A town’s appearance makes a difference

BY EDDIE WALKER

A 2019 Bloomberg study reported that the more beautiful a city is the more successful it is at attracting jobs and new residents which in turn generates more income. The report went onto say that beautiful places do not just occur naturally. They are the product of public policy and investment, but residents can and do make their cities more beautiful.

Civic improvements don’t just refer to the infrastructure – utilities, transportation and services such as fire and police protection, schools and librar- ies and hospitals. They also include city beautification which involves cleaning up trash and waste, removing weeds and unnecessary growth, razing dilapidated structures, planting flowers, trees and shrubbery, painting, lighting darkened areas, repairing broken pavement and sidewalks and painting wherever needed.

Who notices these needs? Urban planners and industrial developers, of course, do, but there are the visionaries, those persons who can see the potentials beyond what is the broken, the trash, the dilapidated. These people have pride in their community and recognize that an attractive physical environment can change the attitudes of the entire population.

It would seem that Newport has always had such people. In Newport’s earliest years, one of the town’s early newspapers, the Eastern Sentinel, made mention of the need for residents to take more pride in the appearance of the town. In the issue of January 27, 1881: We are certainly in hopes that the experience of the past three weeks will not

SEE APPEARANCE ON PAGE 17 be lost upon our citizens in regard to fixing up our sidewalks … the streets in the west end of town are almost impassable and very few ladies dare to enliven our thoroughfares … Dr. [L.W.] Hooper complains about the mud … On March 10, 1881, it was written: Housecleaning is in order and a thorough cleaning should be given the streets and alleys. A few touches of the paint brush would make wonderful improvement in some localities. We certainly have the prettiest town in the state when it has on its Sunday clothes.

In the years between 1890 and 1910, there was a group of citizens who really promoted Newport and Cocke County and sought to bring business and industry here. There were long articles in the Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville newspapers describing the advantages and opportunities of the town. It is people like them who have wanted our town to be made as attractive as possible.

In 1911 a Women’s Improvement Club was organized here with the goal of developing the civic, intellectual and cultural life. In the Newport Plain Talk, March 9, 1911, the ladies announced that a general cleaning up week would be set for the first week of April. They added that the Board of Mayor and Aldermen were entering into the “spirit of a more clean town” and were taking up the question of garbage cans. In the April 20 issue, the ladies expressed appreciation for the efforts that the citizens had made towards cleaning up. On June 8, 1911, the following letter from Mrs. J.W. O’Hara appeared: A drive around our beautiful town will reveal many improvements which have been inaugurated the past few months. Our macadamized [graveled] streets, newly painted residences, old ram-shackled buildings torn down, outhouses and fences whitewashed. The “Clean-up” spirit is contagious. If you don’t believe it, my friend, just try setting and example your neighbors will follow.

Like any project, civic cleanliness has to be continued or slovenly conditions will recur. This was true in Newport, for an editorial in 1914 asked “Is Newport to have a clean up?” and stated There are only two streets in Newport … other towns the size of Newport have cleaner and better kept streets than we have. It is a pretty shiftless town that won’t clean its streets. The other day we heard that the one thing wrong with Newport was that the streets were so dreadfully dirty.

Another article Aug. 26, 1924, was titled “Newport Needs Cleaning-Up.” The Knoxville Journal reported that in September 1934 that the Twentieth Century Club had hosted a meeting with leaders of Newport women’s organizations – United Daughters of the Confederacy, American Legion

Auxiliary, PTA, Business Women’s Club

– all of which pledged their support to “improve and beautify Newport.” In November of that year, Mr. Sam Brewster of TVA spoke to the club about aid available from TERA [Tennessee Emergency Relief Administration] to secure a city planner to assist in developing zoning regulations, beautifying public areas and establishing a city park.

In 1963, Newport went into civic improvement in a BIG way. The local Chamber of Commerce sponsored the “Clean-Up, Paint-Up, Fix-Up” campaign and urged all citizens and organizations to participate. Mrs. Patsy Williams was chairman of this endeavor. It was a very successful, and in January 1964 Newport was given the award for “The Best Overall Program” in the Tennessee Community Program. They also received second place in the “Grand Award” from the state.

In February 1964, Newport Mayor and Mrs. J. Fred Jones were in Washington, DC at the International Inn to receive the “Special Achievement Award” for the Clean-Up, Paint-Up and Fix-Up” national campaign. The competition was divided by city size and was based upon civic beautification, slum prevention, health and safety, juvenile delinquency, fire protection, civic pride and business development. Mayor Jones proudly stated, “Our citizens worked hard for this award.”

One citizen who really put her desire for a prettier Newport into action was Mrs. Eva Sexton.

She was a native of Newport. In 1961 she began the job as manager/secretary of the Newport Chamber of Commerce and she was among those who would promote Newport and its opportunities to inquirers. She was quick to defend Newport to any detractors. She didn’t want any credit or recognition for herself; she was only interested in making Newport a better place to live and work.

When she left the Chamber in 1981, she wasn’t idle long. Mayor Jeanne Wilson engaged her in beautification efforts for the town. Using her “green thumb,” her sense of color and design and her frugal nature, she set to make a difference in the appearance of the town, as economically as possible. Readers may remember seeing her puttering about town in her baseball cap, her car loaded with gardening tools and water jugs.

The concrete planters along the streets were her idea. She envisioned the dogwood grove across from Walgreens. She came up with the plan for the old Pisgah Cemetery, an overgrown jungle, to be preserved and easily maintained. She designed the local history park on the riverbank on East Main Street. She spent many hours planting and watering flower beds at the Newport City Park and through her efforts the caboose was placed in the park. She and Doug Shoemaker were responsi- ble for the growth of white pines around the perimeter of the park.

While she wanted to be “a committee of one,” she was quick to say she couldn’t have accomplished this had it not been for “her boys” from the City Street Department. It was her direction and inspiration that began the beautification program that is in place today.

Tim Dockery is Director of the Newport Parks and Recreation through which the beautification program is managed. This includes the various parks – City Park, Pet Milk, White Oak, Bryant Town, Fifth/ Filbert – as well as the grounds of the Community Center, City Hall and Police Department. They also maintain the Eva Sexton Greenway and the grassy areas around the interstate.

The flowers along the streets and on the bridges are particularly attractive. The plants are purchased by Faye Fish and are grown under a hydroponic system through a cycle of fertilizing/ fertilizing/flushing.

The city plants and maintains the flowers in hanging baskets, both 19inch and 24-inch, from the utility poles and the 44inch hayracks on the bridges. They have a watering tank of 500 gallons mounted on a vehicle to travel about town in a specific pattern.

Today, Keep Cocke County Beautiful currently sponsors the clean-up on Douglas Lake basin, one of the area’s most picturesque spots.