Logan Hickman addressed the attendees.

By Charlotte Underwood

CAMPBELL COUNTY, TN. (WLAF) -Leadership Campbell County kicked off its newest class with an all-day orientation event held at the Jacksboro Tennessee College of Applied Technology.

The day was filled with keynote speakers, team building exercises and speed networking for the 13 community members taking the course.

State Representative Dennis Powers was among the keynote speakers at Thursday’s orientation.

Powers is a Campbell County native who represents the 36th district as State Representative. He has also been in insurance for 35 years. Powers serves on multiple committees in Nashville.

In honor of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, Powers spoke about financial abuse, specifically elder financial abuse and Tennessee’s PAUSE Law, which has increased penalties for crimes involving financial elder abuse. “We’re trying to stop that. We’re going to be able to call TBI now, who can put a temporary hold on those finances if there is a red flag,” Powers said. He and Senator Becky Massey came up with that bill.

“We want to come back next year and establish funding for specific investigators to investigate those types of crimes,” Powers said.

According to Powers, elder financial abuse is a” $500 million industry in the state and those numbers are probably only around half of the true statistics reported.”

State Representative Dennis Powers was one of the guest speakers for Leadership Campbell County’s orientation day, held on Thursday at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Jacksboro.

Powers also gave a brief update on some of the things that he was proud of in Tennessee.

“We are proud of our balanced budget, we have no debt, and we are number one in financial management in the nation. We pay as we go, we don’t incur debt,” Powers said

He said Tennessee is “number one in voter integrity.” And “number one in U-Haul one-way rentals.”

“We love having people here and coming into our state. Tennessee is the number two state in online search for people looking to move to. We are also number two in the lowest tax state in the country. Alaska is number one because of getting oil royalties,” Powers said.

He mentioned accomplishments this year in the state such as the $1.5 billion in appropriations for the health care industry. Other accomplishments include under law enforcement, the state has established a domestic violence registry, with stronger penalties for those crimes. Another change is that the state defined robbery as a crime of violence and added penalties as well

The Education Freedom Scholarship Act for all families is another accomplishment in education, as is the new ban on cell phones in classrooms.

“We have also added more free speech protection for students and more recess time for students,” Powers said.

Logan Hickman, with People’s Bank of the South, addressed Leadership Campbell County class participants on Thursday about assessing risk, reducing risk and preventing accidents. He spoke about organizing the Conquer the Bluff Race which benefits Campbell County High School and funds scholarships.

Another accomplishment Powers mentioned was his work on a grant for Union County to get a Tennessee College of Applied Technology/ Walter State hybrid school, which will be open next January.

Powers also fielded questions from class members about high-speed internet for any parts of the county that doesn’t have it yet.

“We want everyone to have broadband by next year, we put another $100 million into broadband this budget year, the state has a $54.5 billion budget,” Powers said.

Leadership Campbell County is an annual program sponsored by the Campbell County Chamber of Commerce. The goal of the program is to provide participants with the opportunity to build relationships, serve the community and engage with political, civic and business leaders. The program consists of nine monthly, full day sessions held in various locations in the county. Participants are educated about Campbell County and its many advantages and meet and talk with the region’s current leaders, as well as explore the county’s business sector. Topics may include education, health and human services, law and justice, business and technology, industry, tourism and more. In March, attendees will travel to Nashville for a two-day, one night state government trip.

Class members for this year are Brian Reynolds, Elizabeth Paul, JoRene Finnell, Terri Elswick, Sharon Comer, Ashley Sharp, Jessica Muse, Brent McKinley, Connie Hubbard, Bethany Benjamen, Stephanie Hester, Vicki McLean, and Tina Goddard.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 6/13/2025-6AM)

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