Editing Mount Carmel, Tennessee (section)

==History==
Mount Carmel is in Hawkins County, which was once called Spencer county, and was a part of the State of Franklin. The State of Franklin comprised eight counties in western North Carolina in the late 1700s. Governed by John Sevier, it operated as an independent state for four years before it ultimately rejoined North Carolina.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/true-story-short-lived-state-franklin-180964541/|title=The True Story of the Short-Lived State of Franklin}}</ref>

Mount Carmel once garnered national attention in the mid-2000s because of a [[CBS News]] story stating the town's geography is situated on only one side of the main highway through the area. Since then, the city has secured property on the other side of the road and has built a cemetery.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/town-missing-an-other-side/ - CBS News - CBS News | work=CBS News | title=Town Missing An 'Other Side'}}</ref>

Since the 1980s, the community has faced economic hardship due to political turmoil in its government operations, and the [[outsourcing]] of its retail and municipal services to neighboring Church Hill and Kingsport. In 2020, the city would begin discussions of connecting to either of the two cities' sewer systems following the Mount Carmel sewer plant going insolvent. Calls for Mount Carmel to [[Merger (politics)|merge]] into Kingsport or Church Hill have been raised since 2021 because of the financial instability.<ref name="merge">{{cite news |title=Editorial: Mount Carmel should consider a merger |url=https://www.timesnews.net/opinion/editorials/editorial-mount-carmel-should-consider-a-merger/article_26efa9e4-6a18-11eb-804a-af35b0047454.html |access-date=May 3, 2021 |work=[[Kingsport Times-News]] |date=February 9, 2021}}</ref>