Survey+of+Gray,+TN

= = **Community Windshield Survey - Gray, TN**

Geography

 * Area ||
 * ~ **- Total ** || 1.7 sq mi (4.4 km2) ||
 * Gray is a rural suburb located in Washington County, TN.
 * Gray is located at [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/WMA_button2b.png/17px-WMA_button2b.png]] [|36°25′3″N] [|82°28′32″W] [| /] [|36.4175°N 82.47556°W] [| /] [|36.4175; -82.47556] (36.417403, -82.475637)
 * It has an irregular border line delineated by some road and no natural markers.
 * It's northern man made border is Kitzmiller Road.
 * The western border is between State Highway 2580 and Ford Creek Road.
 * The eastern border follows Bobby Hicks Highway.
 * The southern border is Carroll Creek Road and Jesse Sells Road.
 * It is located in the upper northeast corner of Tennessee near North Carolina and Virginia.



Demographics
 Population in July 2007: 1,382. || Males: 644
 * [[image:http://pics3.city-data.com/sg.gif width="93" height="10"]] (46.7%) ||
 * Females: 738 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">[[image:http://pics3.city-data.com/sg3.gif width="106" height="10"]] (53.3%) ||

|| <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Median resident age: <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: left;"> Zip codes: [|37615]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">[[image:http://pics3.city-data.com/sg4.gif width="75" height="10"]] 37.5 years ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Tennessee median age**:** || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">[[image:http://pics3.city-data.com/sg6.gif width="71" height="10"]] 35.9 years ||


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">White alone - 1,584 (95.9%)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Two or more races - 30 (1.8%)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Black alone - 28 (1.7%)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">Asian alone **-** 9 (0.5%)

Observation
<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">I performed my windshield survey on a Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. I observed some children playing basketball in a church parking lot, lots of people out doing yard work, lots of people driving around in cars and trucks, some people walking on a middle school track.

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">One railroad runs through Gray, which is how Gray got it's name. It used to be called Gray Station after the railway station stop, and later shortened just to Gray.

Infrastructure
<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">All the road crossings have automatic crossing arms that come down when the train comes through. Roads are generally in good condition, some side roads have pot holes that haven’t been repaired yet. There are no mountains in Gray.

Employment and Socioeconomic Status
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Gray has several call centers (Citi, Dial America, and ACT) that employ many people in this area. MiniFibers and a truss manufacturer are the only factories that I was able to identify within the limits of Gray. As with the rest of the United States, middle class families.

Health Care Access
<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">First Assist Urgent Care walk-in-clinic is the only health care facility in Gray besides the school clinic located in Daniel Boone High School. There are several national chain (Walgreen's and CVS) and independent pharmacies in Gray. Gray Volunteer Fire Department services Gray, TN.

Grocery and General Stores
<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px; text-align: left;">Gray has an Ingles, and a Food City grocery store. No super stores are located in Gray. There is a Dollar General discount store located in Gray. Prices are comparable between the grocery stores

Employment and Healthcare Opportunities
<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Most people I talked to said there are a lot of small businesses located in Gray, but none are large employers outside of the call centers. All said the two closest hospitals are Holston Valley in Kingsport and Johnson City Medical Center in Johnson City. Both are about a 20 minute drive from the Gray exit off Interstate 26. Gray does have the First Assist Urgent Care walk-in-clinic located near the fairground.

Community Statistics
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">There is some evidence of vandalism on some street signs and abandoned buildings. Most crime reported in Gray is property crime. Violent crime is lower than the state average. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px; text-align: left;">There are more than 10 christian churches in Gray. There are several apartment complexes, mostly single-family residences and farmland. There are some mobile homes also within Gray. There are two elementary schools (Boone’s Creek and Gray) and two middle schools (Boone’s Creek and Gray) and one High School (Daniel Boone). The school are older but are well maintained and have had remodeling done to them. Unfortunately there are no parks located in Gray, but there are several within a few miles of the limits of Gray.

Health and Safety Hazards and Assets
<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px; text-align: left;">The hazards I have talked to some local residents in Gray have stated are as follows: <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px; text-align: left;"> Some methamphetamine labs have been found and dismantled leaving hazardous material behind. Boone Dam at Boone Lake has a swimming area with no lifeguard on duty. There have been a few pedestrians killed when crossing roads. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: left;"> The assets that enrich the health of the residents of Gray are limited to the resources of the school clinic nurse at Daniel Boone High School and the resources at the walk-in-clinic. These higher than national average of cigarette smokers in Gray and there does not seem to be any community resource as far as cessation programs or education regarding the health risks inherent with cigarette smoking. There is no community health clinic located in Gray to help in the prevention of the spread of communicable disease such as vaccinations and/or treatment.

Transportation and Safety Risks
<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px; text-align: left;">The only transportation is private cars, trucks and motorcycles. There isn’t any public transportation available. Would different types of weather influence transportation? Because most roads are rural in Gray, snow does not get cleared on many secondary roads shutting down Gray when it snows. Are there sidewalks, walking trails, biking, etc.? There are only two roads with sidewalks in Gray outside of neighborhoods. No walking or biking trails are located in Gray. Due to the curvy roads, there are many blind turn off and dangerous blind curves. Highway 36 (Old Kingsport Highway) has cars traveling at higher rates of speed but almost all houses in Gray are off this main road. It is not a divided highway, creating some risk of head-on-collisions.

What is missing?
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">There is only one park located near Gray (5 miles away) in Kingsport. There aren’t any arts such a theater or concert hall. There isn’t any organized community events such as holiday events. In general, Gray is a community that very much keeps to themselves, much like the rest of Washington County. The only sense of community I have seen are the small groups of people that attend the same church or whose children play on the same sports teams. Because of it's small geographic area, lots of rural farmland, and lack of centralized government and being stuck in between two larger areas, Johnson City to the east and Kingsport to the West, it is a very sleepy bedroom community with not any organized events or real sense of community.

Community Statistics compared to Tennesee
All the statistics I could find compared all of Washington County to the rest of Tennessee. I could not find specific comparisons to teen pregnancy rates, poverty level, or level of education and marital status on any resource available online. I would think that Gray reflects the general statistics for Washington County:

2011 | Washington, Tennessee
County ||~ Error Margin ||~ National Benchmark* ||~ Tennessee ||~ Rank (of 95) ||
 * ~  ||~ Washington
 * Health Outcomes || 33 ||
 * Mortality || 35 ||
 * [|Premature death] || 9,441 || 8,801-10,081 || 5,564 || 9,264 ||  ||
 * Morbidity || 46 ||
 * [|Poor or fair health] || 20% || 17-24% || 10% || 19% ||  ||
 * [|Poor physical health days] || 4.2 || 3.5-5.0 || 2.6 || 4.1 ||  ||
 * [|Poor mental health days] || 3.8 || 3.0-4.5 || 2.3 || 3.4 ||  ||
 * [|Low birthweight] || 9.1% || 8.5-9.7% || 6.0% || 9.4% ||  ||
 * Health Factors || 2 ||
 * Health Behaviors || 14 ||
 * [|Adult smoking] || 27% || 23-32% || 15% || 24% ||  ||
 * [|Adult obesity] || 29% || 25-34% || 25% || 31% ||  ||
 * [|Excessive drinking] || 7% || 5-10% || 8% || 9% ||  ||
 * [|Motor vehicle crash death rate] || 18 || 15-21 || 12 || 22 ||  ||
 * [|Sexually transmitted infections] || 214 ||  || 83 || 455 ||   ||
 * [|Teen birth rate] || 40 || 37-43 || 22 || 55 ||  ||
 * Clinical Care || 1 ||
 * [|Uninsured adults] || 18% || 14-22% || 13% || 19% ||  ||
 * [|Primary care providers] || 291:1 ||  || 631:1 || 837:1 ||   ||
 * [|Preventable hospital stays] || 89 || 85-92 || 52 || 90 ||  ||
 * [|Diabetic screening] || 85% || 77-92% || 89% || 84% ||  ||
 * [|Mammography screening] || 67% || 60-75% || 74% || 62% ||  ||
 * Social & Economic Factors || 7 ||
 * [|High school graduation] || 85% ||  || 92% || 73% ||   ||
 * [|Some college] || 61% ||  || 68% || 54% ||   ||
 * [|Unemployment] || 8.8% || 8.6-9.0% || 5.3% || 10.5% ||  ||
 * [|Children in poverty] || 18% || 14-22% || 11% || 22% ||  ||
 * [|Inadequate social support] || 20% || 17-25% || 14% || 19% ||  ||
 * [|Single-parent households] || 29% ||  || 20% || 34% ||   ||
 * [|Violent crime rate] || 493 ||  || 100 || 744 ||   ||
 * Physical Environment || 22 ||
 * [|Air pollution-particulate matter days] || 0 ||  || 0 || 1 ||   ||
 * [|Air pollution-ozone days] || 0 ||  || 0 || 8 ||   ||
 * [|Access to healthy foods] || 57% ||  || 92% || 57% ||   ||
 * [|Access to recreational facilities] || 9 ||  || 17 || 8 ||   ||
 * 90th percentile, i.e., only 10% are better

Note: Blank values reflect unreliable or missing data

Top 3 Community Needs
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">1. Smoking <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">2. Obesity <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">3. Access to Healthy Foods

Health Interventions for Community Needs
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">1. There needs to be more resources available to community to have help and information on smoking cessation. One of the busiest stores besides the grocery store in Gray is a discount tobacco store. If the store was required to have smoking cessation literature outside of their store as well as monthly meetings to help people join cessation programs and financial assistance for smoking cessation medication and counseling, there could be a reduction in the number of adult smokers in Gray. This is the most important immediate intervention that would have the largest impact on the health of those living in Gray.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">2. The lack of fitness centers such as private gyms and public YMCA/YWCAs in Gray reflect the low priority this community has placed on physical fitness and it's impact on the community's health. I feel that there is a strong lack of knowlege in Gray that daily exercise leads to a healthier lifestyle and less illness, stress, and other health problems. I don't feel that this is a very health literate community as reflected in the high percentage of obese people in Gray which can be observed in all the shopping areas and grocery stores. This community is very sedentary, with people rarely doing outdoor activities once they have come home from work. More time outside doing yard work and playing outside or walking would help the general health of this community instead of watching television and sitting in front of a computer.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">3. Finally I feel that the grocery stores and restaurants in the area cater to the demand for low cost, low nutritional value foods. When I went to the two grocery stores in the community, I observed pre-prepared frozen foods and pre-packaged boxed foods outselling fresh produce at an almost 4:1 ratio. People were not buying ingredients to prepare their own foods, they were buying pre-cooked frozen meals and meals that could be prepared out of a cardboard box. There was a lack of anti-oxidant rich fruits and vegetables as well as a lack of low-fat high-protein foods such as lean meats and nuts being sold in both grocery stores. High fat, low-fiber foods were the bulk of items sold during my few days of observation. I would love for this rural community to organize a farmers market once a week where locals can sell their locally grown produce and eggs.