Pikeville Mayor Johnson entered politics as teen

PIKEVILLE, Tenn. — Pike-ville Mayor Greg Johnson loved politics before he could even vote, he says.

Mr. Johnson has served as a town alderman for more than half his 46 years and as a Bledsoe County commissioner since 1998.

The dual political role sometimes is trying, he says, but the work also can be doubly rewarding.

Q: What drew you to city and county public service?

A: I guess it started when I was 19. I’ve enjoyed politics probably since I was about 10 years old. I began watching political events, especially presidential and national elections on television, when I was about 10. My brother-in-law began taking me to some of the political rallies and events here in Bledsoe County and the city of Pikeville probably at about 12. At 19 years of age, I was elected for city alderman. I didn’t know a whole lot about politics; still don’t know a lot about politics. I just love the people that I serve.

Q: How closely do the two governments work together?

A: The governments have worked very good together since I’ve been city mayor. (Bledsoe County Mayor) Gregg Ridley and myself, we work very closely together. What is good for one government is normally good for the other.

Q: What challenges do you see for Bledsoe County in building its new jail?

A: I guess the concern that I have is the debt we’re going to have to put the county under to be able to construct this jail. It’s somewhere around $5 million to $5.5 million.

The challenge that I see as far as the county’s concerned is having a debt service payment for several years to come. But we’re in very high hopes that we can offset the debt service by housing state prisoners.

Q: What challenges does the city face?

A: (Water) has been a huge obstacle for Pikeville the past several years, but now we have spent right at $2.5 million on revitalizing our water treatment plant. We have an additional 500,000 gallons of storage at the new water treatment plant. I’m proud to say that we’re almost to the point of the contractor turning the plant over to us.

Another challenge we face now is not having enough jobs here in the city. We’re in very high hopes that, with the Volks-wagen plant locating in Chattanooga, that we will get some of the work from the suppliers.

Q: Has the old Dura Automotive site drawn any interest lately?

A: We have had a couple of companies look at the Dura property.

Of course, the plant and property is still owned by Dura Automotive, and that puts up a huge challenge for the city of Pikeville and Bledsoe County because when we do have an industry that’s interested, sometimes it creates a problem getting the industry in to actually look at the property.

The city of Pikeville and the Industrial Development Board is looking at purchasing this property. If it’s in our control, we can negotiate with manufacturing companies in a much better way.

Q: Has anyone shown interest since the VW announcement in Chattanooga?

A: We have been contacted by some folks, but I’m under a confidentiality agreement and I can’t say any more than that. With VW locating in Chattanooga, it’s going to help the entire region.

Q: What is the status of downtown revitalization efforts?

A: We actually had a meeting Monday night with the company that’s done the preliminary drawings. We are at the point of kicking off this project. The final design work has been done, the construction drawings are completed, we have bid the project out and I hope within the next two weeks we will be accepting bids.

The first thing planned is demolition of all the existing sidewalks from Sells (and) Roberson streets to Cranwell Street. It’s going to be messy for a while. It’ll be a challenge for about six to eight months, but the final product will be so nice I hope people will overlook the construction mess.