letterstotheeditor
Mayor Ron Williams’ part 2 letter on development: gov’t sector
Last week, I wrote about positive changes that are happening in Farragut in regard to commercial development and redevelopment. But our municipal government is also busy with several projects that will add value to our community.
Earlier this year, a viewing area was constructed at the Farragut Museum to showcase a new history documentary commissioned by our Museum Committee. Now that the exterior of the Campbell Station Inn has been restored, work will soon begin on the park-like plaza surrounding the house.
The former First Lutheran Church is being transformed into a Farragut community center and a West Knox County Senior Center. Construction will soon begin on an expanded restroom and plaza and ADA access to the diamond and recreational fields at Anchor Park.
We have a permanent stage going in at Founders Park, and a design plan was recently approved for the McFee Park expansion, which will benefit kids for generations to come. We hope to have a plan in place soon for the resurfacing of the wall on Campbell Station Road.
Our new tourism/visitor program is paving the way for more “heads in beds,” customers in our restaurants and shoppers in our stores. The effort to attract more area visitors will produce an increase in sales tax, which will support the long-term vision of no Town of Farragut property tax.
Our paving program, road improvements and stormwater system improvements show that we are listening to concerns about infrastructure needs.
We have plans in place for traffic calming in neighborhoods and raised crosswalks in critical school zones. We have grant money allocated to replace our traffic light system and upgrade our crosswalks to be ADA-compliant.
The new traffic system will allow us to “see” back-ups and stage lights properly to keep traffic moving. We are again pushing the TPO/TDOT for grant funding to improve the Campbell Station Road interstate exit. The vision is to widen the road under the overpass to allow for five lanes and a sidewalk with ADA-compliant crosswalks.
There also has been discussion on extending West Snyder Road corridor to attract more commercial businesses. The sidewalk on Virtue Road will be extended across the former Harville farm and become a walking trail along the creek to the old mill/trading post site, and a new sidewalk along Smith Road/Andover subdivision will link into the Grigsby Chapel greenway.
These are two of the missing links that need to be made to eventually allow pedestrians to safely walk and bike all the way around Farragut.
There is a lot going on, but the Town is now fully staffed, which improves our level of service across the board. We’ve also had key replacements on the Board of Mayor and Alderman, Planning Commission, Visual Resource Review Board and the Board of Zoning Appeals.
This mayor subscribes to the approach of building a staff with good people and great volunteers who don’t care who gets credit for the team’s accomplishments.
I hope everyone is as proud as I am of the
Town’s current projects. It’s an exciting time to live in Farragut!
