Crossville Mayor James Mayberry’s eight years of leading the city comes to an end as a new mayor will be elected Tuesday.
Mayberry has reached his term limit. Mayberry said when he entered office, residents voiced concerns of drug use and a dying downtown. Mayberry said he believes he made a positive impact on the two issues.
“Over these last eight years, we’ve developed an anti-drug coalition that’s working to try to help in that aspect of it,” Mayberry said. “We had five vacant buildings on main street and had two shopping centers that were mostly vacant. Now, we have no vacancies on main street.”
Mayberry said the city has also made gains in bringing higher paying jobs. From the first buc-ee’s in the state to a new Chic-Fil-A, Mayberry said there are more opportunities than ever.
Mayberry said he thinks he leaves Crossville in better shape, but he remembers one big disappoint over his mayorship. Mayberry said he was working with a developer on a 33-acre shopping center with national retail chains. Mayberry said the companies backed out during the pandemic.
“I hoped to have progress on that, because the locals would like to have more opportunities instead of driving to Knoxville or Cookeville,” Mayberry said. “I have another developer looking now, so that may come about. But obviously, I’ll be out of office. That’s my biggest disappointment.”
Councilman RJ Crawford runs for mayor unopposed.
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