Where Were Your Elected Officials?

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Residents be aware that Thursday night 4/7/2011 a meeting was held in the court house with the sole objective of attracting new business and jobs to Cannon County. This meeting was open to the public and had been advertised in the Courier at least twice. Senator Mae Beavers and representative Mark Pody were invited along with local government and business leaders. Both Mae and Mark attended along with Don Rigsby from the Tennessee Economical Development Office and Beth Cope from US Representative Diane Black’s Murfreesboro office.

It was disappointing to say the least and a slap in the face of the citizens of Cannon County at the apathy and turn out of our local government and business leaders.  In fact only two of our ten county commissioners, Tony Neal and Russell Reed chose to attend.  If my memory serves me correctly only one member of the Chamber of Commerce attended, Carolyn Motley and no one from banking or real estate whatsoever. I cannot imagine what could be more important in the minds of the missing officials than jobs and industry for Cannon County.  Russell’s comment prior to leaving at the end of the meeting was most appropriate. I have tried to quote him to the best of my recollection “If you don’t like who participated tonight then you should show up at the polls next election”.

As I watched the proceedings unfold it was obvious that both the city and county representatives were uneasy with their comments which took the form mostly of generalities rather than anything concrete that was in process or planned for the future. There was the potential for the THC Corporation to increase their workforce in the future when their lease was up in another state. One specific comment made by the mayor indicated he was a friend of someone who worked for a company in Calif. and that the company was looking to locate the business to either Cannon County or China. I would like to think this could become reality, however; no details were provided and the comment seemed nonchalant. When Mike Gannon was asked by a young lady about what plans were on the books to entice business I, as well as the majority of the audience was unable to detect anything significant forthcoming from his answer.

Overall there seems to be a total lack of concern for the welfare of the citizens and constituents of Cannon County. No urgency! Each of us deserve better from our elected officials and business leaders. Our leaders need to perk up their low level initiative and get serious about recruiting industry and jobs for our county. If our elected officials and business leaders don’t stop pulling in different directions and being so concerned about political affiliation and the good old buddy system and start working together as a team with ALL our citizens, there will be no new industry and the remaining businesses in our county will be in trouble.  

James W. Hill III
Woodbury, Tn 37190
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Members Opinions:
April 11, 2011 at 4:29pm
I have to weigh in because I was asking the same question regarding the county commissioners. I know for fact that I appreciated seeing Commissioners Russell Reed and Tony Neal at the meeting. I also spoke to Commissioner Mark Barker and sadly discovered that he experienced a lost in the family which required that he be elsewhere. I also believe that Commissioner Todd Hollingsworth works as the evening shift supervisor for the ambulanced service and would have had a conflict of time and I also know that Commissioner Clint Higgins works for UPS and gets home in the evening well after the meeting started. It was a good meeting and I personally learned much. Hopefully the organizers will make an effort to share the events of the evening with those commissioners that had a legitimate excuse not to attend. As for the others --- Well, where were you?
April 11, 2011 at 5:12pm
Can we please attract some new restaurants. I am tired of the same old junk. A taco bell, burger king, anything!!
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April 11, 2011 at 5:24pm

Commissioner Reed was misquoted in the letter to the editor. His qoute should have been, "Maybe we have some boards and committees that are not ready to bring in new business or jobs. Maybe we need to replace some members on these boards and committees to get a new box to think out of."
April 11, 2011 at 6:16pm
We don't need any more fast food restaurant we have quality in DJ's , Scoreboard and Chilangos bring quality not franchises....
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April 12, 2011 at 10:22am
People shouldn't jump to conclusions that the other commissioners were not concerned. I personally was at another meeting which had been set for a month. Sorry, could not be two places at one time.
Bob Stoetzel
5th District Commissioner
April 13, 2011 at 2:25pm
Now that elections are over. Let's see what the future will bring from those individuals that have been newly elected. Things that make you go hummmmmmmmm.~
April 13, 2011 at 11:44pm
Here is the link to view much of the discussions that took place at the Economic & Business Forum held at the Cannon County Court House on April 7th at 6 pm. Our Republican Party Officers did a fine job presenting this event. Special thanks to Jim Gibbs for his time and talents filming and uploading the contents to this site so that other citizens may be informed about ongoing efforts to bring jobs & enterprise to Cannon County. Special thanks to Senator Mae Beavers, Representative Mark Pody, County Exec. Mike Gannon Mayor Harold Patrick and others, for attending and sharing their views and insight.

http://vimeo.com/22294115

Matt Studd
April 14, 2011 at 9:23pm
Hey it's Cannon County what do you really expect??
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