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We're chatting about the people, places, events, and flavors that make Johnson City, Tennessee a lovely place to live. An interview show hosted by Colin Johnson.
Proud member of the Maypop Media family of podcasts.
0:00:00 - (Colin Johnson): It's a little crisp in the mornings. The leave or leaves are changing. It's starting to just really get more and more beautiful every day. The weather's perfect right now, but even more so the mountains are lighting up. And I've got a new friend who.
0:00:14 - (Meisha Turner): Is kind of down towards the mountains.
0:00:16 - (Colin Johnson): A little bit more than Johnson City is. Welcome to the podcast. Ms. Misha Turner. How are you today?
0:00:21 - (Meisha Turner): I'm doing great, thanks. Glad to be here.
0:00:23 - (Colin Johnson): I was driving down to the recording studio in downtown and you can see the mountains starting to start getting a gold and red, red kind of hint here and there. They're just starting to light up. And it's one of my Karlie loves. My wife, she loves the fall. I love the colors. It's just such a special time. And so in Erwin, it gets even better, doesn't it?
0:00:45 - (Meisha Turner): I think this is honestly one of the most colorful places that I've been. I love to travel and I can find value in just about anywhere that I go. But there's something about coming back here. It doesn't matter what season it is. You're going to find some amazing display of color and wildflowers. Even the trees. People think trees are green, but they're. They're not. Here we have so many different varieties.
0:01:06 - (Colin Johnson): We got all kinds of stuff. Yeah.
0:01:07 - (Meisha Turner): So much going on.
0:01:08 - (Colin Johnson): It is awesome. It is awesome. Okay, so it's Johnson City Living podcast. So we're going to do two parts of this question. The first question is, what do you love most about Johnson City?
0:01:19 - (Meisha Turner): Well, it's close to Irwin, which is good.
0:01:23 - (Colin Johnson): Hello. It's close to where I live. Yeah, that's about it.
0:01:29 - (Meisha Turner): So I grew up in Bristol. I lived in Chattanooga for a while, found my way to Irwin. Irwin is the epitome of small town life. So we've got our local places, but we don't have much in terms of the chains and the well known and the, you know, the department store shopping and things like that. So having Johnson City here as a resource close to that same small town life is kind of a perfect mix.
0:01:54 - (Colin Johnson): We're the big city 20 minutes down the road.
0:01:56 - (Meisha Turner): Exactly.
0:01:57 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:01:57 - (Meisha Turner): Okay. We have the resources. We've got everything we need. We can find it right here.
0:02:02 - (Colin Johnson): There you go. I love it. I love it. All right, now what do you love most about Irwin?
0:02:06 - (Meisha Turner): Oh, goodness. The small town feel has grown on me. I always tell people, if you had told me in high school when I was growing up in Bristol, which isn't really much bigger than Irwin, let's Be honest. But if I thought that I was going to live in Irwin and actually like it, I would have thought you were crazy.
0:02:24 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:02:25 - (Meisha Turner): But it's grown on me. I really enjoy it. There's a good group of people. Irwin has a really good energy right now. It's been through some challenges in the past. It definitely has some challenges going on right now because of our recent events. Um, but I'm confident that there are good people in good places and we're going to get through it. There's a good creative energy and the optimistic attitude.
0:02:51 - (Meisha Turner): People willing to put in the work.
0:02:52 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Hard work. There's a great community down there. Oh yeah, they're awesome down there. Tell me about Rise, Irwin, this group of entrepreneurs that you've put together, how did this get started? How did you come up with the idea?
0:03:06 - (Meisha Turner): Well, it's not my. I can't claim that. So Rise has been around for several years. I think it's probably close to a decade now actually far before I even came into the area. But it was started mainly by entrepreneurs, mostly in the downtown area and throughout the community and some community minded individuals that just wanted to see Irwin thrive. And that can look different to everybody. So, you know, the more people you have in the group, the more inputs and ideas you get.
0:03:37 - (Meisha Turner): So we were originally focused on community activities, economic development, just creating all those things that make a community nice to live in and give people a reason to stay. You know, activities for families and kids and things that support businesses. Festivals, different ideas and just little nuggets of entertainment.
0:04:03 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:04:04 - (Meisha Turner): Interest.
0:04:04 - (Colin Johnson): Are you guys over the Apple Festival too that you help?
0:04:06 - (Meisha Turner): We're not the Chamber of Commerce manages that, but we do work on several different events and festivals through the year. I run the Irwin Farmers Market. Oh yeah, A couple different. Just movie nights, things like that. That was kind of our focus pre last month. But we have a really well developed network. We were in the right place at the right time and again with the right people. Just people that had focus and energy and the drive to make it happen.
0:04:37 - (Meisha Turner): And we've been able to shift over to doing a lot more management, fundraising, volunteer coordination, all kinds of little things that are helping the community.
0:04:49 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. For our listeners, if you're not aware, Irwin was one of the hardest hit towns in our local MSA or Mike Marcus service area. And you guys took a beating. It was brutal. And the pictures. I had a friend on the hospital roof. I mean, flying out, it's just unbelievable the amount of water that came down the mountain and in such a speedy way. I mean like it just didn't even give people time to get out and we've lost a lot of people down there and it's just been really tough.
0:05:24 - (Colin Johnson): And for you to come in and say that everybody's really come together, well, that's very encouraging. And I think it's probably not out of character for our area. I mean we're the volunteer state and we're stepping up and everybody's volunteering all the time. And it's just been fun to see the resources come together, the people come together in the midst of tragedy and despair and just horrific, you know, situations. And so I'm proud of our area, I'm proud of our community and I'm sure Irwin and Unicoy and all that area are, you know, are coming together and doing well. Yeah, talk to us a little bit about, yeah, some of the, I guess the damage done there and how Rise is stepping in specifically to help kind of get Irwin back on its feet.
0:06:12 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, like you said, the damage is just, it's literally unbelievable. It is that jaw dropping kind of thing to look at the before pictures and the after and you can't identify the landscape because it's changed so much. We've got people up in the mountains that have had a lot of effects from wind damage that came with the hurricane. Um, we've got obviously huge amounts of rain that came down these little mountain creeks, washed out bridges, roads.
0:06:43 - (Meisha Turner): We have entire communities that are completely cut off because the roads were destroyed. The river has rerouted, it's not in the same place anymore. Um, so you know, not only did people lose their homes in this extraordinary amount of flooding, they lost their land. The river took the land. So they can't even rebuild because the land isn't there.
0:07:04 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, their house is underwater all the time now because the river's cut through there.
0:07:08 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, it's completely unbelievable. Restructured a lot of the community and like you said, it was very impactful for us. We lost our industrial park, our hospital was flooded, not to mention individual homes. Entire communities cut off, interstate collapsed. The several roads are literally gone. They're washed away, no remnants left. Bridges throughout different communities. Our animal shelter was flooded, the wastewater treatment plant. I mean pretty much the whole south end of the county has been very heavily impacted.
0:07:47 - (Meisha Turner): So as this was all unfolding, one of our members, Tara Baker, she was just in the right headspace at the right time. She got a GoFundMe going. We started putting the word out and got traction with it and we've raised over $250,000 for the community now. Amazing. So we've been transitioning, you know, from that fun community engagement kind of attitude that we had to really wanting to rebuild and come back stronger, you know. Yeah, that's, that's always the good thing. I guess you can find in tragedy like this is, like you said, it brings people together, it creates opportunities where they weren't before. So I'm absolutely positive that there are going to be good things that come out of this. It's just going to be a long road to get there.
0:08:36 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I agree. It's going to take us a while. It's going to take a while to heal from it. There's a lot of, you know, post traumatic stress.
0:08:44 - (Meisha Turner): Absolutely.
0:08:45 - (Colin Johnson): I mean like just fear.
0:08:46 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah.
0:08:47 - (Colin Johnson): I think, you know, if it happened once, it could happen again kind of thing. So they're always, it's always going to be the back of the mind. Even though it was, they say a thousand year, five thousand year flood, such.
0:08:56 - (Meisha Turner): A rare occurrence that there's still the chance. And yeah, we, we haven't even had time to process yet. And I think that's kind of, I.
0:09:04 - (Colin Johnson): Think everybody probably, yeah, they all jumped into work mode because that's kind of what we do. And yeah, it'll be a while before we sort it all out and figure it all out. But yeah, I think it's. Yeah, it's just been wild to watch on many levels. So thank you for what you're doing there. And yeah, let's talk about rise. Let's get back to the positive.
0:09:26 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, absolutely.
0:09:26 - (Colin Johnson): So tell me how many small businesses or what are the small businesses? You can maybe highlight some of those that are a part of the group.
0:09:34 - (Meisha Turner): So our, we tend to meet monthly. Just depends on the season and what's going on. We are very independent in our structure, I guess. So people kind of take what they're interested with and they run. So this past year I kind of picked up the farmers market. We have other people that have. They picked up a farm to table dinner and put that on. That was the first one that we've done in Irwin that was wildly successful, you know, incorporating Scott's farm and some of our wonderful agricultural members of the community.
0:10:09 - (Meisha Turner): So we were able to highlight them and bring in some really cool culinary aspects for a very elevated but natural experience they had on some of the Scott's farm property. And you know, just we're able to showcase that natural beauty. Yeah, that, yeah, yeah. It's just stunning. We have a lot of members that are involved in the rafting communities and camping, hiking. There's. There's just something everywhere to do, and there's so many small businesses that have sprang out of that.
0:10:46 - (Colin Johnson): Tell me the difference between RISE and the Chamber. We talked about the Chamber a little bit, and so tell me about RISE versus the Chamber and why you'd be a member of both or, you know.
0:10:55 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah. Completely different organizations. The Chamber is definitely focused more on, like, the economic side of things, whereas we're more of a community engagement sort of.
0:11:06 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha. Okay, cool.
0:11:07 - (Meisha Turner): So. And RISE isn't restricted to business owners. You can just be a member of the community that wants to better your community. That's cool. So what we really want to see our members do is use their strengths to, you know, make the right connections, come up with the right creative ideas, brainstorm with the right people. We're all about just connecting the community in different ways to come up with new adventures.
0:11:31 - (Colin Johnson): I love it. Yeah, that's cool. I didn't. Yeah, I think that's probably neat. I didn't get the difference in them until just. Yeah. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah. So let's say you said earlier on you were like, I never saw myself living in Irwin. Right. And so how did you. How did you find yourself there? What. What took you from Metropolis of Bristol, Tennessee, down the road to Irwin? How'd you get there?
0:11:57 - (Meisha Turner): Well, I did. I did grow up there in Bristol. I went to college in the Chattanooga area, and I made that fatal mistake of not really thinking out the end of college and loved the Chattanooga area. Loved the outdoor aspect. And in a way, it felt. Felt a lot like this area, Right where it was, you know, very outdoors, but also very accessible for your economic needs and housing and shopping and all that.
0:12:24 - (Meisha Turner): Um, so I really like that aspect of things, but when I graduated college, I didn't quite have everything lined up, so anybody does. Yeah, Yeah. I wasn't able to stay. Um, I ended up coming back home and, you know, years later, just kind of migrated this direction and ended up in Unicoid county and ended up in downtown Irwin and then bought a house downtown, started a business downtown. We're just all.
0:12:54 - (Meisha Turner): All roads lead to Irwin, I guess. Yeah.
0:12:56 - (Colin Johnson): It's just. You're drawn to that area.
0:12:58 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah. Yeah. And I've, you know, I've got all those things that I loved about Chattanooga and my. My college years. I've pretty much found all of them again in Irwin, so I'm definitely happy there.
0:13:09 - (Colin Johnson): Talk to the listeners a little bit about the difference between unicoy And Irwin, because if you say they're the same and you're from down there, you. You get corrected.
0:13:18 - (Meisha Turner): Oh, yeah.
0:13:19 - (Colin Johnson): We're not. We don't live in Unicoy or if you're in Unicoy, I don't live in Irwin, you know. Yeah, but they're both.
0:13:25 - (Meisha Turner): I'll try to. I'll try to do that without throwing shade.
0:13:28 - (Colin Johnson): Don't.
0:13:28 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, don't make me really mad.
0:13:30 - (Colin Johnson): That's right.
0:13:32 - (Meisha Turner): Um, so we are one of those interesting situations where we have Unicoy county and we also have the town of Unicoy. Unicoi county is all the way literally from Johnson City. I think we have part of Johnson City inside Unicoy county. And then it goes all the way up to the mountains into the North Carolina border.
0:13:50 - (Colin Johnson): So Irwin sits in Unicoy County.
0:13:52 - (Meisha Turner): Yes. Irwin is the county seat. You would say there. There's not a lot of competition. There's only 2 cities in UniCoy County.
0:13:59 - (Colin Johnson): It's hard to believe that Unicoy, the town of lost the. The seat to Irwin. Being from the county of Unicoy, they would have figured that one out.
0:14:08 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, I'm not sure what the history is there. I'm sure there was some anger somewhere. But the town of Unicroy is on the north end of the county. It's very small, very residential. Definitely that suburb of Johnson City. There's a little bit of industry, some factories and things. We have a Walmart.
0:14:28 - (Colin Johnson): There is a Walmart, Yes.
0:14:29 - (Meisha Turner): Mexican restaurant, Dollar General, Italian restaurant. But then as you go a little further south, you get to Irwin, which I believe is around the population of 6,000. So it's definitely in that small town category. But that's where you kind of get more of that city town feel. We've got a downtown, the downtown, the local businesses, you know, local restaurants. You kind of have that center that I think makes for a really good small town when there's an identity and a gathering spot for it.
0:15:02 - (Meisha Turner): And the downtown certainly provides that as well as some of the parks. We have a lot of parks in the area. And you very much get an identity from the locations that are within Irwin. And then you fall a little further to the south, you get up into the mountains, you get close to the North Carolina border. We have Rocky Fork state Park out there. That's very much the natural area. The Appalachian trail, the river, lots of little backwater creeks and fun hiking areas. Just. Just a beautiful area to explore. Especially this time of year when you've got all the colors and you Know, all roads just keep going further north or further south, but further up into the mountains. And then eventually you end up in.
0:15:45 - (Meisha Turner): In Asheville. If you keep going. So very, very spread out. The north end of the county is a lot flatter, a lot more agricultural, and then the south end of the county, which kind of is a mental little.
0:15:57 - (Colin Johnson): It is a little trick.
0:15:59 - (Meisha Turner): The north end is flat and more. More developed, I guess. The south end is definitely rural, definitely mountain. Very rustic up there. You kind of feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere and on your own, which is. It's kind of nice.
0:16:14 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. So. So you said you, you run a business down in.
0:16:18 - (Meisha Turner): I do.
0:16:19 - (Colin Johnson): Downtown.
0:16:20 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah. I own the Magnolia Room, which is a small event venue. So, you know, birthday parties and bridal showers and things of that nature. Just a small gathering space to have family events if you don't want to do it at your home or church or a park when the weather's bad or it's too hot. Just a little gathering space that people can come in, rent out hourly. We do several events a month, and it's just nice to kind of be a part of the community and the histories that go on. We've had several events since we opened there where we might do a bridal shower and then, you know, we're doing a baby shower and then we're doing the one year old birthday party. And we kind of get to see the families grow through their use of the space. So that's. That's fun. Especially when you're in a small community.
0:17:01 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Repeat customers. And then one day that little, little one may be coming to you together.
0:17:06 - (Meisha Turner): Exactly. You never know.
0:17:07 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty cool. I love your downtown, Kari. And I love Steel Rails. Coffee shop right there across from the courthouse. And it's just so quaint and well done. How long ago did they redo it? Because it's. I know it's.
0:17:21 - (Meisha Turner): That was before my time, too. I believe it was in the early 2000s.
0:17:26 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:17:26 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, not. Not positive. But it's been very well maintained. We. We are pretty proud of it. I think there's. There's always, you know, new development going in, and we've got a pretty stable base of small businesses that have kind of come about since COVID There was. There was certainly that. That trend towards businesses closing, but we've certainly recovered from that. And there's a good, stable base. We've got several restaurants downtown, clothing shops, different art interests.
0:17:59 - (Meisha Turner): We just got a new mural this past week on one of the sides of the buildings. There's a skate park downtown and a playground. The library. There's just a lot. It's a cool little center.
0:18:12 - (Colin Johnson): It is a cool little center. What are some of your favorite businesses along the downtown corridor right now?
0:18:17 - (Meisha Turner): Let's see. Well, we have one of our newest restaurants in the area. Probably the newest, actually, is called the Red Fork. And it is wonderful.
0:18:25 - (Colin Johnson): So we go to church with a guy who is one of the chefs there.
0:18:28 - (Meisha Turner): Oh, awesome.
0:18:29 - (Colin Johnson): I need to take Carly. And I was worried about it the other day after all the flooding. Was it okay?
0:18:35 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, yeah. Downtown was on higher ground, thankfully, so we survived all that. The downtown businesses, especially the restaurants, have just absolutely jumped in to take care of the community. They've all been providing meals for first responders and for the shelters and the emergency command centers and things like that. I know. Red Forks, Steel Rails, Bellflower, Groovy Smoothie. Just to think of a few. Off the top of my head, they've. They've all come in and really supported the community and been able to rally people around them.
0:19:12 - (Meisha Turner): So it's very good to see.
0:19:14 - (Colin Johnson): That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I said, I think it's just super cool. Um, and so what. What is life like every day today? What are you doing down in Irwin? I mean, how does. How does rise come into your. Like, how. Yeah, with your event space and then rise as well. You're working there. How. How does it all come together for you every year?
0:19:37 - (Meisha Turner): It really depends on the season. During the summer, very focused on the farmer's market. Of course, I've got events going on during the weekends. We run our farmers market on Friday evenings, so pretty much Thursday to Sunday. I don't think my husband really saw me that much. I was somewhere working either on, you know, getting the vendors coordinated for the market, handling the financials for that, or setting up for an event, dealing with decorations and all that.
0:20:07 - (Meisha Turner): But the pace of life is kind of what you want to make it, right. There's plenty to make you busy. There's also plenty to enjoy and encourage you to relax.
0:20:20 - (Colin Johnson): It does have a. I mean, yeah, the feel of it. It does feel a little like, more relaxed. A little slower pace down there, which is. It's enjoyable.
0:20:29 - (Meisha Turner): It is.
0:20:29 - (Colin Johnson): It just feels good being in Irwin.
0:20:32 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah.
0:20:33 - (Colin Johnson): Feels good being when you drive through Unicoy. I'm not throwing shade on there either.
0:20:37 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah. Unicoi's got some absolutely gorgeous spots. Scott's Market out in Unicoy. That's one of my favorites. That's where the farm to table dinner was at. So, you know, even Rise Irwin, we're still unicoy county focused as well. Definitely want to incorporate them. They're part of the community and yeah.
0:20:55 - (Colin Johnson): Like you guys are brothers or sisters or whatever. You have to hang out with each other.
0:21:00 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, there's a. We're very blessed to have some amazing locations throughout the whole county.
0:21:06 - (Colin Johnson): So tell me about the structure of the organization. Are you like the president person over Iowa?
0:21:11 - (Meisha Turner): So this year I'm the vice president, so I'll be coming in as president next year. I've been a member for probably three years now. We do rotational leadership and um, kind of like I was saying, we just encourage everybody to use their strengths and network to lift everybody else up.
0:21:29 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:21:29 - (Meisha Turner): Um, so it's nice to see that structure rotate because everybody's going to bring something different to it. Um, our current president is Jenna Lafever and she's the owner of Plant Palace Downtown, which is a florist and gift shop. Um, and she also works at Bristol Motor Speedway. So that's been a wonderful connection to have. She's been able to do a lot of networking in the past month with us, you know, to coordinate things between the speedway and their relief resources and what's needed here.
0:21:58 - (Meisha Turner): The, the membership is, like I said, it's kind of just an independent thing. People show up and they want to get involved and they have ideas and we all just kind of run with it. I like that there's a lot of discussion at the meetings. We bounce ideas around and some of them get traction and they turn into something really cool for the community.
0:22:18 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool. Say I'm a small business owner. I wanted to. I just opened a pizza shop downtown and I don't know, we call it Carly's Pizza. And I want to get involved with Rise. How do I do? How do I go about doing that?
0:22:31 - (Meisha Turner): Well, we just got a website, thankfully.
0:22:35 - (Colin Johnson): Nice.
0:22:35 - (Meisha Turner): Now that we're look at you all. Yes, yes. We've been very Facebook, social media based, Facebook and Instagram up until this point. But now that we're kind of shifting our focus, we needed to have a central point for people to apply for grants and find those contact resources and things that we're trying to pull together now. So we do have a website now, riserwin.org so there's Grant information there, there's donation information and of course just contact forms in general.
0:23:04 - (Colin Johnson): Nice.
0:23:05 - (Meisha Turner): You could reach out there or on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Liza Irwin.
0:23:11 - (Colin Johnson): Is there a membership fee annually?
0:23:13 - (Meisha Turner): No.
0:23:14 - (Colin Johnson): No fee. Nope. It's very easy. Streamer swing. That's awesome. I might join. And how often do you guys meet?
0:23:24 - (Meisha Turner): Our goal is to meet once a month. You know how entrepreneurial life can be. It shifts a little bit and you never know who's going to show up at each meeting. So there's not like a requirement to be here or get kicked out or anything like that. We completely understand that life changes and, and that kind of thing. So we communicate by email a lot. We do a lot of social media announcements and things like that to try and keep people connected both within the community and within our own membership.
0:23:52 - (Meisha Turner): And just try to try to network when we can and get together when we can and get the right people in the room.
0:24:00 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I love it. What's something that's coming up in the future that we need to be excited about for Irwin Rise?
0:24:09 - (Meisha Turner): Um, so I think our, our next project, which we weren't really sure was going to happen, but we're committed to it. It's going to happen. We're doing a huge Halloween party event downtown. That's something that Irwin's done for many years. It's always kind of looked a little bit differently where mainly it was the businesses handing out candy. But this year we are working together with the town of Irwin, with the Chamber of Commerce, the library. Some of the businesses were just pulling everybody together.
0:24:39 - (Meisha Turner): One of the churches is bringing a bonfire pit and they're going to, you know, roast marshmallows and make s'mores. The library is showing a movie, I believe we're going to have characters in costume. We're going to have a costume contest. Lots of just, just fun activities and stuff. And it is going to look a little bit different than we planned.
0:24:58 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, but it'll be a much needed distraction.
0:25:00 - (Meisha Turner): Yes. We can't close Main street, which was our original goal. Shut everything down, get everybody out there. Big community block party kind of atmosphere, Fall festival sort of vibe. Um, but now the interstate is on Main street for a little while longer, so we can't do that. We've shifted over to Nolachuckie Avenue, which is still downtown. It's just one block back. Um, and we're going to be doing as much as we can of that, that same idea. We're just migrating it a little bit.
0:25:31 - (Colin Johnson): I wonder if economic impact by having everybody traffic through Main street because of the, you know, the interstate issue for the listeners. We lost part of the interstate so you couldn't go down. I mean, they flooded and washed it out. Which is just hard to believe on it. Like a major interstate. Right. I mean the water was just so high and so powerful. But so now people are going down Main street and I wonder if like, you know, they're driving down there and like, oh, I've never been here, I'm going to stop here.
0:26:01 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah. Hopefully that's one of the long term positive outcomes that we see. Like you said, there's a lot of people that have probably never had a reason to go down through Main Street. Irwin. They just bypass it on the interstate sectors.
0:26:16 - (Colin Johnson): They're probably selling all kinds of appliances.
0:26:19 - (Meisha Turner): Hopefully, you know, if nothing else, it sparks some interest and gets people to come back a little bit later even if they don't stop now and just calls. More traffic at the moment.
0:26:27 - (Colin Johnson): Yes.
0:26:28 - (Meisha Turner): Hopefully they come back and visit in a few months, try to see it during a slower period without all the traffic. But. And I have to give a shout out to all the, you know, the Irwin police, the Unicoy County Sheriff's Department and state thp, they've done an incredible job of managing it. They're escorting tractors and trailers through town. They're turning most of them around, but the ones that do get to come through for local deliveries, they're escorting them through town so that, you know, we're not losing telephone poles on narrow streets as the trucks make their turns and things like that.
0:27:01 - (Meisha Turner): So really we joke about the traffic being terrible, but that's just because it's a small town and we're not used to traffic. So for the most part it's been very well managed and they've done a wonderful job with trying to make the best out of a very strange situation.
0:27:17 - (Colin Johnson): A little strange. Yeah. And I think that's just, it's cool how we all adapt and.
0:27:23 - (Meisha Turner): Yes.
0:27:24 - (Colin Johnson): And you know, adjust so well. That's exciting about Halloween. What do you guys do for Christmas? Do you have any sort of Christmas plans downtown?
0:27:33 - (Meisha Turner): So last year I believe we, we haven't gotten that far with the planning. We do tend to plan a little bit. A little bit on the short side. We're working on it. It's something we're working on. But just the question. Last week or last year, I'm sorry, the city did kind of a Christmas festival a little bit. We. There is definitely the tradition of the Christmas parade, the tree lighting ceremony. So last year the city kind of elaborated on that. We had our tree lighting, you know, people caroling around that. But they also had some vendors set up. They had a little kids area where they could Ride a train and get hot chocolate and, you know, come inside for pictures with Santa and things like that. So I'm definitely looking forward to seeing that become a permanent tradition because it was a lot of fun and I definitely see ways to integrate different aspects of the community to make it even bigger and more attractive for everyone in the area.
0:28:30 - (Colin Johnson): It'll be awesome.
0:28:31 - (Meisha Turner): Oh, yeah, you guys are going to do great.
0:28:34 - (Colin Johnson): How can our listeners connect with you if they want more information about Rise Irwin or. Yeah, what are some best ways to.
0:28:42 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, like I was saying earlier, the social media and the website, that's definitely. What's your Instagram at Riserwin.
0:28:51 - (Colin Johnson): At Riserwin.
0:28:52 - (Meisha Turner): Same for Facebook.
0:28:53 - (Colin Johnson): And the website again is RiseArwin.com.
0:28:56 - (Meisha Turner): That'S R I S E R W I N.org I'm sorry.org. there you go. Riserwin.org and yeah, that's the best way to get in touch with us. All of the board members have access to those different channels. So somebody will get back to you as soon as one of us is able. But you'll definitely be able to reach out there. And we've got links to all the different, you know, grant needs. If somebody listening is in that situation or they know somebody in the situation where they've had damage from the storm or from the flooding, we're working on getting that up and running and looking forward to giving out that first round of, of grants for recovery efforts here in the next week or two.
0:29:36 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, that'll be impressive to see. See that come together. All right. Specifically, Irwin slash Unicoy. You and your husband, what's his name?
0:29:46 - (Meisha Turner): Andrew.
0:29:46 - (Colin Johnson): Andrew. Shout out to Andrew. You and Andrew are going out on a date. Where are you going to go to dinner in Irwin?
0:29:53 - (Meisha Turner): I would probably go for Red Fork if we were like going to feel a little fancy that night. Uh, we've got some wonderful Mexican restaurants and I am definitely a fan there. Uh, we've got Rocky's Pizza in Irwin. We've got Primos in Unicoy. Good Italian options. Um, yeah, those. We're. We're pretty good on some good food.
0:30:16 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Good food. Yeah, for sure.
0:30:17 - (Meisha Turner): Um, we also just had a new place open in downtown. Sam Snowballs. They have a location here in Johnson City. They opened another one in Irwin. Wonderful. Very creative. Football ice cream concoctions. They are delicious. Very happy to have them down there. If it was a weekend, we were going out during the day, maybe on a Saturday or if it's summer during the week. Scott's Market cannot beat their ice cream.
0:30:45 - (Colin Johnson): It Is really good.
0:30:46 - (Meisha Turner): I am very addicted. It's a problem. The coconut. The coconut ice cream.
0:30:52 - (Colin Johnson): Coconut ice cream at Scott's Farm's little. Yes, Little Strawberry Shack is what I think but it's not. They've got a lot more strawberries going on over there. Okay. Where are you going to get a cup of coffee? What's your favorite coffee shop?
0:31:05 - (Meisha Turner): Definitely still rails.
0:31:06 - (Colin Johnson): Steel rails. Is there a second down there?
0:31:08 - (Meisha Turner): Bellflower Bakery has started doing some coffees. I can't offer an opinion yet. I haven't been tried them but I do know it's on the menu they're doing.
0:31:16 - (Colin Johnson): Do they have like pastry, soda?
0:31:18 - (Meisha Turner): Oh yeah, they have sweet and savory pastries. They've got like lunch options and some creative concoctions there. Then they have like a soda bar which I also haven't had the chance to try. I've had the chance, I just haven't made it happen yet. But yeah, they're, they're creative for sure. The stuff on their menu is very enticing so you could probably get lost in there for the day just moving your way through the menu.
0:31:46 - (Colin Johnson): If somebody was driving through Irwin, what's the one thing they need to see while they're in there? While they're there? What would you say this is? Don't miss this one.
0:31:55 - (Meisha Turner): Yeah, that's a hard question. I know all the business owners are going to hate me but I'm actually going to say it's not business related. I think just the fact that you're driving through. Just look, there's so many. Like even if you're in the downtown area and the old neighborhoods, a lot of the houses there over 100 years old. They're very well kept. They're just some beautiful properties around town.
0:32:19 - (Colin Johnson): Oh my gosh.
0:32:19 - (Meisha Turner): And then you know, two minutes out of town and you're just into stunning scenery and just amazing variety. So you know, drive through, grab your cup of coffee but then keep driving because you're going to see something really, really good.
0:32:33 - (Colin Johnson): No, I love it. Yeah, just drive around. It's a beautiful piece of East Tennessee that I guess, yeah not many people.
0:32:41 - (Meisha Turner): Ever get to get visit but it's very worth the. Very worth the visit. We've got tons of camping and Airbnbs and little resort areas popping up. Rafting is going to look different now but it's still going to be around and we have some amazing hiking and you really can't go wrong with anything outdoor related. So that would definitely be my. Don't miss this no matter what time of year, you're able to drive through or visit for a day or two, you're going to find something to do outside that's. That's worth the trip.
0:33:11 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I agree 100%. If you were hosting the podcast, what would you have asked that I forgot to. Anything.
0:33:20 - (Meisha Turner): Well, it's probably a good thing I don't host a podcast. I don't think. I don't think I have any ideas. You've done an excellent job.
0:33:28 - (Colin Johnson): Well, thank you. Thank you. All right, last one. What gets you just, like, fired up, like.
0:33:34 - (Meisha Turner): No, just in general.
0:33:37 - (Colin Johnson): Anything could be football or it could be. I mean, I kind of know probably the answer, but it could be anything.
0:33:45 - (Meisha Turner): Um, I will. I will get excited for some good Mexican food.
0:33:50 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, there we go. I love it. I love it. Which is. I'm gonna put you on the spot. Your favorite Mexican spot down there, Johnson.
0:33:57 - (Meisha Turner): City, Costa Chica, Irwin, Don Manuel.
0:34:00 - (Colin Johnson): Okay, you've heard it here.
0:34:02 - (Meisha Turner): Yep.
0:34:03 - (Colin Johnson): All right, well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I enjoyed our conversation. I bet everybody listening has. You're just a joy to talk to. Smile the entire time. So if nothing else, go to IRWIN and meet Ms. Turner. She's just a joy. Until next time, I'm Colin Johnson with the Colin and Carly Group and Keller Williams Realty. If you want to move to Irwin, we sell houses down there. We sell them in unicoy, too. We're not throwing shade on anybody that way.
0:34:27 - (Colin Johnson): We sell them all over the Tri Cities. So we would love to help you move here. Get outside, check out the leaves, check out the scenery. It's still beautiful. It's still amazing. And go volunteer, give away some time, give away some resources, and just help our community recover as fast as it can. And so thank you so much for listening. Till next time. We'll talk to you soon.