Join Kosta and his guest: Melinda Keifer, Economic Development Coordinator, Community Development Liaison and Former Founding Executive Director of CityScape. Melissa has represented the Upper Cumberland across the state of Tennessee advocating for growth, expansion and the betterment of Middle Tennessee.
Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is recorded in Cookeville, TN.
Find out more about CityScape:
https://cookevillecityscape.com/
Find out more about Cookeville Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development:
https://cookevillechamber.com/
Find out more about Kosta Yepifantsev:
http://kostayepifantsev.com/
Join Kosta and his guest: Melinda Keifer, Economic Development Coordinator, Community Development Liaison and Former Founding Executive Director of CityScape. Melissa has represented the Upper Cumberland across the state of Tennessee advocating for growth, expansion and the betterment of Middle Tennessee.
Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is recorded in Cookeville, TN.
Find out more about CityScape:
https://cookevillecityscape.com/
Find out more about Cookeville Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development:
https://cookevillechamber.com/
Find out more about Kosta Yepifantsev:
http://kostayepifantsev.com/
Allowing people to have more input, allowing that outreach to happen and working under that collaborative umbrella. And there have been times, you know, concepts and theories and thoughts have just totally been cut off. But if you open that door most people want to work through
Morgan Franklin:Welcome to Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev, a podcast on parenting business and living life intentionally. We're here every week to bring you thoughtful conversation, making your own path to success,challenging the status quo, and finding all the ways we're better together. Here's your host, Kosta Yepifantsev.
Kosta Yepifantsev:Hey, y'all, it's Kosta. Today I'm here with my guest, Melinda Keefer, economic development consultant, community development liaison and former founding executive director of city scape. Melinda has represented the upper Cumberland across the state of Tennessee advocating for growth, expansion, and the betterment of all of Middle Tennessee. Melinda, it's an honor to have you with us today. You've devoted your entire career to community development, civil service and the betterment of the upper Cumberland. I want to start this episode with the question I think has been on a lot of people's minds lately. Where do we go from here, not just as a city. But more importantly, as a community,
Melinda Keifer:Kosta? I'm so honored to be here, and what a fun opportunity for me to kind of get to reflect and then also talk about the future. You know, we live very partially in one of the best communities, not only in state, but I will say the southeast. Where do we go from here today? There's a couple of different things. Number one, we stay the course. Right? Absolutely. Let's keep doing what works well, and we have a proven track record and economy proves we need to stay the course.
Kosta Yepifantsev:So record sales tax. Amazing.
Melinda Keifer:Yes, we're gonna keep that going. We're gonna keep that going. Good. 100%. That's a goal. Right? So thank you that keeps our property taxes down. Number two is Don't get so complacent. You must look to the future. So while you're maintaining your foundations, you still have to have an eye on what we need to continue to become every community can get better every day. No community's ever finished. Right? Yeah, those are the two things as far as just a 30,000 foot view. Stay the course. And let's look to the future. I
Kosta Yepifantsev:mean, how much has cokeville changed since you moved? Now? Are you from Cookeville? Originally? Okay, so you were born and raised here?
Melinda Keifer:We moved back when I was started kindergarten. Okay.
Kosta Yepifantsev:Still, I mean, that's yeah,
Melinda Keifer:we'll call it my entire life. That's right.
Kosta Yepifantsev:I mean, how much has it changed since you were growing up in Cookeville? You know,
Melinda Keifer:it's pretty amazing, isn't it. And we were positioned due to past incredible leadership because of our 40. Okay, we can go all the way back to that period of time, to truly become a great community. So it has changed so much. But here's the beautiful part. There is so much of this community that is exactly like it was even before the interstate came through. And I think a lot of times people don't reflect on that, you know, especially when they see change as an uncomfortable place to be, you just need to sit down and reflect on what you remember. And see how much of that truly is still here.
Kosta Yepifantsev:It's astounding, because Jessica, she moved here in 1994. I think 9495 She went to kindergarten here and everything. And we'll be going into a store, like the market Play Store on the square there. And she would tell me, like all the different stores that it was. Yeah, exactly. And so it's, there's a lot of history. And I mean, I guess it just shows the progression. I know, obviously, to your point that there are a lot of things that stayed the same, but there's so many things that have changed to evolve with the times and evolve with the growth in population and industry and things like that. And in a lot of ways. That's the beauty of Cookeville is I know we shouldn't stay we shouldn't be complacent and I don't think it ever really has. But it's always important to say just to make sure, right, yes.
Melinda Keifer:Especially when there's so much change. Yes, you know, then you kind of people kind of want to prep that barriers, but back to the marketplace and the stores that used to be there. That's specifically what I'm talking about. Those foundation pieces that has always been a place where people in the community could purchase items for themselves. Yeah, so that core those pieces now the you know, the sign out front may be different and the dry goods and they're different and I can't go buy my brownie and Girl Scout outfits. They're like I did when I was young. But what a great Shaw and what a great way to honor the structure if nothing else have a downtown environment.
Kosta Yepifantsev:Yep. Let's talk About cityscape and your role as the first executive director of the program. How did this come to be? And what is city scape for anyone who doesn't know,
Melinda Keifer:a little historical reference at the time that this group of people felt like our downtown was declining? We were on our second Walmart, they'd opened a store and then closed it for a bigger store. So that was pushing on, you know, and that was our tough for downtown districts, right? We were on our second Kmart, there was 2k, Mart's here. Well, they had left a smaller place and built a brand new one get bigger. And those were really big deals. I remember, a friend of mine in college said, I cannot wait to get out of a town where the grind opened a Walmart social been in the season. I mean, it was a big deal. So there was a group of people that felt like at some point, this has to be addressed as well. So they looked at that Tennessee Mainstreet program started a group of people, grassroots plus government, public private partnership, and nine, teen 93. Wow. Yeah, they put together a board of directors that literally was put together for one purpose. And that is absolutely no one in the community would be able to say no to them, incredible people from the university, just a broad range of just true leadership. And I remember when I got hired, and I knew them all, so it was the most intimidating interview I'd ever had in my life. I was like, if I say something wrong, they're gonna tell my mom and daddy, and I'm gonna be big trouble. So I remember after I was hired, Joe Albright. And I know, you know, his son, Jr, Brian.
Kosta Yepifantsev:Okay, I've heard so much about him. And I never got the opportunity to meet him. I wish I had from everything that I've heard. I mean, he just seems like a like a force, a true
Melinda Keifer:mentor of mine. He shepherded me in so many ways. But he sat me down and told me he was a newspaperman at the time, your sole job is to make sure that cityscape is in the news, no less than once a month, whether it's radio newspaper, however you do it, either outlet however. So that is your core value. And I can remember I would check that off. And so we were able to create a brand that people understood, while preserving the historic nature of our downtown. We wanted new shops and businesses to come in. And of course, everybody needs to understand elected officials don't create jobs. Economic coordinators don't create businesses do. So your sole purpose is to create an environment where businesses can succeed. You can't make up 60. But if you create a place, or a structure where they can succeed, then you're off to the races. So that's when we really began to look at the visual aspects of downtown and started that first construction project around the square.
Kosta Yepifantsev:How old were you when you were brought on as the first executive director?
Melinda Keifer:Gosh, 31.
Kosta Yepifantsev:So where did you learn this ideology? Because I mean, look, at the end of the day, there's a lot of smart people out here, but it takes people that actually can convalesce. All of this into a direct and concrete message like you just gave Yeah. Where did you learn that?
Melinda Keifer:You know, I think a lot of it comes from your parents. My dad was a football coach. So my entire life, I was taught how to build the team, hey, go. And they usually came over for dinner, you know, he played football at Tech, he coached football at Tech. And then my mother was a fourth grade teacher. And goodness knows it takes a village in those environments as well. And I was at home make major fashion merchandising. So I had a retail background. Okay, and so that that helped understanding square footage and floor space and helping businesses be better with store hours and promotions and stuff like that. So I guess it was a combination.
Kosta Yepifantsev:You know, what I love about the environment of team and people like yourself that grow up in a family where sports and especially you know, as involved as you were and how close you were to it, you could see that every single person had a role to play within their position. So the quarterback isn't going to be you know, the defensive lineman, right, the defensive lineman isn't going to be a wide receiver 99.9% of the time. And what you were describing earlier about businesses playing role elected official playing a role people in the community like everybody has a job to do and if Cookeville wants to continue to keep growing in the capacity that it is we need to make sure that we keep doing our own jobs, you know, we keep essentially to fulfilling our own roles,
Melinda Keifer:100% cost and that's part of staying the course, in the past. And currently, and I hope dearly for the future, we've been blessed with elected leadership, who truly like each other. Yeah, that hasn't always been that way. And it may not again in the future, but when you can put together a group of people that on many things have a shared vision, but more importantly, when they don't, they still like each other. And they can compromise, respect, and compromise and negotiate, and try something new when it truly is a blessing. And for reasons like that. That's why cityscape has been so successful, they have done the same thing with that board, they've worked really hard to create an environment for those downtown businesses to succeed.
Kosta Yepifantsev:After city scape, you continued on to serve as the first Economic Development Coordinator for the city of Cookeville. You've pioneered and established several major facets of our community as it stands today. If you had to pick one through line for all of these projects, what would it be?
Melinda Keifer:Preparedness literally being prepared? Because the opportunities don't call you and say, okay, in two and a half years, yeah, we're gonna come visit you and want to open a store or manufacturing there.
Kosta Yepifantsev:How were you confident to make the investments that you did to get to the point to where you were prepared for those phone calls? Because you no one has a crystal balls, man? What's gonna happen? No.
Melinda Keifer:And my father used to tell me, He who looks in crystal ball usually gets glass in his eye.
Kosta Yepifantsev:Right.
Melinda Keifer:So keeping that in context, you know, before I came back to Cookeville, I worked eight years for the state of Tennessee. Okay, as Director of Community Development and the Tennessee Mainstreet program. I think what really gave me so much passion and bless it knowledge was I traveled all 95 counties in Tennessee. And so I got to see communities strengths and weaknesses, help them with both. I think the status thing for me was a community who had so many strengths. They had so many assets there to work with to develop, but had no leadership. Wow. And to me, that was heartbreaking. Yeah, because it was all right there. Let's sit let's talk about let's build this capacity, whether it's a humane shelter, or a downtown park, all of those foundational pieces, but when you don't have leadership that is open or collaborative and able to negotiate, those things are impossible. And then you go to a small town in Tennessee, where their assets are very limited. But by golly, that leadership was passionate, they worked hard every day, their community was engaged in everything that was going on, you know, I kind of wanted to go into kind of, Can I pick you up and put you over here for a while and you go over here, and let's see what we can mix that. But that gave me the foundational pieces to say, if you don't have community development, there is no economic department.
Kosta Yepifantsev:When did you know that you had made the right decision? Was there a day? Or did you get that big industry or business partner that finally said, okay, you know, we're gonna make a move to Cookeville. And it transformed our community. And you were like, Yes, I knew this would happen.
Melinda Keifer:You know, I would have to say, The Academy sports and outdoors distribution center was not only a game changer for the community, but for me, personally, because it felt validating, I guess, like, Okay, I was really listening. Yeah. And I did really try to learn and I can see some fingerprints on this project, where I was able to contribute. And so that was very personally validating, but for our community, it put us back on the map. We've been sleeping quiet for about 20 years.
Kosta Yepifantsev:I mean, in 2000 been no
Melinda Keifer:yeah, no growth.
Kosta Yepifantsev:I mean, 2008 So I met Jessica in 2009. I was living in Nashville and Stuart's very apartments. And she brought me to cook Ville in oh nine and this was right after the recession and the recession did a number on this area called housing development. And I mean, that big fact that furniture factory it's on Willow that was on Willow close right off the interstate. And I mean, you could tell like, there's a lot of people struggling and so I totally get why resonate with with what you're saying about the fact that you needed kind of like a shot in the arm to say, Okay, we're back on track and you know,
Melinda Keifer:we needed a catalyst
Kosta Yepifantsev:You did that. So lots of
Melinda Keifer:cost, but I went to tape. Who I have decided the day you realize your sole purpose in life is to be chief cat herder. And to put the people, the right people on the bus in the right seat. And then all I have to do is drive because they got everything else. Experts in their own right. water sewer electric, industrial development at bankers. I'm not a good banker. I don't know a whole lot about electricity there. But by golly, Amna, who does, and we're gonna put you on the team,
Kosta Yepifantsev:we're gonna talk about you being a catalyst, one of the most intimidating parts about trying to create real change, is finding a place to start. As we've discussed, you're a professional starter, how can we all embrace this spirit of change? And what helped you get started on huge projects like these?
Melinda Keifer:First, it takes a lot of faith. And whether that's religious faith, faith in yourself, faith in your community, faith in your team? Across the board, you got to have faith, you're always no handbook. Man, you're to some extent you do, you have to be willing to kind of put yourself out there. But faith comes from knowing there's a safety net there that will catch you should you missed out. And then being humble enough to say, Oh, I sorry, me, probably I should probably not have said done, you know, we've all been in those places, takes faith, a little bit of a vision and a dream for the future. And it can be as wild and open or as narrow. But that's where you get the fire is that vision or that dream of what you want to accomplish. And, you know, my entire professional career has been committed to creating a balanced scorecard. You can go back to that team and that sports analogy, every community has to have a balanced foundation, you can't just be good at one thing. Because should the economy turns should that thing go up in a puff of smoke, you have nothing. I equate it to Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans, I was called by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to go in on a survey team after the hurricane hit into the lower Ninth Ward to help preserve historic structures. So I was deployed down there. And immediately, I could say that Katrina lifted the lid on a community who had literally not invested time, money, effort or passion in their foundation. Instead, they pushed it out to the outer ends of the city limits, or they covered it up in a dirt straight and Katrina lifted the lid off of areas which had already become the worst of the worst. So that's my example of why that foundation is critical. And that's what creates the opportunity to be prepared. Because you don't know where it's
Kosta Yepifantsev:coming from. You understand how important it is? I understand the how important the balance is, how do you get the community to embrace that understanding? Because you have been rather successful at getting 85% of our community on board with this is going to help us not just in the short term, but more importantly, in the long term? How do you do that in terms of messaging?
Melinda Keifer:I will tell you, Costa, I feel like today, that is a much more difficult task than it used to be. And you know, we can talk about that. As far as where do we go from here? I think it goes back to again, those core foundation pieces faith and trust, you have to build trust in your message. And that comes with integrity. It comes with character. It comes with two really open ears and one very small mouth, allowing people to have input, allowing that outreach to happen. And working under that collaborative umbrella. And there have been times, you know, concepts and theories and thoughts have have just totally been cut off at the knees. But if you open that door, most people want to work through it, but I do worry. Is that collaborative spirit? I don't know it's a little tougher, good day.
Kosta Yepifantsev:It's things are gonna get interesting. I will say one of the components that helped me sort of craft that question was affordable housing critical and reading about some of the decisions that the Planning Commission's recently have been making on affordable housing and preventing some entry level developments to be built in high essentially high density housing, like off 10 street and things like that, which I understand, obviously, people's concerns. But one of the things that whether it's the planning commission or it's the individuals that live in that area that they may not understand is there such a small amount of homes that are in a certain price range for first time homebuyers to be able to buy without buying like a fixer upper? Because it's right, who has time to fix up the house when they're, you know, 25 years old,
Melinda Keifer:or find the contractor available services to do it exactly. To be able to afford that. Exactly.
Kosta Yepifantsev:And it's their kids, though, that's the thing is, it's like it's not these are the people that oppose affordable housing being built and high density housing being built, and hoping that housing prices decline so that, you know, more people could build a single family home on a eighth of an acre like they do in Nashville, like those days are over. That's just not the direction that the United States in the state of Tennessee is going to move in. It's going to be a lot of these housing, high density housing developments for entry level homebuyers, but it's their kids that are going to need a house that are not able to find one.
Melinda Keifer:And here's the absolute crux of that issue. They believe their kids want need and are able to pay for the house that they have. And the reality is by demographics, if you sit, they don't want a white picket fence, right? They do not need a fenced in backyard. They don't want to cut the grass, they don't want to cut the grass, then you have an aging population that is truly tired of cutting grass. Yes. And so it goes back to being in tune with who are our customers here in COVID. Yeah, you know, which may be our kids or maybe newcomers. At the end of the day. They don't want what you have, right. And last time I checked, there's no empty apartments. There's like 10 houses, for houses for three years. Yeah, it's market driven. And if you will not allow yourself to respect and honor that incredible machine, which is the individual consumer. It is market driven? Absolutely. These guys are not building things to lose money, right?
Kosta Yepifantsev:Well, and if they don't build anything, then they lose the window.
Melinda Keifer:My employees of companies can't live here, right. Therefore we can't recruit because we are unable.
Kosta Yepifantsev:And it's not even the price point at that junction. It's actually the inventory inventory. Right. And so there are all of and I know, we're getting a little technical and maybe a little bit off topic. But there are all these inroads that you have to make for an economic engine to work. And I know you had mentioned that it may be a little bit more difficult in the coming years, because there may be a lack of compatible working environments in our elected leadership. But I believe I truly believe that as younger people, and I'm not even talking about any political parties, I'm just saying when as younger people right into leadership, I think that they will propagate moving our community into the right direction to try and increase economic activity into a 21st century economy. Well, I
Melinda Keifer:truly, truly have faith in hope that you are correct. And I think the issue what I'm saying, how do we keep a collaborative spirit? It's not necessarily and definitely not now, with current leadership, it's the community, which is reflective of our nation, right. And so it's always been difficult for me to play on the edges. I really love to function in this 4000 acre field somewhere in the middle. Oh, yeah. I just feel like so many people are not in step with that kind of philosophy. And I think that can create issues, especially in small communities, and it's issues that are tough, right? difficult issues to deal with. So keeping ourselves in check. You got to have a little bit of work in that 4000 acre field for a community to be sustainable.
Kosta Yepifantsev:As a woman in leadership, what's your message to other women? Is it possible to quote unquote, have it all
Melinda Keifer:my message is that can't eat you? You are gonna be fine. I know this screaming maymays are so difficult. Stand up, take your tnn
Kosta Yepifantsev:I mean, you raise two incredible daughters While building an incredible career
Melinda Keifer:with incredible servant hearts, I'm just like, I was listening. Boy, I've may read properly. Um, with a lot of good hail, man, a lot of good help.
Kosta Yepifantsev:Not a family around a lot of family.
Melinda Keifer:When we're all together in town, there's 26 of us nice. When everybody's home inside. That's beautiful. So yeah, having that family support 100%. I remember when I worked at the state, and having a little bit of a fashion merchandising background, there were many times I was the only female in the room. And it was a big room. And there were lots of nice seats. And so I would constantly worry about, what am I going to wear? You know, it's just a thing. It's got a tear, don't get me wrong, but and so I had to kind of create, in my mind, what is that as I walk in that room, let's go tell ya, I love being a girl. But I also want to be respected. And I want that first impression to be one that is positive. So I came up with this term, and I used it my entire eight years ago, I was buying clothes for work. So I created a style called conservatively sassy.
Kosta Yepifantsev:I love that. And what is conservative sassy? Well,
Melinda Keifer:there might be a really bright color. Okay, but it's not spaghetti strapped. That suit is finely tailored. Now, it might be in pink or purple, you be yourself. But you have to give a nod to your environment. And for women and leadership, regardless of whether that's flip flops, and you know, whatever. Be yourself, but give a nod to your environment.
Kosta Yepifantsev:You know, Jessica taught me early on when we had Caroline. So Caroline is my oldest daughter, she's just turned seven on the 23rd. And when she was born in 2016, you know, I grew up really like it was just me and my dad, so single dad. And, you know, he had a traditional way of looking at things and dealing with things. But he always said, you know, you always take care of women, you know, just but he also made it kind of almost like they were the victim in some capacity. Yeah, so then Caroline was born, I had this like, that it's gonna sound terrible. But like, you don't need to have a lot of independence, because I'll make sure to give you everything that you need for the rest of your life. I'm here. Exactly. And Jessica, if you I don't know if you've ever met Jessica, but she's a force. She don't need no body. Like and who taught her that? I think it was her mother, I think. Yeah, absolutely. Mother and father.
Melinda Keifer:So that is the biggest gift that a parent can give a child, specifically, little girl is that they have an opportunity to build their confidence from a very young age.
Kosta Yepifantsev:And I am so grateful because Caroline, she don't take crap from nobody. And
Melinda Keifer:that's just fun. Now, it's hard when they're six years old. But as that's a great trait to have. I remember sitting down with my dad, I was in college, and he was giving me one of those, you know, daddy speeches about what I should or should not do with a particular thing. And I looked at him and I said, Daddy, I'd read this from Erma Bombeck. If you remember or Malachi was a newspaper columnist, adults, parents spend their entire adult life trying to prevent their kids from going through what made them who they are today.
Kosta Yepifantsev:You're absolutely right. That's, that is literally the nail on the head right there.
Melinda Keifer:I was like, I'm okay. Yeah, Daddy, I'm will be fair. He was like, Oh my God, you're so right.
Kosta Yepifantsev:Caroline had the substitute teacher, when she was in first grade, know, kindergarten when she was in Canada. She was still a little feral back then. And she got mad at this girl, I think who was being mean to her. And the substitute teacher was there. So think her guard was kind of down. And she took a desk and pushed it at this girl and said leave me alone or something like that. And obviously she got in trouble when I talked to her about it and all this stuff. But I couldn't help and I mean, obviously, as a parent, you don't really know if you're saying the right thing, like ever, you know, back and I'll be like, I'm so I'm still astounded that I raised all these great children. You know, how did that Yeah, but at the time, I was like, Well, I mean, she was kind of getting on her nerves and she wouldn't stop so I mean, maybe her pushing that desk wasn't a bad thing.
Melinda Keifer:Right? You know, really, again, it's definitely our kindergarteners but as a as a maturing young woman's you will think back on that time and then you'll be able to say to her at A Girl Yeah. I live your
Kosta Yepifantsev:when I read your TT You alumni story I was taken by something you said, I want to make my community a better place to work, live and play. What do you believe is your greatest contribution to this mission so far? And what's one way we could work together moving forward to achieve this goal?
Melinda Keifer:You know, having been blessed with two opportunities to be first in chair for positions that impacted my community really has given me a unique perspective, because I obviously didn't have all the answers in either one of those. But it's allowed me to learn to lean on other people. Because I don't know it all. To be humble, and vulnerable. You're not always going to be right. You don't need to come in and take over. You know, and I can be a little sassy pants sometimes. And so you just need to sit down and be quiet, listen, and then take your next step. I think the biggest contribution, honestly, that kept us from actually going into decline was being a part of keeping our downtown solid. Because communities that are successful, that success never happens from the outside to the inside. You're right. I mean, that is a main street motto. It happens from the inside. Plus, it also gives perspective on that community. Everybody in the economic development world knows if you want to know how community feels about itself. Drive to the center of your downtown. It is your billboard. It says how much you carry you down.
Kosta Yepifantsev:So are we ever going to do anything with that big old gravel? Lot? Diagonal from Crawdaddy?
Melinda Keifer:You know, we've called that our white elephant now for you know, 3040 years. I know it has new ownership. I am unclear about their plans for that. But one day, one day
Kosta Yepifantsev:I saw Bernhart building townhome on the other side, I
Melinda Keifer:think that that people have more downtown.
Kosta Yepifantsev:And then builder supplies. I think they're selling that that's that's where they're doing it. Okay, that's correct. So yeah, that's really cool. That'll bring more people to actually live in downtown.
Melinda Keifer:That's right. Yeah, I can parents, your kids want something different. One of my favorite sayings is the only change people like is truly that which is in their pocket, being open to the fact that when there is trying to like that, you automatically know you're starting at a deficit, right? You know, so you really have to work your way up. And it goes back to that messaging thing. You know,
Kosta Yepifantsev:let's talk about that change. And this question it has it has two parts. First, our population is expected to double from the census reporting in 2000 of 23,000 people to a projected 40,000 citizens in 2013. Probably gonna be more than that, at this moment, what is the one thing that we can't overlook? And the second question, in your opinion, how have we managed the growth thus far?
Melinda Keifer:I'm gonna start with the second question and go from there. I think that our managed growth has been, right on course, with any progressing community, you're gonna have conflict, you can't have a progressive community. Without conflict. It doesn't happen. Right. So I think we've done a really good job at a period of time when communities could annex and add more land to the city limits jurisdiction, the city of couple of did that laws have changed, that is not available to happen right now. So as we start going towards the future, number one, God didn't make it any more ground. And so you must look at highest and best use. And if we don't, there's some kind of waste. We are at the point that we truly need to continue to take really hard looks at infrastructure. Now I know when I say that, probably most your listeners are thinking roads and sidewalks is not what I'm talking about. roads and sidewalks are 24/7 365. You know, sitting the county roads have paving budgets every year, every year, every year every year. Here's what doesn't happen every day. An upgrade on your electric grid, a second water and sewer treatment facility plan tapping in to another station and to the national gasline a nation's companies how they do that. Those are huge ticket items. How do you fund it? You have to be prepared, right? And so With the city of Kabul, still owning all their own utilities, which is a pretty much an anomaly, okay? They are financially independent, and they fund themselves. And they're driven by leadership, who critically knows, the big ticket items that I've just mentioned, are coming down the road,
Kosta Yepifantsev:how closer then, less than 10 years, it should
Melinda Keifer:be addressed, planned and funded in less than 10 years. But we will hit some capacities, but 20 years, okay. And so these are long term projects that are incredibly expensive. But now is when you have to have the dialog for that, yes. Or then you're behind. There are communities in the state and all over the country who have more Taureans, they're not allowed to grow, because their water and sewer systems can't handle really, we have air attainment problems, because they have not been in check with their industrial and stuff. They're putting out pollution wise. And so then a bigger power, whether it's state or federal will come in and say
Kosta Yepifantsev:no more. Yeah. And they take over? Well, they
Melinda Keifer:just don't allow you too. And we're no, we're okay. Now, of course, now, it's on talking about the extreme end of not paying attention to the big ticket items. So we're, we're there, those conversations, I'm happy to say are happening, being very creative. You know, communities get a shot. It's like every 1012 years, and it's not just couple of February, that you can kind of see a little cyclical, or at least in my mind, so that's really graph kind of tried to say, Okay, what's next? Can we handle more retail? Can we handle more manufacturing? Well, not at $13 an hour, thank you. We don't talk to you, we don't look to you, we don't fill out the form. And basically, you know, a lot of instances we've looked at requests for information have come in at $18 an hour, and we've questioned,
Kosta Yepifantsev:yep. And honestly, the statistics, and you can't negate the statistics, because all the answers are in the numbers, they say that you need to have a household income right now in the upper Cumberland have around $85,000 a year. And that's household, that means two earners, and that's on the low side that's like that's paycheck to paycheck, you know, like you have enough to pay your bills, and maybe go on vacation once a year, yeah, to save like a little bit of money, and allow you to
Melinda Keifer:take care of a special needs child or an aging parents, or any other life instances that might happen.
Kosta Yepifantsev:You need to make $60,000 a year per person with a two income household and bring home a buck 20 to be living comfortably and meet all those ancillary expenses, believe me, because I deal with this every single day. And you can bang your head against the wall or, you know, do like Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, just scream from the top of your lungs at the well whatever it is. But you have to understand that you're not in control of these things. That's right. But the elected officials in the leadership's like yourself that are very, they're very much committed to these types of conversations to say I know what it's going to take. That's right. And so I ask all of the all of the people that are in leadership that are elected officials that are in government, or somehow, you know, in economic development, if you could have a dream business, or an industry that could really transform this community like Academy did when you were talking earlier, what would it be?
Melinda Keifer:It's impossible to say what sector this would come from, okay. But here's what it needs to look like. It needs to pay a solid living wage. It needs to recognize that our workforce now is requiring a work home life environment. It needs to produce a product that every single employee in there is proud of. It must be engaged with this community in a partnership, showing up at the Chamber doing business roundtables, so they know who their people are that are walking in that door every single day. That's what it needs to look like.
Kosta Yepifantsev:How hard is it to get Academy to come here? Not not to come here. But how hard is it to convince a community to let Academy come here?
Melinda Keifer:Actually, our community was prepared and ready and cost I can't tell you how critically important that is they were open to moving forward recruiting a company like that. Who could go in Where logistics were a huge part of this truly because it is a distribution center, but they'd hired a consultant out of Memphis and in my business, he's known as the toughest and the hardest. He's a verb. Okay? Yeah. Okay. Well, his, his name was Mike Mullis. And like, if you're listening, I miss you. You know, I just got my list. So I know every Sunday morning, my phone was fixed and rang, he was not on a plane, sat down with my coffee, had my notebook ready. And off, we went for seven months. Wow. And here's what he taught me. And I think, and I've shared this with my girls, but I think from professionally, okay, it also applies personally, but professionally, gosh, there's so many things out of our control. You can't fix it. The world economy, the national economy, fighting in another nation, poverty, illness, sickness, you literally can't fix it. And you know, that might be the one thing that would be the tipping point to go forward. So how do I get to that tipping point when I can't fix it? What Mr. Mullis taught me was, it is out of your control. But here are the things right here in your hand, that are 100% in your control, you must, it is required, that anything you can lay your hand on, must be close to perfection. You can't do anything about that. Okay. But where you can have that impact, where you can make a difference in our decision, or how the waterline is run, or, you know, the economic incentives or whatever, you better do your homework, and you better get it right. Because you don't get many opportunities to put perfect out there. So that's really what drove me to make sure that that experience the things like the things I could touch, I had to spend my time doing that, instead of wasting time, worried about national politics, worried about national economy, and I'm thinking a community, it's the same way.
Kosta Yepifantsev:I know you didn't necessarily name anybody, you know, any companies completely not like a Tesla or an apple or a Google or anything like that, which I completely understand. But like, is there if you could see maybe, is there a sector that you think could transform this area? It doesn't have to be advanced manufacturing? And that'll tie into my second question, but like, is it renewable energy?
Melinda Keifer:Is it Costa it is renewable energy. Okay, you
Kosta Yepifantsev:think renewable energy is something that could really change the dynamics and move the needle within our community to get us to the next level?
Melinda Keifer:I think that it is happening, and it's going to happen, and we might as well get our fair share. Yeah, so let's look at it from that lens. Right. But I think the thing that is the most astonishing to me, and really has raised up this infrastructure statement I made earlier, so electric vehicle batteries, solar, you know, the whole thing around that requires a tremendous amount of electricity. Water. Wastewater, gas,
Kosta Yepifantsev:yeah. Which I think we have three of the four, right? We have all four. Okay, well hooked up.
Melinda Keifer:But here's the deal when they send out that specification, and I'm being facetious. But we need 4 million gallons a day. Well, that takes all of our capacity from our existing facilities. We're not going to do that.
Kosta Yepifantsev:So we won't just fund it and build it. So then you
Melinda Keifer:got a Ford Blue Oval city, and you go out in West Tennessee and say what's happening? Yes. Well, they don't have that infrastructure. So a company like Ford just build to there. Okay. On site. Interesting, right. So there's that capacity around, just being mindful. We have had so many of those come across it, and we've submitted on it. Yeah. But being able to meet some of those capacities has been nothing short of a true challenge, because we don't have enough.
Kosta Yepifantsev:So here's the second question. And this is going to get a little technical, and then we're going to wrap up. My next door neighbor was Tony with Feitosa. Yes. And he and I used to talk often about some of the issues about finding staff, especially during the pandemic. And you know, he was planning on moving people from Kentucky and then he couldn't because of staffing issues, but then he made a pretty significant commitment to incorporating technology and automation into his processes to reduce the amount of labor necessary for him to be able to meet his quotas. I toured Horman and when I was talking to Cameron And who is the CEO of foreman in North America. And I was asking him how many people work on the factory floor and he said, 70. And I said, Well, how many would have would work on this floor. If say, for example, you didn't have all these machines working. And he said, easily four times that amount. I'm in health care. I'm currently in the process of starting a pilot at launches in October with United Healthcare for removing some of the human element and incorporating some passive remote supports to bring down the necessity for hiring caregivers to provide direct human care, where instead of it being one person taking care of three, I can split the care ratio to one to 12, or one to 14. And a lot of our industry is moving in that direction, because the capacity to find enough people or for the government to increase wages to a living wage, neither is happening, right? You look at companies like Tesla who build a giga factory that is insane, and size, and they have like, a fraction of the employees, you look at home and you look at Fico. So you look at the healthcare sector, when you look at the future of work. Are you concerned with how entry level positions are going to be treated? Because if people say no, I will not work in an entry level job for this wage. What if that narrative changes to there are no entry level positions for me at this wage, unless I go to college, or I get a specialty skill? What happens to all of the people that can't go to college because there's 45, or 50. And their career has been eliminated, their job has been eliminated because of technology or AI? or what have you? What happens to all those people?
Melinda Keifer:Well, first of all, it's already happening. You just described where we are today. I also will say, this is not the first time in our American history, where these shifts have taken place. And even if you just stay in automotive, that very small engine to where we are today. And that's an industry that literally has seen more change in the last 10 years than they would tell you in the previous 100. And so you must have a workforce that evolves with that. Also think entry level positions become more important. Interesting. That is your foundation, that entry level person. And so do we shift the paradigm to where that entry level person ultimately becomes your VP in a goal or a strategy. But I think, you know, we're always going to have service sector jobs, and we're always going to have a portion of the workforce that doesn't want to do it won't do it, and feels like they deserve more, and you kind of have to just take that person out.
Kosta Yepifantsev:Yes. So we always like to end the show on a high note, who is someone that makes you better when you're together?
Melinda Keifer:I have this little epiphany, drinking coffee yesterday morning. And I had my automatic knee jerk answer, but then it washed over me and literally almost brought me to tears. I'm so blessed to tell you. That is a difficult question to answer. My family. My girlfriend's my children, you know that it felt, Oh, I gotta think about this one. But my immediate answer still is as it was then is my husband. You know, we live on 70 acres. Now you talk about having to be collaborative and negotiating. He's a civil engineer. We planted our first garden. I'm out there the way I was taught. Get the hoe, dig the row, plop the seed in and cover it up with your foot and you just keep going. Next thing I know, the man has a theodolite survey instrument out there. He has his papinek talk straight to make sure those lines are straight. So you know There you go. That that is 100% who we are together and we are better together.
Morgan Franklin:Thank you for joining us on this episode of excited.Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev. If you've enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts.Leave us a review or better yet,share this episode with a friend. Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a Kosta Yepifantsev Production.Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin post production mixing and editing by Mike Franklin.Want to know more about Kosta visit us at kostayepifantsev.com We're better together. We'd like to remind our listeners that the views and opinions expressed during this episode are those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of this show its producers or any related entities or advertisers. While our discussions may touch on various topics of interest,please note that the content is intended to inspire thought provoking dialogue and should not be used for a substitute for professional advice.Specifically, nothing heard on this podcast should be construed as financial,legal,medical or any other kind of professional advice. We encourage our listeners to consult with a professional in these areas for guidance tailored to their specific circumstances.