A few years ago, Tom Harrison was leaving a meeting with TNECD officials at the Tennessee Tower in Nashville.
While waiting in the lobby for the elevator, Hancock County’s mayor struck up a conversation with TNECD’s Deputy Commissioner Allen Borden.
“A call center wouldn’t be unheard of in your area,” Borden said.
That’s then when seed of Project 95 was planted.
Last month, Harrison stood at the podium outside Hancock County’s brand-new call center to celebrate the creation of more than 50 jobs in Sneedville – the culmination of a more than three-year effort to attract new jobs in Hancock County.
And Allied Dispatch Solutions, the Johnson City-based business that has established operations in Sneedville, is only just getting started. The roadside assistance company plans to eventually hire well over 100 Hancock County residents.
By offering dozens of reliable, quality jobs for the residents in and around Sneedville, Project 95 is coming to fruition, and in the process, it’s flipping the script in Hancock County. For a county with some of the state’s highest unemployment rates, highest poverty rates and lowest median household incomes, Allied Dispatch’s new call center promises to be transformational.
“A job and opportunities for our kids is something that we needed,” Harrison told the crowd assembled for Allied Dispatch’s grand opening in October.