CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Ashlee Evans, City Council member for Ward 11, announced Thursday that she will resign her seat in February.
Evans made her announcement at the council’s December executive session. She told colleagues that her partner, Brandon Neff, has received PCS orders and will be attending jump school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Evans’ last meeting will be a regular session on Feb 3.
Evans was elected to the Ward 11 seat in November 2020, defeating both Jimmy Brown and the incumbent Gary Norris. She was widely considered an underdog in the race. In her time on council, Evans has taken a particular interest in the city’s Human Relations Commission as well as various social issues.
“I feel like I’ve done a lot for my year in the chair. I think I’ve done a lot with what I had. The advice that I got when I first got into my chair as to get to know people and make connections, but that’s not really what I did. I just went head first and reared myself into whatever I knew that I could fix in a sensible amount of time,” Evans told Clarksville Now.
Evans said she and Neff had hoped to remain at Fort Campbell but were unable to do so.
Ward 11 covered a stretch of land mostly across St. Bethlehem from the Trenton Road area to Memorial Drive. Those boundaries will change starting Monday, with the new Ward 11 covering St. B, bounded roughly by Trenton Road, Interstate 24 and Dunbar Cave Road.
Evans said she hopes whoever succeeds her as the representative for Ward 11 will continue her advocacy for issues of equity in Clarksville.
“I’d like to see them push for equitable policy on a local level. A lot of people say that a lot of issues are federal, and they are, but there are a lot of issues that can be solved by our local officials,” Evans said. “Just keeping the push. I’d be really torn up if somebody from the establishment took my seat.
Correction: Ashlee Evans clarified that she meant Neff would be attending jump school before heading to Fort Bragg.