Potholes?

As your next County Commissioner, I'll work with our Road Superintendent and their team to develop strategies that will make our roads safer for us to travel to church, work and school.

It looks like Loudon County commission candidate, Marty Fugate, is putting potholes as a top priority in his quest to be elected to commission. While I'm sure potholes are important, we have a topnotch, well funded highway department who do an outstanding job managing the county road system.

I think if Mr. Fugate talks to very many people in the 5th district, he'll find out real fast that potholes concerns fall far behind peoples concerns about the mass over development taking place in Lenoir City and up to now, Fugate has been silent on his position on development.

Below is a string of conversations on Marty Fugate's campaign Facebook page. He lets the cat out of the bag.

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Matthew Morgan

Potholes aren't a commissioners job, it's either the road superintendent or TDOT depending if it's a county road or a state hwy. Commissioners don't have any more pull over fixing the roadways that a regular citizen has. Every time I've noticed a roadway issue I've reached out directly to Billy Pickel, the Loudon County road Superintendent, and he's been great to deal with. Now over development without planning improvements in infrastructure, that's a real conversation we need to have. What's your stance on the current housing development situation in Loudon County?____________________________________________________________________________

Vote Marty Fugate

Matthew Morgan as it relates to potholes, Billy Pickel and his team do an incredible job, however, they have zero control over the budget. By working with him and his team, we need to put together strategies for a road improvement plan, allocate funding through our budget and phase it out to where the roads in the worse condition are addressed first.

Regarding development, our planning commission works hard and developers are not the enemy. We want to grow in Loudon County, we can’t get to the next level by doing what we’ve always done. I don’t believe in a blank approval for all development, we have to have common sense procedures that enable our infrastructure to grow with development including roads, police, ambulance, schools, etc.

We can’t continue to look through a narrow lens. Tennessee is growing and if folks are moving here and working here, we have to do what we can to capture tax revenue and have responsible development. If you want someone that’s going to put up a no vacancy sign at our Loudon county border, that’s not me.

If you want someone who believes in responsible growth, using common sense principles and will work to squash the issues we have with illegal immigration in Loudon County, I’m your guy.
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Matthew Morgan

Vote Marty Fugate so you're pro-growth, that's all we need to know. I think there's a STRONG population in Loudon County that's tired of the over development that has nothing to do with "responsible growth" and everything to do with changing the community by turning it into the next Hardin Valley or Karns. I guess we'll see how strong that populations voice is come March 5th.
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Vote Marty Fugate

Matthew Morgan unfortunately, I haven’t been in office, if you’ve got issues with the way things have been going, you should vote for me. I’m not in office currently, I’m not part of the problem, I’m running to fix it. I’m tired of people that don’t understand “responsible growth” being in office. Perhaps you should give me a shot, definitely better than what you’ve got currently.
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Vote Marty Fugate

Matthew Morgan if you want things to keep going the way they have the past few years, don’t vote for me. If you want a change and someone that will talk to you, listen to you and truly represent you, vote for me. I guarantee you “the other guy” won’t be chatting with you at 9:30 on a Saturday during a Tennessee basket all game.
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So now we know, Mr. Fugate is in favor of "responsible growth", code word for build all you can everywhere you can just like Lenoir City mayor Tony Aikens, who by the way is supporting Marty Fugate in his run for county commission.

And yes, Mr. Fugate, developers are the enemy. Every developer has one goal, make as much money as they can and get out. To make money, developers have to clear and destroy as much land as they can. To make as much money they can, developers have to bring as many people as possible to their developments with no responsibility or concern how their development affects the county.

Mr. Fugate says he's going to "put together strategies for a road improvement plan, allocate funding through our budget and phase it out to where the roads in the worse condition are addressed first."

Where does he propose to get the get money from the budget to do all these things? Take it from schools, the sheriff's department, the jail, raise taxes? His proposal would cost tens of millions of dollars and those dollars would have to come from somewhere. The last major road project in the city/county was the widening of Simpson Road. It took over seven years and over two million dollars. In the end, we got a five foot sidewalk and a six foot wider road.

Again, if Mr. Fugate talks to very many people in the 5th district, he will find that the vast majority of those people are very happy with what the county commission has done over the "past few years" to stop over development in the county by adopting strong zoning policies. Commissioner Joe Morrison has been a big part of that.

Aside from potholes, Mr. Fugate should give us his opinion on the two illegal annexations by Tony Aikens and the city council and the current lawsuit. Expand on his thoughts on the thousands and thousands of apartments and homes the mayor and council have approved in the city in the last three years. What's his views on the new school needed to accommodate all the growth in the city?  

And one last thing, while it sounds good and is a hot button issue, county commissioners have nothing to do with illegal immigration. Maybe Mr. Fugate could give details on exactly how he plans to stop illegal immigration into the United States?

There are very important issues facing Loudon County. We need serious people to face serious issues. Voters of the 5th district now have a very clear choice in candidates, pro growth, Fugate or controlled growth, Morrison. Help get the word out in the 5th.

If you have other questions for Mr. Fugate, click here for his Facebook page.

Click Here for Joe Morrison's Facebook page.

Kudos to Matthew Morgan for getting Fugate on record on at least one important issue. 

Vote For Joe Morrison for Loudon County commission, 5th district, Seat (A).

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2/5/24