After the policy issues had been discussed and voted on, mayor Tony Aikens, said he had a question he wanted to ask Shields about before he left. Aikens said that a "certain county official had been putting out misinformation" pertaining to the new irrigation policy. He basically stated what was in the letter that most water customers had received last week. Shields did remind the council that they voted to implement the new policy back in August of last year.

The part of the conversation that caught my attention was about that "certain county official had been putting out misinformation" pertaining to the new irrigation policy. While he didn't actually call my name, I'm not aware of any other county official putting out any information about LCUB's new irrigation policy. We'll just assume he was talking about me since I did report on the policy change on the same day as the council meeting. Unfortunately, Aikens didn't bother to provide any details on the misinformation he claimed a certain county official was putting out. 

I went back and reread the article I had written to find the misinformation.

"In June, 2024, LCUB passed a new alternate irrigation policy to take effect January 1, 2025. Then near the end of February 2025, LCUB mails out a letter explaining the new policy to all water customers."

There is now a question if the council adopted the new policy in June or August. Regardless, they, the council, did in fact adopt the change in the irrigation policy. No misinformation here.

"Of course the question begs, why the sudden change in policy? Nearly all water in the LCUB system comes from the Tennessee River. There's been no reports of the river drying up. Maybe the utility has just decided to conserve water. But the odds seem to be going in the direction that Lenoir City has allowed so much residential development in such a short amount of time, the utility can't keep up with the demand. But that was easy to predict. When they add thousands of new residential units to a small system, problems were bound to arise. And here's a flash, more problems are on the way, traffic, roads, water run off, medical availability, schools, law enforcement and on and on will be impacted. I'm sure everyone knows, Lenoir City mayor, Tony Aikens, is the chairman of LCUB?"

Most of LCUB's water does come from the river and there is no drought. Newly elected council member, Robin McNabb asked directly if the the the water system has a capacity issue. Basically Mr. Shields said to provide the water necessary to provide irrigation and household water without pressure issues would require larger pipes. No misinformation here. 

In the coming months and years, Lenoir City and north end county residents are going to see more and more issues like this coming with the city's irresponsible development policies of allowing unrestricted development with no consideration to providing for infrastructure improvements, it was inevitable.

I don't think even Aikens himself could argue that the more households there on the system the more pressure there will be on the system. No misinformation here.

It appears mayor Aikens likes to say things but doesn't seem to feel the need to back up his accusations.