I guess it’s Oak Ridge bashing season again. It’s a peculiar phenomenon.
Today’s News Sentinel has a business-page story about Roane County’s recent successes in attracting industry to the county, particularly to the Roane Regional Business and Industrial Park.
In the middle of the upbeat story about Roane County’s success in getting itself onto industrial prospects’ radar screens and bringing in jobs and capital investment, there’s a classic bit of Oak Ridge bashing:
Roane County’s willingness to understand the needs of business has made a difference in recruiting development, according to Steve Kirkham, who served as chairman of the county’s Industrial Board until January.
Kirkham, who owns and operates a chain of Rocky Top Markets, brings a business professional’s perspective to the challenge of recruiting companies.
“If somebody builds a plant and they need an electrical inspector out there on a certain day to make sure the work doesn’t stop, we will accommodate them,” he said.
Kirkham said he has faced similar situations in building new stores in other communities that have not been as accommodating.
“If you ask for an electrical inspection on a specific day in Oak Ridge they’ll tell you the guy only gets out to that part of town every other Thursday,” Kirkham said. “I probably would not build in Oak Ridge if they gave me the real estate.”
I can’t know what Mr. Kirkham’s company has experienced in Oak Ridge, but I do know that the city staff attends monthly meetings with area developers at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce to hear about their concerns, and city manager Jim O’Connor told me today: “We have same day service and have been known to inspect at night. All inspections will be done within a 24 hour period.”
While I’ve observed or been told about (by people who talked to me in person) too many situations in which residents felt the city staff went too far on behalf of developers, as well as situations where city inspection staff were inconsistent or placed seemingly unreasonable requirements on restoration and remodeling projects, the people who (like Mr. Kirkham) make blanket allegations that the city is impossible for developers to work with never seem to come forward with particulars, and they do not deliver their criticisms in person. I guess that East Tennessee still holds so much left-over animosity toward Oak Ridge (dating from the Manhattan Project days) that people are prepared to believe these allegations (and print them in the newspaper) without even thinking to ask for facts.
Rocky Top Markets has four locations in Oak Ridge (according to its website) — more than they have in any other single city. Their long-time locations on Oak Ridge Turnpike have some of the busiest gas pumps in the city. I doubt that the company officials would be willing to tell their loyal Oak Ridge customers that the company can’t stand to do business here…
Update (first posted as comment March 3, 2008 @ 9:52 am)
More follow-up in a message from city Code Enforcement staff (the following is a quotation from the message, edited for brevity and to remove staff names):
[Before September of 2005] inspections were being performed at almost a “will call” basis. At times the contractors (electrical, plumbing and building) called the inspectors direct to request an inspection.
In September of 2007, in order to be more efficient and cost conscious (because of the rising cost of fuel) regarding routes driven by the inspection staff, [a new policy was initiated] that all inspections (except emergency ones or ones where weather was a factor) must be requested by 4:00 PM and the inspection would be performed the next day. …We try to accommodate people who “forget” to call in the day before or the ones that need an inspection due to weather or other factors.
…The only times that anyone has had to wait a day or so on an inspection was if [the inspector] had been on vacation or the interim period when we were using [another employee after an inspector resigned]….
Since I have been here, never to my knowledge has anyone been told “inspectors only work an area on certain days or every other Thursday”. It is a fact that some State of TN contract electrical inspectors (independent contractors, who set their own schedule) do work certain areas on certain days. This is due to the large geographical area they have to cover. If an inspection was failed on Tuesday, it would be the next Tuesday before a reinspection could be made.
Today’s New York Times health section has an article about the teaching of anatomy in U.S. high schools. The article features Oak Ridge resident and Anderson County Commissioner Harry “Whitey” Hitchcock, who teaches science at Clinton High School. I knew that Whitey’s biology students often get to study animal bones and assemble wildlife skeletons as part of their anatomy and physiology lessons, but I learned from the article “Teenagers, Scalpels, and Real Cadavers” that some of his classes also include dissection of real human cadavers.
Experience with human dissection probably doesn’t help much on AP biology exams, but it seems to me that Whitey’s students are receiving an exceptional educational experience — the type of positive experience that can set the pattern for a lifetime of achievement. And it’s not every day that a Tennessee public high school teacher gets featured in a major publication (way to go, Whitey and Clinton High School!).
Ironically, while the article identifies Clinton High School, it incorrectly names the school’s location as “Oak Ridge, Tenn.” Thus, Oak Ridge gets a little “extra credit” for something positive that is actually happening down the road in Clinton, while Anderson County Schools missed out on some deserved recognition for allowing their students to have this exceptional learning opportunity.
Today’s morning newspapers both had articles (Oak Ridger: 13-cent tax hike projected and News Sentinel: Stagnant development behind OR tax increase) describing Steve Jenkins’ presentation at yesterday’s meeting of the City Council Budget and Finance committee, and both reported (based on a table included in Steve’s handouts) that Oak Ridge has the 4th highest property tax of Tennessee’s cities, “trailing only Memphis, Humboldt and Knoxville.”
There’s no denying that Oak Ridge’s property taxes are high in comparison with most other places in Tennessee, but it seems to me that that comparative ranking of property taxes levied by municipalities is misleading. Because of differences in which unit of local government provides various services, a comparison of local property taxes is not meaningful unless it also includes the property taxes paid to counties, as well as to special school districts where those exist. Comparing tax rates in municipalities that operate school systems and police departments (to name just two areas where municipalities differ) with tax rates in municipalities that leave these services to the county is not like comparing apples and oranges — it’s like comparing the cost of a full-course meal at one restaurant with the price of the main course (or even just the appetizer) at another eatery.
When total local property tax burdens are compared, it turns out that Oak Ridge has more company near the high end of the list, and the smallish West Tennessee city of Humboldt drops even farther down the list. According to the state comptroller’s office, the cities and towns in Tennessee with the highest combined local property tax rates (equal to or greater than the rates paid by Oak Ridgers) are as follows:
- Memphis (Shelby County) - $7.4732
- Bartlett (Shelby County) - $5.63
- Germantown (Shelby County) - $5.63
- Knoxville (Knox County) - $5.50
- Collierville (Shelby County) - $5.37
- Chattanooga (Hamilton County) - $5.356
- Oak Ridge (Anderson County) - $5.33
- Millington (Shelby County) - $5.32
- Humboldt (the portion in Madison County) - $5.30 (most of the city is in Gibson County where the combined tax rate is $3.78)
- Arlington (Shelby County) - $5.09
- Oakdale (Morgan County) - $4.98
- Lookout Mountain (Hamilton County) - $4.954
- Henning (Lauderdale County) - $4.95
- Bristol (Sullivan County) - $4.95
- Signal Mountain (Hamilton County) - $4.929
- Oak Ridge (Roane County) - $4.92
Viewed that way, it seems that Oak Ridge has more company than those newspaper articles suggested.
Note that this is not a comparison of total local tax burden. Notably, it does not include local sales tax (which is at its highest possible rate in both Anderson and Roane counties) or the wheel taxes that are levied in many Tennessee counties (not including Anderson and Roane). For example, without the $55 wheel tax in Metro Nashville Davidson County, Nashville’s total property tax rate likely would be a good bit higher than its current value of $4.69.
At this special time of the year, I can only imagine the feelings of the family of Ashley Paine. My heart goes out to them…
Ashley’s tragic death in early November focused attention on the safety of our children when they travel back and forth to school.
City Council cannot tell the school system how to operate its busing program, but all of us have a right to an opinion on the subject. Some people are saying that every child should be able to ride the bus, regardless of where they live. I don’t share that view. I think it’s healthy (both physically and economically) to encourage kids to walk, if (and only if) they have a safe walking route to school (something that not all of our kids have right now).
When the schools cut out busing for kids within a mile, I was disappointed that the schools did not tailor the bus zones so that kids would not need to cross dangerous streets and intersections. Further, it was clear to me from the walking-zone street lists that they had been developed without much ground-truthing (for example, Mona Lane — which was eliminated several years ago — was listed as a walking street for Linden School, and my house was apparently eligible for bus service to Linden because we are a mile from the school by street, although the walking distance is much less than that because there’s a sidewalk-only back entrance to Linden from Montclair Road). That indicated to me that the lists were made by an automated process, and no responsible adult had investigated the situation from a kid’s perspective to make sure the new plan was reasonable.
I’m relieved that elementary school kids now have (limited) bus access (although I’ve told Dr. Bailey that it was silly to place a bus stop on Montclair Road at the back entrance to Linden) and that kids in the “garden apartments” (Rolling Hills apartments) area can now ride the bus to Robertsville, so they won’t have to cross Oak Ridge Turnpike. These changes address the most hazardous situations in which children were being asked to walk. I’m also relieved that there is now a “school zone” speed limit on Illinois Avenue near Robertsville Road, but that intersection is still a treacherous one (as Trina has frequently pointed out). If there are particular issues in other areas, I hope that parents are telling school officials about them.
However, instead of protecting kids by putting them in buses, my personal long-term vision for the city includes making it walkable and bikeable — for our kids and for all of us.
By coincidence a few days before this accident I noticed announcements of other Tennessee communities’ receiving grants for “Safe Routes to School” measures, and I inquired if Oak Ridge had applied. (We had not done so. These grants are available to municipalities, schools, PTAs, etc. City and school system staff say there will be an application this year.)
In skimming online information about the “Safe Routes to School” initiative, I was chagrined to see that several of the “what’s wrong with this picture” situations could have been illustrated by photos in Oak Ridge (for example, photo on the right, which was captioned “Elementary school children should not have to walk across wide, complex intersections like these for their school commute” on the Tools to Reduce Crossing Distances for Pedestrians page.) See What’s Wrong With This Picture for more photos that could be from Oak Ridge, such as cars parked on the sidewalk and bushes overgrowing the sidewalk. The bottom line is that there are many opportunities for improvement here in Oak Ridge!
Regardless of physical infrastructure challenges, the Safe Routes to School folks recommend education as the primary ingredient of a Safe Routes to School program (see http://www.saferoutesinfo.org/guide/education/index.cfm). In the aftermath of Ashley’s accident, I think that our schools should be taking near-term measures to help our kids learn to be safer pedestrians, both to reduce the possibility of future tragedies and to help restore kids’ feelings of self-confidence and personal well-being that have doubtless been undermined by this incident. I know that the “safety city” activities have been successful here (however, I don’t know if they are still happening) in teaching kindergarteners the basics of pedestrian safety, but kids need to learn to deal with increasingly more complex situations as they get older and become more independent, and our schools no longer have programs like the safety patrol that instilled safe behavior in so many of us when we were kids. I am pleased to hear that the Police Dept. school resource officer is helping to conduct school assemblies and other programs to coach kids on safe pedestrian behavior (it seems to me this should include what might be called “defensive walking” and “defensive biking”).
Another Safe Routes to School recommendation is to map “safe routes” for kids. A “good example” on the Safe Routes to School websites tells that “The city of Phoenix, Arizona, works with parents and schools to create Safest Routes to School Maps. The maps are used to show parents and students the recommended walking routes and crossing locations for students living within the walking attendance boundary. The maps help city officials identify priorities for sidewalk repair. If the missing sidewalk has been included in a walking path on the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) walking plan, the city builds the missing segments. Through this process, several miles of missing sidewalk segments have been built.” I would like to see Oak Ridgers create “safest route to school” maps to help parents and kids, inject some reality into the school system’s walk zone lists, and help identify and prioritize needed improvements to sidewalks and intersections, at the same time that we start to implement the many additional excellent suggestions that are being compiled by residents and city officials.
On Thursday the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission unanimously approved rezoning for that proposed hotel on the edge of Woodland (see my earlier comments at http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=53), along with several variances, including some reductions in required setbacks from adjacent properties.
City Council will soon hear the proposal to rezone the property (from single-family residential to office, with a PUD) and amend the city’s land use plan to change this site’s designation from residential to commercial. Unlike conventional zoning, approval of a PUD means that the City is approving not only the land use but also a specific development plan, including building placement, parking lot layout, etc. The proposed development would also require City Council approval of driveway access to South Illinois Avenue (right now, the property has access from Potomac Circle, but if the development proposal is approved, that access would be closed). I expect that the Traffic Safety Advisory Board will review the proposal for driveway access before it is presented to City Council.
No Woodland residents spoke up at this Planning Commission meeting, causing newspaper reporters to conclude that the neighbors have withdrawn their opposition. However, the residents I talked with after the meeting say that they are still opposed. They figured that the Planning Commissioners had already made up their minds, so they decided to save their breath for the upcoming City Council meetings on this matter.
I have seen the site drawings, but I have not heard the staff’s and developer’s explanations of the current proposal, and I have not yet had a chance to ask questions. Thus, I still don’t have all of the information I need on this proposal, so my opinions are preliminary.
I believe there is a market for another hotel in Oak Ridge, and I am pleased to see the efforts that this developer has made to accommodate neighborhood concerns, but I have some serious misgivings about the proposal. Fundamentally, the property is not quite big enough for a hotel, so the building and parking areas would be located very close to the neighboring residential properties — too close for my tastes. Indeed, there would be no setback between the parking lot and one of the lot lines, placing the edge of the parking lot just a few feet away from the house next door on Potomac Circle. The hotel would sit farther away from the lot line by the other next-door neighbor house, but that single-story house could be dwarfed by the three-story hotel.
I wonder about construction impacts on the neighborhood, too. Given the small size of the lot relative to the footprint of the building, it is not obvious to me that there is enough space onsite for “laydown” of equipment and materials, and I want to know how construction access and parking would be controlled to limit adverse effects on the residential neighborhood.
Finally, I’m bothered by the proposed highway access — and the precedent it could create for other developers who might seek to build nearby. Traffic flow on South Illinois Avenue has been slowed in recent years by the proliferation of new businesses and their accompanying curb cuts and stoplights, and addition of more left-turning traffic on a wide street would further impede traffic flow and add new safety hazards. Although this curb cut would be directly across from the Outback Steakhouse driveway, it would add to the complexity of an already difficult stretch of road.
It’s “wait and see” time on this proposal. If I had to vote on this tomorrow without additional information, I would have to oppose it, but I have not heard the whole story yet.
The City has received word that ALDI is backing out of the deal to build a store in Oak Ridge, because of “numerous site issues and approvals that did not meet the corporate office approval process.
This is both a disappointment (a new grocery store on the east side would have been a very positive addition to the Oak Ridge retail scene) and a relief (I expect this news will help the neighbors sleep peacefully).
“Next time,” I hope that site-related challenges like those that arose with site drainage and access will be made evident early in the siting process, so that prospective developers can plan around them. Similarly, I hope that clear and accurate project information can be communicated to the community, so that city boards that need to issue approvals will not have misconceptions about the project.
Thursday’s Planning Commission discussion of ALDI dealt with an almost completely different collection of issues…
Since (as noted in the previous post) this property is already zoned for this use, the planning commission’s focus is on (1) meeting the extensive design criteria in the zoning ordinance and (2) finding ways to ensure that the development is as compatible with the existing neighborhood as is practicable.
Water. Neighborhood residents say that this parcel of land was considered greenbelt at one time, because it is the destination for drainage from a large area of northeast Oak Ridge. That history is no longer relevant, since the land is privately owned and zoned for business. However, nearby residents say there is standing water in the area (and on nearby streets and in their yards) after a heavy rain.
There’s a stream (actually a large ditch, but it’s large) running west-to-east across the site. To develop the new store, the stream would be replaced with a closed culvert. The USGS/TVA topo map shows this as a blue-line stream, but at Thursday’s meeting Steve Byrd said that the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation told him the agency does not classify it as a regulated water body. Thus, there are no legal restrictions on putting it in a culvert. However, culvert size and placement could be problematic. Neighbors say that the culvert under the nearby Sonic property (upstream from this property) is above the level of the ditch that is supposed to flow into it. I’ve seen that in other parts of town — basically, the stream has eroded down below the level of the culvert, so the culvert no longer functions the way it’s supposed to. This probably has something to do with the flooding reported by the neighbors. Byrd correctly pointed out that the ALDI development would not affect the situation upstream from Sonic, but I don’t think the city is justified in ignoring that kind of problem when it is brought to city staff’s attention.
Downstream, water from this site flows to Ernie’s Creek, which has a fairly straightforward course eastward to Melton Hill Lake. I’m not aware of any flooding issues on Ernie’s Creek that this development could worsen, but I could be wrong…
Screening between residences and store. Development plans call for a 20-ft-wide landscaped buffer (that is, a strip planted with trees) to provide a visual barrier between the backyards of homes. Neighbors asked for more evergreens than are shown in the original proposal, to ensure that the screening will be effective year-round. (Excellent point!)
Also, residents are concerned that the store and its parking lot may lead people to trespass in their yards (their yards now back up on an undeveloped wooded area, but that’s the area where ALDI wants to build the store). If I lived there, I would want a fence to ensure separation between the store lot and my backyard. The city landscaping standards call for either a vegetated buffers strip or a fence to screen between adjoining uses, not both. I think a fence is needed for physical security, in addition to the visual screening. I hope the developer will agree to provide a fence, even if city code does not require it.
Size of parking lot. Several people who have looked at the ALDI plans say that the parking lot seems too big. At 93 spaces, it’s about 36% larger than the city would require. Bob Walker, the developer’s engineer, says ALDI wants the extra space, which makes me wonder if they are expecting more customers than they have asked the city to plan for.
Sidewalk access to store. This one is mostly my issue. City ordinance says that if there is a sidewalk along a street adjacent to a new parking lot (for 100 cars or more), then pedestrian “connectivity from the entrance to the sidewalk should be provided.” This parking lot is slightly smaller than the ordinance specifies. However, this is a site abutting a residential neighborhood, and there are sidewalks on both Florida Avenue and Oak Ridge Turnpike. I think that the parking lot design should encourage people to walk to and from the business, by providing a sidewalk from Florida Avenue to the store. Walker was resistant to that idea, saying that ALDI sells in large quantities (like Sam’s Club), so people would not be able to shop there on foot. I’m skeptical of that. The ads for weekly specials on Aldi’s website do indicate that the store carries some large nonfood items (like Sam’s Club) and sells some items, such as frozen meat, in fairly large quantities, but the ads also show standard-sized items, such as single boxes of cereal. If this is going to be placed in a residential neighborhood, the neighbors should expect to be able to walk to it.
Loading dock placement. This is more of an issue for planning commission members than for neighbors. Because neighbors of the supermarket (currently Food City) in the Manhattan Place shopping center have complained over the years about noise from dumpsters and from delivery trucks that arrive at all hours of the night, the ALDI designers have worked to shield residents from the loading process by placing the loading dock on the side of the building facing Oak Ridge Turnpike. Some planning commissioners worry about the view motorists will see… I understand that concern, but I think the proposed placement on the “front” of the store probably will work out fine, particularly with the landscaping that the developer is promising…
ALDI (which I discussed in this earlier blog post) was discussed at two city board meetings that I attended this week. (The Oak Ridger has reported on the second of these meetings, Thursday’s Planning Commission work session.) I’ve learned a lot more about the proposal and the issues involved in its siting.
I have learned that the site proposed for the ALDI grocery store is zoned UB-2, which is a business zone that is suitable for this type of business. Thus, Oak Ridge city government bodies have no zoning decisions to make regarding this project. The City Council will, however, be asked to approve vehicle accesses to the site from Oak Ridge Turnpike and Florida Ave. (Note that the City cannot deny access to a highway from a legal lot that fronts on that highway; city government can only weigh in on the location and configuration of that access.) Before that Council action happens, the Planning Commission will be asked to approve a site plan, which includes specifications for things like setbacks from property lines, onsite traffic patterns, parking lot configuration, and landscaping.
Tuesday evening the Traffic Safety Advisory Board (a volunteer city advisory group whose meeting I had not attended previously) reviewed — and tentatively recommended approval for — the traffic access plan for the ALDI project. With a project engineer (Bob Walker of ETE Engineering) who lives in Anderson County and works in an office on the turnpike in east Oak Ridge, several TSAB members who live in northeast Oak Ridge, and a couple of neighborhood residents in attendance, the somewhat rambling discussion at this meeting produced a lot of insights on how people get from one point to another in east Oak Ridge.
The access plan calls for the main store entrance on Florida Avenue, where about 75% (estimated) of the customer traffic would occur and where semi-trailer trucks would enter to make nighttime deliveries. There would be no median cut on Oak Ridge Tpke. in front of the store, but vehicles could make right turns into and out of the parking lot at a new entrance/exit to built there. (Also, trucks would exit there on their way back to Nashville.)
Although the layout for the Sonic drive-in west of the site includes a provision for a frontage road to provide access to this site, city engineer Steve Byrd recommended against using that because the Sonic entrance could not safely accommodate a big traffic increase without a new traffic light, but he says there would not be a large enough influx of new traffic influx to meet TDOT “warrants” for a new traffic light at that location. (Also, it appeared to me — and Steve Byrd agreed — that the frontage road access might not be configured properly to allow a semi-trailer to turn in and out.) Byrd said it would be much safer to send most vehicles to the stoplight at the Florida Ave. intersection, where there is a stoplight, but no protected left turn. Although as a rule I like the idea of frontage roads in lieu of curb cuts, in this instance I must admit that Byrd is giving wise advice…
Nearby residents understandably don’t like the idea of new traffic, especially semi-trailer trucks, on Florida Ave. (I was particularly concerned to hear that the stop line at the intersection might need to be pulled back 10 ft to accommodate turning trucks.) Also, they are concerned that many people traveling to this store from the west would avoid turning left onto Florida Avenue (what Byrd and Walker assumed they would do) by traveling on Tennessee Avenue (or a smaller residential street) to a right turn on Florida Ave. Several TSAB members agreed with this opinion, and also pointed out that it often is difficult to turn left from Oak Ridge Tpke to Florida Ave.
After much discussion, TSAB voted to recommend the proposed access plan as a safe option for providing access to the proposed development, but some members had reservations, mostly related to effects on Florida Avenue.
Having observed the meeting, I will be interested in seeing how this recommendation is presented to City Council; I hope that Council receives a report that describes the board’s reasoning and concerns in addition to the final vote. However, past observations lead me to guess that Council will get filtered information that does not include much detail, if any.
I was surprised to hear that the ALDI company estimates that the new grocery store would have a total of only 400 vehicle trips per day (meaning just 200 customers a day), especially considering that they plan a 93-space parking lot, when Oak Ridge’s zoning code requires only 68 spaces for a store of the size they plan. It seems likely that the daily customer volume, and thus traffic impacts, would be larger than is currently being projected. That observation and the discussion at the TSAB meeting leave me thinking that the city does not yet have a good handle on how this new store could affect Florida Avenue. Also, after studying the site plan, I think the city could ask that semi-trailers enter and exit the property from Oak Ridge Turnpike (right turn in and right turn out), instead of using Florida Ave.
[To be continued -- this post is long enough already]
An article in today’s newspaper reports that a company called ALDI, Inc. wants to build a grocery store on Oak Ridge Turnpike.
ALDI does not currently have any locations in the Knoxville metro area, but the ALDI company website and the Wikipedia article on ALDI have a lot of information about this business.
It appears to be different from anything currently in the Oak Ridge market. It calls itself a discount grocery store and has smallish stores (a 17,000-square-foot store is proposed for Oak Ridge) with limited hours. It seems that many of us thought “sounds like United Grocery Outlet” when we read about the proposal, but the two companies’ business formulas appear to be very different. UGO occupies existing storefronts and describes itself as a “closeout grocery merchant … [that] specialize[s] in handling inventory imbalances, closeouts, packaging changes, close dated product, factory seconds, and trial run products.” On the other hand, ALDI appears to prefer purpose-built stores (see image) 
and specializes in selling quality private-label groceries.
ALDI is a European company with some European-style approaches to “no-frills” supermarket operation — you need to deposit a quarter in a slot in order to get a shopping cart (the money is returned when the cart is returned) and they charge for grocery bags. They also carry some European gourmet-type items in their stores, although there’s less high-end merchandise than in the Trader Joe’s chain (not found in Tennessee), which apparently belongs to the same family that established ALDI.
Although I’d like a Trader Joe’s better (I’ve enjoyed shopping at Trader Joe’s in other cities), ALDI seems to be a business that would fill a vacant niche for Oak Ridge. It would particularly benefit those east-side residents who mourn the loss of the east-side Food City, including many folks who could walk to this new store.
However, the proposed site is undeveloped land (most of it already zoned commercial) that backs up to a residential neighborhood where people are concerned about inadequate screening of the noise and light from the nearby drive-in restaurant. Loading docks and grocery supply trucks would not be a welcome addition to the neighborhood…
The votes are in (full returns are on the Election Commission website) and I’m elected to City Council. The news media have, of course, reported the story (see The Oak Ridger and the News Sentinel) and I’m tickled to see that some fellow bloggers have offered their enthusiastic congratulations (see The Crone Speaks), positive thoughts on my election and their hopes for the future (see Atomictumor), or at least best wishes on the difficult job ahead (see Manland). Citizens Oak Ridge, Democracy for East Tennessee, and even the statewide Democracy for Tennessee also have reported enthusiastically on the election results. Unfortunately, my digestive tract started acting up the morning after the election and was “not right” for much of the time since, so I spent some time and energy on feeling sick that I otherwise might have spent posting here.
The three new City Council members (Tom Hayes, Charlie Hensley, and myself) will be sworn in Tuesday afternoon at 4 pm, so until then I guess we’re still civilians.
There’s still time, then, for some reflections on the election before buckling down to the challenges of the new job…
There’s no denying that it’s exciting to have won the election, and also to have prevailed in the referendum on Crestpointe, but easily the best part of this election campaign was the people. It’s humbling to reflect on the idea that 3,177 people voted for me (I must not forget that this was just 49.5% — less than half — of the 6,414 Oak Ridgers who voted in this election), but even more humbling to remember that many of those people helped with the campaign — by donating money, hosting “meet the candidate(s)” events, telling their friends about me, mailing postcards, walking door to door, processing voter data, phoning voters to help “get out the vote,” displaying yard signs (or vehicle signs or bumperstickers), talking with voters at precincts on election day, or helping with the campaign open house or election night party. “Grassroots” politics is about meeting individual people and connecting with them one-on-one. I’ve met some fascinating people here in Oak Ridge and made some new friends whom I hope to keep as friends for a lifetime (meaning I had better work hard to do the right thing as a Council member!). It was very special to be able to celebrate “victory” on election night with so many of the people whose hard work helped elect me and helped the “no” side prevail in the referendum. It feels good to know that we all played a part in lifting city election turnout to well above 30%. Now we will need to work together as a community (including City Council, other public officials, and concerned citizens of every viewpoint) to find and implement solutions to city problems that will get broad public support. (It’s not going to be easy.)
Some of the most important people associated with this election were the other candidates. (We spent a lot of time together over the 6 weeks leading up to election day….) I’m looking forward to becoming better acquainted with Tom Hayes (whose #1 tally of 3,644 votes — 56.8% of the voters — provides testimony to the respect he has earned in 41 years as a teacher, coach, and principal) and Charlie Hensley (with whom I know I share many values and priorities, although we disagreed on some key issues in this election campaign).
It’s probably unfortunate for the city that only 3 could be elected, because there was a lot more talent in the candidate pool. The 4th-place finisher, the gentlemanly Ray Evans, always impresses me with his intelligence and insight, which he displayed throughout this election season. I know we’ll continue to see those qualities expressed in his participation in local civic affairs and real estate development projects. It’s remarkable that Fred Childress (who had lived in Oak Ridge less than a year) ended up just 93 votes behind Ray (a long-time resident and former City Council member) in the vote tally. Like me, Fred picked up some votes from people who were mainly interested in expressing their opposition to public funding for Crestpointe. However, it’s clear from the results that this was not solely a single-issue election, and I believe that Fred’s showing demonstrates that he had made a powerful positive impression on many of us with his knowledge of economic and policy issues and his forthright commitment to “transparency” and “reason.” I hope that both the City and I will continue our new acquaintance with Fred, to everyone’s benefit. I believe that Jerry Marrow, who did not campaign vigorously (he did not even have yard signs), contributed importantly to the outcome of the election by being on the ballot and helping to give “no Crestpointe” single-issue voters an opportunity to support a full slate of three candidates for Council (he won support from more than one out of six voters). In public forums I enjoyed hearing Jerry make effective use of metaphors and imagery to illustrate his points, particularly about the need for action to bring in more basic industrial jobs. I expect we will see more of him as a public speaker and civic volunteer — and if he decides to run again, I predict that he will use yard signs. I was surprised by the low vote total for Ella Hawkins DuBose. I guess that because she remained neutral on Crestpointe until the final days of the election process, she failed to get votes from single-issue voters on either side of the issue. However, her care for both people and community, together with her awareness of public issues and solutions nationally and around the country, showed through in public forums and conversations. I know she has a powerful combination of talents to share with us all, now and in the future.
