The following letter is being sent to Knox Co Mayor by Knox Co Commission candidate Don Wiser. Wiser is running for the 8th district position. Election Day is August 4, 2016 Early Voting from 7/15 through 7/30, 2016. There’s no reason to be Wright when you can be Wiser.
May 16, 2016
Open letter to Mayor Tim Burchett:
Tim, I am writing this open letter to the Tim Burchett that I first came to know at his Lorraine Street mulch pile; the State Representative and Senator who told a Governor “You forgot what you promised the people, but I haven’t.”
I am not writing the person that has become Courthouse-alized. I am thanking the former Tim for the new Gibbs Middle School. However, that project is only half-done. The intersecting streets at Harbison Crossroads need to be widened to four lanes in all four directions, for at least a mile. Poor road yet engineering is a major cause of accidents, and the waiting periods that 8th District drivers must endure in over-crowded, undersized streets can lead to more accidents or even road rage.
It is time someone stood up for the children of the 8th District whose parents have to use these roads to get to and from school. Under the current term-limited County Commissioner, thousands of our children are forced to ride school buses up to forty miles a day. Instead of pushing for road improvements, the term-limited Commissioner bent over backwards to provide for nonessential County personnel to get brand new, Knox County-owned SUVs—they’re even allowed to use them as personal vehicles, with take-home privileges. And they’re doing this with tax payers picking up the tab for their gas.
After serving a first term starting in 2008, he voted for a change to the Knox County Charter that defined terms being 4-years in length. That was in 2010, but ironically, he then took a second term—of 6 years, not 4 the very same year. This term-limited Commissioner’s ignorance of the Sunshine Law and the Charter is alarming. However, its his arrogance toward the will of the people that is so appalling. Isn’t it a good thing he’s term-limited, so yet another establishment RINO will be leaving office? I’m being sarcastic here, of course. But as Bob Toole, the “Coal Daddy” would say “The poor ol thing couldn’t help himself.”
Tim, I am appealing to the person I knew as the son of CB and wonderful Mrs. Burchett to do right for the children of the 8th District. Take the money from the sale of the original building site (around $350,000) cut the fat from the budget (How many vehicles does Knox County government need?). And sell the many new County-owned SUVs that nonessential personnel are driving to and from their homes, using tax payer-provided gas, and cut the budget across the board. Use these funds to four-lane Tazewell Pike and Emory Road a mile each in all four directions from Harbison Crossroads. This would just amount to four miles.
The schools in Gibbs are the only ones with two lane roads with the same turning lane for both schools. Our community is East, with two lane pikes (Tazewell, Washington, Millertown, and Thorngrove) to serve our community. I drove down Middlebrook Pike just the other day, from Wright’s Cafeteria to Lovell Road. I thought to myself how easy it was for you, Tim, to go home on these wide roads, compared to the difficulty so many of us have to deal with because Washington and Tazewell Pikes more closely resemble parking lots than streets. Sometimes we have to wait up to 30 minutes to travel just a few yards.
The spin that the current, term-limited Commissioner and the Knox County Law Director are using might serve their political goals well, but our children—and those driving them to and from school–deserve safe and efficient roads. To better see what those of us in the 8th District are dealing with twice a day during the school year, I want to invite you to come out here and ride these roads with me—just the two of us. You, your momma and daddy always treated me like another child. I miss your parents and think of them all the time, and I especially miss your mother’s peanut brittle and CB’s chair!), so I’m hoping you’ll take me up on this offer. I—and many, many of my friends and neighbors up here, would greatly appreciate it.
Sincerely,
DW
