Recently, Loudon County and Loudon City officials have been exploring the possibility of building a multipurpose agricultural complex. They have already  contributed several thousand dollars for a feasibility study on the idea. The results of that study weren't very good. The estimated cost for such a facility was put at $29 million and $35 million. Now the two government entities are looking at maybe a scaled down version of the facility.

I count myself a bit of a farmer and I can identify with those individuals who have been working to bring the complex to reality. My problem is bringing the government in to it. We've seen it time after time, local government doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to investing in projects. I wont go down the list but it's long and sad.

The idea of a self-supporting, multipurpose agricultural complex is probably a good idea and could be profitable if managed properly but it's not the place of local government to fund such projects with tax payer money. I will assure you, if it were a good idea and money could be made, someone in the private sector would pick up the ball and run with it. Heck, if somebody could show me it would be a good investment, I might be willing to contribute myself. Would the elected officials who voted to fund the study with tax payer money be willing to invest their own personal funds in the project?

Hopefully, some day we could have a nice ag complex. There are a lot of farmers, horse folks, FFA people and others in our region who could benefit from and use such a facility. Maybe they could all come together to bring the project to fruition but leave the government out of it.   

Nothing run by the government ever works. Government should stay out of private development and leave capitalism to capitalists.