A group of concerned citizens, formerly called PRIDE, met Friday to discuss ways to reduce spending, stop tax increases and recruit new industry to Crossville.  This is an open-to-the-public organization of men and women working toward several community-improving goals.  Some in the group felt that the unofficial name of the organization, PRIDE, did not reflect their goals sufficiently and may even be offensive to some in the community.  PRIDE is an acronym for People for Restoring Integrity, Dignity and Excellence to Crossville.  The idea being Crossville’s governing body had been so caught up with internal bickering for years consequently losing a major employer to Cookeville then raising taxes needlessly – ultimately causing Crossville to lose its appeal as a prime location for new industry seeking cities to move into.  It was agreed a new name for the organization would be created and announced later.

The group of mostly local businesspersons is wanting to seek ways to stop the raising of taxes and urging the government to spend taxpayers money in a more prudent manner along with a more aggressive search for industry recruitment. After discussions that could be more immediate to producing mutual beneficial results to our community, it was suggested by Pauline Sherrer that a meeting between Tom Flynn, Butch Smith and others be arranged immediately with Ed Camera, a senior executive with Colinx  and member of the  Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors heading up economic development,  to discuss possibly incorporating an economic industrial consultant who is currently working with the Chamber and Plateau Partnership Park at Westel, perhaps saving the city and county taxpayer’s hundreds of thousands of dollars and hopefully producing more immediate results.  With the loss of Ficosa manufacturing plant and almost 600 jobs, the group feels there need to be a greater effort put forth in attracting new industry to locate in Crossville to help offset job losses and working together with the city/county and Chamber is imperative to success.

One of the other primary goals for the local citizens group is to bring awareness to the community of the actions of local government – particularly when it comes to raising taxes and spending taxpayer money.  The Friday meeting was very well covered by local media too.  Along with Crossville News First, Chronicle editor Mike Moser, reporter Jim Young and even publisher Pauline Sherrer was in attendance with all three offering suggestions on how the group may better achieve their goals.  It was emphasized by group representative Butch Smith that the group’s purpose was not to be adversarial, but instead – to be positive and work for the good of the community through insisting on transparency and accountability from local governing bodies, seeking new industry for Crossville and bring awareness to the community of government activities that affect the citizens.