| Sources |
- [S104] Cocke County, Tennessee, and its People, Cocke County Heritage Book Committee, (Walsworth Publishing, 1992), 187, 295.
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 16 Dec 1998.
Newport native Eric Ogle has been named the new Cocke County tourism director.
Ogle was appointed by the tourism council last Wednesday and his appointment was confirmed at Monday’s meeting of the county legislative body (CLB).
“I want to thank the council for recommending me, and you for hiring me,” said Ogle at Monday’s meeting. “I especially want to thank my family for supporting me in this new endeavor.”
Ogle is the son of Charlie and Thelma Ogle, of Newport. His wife is the former Jayne Adams, of Del Rio.
Ogle is a 1997 graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
He has most recently been employed in the marketing communications department of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). His job there consisted of working to promote TVA in the international market.
“Working at TVA got me interested in the area of economic development and tourism,” said Ogle. “When I saw this job was open, it seemed a perfect opportunity for me.
“Since I have lived here all my life, I have many ideas about what people like about the area,” said Ogle. “But since I have also been away, I have gotten ideas about what other people think about us and Cocke County.
“I want to get people excited about what the county has to offer,” said Ogle.
“I think Eric will be a great benefit to the county and will make a very good tourism representative for Cocke County,” said County Executive Charles Lewis Moore.
“He is an intelligent young man and a quick learner, but, most importantly, he is from here so we don’t have to convince him of what is good about Cocke County,” said Moore. “He already knows what we have to offer and what the barriers are we have to overcome.”
Ogle says he has a lot in Cocke County to promote.
“We are sitting on a gold mine here,” he said. “We are at the crossroads of two major interstates. We have railroad, rivers, mountains, and lakes. People are looking for a place like this to stop over on their way from north to south or east to west.
“We have to find those markets and hit them with everything we have,” said Ogle.
Ogle said the job is simply one of trying to get out the good word.
“I will be trying to promote the good things about Cocke County,such as our natural beauty, the rafting industry, and our historical perspectives,” said Ogle. “I know this has been done before, but I would like to think I can add a different spin to it.
“From traveling around the country, I have a good idea as to what a good destination area has to offer visitors and how the neighboring communities feed off of them,” said Ogle.
“I would like to contact communities near destination areas such as Branson, Missouri, and Orlando, Florida, and see what they have done to capitalize on their location,” said Ogle.
But Ogle said he does not see his job as helping to feed the economy of Sevier County.
“I don’t want to build us up as just the gateway to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge,” said Ogle. “I would like to emphasize our centrally located access to such great sites as the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the Cherokee National Forest, the rivers, and the lakes.
“There is no need for us to promote Sevier County, they do a fine job of that themselves,” said Ogle. “But that does not mean we can’t divert some of the money headed that way into our pockets.”
Ogle conceded that he has things to learn about the tourism industry.
“This is my first job related to tourism, so it will take a while for me to get settled in,” said Ogle. “But I think that will work to my favor since I will get to see what has been done before and see what was successful and what was not so successful. Then we can build on what worked as well as try some things differently.”
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 11 Nov 2008.
LOCAL GUY MAKES GOOD- And Gives Back to the Community
Author: Gaynell Thomas
I’d like to tell you all about an opportunity that has come our way due to the efforts of a man that grew up in our community.
Eric Ogle is the son of Charlie and Thelma Ogle of Newport, and the grandson of Roy D. and Viola Brown of Cosby. He is married to the former Jayne Adams of Del Rio who is the daughter of James and Evelyn Adams. They have 3 daughters- a 5 year old and 3 year old twins. He was educated at Cosby School, NGS and graduated from CCHS in 1989. I’m sure many people remember him and his family.
He attended WSCC and later UT, first for a degree in Business Administration. He then obtained his masters degree in Planning. He now works as a project coordinator for the Community Partnership Center and is a Research Associate for the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment. These groups work on issues of economic and community development, especially as they relate to technology and tourism.
And that’s where he brings it back to the community he grew up in.
For the 4th time, he has helped the UT Planning students to come to Cocke County. The students are asking local people what things are important to them. The masters degree students then take the ideas, work on them and bring back possibilities that could be used to create the better community we hope to see in the future.
The 15 ideas that the students are presenting come from ideas that were presented by Cosby residents at the first meeting. The students are researching the feasibility of those ideas, and will be presenting case studies of where similar projects have worked or not worked in other communities. Workshop participants next week will be asked to determine if such ideas would be worthy of pursuing development, funding or policy adoption in Cosby.
This year the meetings are in the Cosby community. The first meeting was in October. The next meeting is planned for November 11 at 6:30 pm at Cosby High School cafeteria.
If we had to pay for this kind of study it could easily cost several tens of thousands of dollars. Eric Ogle and UT are bringing it to us once again for free.
If local people begin to use these ideas, the UT group can help with grant money, other funding or implementation of policies. This help is also free.
You can’t beat a deal like that at Cas Walker’s!!
So, please, if you are interested in the future of our community, or if you are willing to provide input for Cosby growth and development, try to attend this important meeting.
It’s our children’s future we are talking about. Let’s work toward leaving them an improved hometown that can provide for them and future generations.
To comment call 613-5641 or email tnmtnflower@planetc.com
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1971 - (53 years)
(Age 64 years)