News

Two ‘no’ votes to FY Budget 1st read; greenway issue

Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen passed its 2025-2026 budget on first reading at its Thursday, June 12, meeting — but not without disagreement and confrontation.

After a lengthy discussion, ending in an argument over the Turkey Creek road improvement/greenway project, the Board voted 3-2 to pass the budget as presented.

Mayor Ron Williams, Vice Mayor Scott Meyer and Alderman Drew Burnett voted for the approval while Aldermen Alex Cain and David White voted against.

In the budget Town administrator David Smoak presented, $500,000 was allotted for the “Turkey Creek Road Multi-Modal Improvements” for 2026.

However, Cain made a motion to delete the funding for that project, which was seconded by White.

“Several months ago, residents of Brixworth subdivision, who were going to have some property negatively impacted by the Turkey Creek greenway (project) by removal of trees along Turkey Creek Road, asked me to come down and take a look at their property,” Cain said. “I walked in the backyard of some of these homes, behind the tree line, and what I saw, first of all, was a rocky 8.3-degree slope that’s currently hidden by the road by the trees.

“I’ve wondered how the design had gotten so poor that we were at that point,” Cain added, noting the resident provided the aldermen with some engineering drawings “that resembled ski jumps from the Olympics.

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Detailed reasons why Town of Farragut is state’s No. 5 ‘Best Place to Live’

from the Town

We all know the saying “You are the company you keep.” That’s why the Town of Farragut is proud to be named No. 5 in ConsumerAffairs’ Best Places to Live in Tennessee list.

Farragut follows Franklin, Collierville, Hendersonville and Brentwood in the ranking, and that’s some pretty good company. The only other East Tennessee municipality in the top ten is Maryville at No. 10.

ConsumerAffairs is a customer review platform that provides information for purchasing decisions around major life changes. To determine the best places to live in Tennessee, the research team analyzed the state’s 35 largest cities based on affordability, safety, economic strength, health care and education and quality of life.

According to ConsumerAffairs, here’s where Farragut stood out:

• Great safety: Farragut has the lowest property crime rate on our list (4.57 crimes per 1,000 people) and the second-lowest violent crime rate (0.82 crimes per 1,000 people). These numbers put Farragut in the No. 1 spot in the state for safety.

• Well-educated population: 65 percent of residents 25 and over have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

• Healthy economy: The city has a low unemployment rate (2.5 percent) and a low share of residents living below the poverty level (2.9 percent).

The data for the rankings came from a variety of sources. Crime data is from NeighborhoodScout.com, a comprehensive database of hyper-local real estate data.

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KCSO reports

• At 10:31 a.m., Friday, June 6, a Knox County Sheriff’s Office unit was dispatched to the area of 12400 Boyd Station Road in reference to an abandoned vehicle. Officer “arrived on scene and found a silver Jeep Wrangler bearing Tennessee registration ... off the roadway in a ditch near train tracks,” the report stated.

“It appeared that the vehicle was being driven off-road near the tracks before becoming stuck,” the report further stated. “The registered owner’s information was added due to no driver being on scene with the vehicle.” It was towed away.