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How has the quality of life improved for the average Loudon County
resident in the last twenty-five years?
Isn't that really what every thing comes down to? The quality of life in
our individual communities, for you and your family, me and my family
and every one else in Loudon County.
I was in a meeting recently with Loudon County's number one developer
and cronies. Shortly after the meeting when the conversation went to
small talk, it wasn't long before the debate on the pros and cons of
development entered the conversation. Given each of our personalities it
wasn't long before the debate went into some of the decision we had made
as commissioners. In my rebuttal to the developer on one particular
issue that he disapproved of was, "we made our decision based on what
our constituents asked us to do." The developer's response was,
"that's the problem, citizens should not have input or influence in
decisions the commission makes" (when it comes to development).
Think about that statement for a minute. Citizens should not have input
or influence in decisions the commission makes. This is the mind set of
developers. If we are not there to represent the views of our
constituents then what are we there to do.
Loudon County is at a crucial point in it's history, in fact we may have
already passed the point of no return. Back to the original question,
How has the quality of life improved for the average Loudon County
resident in the last twenty-five years? Given the out of control
development, let's look at the good and bad. The good first.
The Good
We have a lot of restaurants, a Home Depot and a Walmart.
A tiny number of people have gotten wealthy.
Local governments have seen a windfall in tax collections.
The bad.
Taxes are higher than they have ever been. This is especially true if
you own property in Lenoir City.
Traffic is worse than it has ever been.
Our air quality is recognized as one of the worst in the nation and
coupled with that we have the distinction of being number one in cancer
rates.
Apparently the crime rate is higher than ever, given the sheriff's
statement that "we can't answer the calls we've got." The sheriff's
department's budget and staff have more than doubled in the last
twenty-five years.
If you believe the board of education's statements, most of our schools
are grossly over crowded and the rest will shortly be and they need
millions of dollars to solve their problems.
If you believe the reports from the state, the quality of education in
Loudon County is mediocre at best.
Twenty-five years ago if someone had said, there's an illegal alien,
most of us would have looked toward the sky.
Our beautiful lakes are all but destroyed. One is so nasty you can't get
in it, the other is so crowded you could walk across it on the boats.
Foot note. As a child and a teenager, one of the nicest places you could
go in the county was the City Park at the lake. We would sit on the old
concrete picnic tables after dark and just admire the beauty of the
lights of the dam reflecting on the water. Now, forget about the lights,
you can't even see the dam from the park for all the metal sheds and
house boats.
For those of us that are "Lifers" and even those who have only been here
for the last twenty-five years, it would be hard to believe that what we
have gained from all the development is worth what we have lost.
Where does it end? How does it end? Somebody look down the road
twenty-five years from now and tell me how things are going to get
better if we don't make some drastic changes.
Even though the developers and many of our government officials like to
say we are "Knoxville's bed room," I am disgusted and angered by such a
statement.
It has been said, "You can't stop progress," but what is progress? The
destruction of everything we love about our community so that a few can
get rich? I think not.
I will ask one more time, How has the quality of life improved for the
average Loudon County resident in the last twenty-five years? The answer
is, it hasn't and if we, the citizens and government officials don't do
something our quality of life will continue it's downward spiral.
Van |