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It’s budget season in Manchester (and Coffee County) and the Manchester TN Forum is buzzing with people fussing about everything from growth to all the things this town doesn’t have and everything in between. As our community continues to grow and as we look to the next couple of years and the next decade, I wanted to write about a couple of things we do have and offer my perspective on why they’re worth investing in and not fussing about.

For a city of 13,000-ish and a zip code filled with approximately 30,000 people, we have two centers most other communities our size don’t have: We have a recreation center and a conference center. Both serve as a net loss to the city of Manchester as a budget line item, but both are good investments for the city.

The Manchester Recreation Center, run by Director A.J. Fox is an investment in our quality of life in Manchester. Many of us have Rec Center memberships, use the pool in the Summer, rent the facility for parties, or attend events. The city of Manchester was forward thinking enough to invest in a facility that would provide an opportunity for families to have a safe place to exercise, swim, and participate in local sports. The city subsidizes the cost of that facility to ensure it’s open and operating for our quality of life. There are certainly maintenance issues, machines to replace, staff to train, and other costs that are necessary to provide an experience for Manchester residents to benefit from. Nearly anyone in town can use the facility for whatever recreation needs they have. Not to mention the greenway, other baseball, softball, and soccer fields, along with the Rotary Amphitheater. The Recreation Department is worth investing in and its employees are worth being paid without having to feel like they’re not of any value to the city when our leaders call them out in committee meetings. The Rec Center is a wonderful investment of our tax dollars for our quality of life and leadership should work with A.J. to ensure there is a plan in place to provide for the upkeep of the facility and other needs. The Rec center cannot be viewed as just another budget line item or as just a financial loss. There’s already too much invested in it for the Mayor and Aldermen to not work together collaboratively with feedback from the Rec Commission and the Finance Committee to best understand how to properly develop a vision, build a plan, and lead the process to ensure the future success of the Rec Center and our quality of life.

The Manchester Coffee County Conference Center, run by Rebecca French, is an investment in economic development and tourism. The Conference Center has been a polarizing conversation since before people could fuss on the internet in public forums. Most of the 30,000 people who reside in our zip code never visit the Center. In fiscal year 2024-25, the Conference Center hosted approximately 400 events, including Chamber lunches, charitable event fundraisers, company trainings, pop-up shops, and more. For the most part, the conference center doesn’t exist for the enjoyment of city residents, but it exists to generate revenue through tourism and economic development. It exists to generate hotel/motel tax and sales tax, and revenue for other businesses in town. When I inquired about the Conference Center I was told they generated more than $900,000 in revenue for the fiscal year, which was about a $150,000 increase from the year before. Now, I know there are some folks who have made up their minds that there’s no possible way the Conference Center could be a good thing, and I know there are some people who believe the Conference Center is a great thing, but I’m guessing there are a lot of people in between. Perspective can be a helpful thing. What if, instead of viewing the Conference Center as a net loss on the budget, what if we viewed it as an investment in our city? What if the Conference Center invested $350,000 of the City’s money and turned it into jobs for employees, especially employees with special needs. What if it turned $350,000 in $900,000 of revenue for the Center? What if it turned $350,000 into 400 well-run events? What if it turned $350,000 into hundreds, if not thousands of hotel room stays, trips to Mexican restaurants, stops at gas stations, visits to coffee shops, and more? What if $350,000 is an investment in keeping your property taxes lower because people come to town and generate sales tax revenue in our community? What if instead of having our local political leaders talk about how it needs to be closed or not funded, our political leaders leaned into supporting it and caused people to have a more positive view? What if the uncertainty with our political leaders was actually going to hurt the facility by slowing the momentum it already has? What if the city doesn’t have to sublease the facility to help it be successful? What if, instead, the mayor and aldermen took time to really learn best practices and studied how other centers were run and discussed that information in public work sessions, so they were informed, and citizens were informed. What if, out of that, a plan for sustainability was developed? What if we had leadership to make it happen?

We’ve got two great Centers, doing two great works, one investing in our quality of life and one investing in our local economy. What we need more than ever is a clear vision, a sustainable plan, and leadership to make it happen.