Fred Skillern is still as conservative as he’s always been, and his parochial interest is still District 1. But after 10 years on the County Commission, he readily recognizes the broad needs of the county as a whole. As the looming wave of Volkswagen-related growth portends massive change in the unincorporated northern half of the county on both sides of the Tennessee River, his broader view is especially crucial. As voters prepare to cast their votes in the countywide primaries on May 4, his neighbors in District 1 have good reason to return him to office.
The outcome of the Republican primary on that day will effectively determine who represents District 1, since there is no Democratic candidate, nor an independent. Mr. Skillern does have a challenger, however. Laura Oakley, who ran against him in the 2006 election, is again competing for the office.
Ms. Oakley proposes a substantive agenda and should not be lightly dismissed. But she would face a learning curve that, in the current circumstance, would put her, and perhaps her agenda at this important break-point, at a disadvantage. Moreover, her view of the district’s and county’s needs — consolidation of some city and county services for the sake of efficiency, more intensive focus on schools and student achievement and the drop-out rate, and economic development in District 1 — are largely the same as those of Mr. Skillern.
His important advantage is an intimate knowledge of the mechanics of actually getting things done. In terms of his chief goals — a new bridge across the Tennessee River to the backdoor of the Volkswagen plant and its multiplying supplier jobs, and development of sewer trunks lines to accommodate residential and commercial growth in District 1 — he has a clear edge in the influence and power it will take to see those goals accomplished.
He also sees the economic usefulness of consolidating more services with the city. His incrementalist view of that, however, is much like Ms. Oakley’s: pick the low fruit first. Combine the duplicative functions of the city and county trustee and court clerks, but leave more time to work out, if possible, the consolidation of city police and county sheriff.
Mr. Skillern’s priorities on sewer and water utilities and transportation corridors are more important at the moment. We encourage him to add land-use planning and home-rule for county government to his agenda to help steer the county past the worst aspects of explosive growth and the unplanned sprawl that now seems destined to go with it.
It will take a strong, thoughtful and experienced leader to accomplish such goals. We endorse Mr. Skillern in the District 1 primary, and urge his attention to planned growth.