in population in the last 7 years at -2.4%. All of the surrounding counties with which Roane County competes for business have grown at an average of 3.7% over the same period of time.

Population decline leads to fewer residents, fewer customers, fewer businesses, fewer tax payers, decreased tax base, fewer government services, declining government facilities, and a much more challenging environment for recruiting new business.

Outside of high-end lakefront developments, Roane County has seen no new middle income housing development in over 30 years.

While Exit 350 in Harriman has seen significant growth in new retail stores, the rest of the county has not grown much. Retail is driven almost completely by residential growth numbers.

To successfully recruit new industry to the county, it requires using residential numbers from neighboring communities to prove the workforce exists to support the company’s needs.

While building a new K-14 high school in Roane County proactively would require a capital project, the alternative plan to replace the 5 high schools in operation currently would be far more expensive.  Plus, keeping 5 high schools would make the K-14 model impossible because the low numbers of students spread across 5 schools would make partnering with TCAT and RSCC not feasible.

Studies and regional examples have shown that new school construction can lead to new housing developments, higher property values and even higher student test scores.  View the presentation on the front page for more details.