After 34 years, St. Clair steps down at FMPC
A simple “It’s time” was Farragut Municipal’s Planning Commission vice chairman Ed St. Clair’s response to his retirement announcement.
After 34 years serving the Town, Farragut officials honored St. Clair with a reception before FMPC’s meeting in Farragut Community Center Thursday, Nov. 21.
“I kind of thought about one of my heroes in Farragut, John Ward (former “Voice of the UT Vols”), and the time he came to recognition (for retirement), and he said, ‘It’s time.’
“And after this many years, I figured it’s time,” St. Clair said. “The Town is on a good course. There’s not much left to do … we got regulations, we’ve got subdivisions in and commercial development. Things are good.”
He also has been a consultant for fire prevention with nuclear energy and uranium enrichment.
Reflecting on the Town, the retiring vice chair foresaw challenges, such as: “there’re still some parcels. I’m sure things will come up, such as the Ford property, and continuing with the vision for the Town Center.
“But, there’re not a lot of new things,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of tremendous subdivisions, dealing with the infrastructure, see how it goes with the new traffic signalization.
“It doesn’t take much to understand how good Farragut is and what it could have been if it was just Knox County.”
St. Clair started his terms on FMPC in January 1991.
“We’re losing 34 years of knowledge,” Farragut Mayor Ron Williams said. “But, by gaining Louise (Povlin, former FMPC member and vice mayor), we’re pretty close to being back.
“We will miss Ed, but he has other things,” Williams added. “He’s kind of like Rita (Holladay, former FMPC chairman) who retired who has other things he wants to do, so the timing’s perfect.”
“He has a huge, huge history,” Holladay said of St. Clair. “And, he remembers why things were done 30 years ago.
“That knowledge is going to be really missed,” she added. “But, he said he’s around (so) he can answer questions if anybody has any. Anytime we had a question about something that was done 20 or 30 years ago, he had the answer why it was done.”
“I want to thank Ed St. Clair for his more than 30 years on (FMPC),” said Povlin, re-appointed during this meeting. Thursday.
