letter to the editor
Happy 45th Birthday Farragut
Happy Birthday to the Town of Farragut! On Jan. 16, 2025, we celebrate 45 years of our Town’s existence. We celebrate this with Founder’s Week, the third week in January. Additionally, on the third Thursday of January, during Farragut’s Planning Commission meeting, we pause to honor Betty Dick, arguably the heart and soul behind the effort to establish our Town.
Our Town was established thanks to the monumental efforts of Betty Dick and a handful of bold residents who had spent a few years battling Knox County on zoning and planning issues. Our founders realized that if they did not act, our community’s residential character would not be protected as this area continued to grow. They did not want to see our portion of Kingston Pike turn into Clinton Highway or Chapman Highway.
Our Founders weren’t opposed to growth and development and they understood the limitations of private property rights; they just wanted planning to be done more thoughtfully. They wanted to establish higher standards for our roads and our transportation system, and they wanted a comprehensive plan to guide growth that protected our residential character.
They thought that all of this could be better accomplished by establishing our own local government with our own Planning Commission, where both bodies would be populated by residents.
As the Farragut area has grown, the founding principles of protecting, preserving and enhancing the Town’s residential character are more relevant than ever. The Founders wanted those principles to be the driving force behind all decisions. While they valued the conservative fiscal management of our community, they believed that by focusing on protecting, preserving and enhancing our residential character, our community would thrive and our financial position would improve from year to year as a result.
Forty-five years later, the Town of Farragut does indeed thrive. We have an incredible park system and an extensive sidewalk/greenway system, both of which we continue to maintain, add to and improve. We have a safe, connected transportation system, which continues to improve. We have well-maintained roads, right-of-ways and stormwater infrastructure, and we honor our past through preservation and memorializing efforts.
We have no debt; we pay as we go; and our financial position is outstanding. We accomplished all this because the Founders and early board members put into place a comprehensive plan based on public input to define our goals and guide our growth and subsequent Boards have built on those plans.
It is important to remain true to our founding principles to keep Farragut a unique and special place where individuals, families and businesses thrive.
Louise Povlin,
Former Farragut Vice Mayor
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