Martin Whorley
Based on your comments below, I see one relevant question
that county residents will have.
Do you consider what the city mayor and council are doing as
irresponsible growth?
Being part of Aikens host committee for his re-election
campaign would lead voters to assumptions about your values.
It would be good to have a clear, defined answer on your
view of the current growth situation affecting the county
given you are running a campaign to change “how things are”.
Vote Marty Fugate
Martin Whorley thanks
for your question, and also, thank you for not developing
any preconceived notions about my character or my values
based on serving on a host committee for Mayor Aikens.
One thing I do is I think for myself. I don’t need someone
to hide behind someone else’s name and feed “tough”
questions to someone. Mayor Aikens is a man that must answer
for and speak for himself. Same with me, I answer for and
speak for myself.
I
noticed on your page that you’re a believer, as am I. One
thing I’ve allowed my faith to help me with in my business
is not judging others based on what someone else says about
them.
I
have a lot of friends in this community, but my friends
don’t always like my other friends, and that’s ok, we’re all
allowed to think how we wish.
Mayor Aikens is a friend of mine and yes, I was a co-host of
his fundraiser but that doesn’t mean that he and I agree on
every single issue, nor does it mean that he will be some
type of puppet master to me. Anyone that knows me would
laugh at the thought of someone “controlling me”.
To your question, I would appreciate it if you could be a
little more direct. The “growth situation” can be related to
a host of responses. Are you wanting me to address
congestion on roads, schools, first responders, etc? I’m
happy to do so and have in many other replies on this post.
To summarize, growth isn’t bad if it’s managed and done
through a lens of responsibility that allows for
infrastructure to grow with our population, not play catch
up, like many communities do.
Infrastructure isn’t just roads. As our population grows,
our schools have to grow, our first responders and law
enforcement must grow with their budget and with staffing.
This can be tied to tax revenue, not a tax increase.
We can’t have sprawl or unrestricted growth, I’m 100%
opposed to that.
Martin Whorley
Vote Marty Fugate I
thought my question was clear enough, but maybe not. County
residents’ main concern is the explosive housing
development. Everything else you listed is fallout from
that.
I’ll try to be more direct. Given the thousands of new homes
already on their way, was the city mayor and council
responsible or irresponsible in their actions? We would like
all candidates to be able to provide a simple yes or no
answer to a question like this.
Many voters already see infrastructure as already behind the
curve on this one. We will likely be playing catch up for
years to come. Those same voters want firm opposition to the
current trend, not promises that growth will be managed more
effectively going forward.
For my demographic, candidates win or lose votes based on
direct answers. Hope that helps.
Vote Marty Fugate
Martin Whorley
Just want to make sure you understand that I’m running for
County Commission and not City Council.
I
know what you’re trying to do here, but I’ll weigh in.
No, they were not irresponsoble.
If zoning is not being violated and there is nothing illegal
about the development, by what cause should they have voted
no? If they vote no to one development that mirrors another
development that was recently passed, they open themselves
up for litigstion.
If you have questions pertaining to Loudon County Commission
or anything that I will actually be voting on rather than
asking my opinion on a separate governing body, I’m glad to
entertain those.
Out of curiosity, what other candidates have you asked since
that was part of your question?
Feel free to give me a call, I’d love
to discuss
this with you or meet you for a cup
of
coffee. My # is 865-242-6019.
Vote Marty Fugate
Robert Cornett great
question. Unfortunately, what folks don’t understand is that
developers are abiding by the law and pay tens of thousands
of dollars in fees before they build their first home. They
can’t just buy land and build, everything must go through
the Loudon County Planning commission. Developers and
developments aren’t the enemy. People are moving to
Tennessee because of the opportunity and tax friendly
environments we’ve created.
We can’t get to the next level by staying where we are. Our
infrastructure must grow with development and we must
continue use common since along the way.
Vote Marty Fugate
Robert Cornett as
is the case with all votes, it’s not always going to be a
no, and it’s not always going to be a yes. If the current
zoning calls for 2 units per acre and the builder is
requesting 3, do you consider that high density? Sometimes,
the request may be for 2.5 homes/acre when the zoning is 2
which would allow 1 extra home on a 2 acre plat. I will not
be a “yes to all” vote as you’re posing, however, I will not
be a “no to all”. These issues have to be debated and all
factors considered. Unfortunately, I can’t make a policy
commitment on a hypothetical questions.