UCDD has applied for a grant from the Tennessee Department of Health that would allow the organization to build a walking track.
UCDD Executive Director Mark Farley said the walking track would be placed behind the UCDD building. Farley said the walking track idea came from monthly meetings that the development district has with its employees.
“One that has come up in the last several years is the ability to get outside and walk around when the weather is pretty,” Farley said. “And we started thinking through this year having the regional department of health building next to us and all of the residential development that is going on as well, we thought we might apply for a walking track to see how that would go.”
Farley said UCDD is in an employee-led market and that there are not enough employees to go around. Farley said the development district can’t always pay the employees what they are worth but a walking track could make it a better workplace.
“This younger generation that we deal with is not always about salary,” Farley said. “It’s about the quality of the workplace as well so we always want to make sure that we are providing an environment that they enjoy coming to work, cause a lot of them may spend more time here than they do at their home so it needs to be conducive and someplace they enjoy coming to.”
Farley said the walking track would be open to the public.
“Obviously, we are a government agency,” Farley said. “We view that as this property belongs to the community and we would do it for behalf of the community.”
Farley said grant applications were due in March. Farley said he is unsure of when he would hear back about the grant.
