City Council Hosts Leadership Lewis Class

by Amanda Curtis

Staff Reporter

The City Council met in regular session, April 4, 2023. City Mayor Danny McKnight, Vice Mayor Don Barber, and Councilmen Scotty Bass, and Cody Mitchell were in attendance. Councilman Kevin King was absent.

The floor was opened to public input, at which time City Council candidate Susan Hensley, and members of the 2023 Leadership Lewis class took the floor to introduce themselves, and as they do each year, Leadership Lewis attendees asked the questions brought before the council.

Q: What do you enjoy most about being on the city council?

A: Cody Mitchell: “I personally enjoy working for the citizens of Hohenwald. It’s a big commitment, and the decisions made here can affect every citizen of our city. I enjoy being able to do that.”

A: Danny McKnight: “I have always wanted to be in this position. I enjoy making things better, and I believe we’ve made some positive changes in the last eight years. We are employees of the people of this community, and every four years, we have to account for what we’ve done and hopefully get a chance to continue the progress.”

Q: Is there anything in the process at this time to upgrade the water and sewer systems to accommodate the city’s growth?

A: Don Barber: “With the rude awakening we had at Christmas, we’ve been actively working on it. We’re in the process of and have on the agenda to accomplish this year, the revitalizing of our well on Swan Avenue. And, although it will be very expensive, we will have to have, within the next four years, a new water tank and another source. We are extremely blessed to be one of the very few communities in Tennessee to be on well water. Our water is generally so pure that if we didn’t have to put it through these lines, we wouldn’t need treatment. Our sewer plant is one of the few state of the art irrigation systems. We’ve got about 700 acres on Highway 48 where all our treated water goes. With the growth of our community, we’re in the process, already, of doing some greatly expensive upgrades to our infrastructure.”

A: Danny McKnight: “To add to that. We didn’t do the best job keeping everyone informed of the work we were doing during that time (holidays). But, during that emergency situation, everyone did a tremendous job getting the issues fixed in a timely manner. A lot of the communities around us, including TVA, had the same problems we did, and we were up and running with solutions before them. I give the utmost credit and respect for the work everyone was doing outside in seven below zero temps. Also, Senator Hensley informed me this week that we were awarded $4.3 million in ARP grant money to revitalize. I’m proud of the council and county commission working together on this to make it happen.”

Q: Is there a threshold of the number of rehab facilities in town?

A: Cody Mitchell: “I have wondered that myself, when you start looking at the zoning and residential. They buy residential homes but are operating as a housing unit.”

A: Building Inspector Brad Rasbury: “Where Buffalo Valley, the city’s only rehab facility, is, is zoned commercial. While there are restrictions on where they can be, there’s nothing that says you can only have a certain amount.”

Q: Why are all the lights in town out of sync with each other? Can we change them at night to flash only?

A: Brad Rasbury: “Those lights are on a state highway, and we cannot change them unless they say that we can. And, we wouldn’t want every one of them in town to be in sync all the time, because it would turn into a drag strip. We did try one time, and they do, on rare occasion sync up, but the timing never stays that way.

Q: What is the trust level among the city council members?

A: Don Barber: “That’s easy. I’ve been a councilman for about 22 years, and the trust level here is a 10. I have served with five different mayors, and I can honestly say that we are more stable, communicate better, and get more work done than any other that I’ve been involved in.”

A: Danny McKnight: “The council we have had for the last four years has worked very well together, and I think if there wasn’t trust amongst us, you would be able to see it. We’ve had disagreements and don’t see eye to eye every time, but we communicate well together and confront issues as they are, and we have built a level of trust here, in my opinion.”

Q: Is there a plan to improve parking in the city?

A: Scottie Bass: “First on that agenda needs to be the restriping of the parking spots. I see cars hit each other all the time up there.”

A: Cody Mitchell: “We had a proposal from the county to turn that lot beside the court house into parking, but the price was ridiculous. For just the land, they were wanting almost $300,00. And I just couldn’t justify a nearly $400,000 parking lot.”

A: Danny McKnight: “I think we are always going to have those issues, because we only have so much space in town. We are always open to ideas and suggestions.”

Q: On the subject of 5G, will the town be allowed to be over the growth of it?

A: Danny McKnight: “In 1979, Tokyo rolled out the first 1G for phones in cars. It’s grown since, but now there are major concerns. I don’t understand much and have not been informed of much. And as far as I know, no solutions have been brought up with the concerns.”

A: Don Barber, “While there is a pretty healthy discussion across the country, truthfully, we have no authority of these utilities.”

Q: How does the city encourage tourism and visitors into Hohenwald?

A: Scotty Bass points to Debbie Landers, “She does as good as anybody and ought to work for us.”

A: Don Barber, “It is the South Central Area Fair’s 100th year celebration this year, and we’ve been working on marketing and bringing a great deal of new, exciting entertainment. Most county fair’s have or are failing. We have worked very hard to keep a carnival driven fair in this community. For our size community, we have the biggest fair. We also have the longest-running demolition derby in the mid-south. It started in 1985 and continues to be our biggest grossing night every year.”

A: Cody Mitchell, “And the City is a proud supporter of events like that and Oktoberfest that bring in thousands of people each time. We offer support however we can, because we want to see these things thrive.”

Q: Does the city have a maintenance plan for the sidewalk system?

A: Brad Rasbury, “We trim everything up once a year. Anything lower than eight feet over the sidewalks gets trimmed. We can’t be everywhere all the time, so if you see something that needs to be taken care of, I encourage you to call to make us aware.”

Q: The LED lights are supposed to be cost effective, but it seems like the areas that have been switched to LED are less lit and seemingly unsafe. Has the city noticed this?

A: Cody Mitchell, “I personally live in town and have not noticed any dark areas. City Hall switched to LED, and I think it lights up half the county. I would be interested to know where the dark areas are.”

A: Assistant Chief of Police James Howard, “Our officers go around and conduct monthly street light checks. We have anything changed out that’s not working properly and work with MLEC to do maintenance where needed.”

A: Danny McKnight, “Those first lights we switched on Main and Park were not as bright as we expected them to be. We have been working on that transition to the brighter bulbs now that updates are available.”

Q: Surrounding counties utilize text messaging services to alert the public to community happenings. Is there a way to make a push to let the public know and become involved and aware?

A: Danny McKnight, “We first went through dispatch to get the word out. We will have dispatch make another push, and we encourage everyone to spread the word as well.”