Well, it's all over at least for a couple of years. I only had two disappointments. The reelection of Brookshire and Gene Hamby was certainly no win for Lenoir City. I can not imagine the mind set of anyone who would want those two back in office. I think Brookshire survived solely on the blind loyalty of democrats who turned out to vote for Harold Ford and while they were there, punched the button for Brookshire. There is no explanation for Hamby. But we have to respect the will of the voters no matter how bad the out come.

Brookshire has to be feeling pretty low even with his win. A five year incumbent who by his own statements seems to feel he has personally brought Lenoir City out of the dark ages, narrowly defeats a complet new comer to the political arena. It's not exactly as if Brookshire was elected with a mandate. 44% of the voters rejected him outright as their mayor. The bigger question is why anyone supported him. It will be very interesting to see what the Mayor will do about his redevelopment plan.

We are only just now learning  what terrible condition the infrastructure of the city has been allowed to fall into under Brookshire's watch. The fire hydrant/water supply situation has reached critical mass with the discovery that many of the hydrants are not adequate for fire protection. The sewer system has deteriorated to such a terrible state, that the city is currently under a state commissioner's order to make millions of dollars of upgrades and repairs or face potential fines and penalties up to $156,000.00. The Department Of Environment and Conservation sited 80 violations of the sewer system in a two year period prompting the order and fines. And yet with all the water problems, both incoming and out going, facing the city, the city continues to add hundreds if not thousands of new water and sewer customers to their already over tax systems, most of which are outside the city.  These are only two of the serious problems facing the new council. There are others

I guess a win is a win no matter the margin and I'm sure the mayor and family celebrated his victory. But amid the celebration, I was impressed that the mayor's father-in-law and LCUB manager,, Freddie Nelson, took time Tuesday after the election to call me personally to be sure I was aware of his son-in-law's victory. I can only assume they were all gathered around the computer watching the returns posted on vanshaver.com.

The Liquor Referendum

Our liquor loving trio must be feeling lower than a drunk in a ditch. I know I would if I had spent as much money as they did just to come up short of their dreams of easy money. Their losing effort cost them at least $15 per yes vote. Fortunately the voters in LC and Loudon turned them down, all be it by small margins. At least we will not have to deal with liquor stores for a couple of years, but I'm sure we will have this fight again if not with the same ones, another greedy bunch.

Constitutional Amendment #1

Maybe one of the most heartening out comes in Tuesday's elections was the overwhelming passage of the marriage amendment not just in Loudon County but state wide. The citizens of Tennessee sent a loud, clear message of their view of the whole gay issue.

If you look at the vote in Loudon County and allow for some who probably voted incorrectly on the measure, we only had about 2000 who voted in support of gay marriage. That seems to indicate we only have about 2000 true liberals amongst us and that's a good thing.

I've been worried that after the election was over it might hard to continue to find interesting stories to report on. But given some of the self serving characters we currently have in office, I'm guessing their will be plenty of stuff to report.

-v-