Roane Alliance: 2012 the ‘busiest and most productive ever’

The Roane Alliance has released its most recent annual report, and it called 2012 the “busiest and most productive year ever.”

Roane Alliance officials said they will remember 2012 as the year of the Volkswagen Distribution Center project.

But it was also a year of many other accomplishments, said Alliance President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Henderson.

“The VW project was certainly the biggest project we have landed for our community in recent memory and will no doubt have a significant impact on Roane County for years to come,” Henderson said in an introductory letter in the report. “We at the Alliance worked it hard for nearly two years—along with a huge dedicated team of public officials, volunteers, and supporters—and beat out a field of nearly 50 other communities across the country. The announcement was the culmination of a long and painstakingly-detailed effort.”

She said Roane County and the Roane Alliance’s partners “consistently continue to come through the slow recovery a little easier than most of our neighbors.” She attributed that to the strength of the existing industrial and commercial sector, among other things.

According to a press release, some highlights of the report that was released at a Feb. 14 Roane Alliance board meeting:

• Roane’s unemployment rate continued to beat the state’s and the nation’s averages, hovering at or below 7 percent throughout the year;
• Roane County’s per capita income continued to climb, making it the 15th highest in Tennessee;
• Seventy-nine new retail jobs were created as two new retailers opened their doors after being recruited by Alliance staff;
• More than 100 high school graduates—60 of them the first in their families to ever attend college—enrolled in community colleges last fall as a result of just one of The Alliance’s many successful Education Matters! programs; and
• $64.6 million was spent in Roane County by tourists, according to the state’s newest numbers—an 8.1 percent increase over the previous year.

The press release said these accomplishments and many more are included in the Alliance’s 2012 Annual Report, which Henderson said is a combination of a “snapshot of Roane County’s economy” and an in-depth view of some of the Alliance’s “most active and successful programming.”

The full report can be seen on the Roane Alliance’s website at: www.RoaneAlliance.org/report.

The Alliance is Roane County’s economic development organization and include both public and private organizations, including the Roane County Chamber of Commerce, the Roane County Industrial Development Board and the Roane County Visitors Bureau.