Longtime Cleveland (Tenn) Mayor Tom Rowland speaks to the media minutes before delivering his final State of the City address at the Cleveland Elks Club Thursday. Rowland served six terms as mayor, longer than any of his predecessors. CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland, in his 26th and final annual State of the City address on Thursday, lauded the accomplishments made in 2017 as the city turned 175 years old.
And Rowland said goodbye to public life, joking in an interview before he began his address that he was taking up a career of doing housework unless he could find a doctor who would order him to avoid vacuum cleaners and dust rags.
In his last annual address to the Kiwanis Club of Cleveland at the Elks Lodge on Second Street, Rowland praised the teamwork among local, state and federal governments in a list of accomplishments for the year.
“We celebrated Cleveland’s 175th birthday in 2017. That’s a lot of years,” said Rowland, who was first elected mayor in 1991 and served longer than any other Cleveland mayor.
“But our city is not acting its age,” he said. “We are a young, growing city with our best days still ahead of us.