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By Charlotte Underwood
LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- At Thursday’s Joint Economic Community Development meeting, board chairman Jay Willoughby asked area mayors to give updates on what was going on in their communities, as well as “positive things that have happened over the past few years.”
County Mayor Jack Lynch spoke about positives and updates briefly saying that the mayor’s office had been busy and that Campbell County had been growing.
“When we go back and look at what we have accomplished and what is happening, one of the things that comes to mind is the first ever fast track economic development program that resulted in Gold Creek Foods grant for $1.9 million. Gold Creek now is going strong with 240 employees, they is talking about expanding another line and refurbishing other lines and would be another investment close to $700,000 should that occur and I believe it will,” Lynch said.
He also said that United Rare Earths was the “first shovel in the ground in Campbell County in 26 years,” and that they were going to be a great business for the county once it was up and running.
“The good thing coming up is the Campbell County Industrial Park, some of the people at this table have done a lot and the commission has bought , they really like the idea of having a Campbell County Industrial Park t and we are in the works for a $20 million grant for improvements on that property, it is in the IDB’s name at this point, and we continue to work towards that goal,” Lynch said.
He also reported that the county had sold its first piece of county property around a year ago. The property had an industrial building on it, which brought in $705,000 and allowed a business owner to double his work force from five employees to 15 and may expand with more.
“We continue to work with our local partners on jobs any way we can and plan to have a job fair at TCAT in August and in October, we will have another big one at Woodson’s Mall, the cities and area businesses are great partners… the Veteran’s Breakfast will continue, and we already have sponsors for the rest of the year,” Lynch said. He also said that the Training Heroes Program was continuing and that if anyone wants to be an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), the county will pay for the training if they sign on to work for the county “for at least two years.” Lynch said it had been a successful program.
He said the county had finished the $600,000 Home Improvement grant and was expecting another home improvement grant of around $750,000 to be coming in for the community as well.
“We have secured and applied for grants for all the departments, ambulance service and others, another good thing, in water grants we got a $2.2 million in grants from the Office of Surface Mining was invested in water in the Big Four area with not one dime invested from the county, we think that’s a big plus, the county also put in over $4 million dollars in water in stimulus money; we are thankful that LaFollette Utilities and Jacksboro Utilities have worked with us on things like that, it’s a good partnership,” Lynch said.
He also reported that the recent Morristown Marine Fishing Tournament had 217 boats on the lake and that it had a $303,000 total economic impact on the area. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-05/18/2026-6AM)