Maynardville Mayor Ty Blakely can be described as the city’s website describes the town: friendly, with an eye on the future.
He had an unusual habit for a small boy — he enjoyed reading the daily newspaper! As a child, he looked up to his grandfather who was a math teacher and coach at Powell High School. He wanted to be like his grandfather and expected to follow in his footsteps in the teaching profession, but life presented other opportunities.
His father also shaped his thinking about public service by teaching him that when you see a problem you have two choices: either be part of the solution or be quiet. Upon graduation from West High School, Blakely entered Pellissippi State and soon realized that he lacked the maturity for college. Having just experienced 9/11, and seeking to learn discipline, he enlisted in the Army.
Although he lived in and around Knoxville growing up, his mother was born and raised in Luttrell, giving him deep Union County roots. Having graduated from Horace Maynard High School, she set him up on a blind date with an old school mate’s daughter and they hit it off, and are now happily married with a son.
The couple settled in her hometown of Maynardville and Blakely returned to college and obtained his Associate Degree in Robotics, then a Bachelor’s Degree in Network Security and Forensics.
Blakely states that people are attracted to small towns, and the people of our community are an attraction themselves. We don’t want to lose our identity but we can grow without giving that up. Currently, 84 percent of the employed people in our county drive out of the county for work.
Blakely has learned from former Union County High School football players that they moved away from home primarily due to our community lacking services and facilities for their children. So growing jobs and services for children are high priorities.
He is very excited about the opening of the first city park/splash pad in the Spring of 2021. (Wilson Park, although within Maynardville city limits, is a county-owned and operated park.) Growth takes time, he says, and intentionally building more ball fields, parks, and shopping won’t happen overnight, but is beginning and being worked towards. He wants to give the children of Union County a reason to come home to raise their families.
Blakely is on a constant quest for knowledge. After college, he began attending city and county meetings and saw how hard everyone was working to make Union County better, and he wanted to offer his services. He threw his hat in the ring just trying to make the best of opportunities as they came along and feels blessed and fortunate to be serving as Maynardville’s mayor today. He continues to read and study political and religious leaders for inspiration and ideas on service leadership.
Blakely states that social media can be a powerful tool, but can also create false storylines on all levels, so the best way to be in the know is to be involved. He strongly encourages everyone to attend these public meetings to know what’s going on. You don’t have to be a current or aspiring politician, or a local business impacted by legislation, or having a quarrel with your neighbor, or in any way be called on to speak to any issue on the agenda to belong; just being a member of the community entitles you to be present at the publicly held meetings and he’d love to see more people involved. After all, public officials are elected to serve their constituents so they need to hear their wants and needs and concerns to know how to effectively be of service.
Blakely would also like to find ways to better educate the public on how things work. For example, since the city of Maynardville imposes no property taxes, their only source of income is sales tax. Our sales tax income is very important to our county because half goes to fund our schools. Blakely has done the research and found that our teacher income and test scores are at the lower end for the State of Tennessee, but changes in one area ripple to benefit all.
For example, the homeowners’ associations in Sharps Chapel successfully bringing in fiber optic internet leads to more homeowners, which leads to more people coming to town to grocery shop or go out to eat, which in turn increases sales tax revenue, which increases education funding for all of the children of our county. Blakely hopes to see good things happen not only for Maynardville but for all of Union County. After all, rising water floats all boats!
Blakey’s advice to those aspiring to political office is to get involved. Other roles he plays in the community are serving as the president of Union County Shriners, (stepping down to vice-president in 2021), and member of Keep Union County Beautiful.
His goal is to treat people right and serve with integrity and character — core values for any Shriner. He seeks to serve his community, with special emphasis on providing for the needs of children. He is so thankful for all the people who work together to improve our community with a servant’s heart.
The Maynardville City Council meets the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the city office which is at 125 Johnson Road, Maynardville, Tenn. Phone: (865) 992-3821, fax (865) 992-6456.