You Scratch My Back
I'll Scratch Yours?
| More than twenty years ago, Loudon County and Loudon
city partnered to develop the Center 75 Business Park at the cost of six
million dollars. It's located off Hwy 72 in Loudon. The idea was to
developed, a near three hundred acre industrial park, to attract new
industry that would bring good jobs and increase the tax base. Just a
year or so ago, the county/city sold a 26 acre parcel to bring in a
manufacturing company. Money from any property sales in the park is
split between the county and city on a 60-40% split. At April's commission workshop, EDA director, Jack Qualls, presented a proposal to sell 15 acres +/- to an unnamed company that he said, would be selling mulch and fruit trees. No mention of any new jobs being created or any new facilities being built. Several commissioners questioned whether this would be an appropriate use of the industrial park property. No other information on the business was given. I share the concerns of the others and also, not knowing what the business was and how it might impact the county makes it a NO vote for me every time. As Paul Harvey use to say, now the rest of the story. This same item was discussed and voted on at the last Loudon City council meeting. While the vote to sell the land passed by a 4-1 vote, Councilman Tim Brewster stated that he would abstain from voting because this was a "family member" who was buying the property. After the Loudon council meeting and after the Loudon County commission workshop, it was learned that it was in fact Ken Brewster, owner of Brewster's Service Group and brother to councilman Tim Brewster, that was wanting to buy the property. This information was given to several county commissioner when Loudon City mayor, Jeff Harris made calls to several commissioners lobbying support for the sale of the property. Harris also told some commissioners that if Brewster bought the Center 75 property, the city would be buying Brewster's current property on Hwy 11 to relocate the Loudon City Police department to. The whole deal was contingent on Brewster getting the Center 75 property first. Last Monday, the vote to sale the property came before the county commission. Ultimately, the vote was a 5-5 split which means the vote to sale failed. Commissioner Kelly Brewster also abstained due to the buyer being a "family member". That's when things went south. My NO vote had nothing to do with the land deal. I just didn't feel that a parking lot for a tree trimming service, whether they sell mulch and fruit trees, is an appropriate use of land in a multimillion dollar industrial park. Immediately after the commission meeting, Loudon City mayor, Jeff Harris, called the county commission chairman, Henry Cullen, to voice his displeasure with the outcome of the vote, questioning Cullen's chairmanship skills, in a not so professional way. But that was nothing. A day later, Ken Brewster went on a Facebook tirade against most of the county commissioners who voted no on the land deal. Obviously, he was very unhappy that the deal didn't go through. I have no idea of what the arrangements of a quid pro quo land deal were but as Harris described it, if Brewster bought the Center 75 land from the city/county, Loudon would take their share of the money they received from that sale and turn around and buy Brewster's current business property on Hwy. 11. for the new police department. As a side note, Loudon City has already abandoned down town by moving all their government offices out of downtown and they moved the LUB offices out of downtown. Now looks like they intend to move the police department out of downtown too. Councilman Tim Brewster and commissioner Kelly Brewster did exactly the right thing in abstaining from voting. Had either one not abstained, there would have been those who claimed their vote was a conflict of interest or worse, given that it was a "family member" involved. This is not the first time, votes were cast not to sale land in Center 75 and probably won't be the last. There is still hope that one day a good industry will locate in the park and fulfill the goal the park was built for. Below are the posts from Mr. Brewster's Facebook account. I'd say the county made the right decision not to hitch our wagon to this star.
|
BACK
5/10/21