CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – To help give voters the information they need to make educated decisions on the Aug. 6 ballot, Clarksville Now is presenting Q&A articles on key issues in the Montgomery County sheriff’s and mayor’s races.
The candidates for county mayor are incumbent Wes Golden, Isaac Greenwood and Christine McNemar. The three candidates were provided the questions below, and asked to respond to each question in 100 words or less.
School funding
Question: What should be done to keep up with school funding needs, both for new school construction and operating costs?
Golden: We have been able to open and staff four schools in four years. With a lot of the revenue for schools coming from sales tax, focusing on commercial retail that will draw people from outside Montgomery County will help us plan and fund the future. Like Freedom Elementary School, we need to build schools closer to where the residents live. This helps with traffic, helps preserve farm land, and keeps our buses from driving past one school to get to another.
Greenwood: To start, we need to re-prioritize what we are currently spending money on. High-level administrative staff should not be paid multiple times more than the teachers doing the on-the-ground work. In addition, I think we should look at restructuring the adequate facilities tax to look at acreage/unit and whether or not it matches our development plan. Finally, I believe that we need to look into cost-saving technologies and processes, such as adding solar panels to the top of our school buildings to save on electricity costs.
McNemar: We have gained massive debts from bonds to build schools and complete capital projects. Schools and roads are great capital projects, but a large chunk of our spending has not been responsible. Unnecessary capital projects must be put on hold until we have the needs of our schools and roads met. We need to reevaluate that we are gaining fair tax revenue from larger corporations, such as the Google data center, and ensuring that their expansion will not prolong their PILOT, which would push out the timeline for them beginning to pay their fair taxes.
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Quality-of-life projects
Question: What is your stance on the planned Montgomery County Fairgrounds, the Greenway and other quality-of-life investments?
Golden: Investing in quality-of-life projects improves health, helps to recruit higher-paying jobs, and helps take care of the families of our soldiers. With the Fairgrounds, we are also investing in agricultural education for our future generations.
Greenwood: I think our economic situation here means we need to weigh our investments into entertainment and aesthetics very carefully. Improving our traffic flow would vastly improve quality of life, as would having housing be more affordable. It would also be a huge economic boon for the County through the decrease in logistical travel time and an increase in purchasing power by your average citizen. That said, I think environmental programs in specific tend to be worth the investment, as there are many positive impacts from them that are hard to directly quantify.
McNemar: I support projects that can improve quality of life, but not before necessities. Quality of life as it pertains to politicians may start here, but for the average resident, it starts with being able to stay alive on our roads, being able to fill a cart at the grocery store, keep our children safe, and being able to keep a roof over our heads. We must prioritize our time and attention directly into improving life for the average citizen first. A fairgrounds should not be prioritized in a county with a population of 250,000 before we have a 365 homeless shelter.
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Flooding prevention
Question: What should be done to prevent future flooding issues as Montgomery County grows?
Golden: Until now, the County has never been in the stormwater business. The residents in that area need assurances in the security in their homes and home values. A contractor has been hired, funds have been approved, and improvements have been designed to improve our stormwater system. Some residents in the Farmington area will start receiving notices about easements that need to be acquired to move forward.
Greenwood: We should not be treating the 100-year floods that are happening every five years as outliers. We should be preemptively building natural infrastructure solutions (such as the Greenway) to create a system of regenerative stormwater conveyance, and working to develop our own map of future flood-risk areas that can be used to make long-term decisions around new construction.
McNemar: We must undo as much of the reckless deforestation that has been allowed by local leaders, and we must hold developers accountable. We are a Middle Tennessee community built on top of caves, and our trees were not here to look pretty. Trees are a basic part of Tennessee’s ecological system, and their roots are needed to hold soil intact and absorb water at a rapid rate. We need to address proper drainage, but we also must start putting trees back into the ground to create a permanent plan of action to reverse new flood zones and stop the spread of sinkholes.
| MORE: Who’s on ballot for Montgomery County mayor, sheriff, commission, School Board
Other issues
Question: Is there another issue you would like to address?
Golden: We will continue to work with the State of Tennessee and the federal government to obtain funding for our infrastructure needs within our county. We will continue to grow our public safety departments to meet the needs of our community. We just broke ground on a Fire (Department) Headquarters and the first Sheriff’s Precinct outside the city limits.
Greenwood: My county-chartered cooperative model for affordable housing. This would be a local community-owned nonprofit that would be assisted by the county government, not controlled by it. It would benefit traditional single-family homeowners through a reduction of maintenance and other costs, education, and administrative assistance. Your average home owner would pay a membership fee to join that would be more than made up for by the maintenance cost reduction. The other main goal would be to provide alternative pathways into housing: through zero or limited equity housing and a rent-to-own program for those who cannot afford a traditional mortgage.
McNemar: A huge passion I have as a foster parent is to tackle the crisis of our youth. I’ve fostered teens in our community for four years, and have first-hand witnessed the massive gap of employment opportunity, recreational activities, affordable driver’s education, and mental health access. Addressing these issues would dramatically reduce our local drug rates, crime rates, economy, teen pregnancy rates, suicide rates, homelessness rates, and our intense DCS recidivism rates, with results that can begin to reflect within only a short time.
What happens next in Clarksville-Montgomery County elections?
Aug. 6 election: The county general election. In addition, it will be the state primary, with governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House and all three state House races on the ballot. Early voting begins July 17.
| MORE: Who’s on ballot for City of Clarksville mayor, City Council elections?
Nov. 3 election: In addition to Nov. 3 being the state general election, it will also be the City of Clarksville general election, with the mayor and half the City Council seats on the ballot. Early voting begins Oct. 14.
For more information on voting, including registering to vote, go to the Montgomery County Election Commission website, visit their office at 350 Pageant Lane, Suite 404, email vote@mcgtn.net or call 931-648-5707.