Voter education is essential to ensuring voters are well-informed and can effectively exercise their voting rights and express their political will on Election Day.

Ran across this site tonight and found the numbers interesting….thought you might also.

Thank you Judge for the great sign location!!  It is hard to miss! Thank you Tim Brewster for installing and keeping me safe! I appreciate it.

Thank you Philadelphia Elementary for allowing me to be part of such an incredible program! You truly are an “Exemplary School”!

With the May primary petition deadline closed and the Loudon County Election Commission officially certifying names on the ballot Thursday, campaigning has started to ramp up for candidates old and new.

Registered voters will get the opportunity to pick from 36 candidates in hopes of filling the 18 seats up for election when the county’s week-long early voting begins April 16 and rolls up to Election Day on May 6.

County resident Van Shaver said he chose to run for office to provide some experience on a Loudon County Commission that finds itself losing three incumbents. Commissioners Roy Bledsoe, Brian Jenkins and Don Miller have opted not to seek re-election. Bledsoe, longtime commission chairman, leaves after 48 years of service.

“Well, I’ve served on county commission and I’ve served on the (Loudon County) school  board and you’ve got a number of retirements this time around,” Shaver said. “A lot of older, experienced folks are leaving and I guess I feel like I could maybe bring a little bit of experience back to the commission having been there and done that before.”

Shaver said he served on the commission in 2002-06, on the Loudon County Board of Education in 2008-12 and ran for county mayor in 2006. Once candidates are certified on the ballot, Shaver said he will begin making a push for campaigning, going door-to-door and sending mail-outs.

If elected, Shaver said he will eye a tighter county budget.

“I’m a well-known extremely fiscal conservative person, so my interest is always going to be in budget expenditures, spending money, how we’re spending the money, what we’re spending the money on, if it’s in the best interest of the taxpayers, if it’s — you know, when we spend the money ourselves if it was our money we were actually putting out,” Shaver said. “Mine’s really about small government and tight, tight budget.”

Running against Shaver for District 5, Seat B of the commission is Marvin Stanley and incumbent Sharon Yarbrough.

Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw II is putting his name on the ballot in May in hopes of cutting county governmental spending. Bradshaw will be running against incumbent County Mayor Estelle Herron.

“I think that we spend way too much money,” Bradshaw said. “Our county government’s going at a pace that I think is unacceptable. I think we can do things better and I think we need better spending, not more spending for our county. … Where can we get it done, where can we do something cheaper? Where can … (we) cut the nickels and dimes out to where we just rein it in really?”

The first-time candidate began campaigning in January, speaking with people and placing signs in yards. So far, the reception has been well received, he said.

“I think people are tired of the big spending and the economy the way it is now, folks are having to really watch their money and I think they expect their county government to do the same,” Bradshaw said.

Sherri Colvard will be running for county trustee.

“I have 20 years (of) accounting experience and I believe that I would bring more knowledge from that experience to the trustee office,” Colvard said in an email.

After being appointed the job by county commission in January 2013, Loudon County Trustee Chip Miller will be seeking his first full term in office. Miller said campaigning began in November with a fundraiser of about 130 people at the WindRiver Manor House, along with a few small get-togethers. Campaign signs have been scattered throughout the county. Placements of yard signs should begin about the second week of March, with the possibility of locating signs at a “couple of strategic places” earlier, he said.

“I’m doing door-to-door, trying to — obviously in Loudon County it’s tough to get to every door, but we’re going to make an attempt to get to as many doors as possible,” Miller said. “We’re also networking through social media and … we have a list of other accomplishments that we hope to get done for the campaign. … We plan on covering the whole county, but right now we’ve got them in folk’s yards, we’ve got them in businesses, we’re trying to cover all areas of the county.”

Miller estimated his election campaign will cost about $20,000. If re-elected, Miller said he would like to see his staff continue to provide “professional, efficient and courteous” service to residents.

“So we try to be professional, efficient and courteous to all taxpayers and work with them to solve any problems,” Miller said. “We also administer the tax relief program, so we deal with a lot of elderly or disabled folks. We try to work with them and have good constituent interaction.”

Herron’s second political campaign as county mayor kicked off Saturday at Highland Park Ruritan, with about 183 people attending, she said.

“When you’re running for the first time, you don’t have that name recognition,” Herron said. “So, for as many times as I have run now, like I said this will be my fifth, going to be my fifth campaign, your name recognition is already out there, you’re not trying to establish that. I’m probably not going to put my signs out until the middle of March. People get so, you know, we all get tired of seeing them. So I’m going to wait until about 30 days prior to early voting.”

Herron began her tenure as county trustee in 1998 and stayed in that office until 2010 when she ran for county mayor.

Gaining more evening daylight when the time changes in March will prove beneficial for campaigning, Herron said.

“Right now’s (a) real hard time to campaign,” she said. “You hit this subdivision and you may hit that subdivision. You’re just going to strategically (campaign). You may go out on a Saturday hitting who knows how many, it just depends on how it rolls.”

Herron listed a number of issues she hopes to help tackle in her new term, including reworking the Loudon County Planning and Codes Enforcement Office, hiring a solid waste director and expanding Loudon High School to accommodate more classrooms.

“The next thing I see on the school end will be adding a wing out here at the high school, and then the only other thing I see is the jail,” Herron said.

For a full list of candidates, view the “May 2014 County Primary petition information” section under the “Information for Voters” tab at http://www.loudoncountyvotes.com.

Author: Jeremy Nash
Source: News-Herald

“The PNL Companies” out of Texas has apparently acquired golf course community Tennessee National!

Visit www.pnlcompanies.com to learn more about the asset management company.

The small town of Greenback is steeped in history and local residents are continuing efforts to preserve that legacy for future generations.

The long-standing Greenback Depot is officially considered a historical site. The Tennessee Historical Commission announced last week that the depot would be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Louisville and Nashville Railroad built the Greenback Depot in 1914.

East Tennessee Preservation Alliance board member Carolyn Peck said the depot was used to organize passengers until 1968 and freight until 1978.

Peck said the Greenback Historical Society had been trying to get the depot nationally recognized since about 2008. As a longtime Greenback resident, she said she was happy the building finally got its recognition.

“People kept saying to me, ‘I wish we’d do something about the depot,’ because it looked like — we started about — I finally a couple of years later, I decided people were going to keep asking me that (and) unless I did something, nothing was going to happen. So along 2008, 2009, I started publicizing it and talking to the owner whose name was (Larry) Alley at the time.”

The Alleys eventually sold the property to Greenback resident Ron Edmondson for $200,000 in March 2012. With the help of Greenback volunteers, Edmondson worked toward restoring the depot to its original state. Renovations cost about $165,000, he said.

Author: Jeremy Nash

Source: News-Herald

“He’s (Edmondson) told me way back in the beginning that what he wanted to do was restore it so it was the center of Greenback and spark Greenback to make other improvements, to want people to be proud of their community and make other improvements,” Peck said with tears in her eyes. “I get teary real easy right now.”

For Edmondson, revamping the building is about preserving a majority of the original infrastructure.

“My goal is that at some point in my life when I (finish) this thing, when I get the rest of out here done, when I get the little things done, I am going to make a very strong effort to see that the state of Tennessee, the county of Loudon, the city of Greenback, that somebody will take that property with written agreements that it will remain in the condition that they found it when we signed that piece of paper,” he said. “I’ll be happy to do that.”

There remains work to be done. Despite doing a number of renovations, like removing a false second story within the building and adding on to the back of the depot to relocate the restrooms, Edmondson said there were “little things” that needed to be finished, such as replacing phone cables and fixing drainage pipes.

“This thing needs to look like it looked the day that Squire (William H.) Jones came in and said it’s done, you know?” he said. “So that’s what I’m — that’s my goal. As long as I’ve got something to keep me busy, I’m happy.”

According to the National Register of Historic Places application form, Jones was the depot’s station agent from 1910 until he died in 1954. He was the deputy county clerk and squire, and he sold vehicles, hunting and fishing licenses and marriage licenses. He officiated more than 3,500 marriages with many ceremonies occurring in the Greenback Depot.

Peck said the facility was host to a number of community events including birthday parties, holiday parties and anniversaries.

“Everybody has been so excited and so many things have been scheduled to go on in here — I mean, birthday parties, anniversaries, Thanksgiving parties, Christmas parties and, you know, things like that that people want to use it for,” she said. “We have a Halloween festival downtown the last Saturday in October and they moved it — well, it’s outside but also inside in the depot and that’s getting bigger every year.”

Long-term goals
Upon finishing renovations, Edmondson said he hoped to use the depot as a city museum.

“We need to be prepared and we need to have this town to where when people drive by the road here and turn around and look, they say, ‘Holy crap, did you see that Indian (statue)?’ ‘No, I didn’t see that Indian, but I saw that elk (statue) back there. Turn around and let’s go look,'” Edmondson said. “They pull back in here, they walk in, they say, ‘There’s a museum in there. Let’s go in there and look at it.'”

Paul Bailey, GHS member, said Edmondson’s work positively impacted city residents.

“If you’re not familiar with the town, this looks a lot different today than it looked two, three years ago,” Bailey said. “This was all run down, I guess is the best way to describe it. None of this was mowed or anything, so it’s changed a lot and it’s all I think because this (Greenback Depot) came back to life and people decided to make things in their own way a little better.”

As an owner of seven properties in Greenback, including the old Gorley’s Grocery Store lot, Edmondson said he had plans for the vacant land. He said he hoped to rebuild Gorley’s with “plenty of parking” and picnic tables beside the store for the community to use.

Preservation is an important factor to consider, Edmondson and Bailey said.

“Can you read those letters?” Edmondson said, pointing to acronyms on the wooden Native American statue beside Morganton Road. “Know what it stands for? Greenback High School. That’s how important it is to me. Kids is all that’s important in this world. Me and this old guy’s (Bailey) going to get older and older and older, and my one hope is that there’ll be somebody that’ll have the same attitude toward this town and toward the things in this town that have got it to where it’s at right now.”

Buoyed by the popularity of two main fishing tournaments, along with a yearly array of arts and crafts events, festivals and firework shows on the lake, tourism spending in Loudon County has continued its upward climb, with 2012 marking the third increase in a row.Although concrete figures are not in yet, officials predict 2013 will be the fourth.

I hope everyone will join me at the Official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of the new Greenback School in the new gymnasium at 5:00 today!