To The Citizens of Loudon County
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Dear Loudon Countians: As August 1, 2002, rapidly approaches; I want to come directly to you and thank you for having confidence in me in the past in allowing me to serve as County Road Superintendent, and to ask for your support for re-election. As you may remember, I have lived every year of my life in Loudon County, and I think it is the greatest place in the world. I would like to think I helped make it that way because our system of roads is one of the best in the State of Tennessee. |
However it wasn�t always that way. I was a road builder for 20 years before I was elected, and I felt that I could
do a lot to help Loudon County because the county roads and the road department were in such bad shape.
When I was first elected, the machinery had to be repaired on the outside because large Machinery
would not fit in the garage. If you can imagine an old school building being used as a garage, that is what we had
to use in the beginning. I knew we needed a new garage, and although it took me several years we now have a state of the art maintenance garage in Blair
Bend Industrial Park.
My main purpose in the beginning was to get the people of Loudon County out of the dust and mud. At that time we
had 258 gravel roads. We started by grading, rocking and tar and chipping. It has taken a long time because of
the lack of funds, but after all of the roads were tarred and chipped we then set in to hot mix them all. Of particular note is the fact that we now have
more than 670 miles of road in Loudon County to maintain and I am proud to say all roads are paved at this time.
Also, in the beginning there weren�t any mowers to mow the right of ways, no backhoe to put in tile, no snowplows and salt spreaders, all of which we have now, as well as only seventeen employees, with which I have been able to maintain our excellent road system.
All of this is to say that having been in the road construction business most of my adult life, I have the knowledge of road building and the administrative ability to properly supervise and operate the department. There is still a lot of work to be done on the roads and with proper funding, I would like to start on a program of widening some of the narrowest roads, which would be a great help to the communities of this county.
I want to say to you that I would like to have the opportunity to continue to improve the Roads of Loudon County, and feel that I have demonstrated the experience and ability to do that.
It�s impossible to speak personally to each voter but hope that I have gained your confidence and trust, and I ask for your vote in the August election, and would welcome any calls.
Sincerely,
Don Palmer
