Rural counties outside the Chattanooga metro area are not experiencing the growth they were a few years ago, but they are still growing, officials say. Records show that reflects a trend among metropolitan areas across the nation.
A new U.S. Census Bureau report shows a nationwide trend of outlying counties in metropolitan statistical areas growing faster than metro areas' central counties. Between 2000 and 2007, national averages show outlying counties grew more by migration than birth. Those counties' populations increased 13 percent compared with an 8 percent increase for metro areas' central counties.
In the past decade, McMinn County, Tenn., about 50 miles northeast of Chattanooga, has swelled by more than 7 percent, pushing its population over 50,000, records show. McMinn is nestled in a rolling landscape with five small towns scattered across it, the county seat of Athens at its center.
McMinn County Economic Development Authority Executive Vice President and CEO Jack Hammontree said the economy has been hard on the county, but there are signs of a possible rebound.
"The economy has been in a depressed state, and we haven't had a lot of activity," he said. "But over the past six or eight weeks we've seen more activity than we've seen in the last six or eight months."
He said there also have been expansion and growth among some of McMinn's smaller companies, and that's promising for a future rebound. Meanwhile, the county is working to make site and technology improvements to its industrial properties, he said.
Sequatchie County, adjacent to Hamilton County to the west, blossomed with the completion of state Highway 111, a four-lane road that connects Hamilton County to the Cumberland Plateau, crossing the Sequatchie Valley as it goes.
Local officials' estimates place Sequatchie County's population around 14,000 and growing, with most population growth coming from retiree transplants, said Sequatchie County Executive Michael Hudson.
Mr. Hudson said Sequatchie's growth, the leader in Southeast Tennessee in past years, has slowed somewhat with the recession.
"We're still getting new residents but not as many as we've seen in the past," he said.
The county still is a destination for retirees, particularly from Florida, he said.
Rhea County Mayor Billy Ray Patton said growth has continued thanks to construction at Watts Bar.
"I guess a lot has to do with the Unit 2 reactor at the nuclear plant, and we've had an influx because of that," Mr. Patton said.
The population will be "over the 30,000 mark in Rhea County when the census is completed," he predicted.