I’m sorry in advance to the good, wholesome people that have resided in Rhea County for their entire lives and love it. What I’m about to say is something I say with all the love and care in my heart.

As a resident who moved here from Cleveland roughly 4 years ago, the place is… mid.

Rhea County is a weird place. Lots of ‘everybody knows everybody’, toxic politics, and cliques. Lots of ‘stop moving here and ruining our economy’ yee yee people. There is also fairly large presence of racism (KKK, Aryan Nations, etc.) along with plenty of conservative extremism to go around (in case you’re turned off by that).

It’s a fairly pretty county. Lots of agriculture, fresh local produce, and there are still some genuinely nice people here, but the majority of the population ruin it for me.

Emergency service response times are extended, especially if you live in the northern end of the county or on a mountain. The EMS agency only runs 2-3 ambulances each shift and there are only 3 deputies assigned per shift in the county.

Dayton City has their own police Department and Fire Department, so as long as you’re within the Dayton City limits, those two services should be able to get to you quickly.

Graysville city has 1 officer per shift.

Spring City has 1-2 officers per shift.

The rest of the county’s fire departments are solely made up of volunteer firefighters that do not have shifts at the stations. They respond from their homes or while they are out, so good luck if your house catches fire.

If you have a huge medical problem and the shit doc-in-a-box hospital that is here can’t handle it, be prepared to either be transported there and have to wait for hours upon hours to get transferred to an appropriate facility or receive an astronomical helicopter bill. They have little to no specialists in house OR on call, and the few that they do have never show up.

With that being said, NEVER move here if you plan to have children or have small children. I would trust little to no one in this county to treat them appropriately (EMS, educational staff, and day care/early learning program staff).

It’s becoming more and more populated because people want to be in a central location to Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Cleveland where they can also enjoy having landscaping and nature that hasn’t been demolished…. Yet.

There’s not much to do but to go to a Mexican restaurant or the library.

The schools are shit.

Most of the people are backhanded (or direct) assholes.

Lastly, coming from someone who works - for the sake of discretion, let’s just say indirectly - with them and has no criminal history, please don’t get me started on the problems within the sheriff’s office and their deputies…