Hamilton County Commissioner Steve Highlander, R-Harrison, is running for a second term in the District 9 seat.
The district encompasses a northeastern part of Hamilton County, including neighborhoods like Harrison and parts of Snow Hill and Birchwood. The majority of the area is made up of unincorporated territory, with the southernmost tip in the Chattanooga city limits. Highlander will face Republican challenger Donna Christian-Lowe in the upcoming May primary. It’s his first time running in a contested primary for the seat.
Highlander, 74, has lived in Harrison for almost all of his life, living for a brief stint in Chattanooga and Hixson as a teenager. He is a retired school teacher, and he substitutes as a pastor in his region when needed. He has a bachelor’s degree in English and history and a master’s degree in education administration, both from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He also has a doctorate in ministry from Covington Theological Seminary.
Highlander was appointed to the commission in 2021 after sitting on the school board for seven years, filling a vacancy left by Chester Bankston, who retired halfway through his term. Highlander was then elected to the seat the following year.
(SIGN UP: Get Chattanooga area politics news weekly in your inbox at timesfreepress.com/politics)
As of the end of March, Highlander had about $19,000 on hand in campaign funds. He’s pulled $20,000 out of his own pocket, and he’s received about $9,000 in campaign donations. About a tenth of them have come from people donating under $100.
His largest donations amounting to $1,000 each have come from U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ooltewah, health care retiree William Burton and David Deal, an elder at Bayside Baptist Church.
He’s also received smaller donations from several elected officials, like $250 from Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, $100 from Commissioner Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, and $50 from school board member Gary Kuehn, R-Ooltewah.
Early voting for the county primaries starts Wednesday, and election day is May 5.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press sent a questionnaire to both candidates. The answers below are in their own words.
Q: Why are you running for County Commission, and what are your qualifications?
A: I’m running for County Commission because I want to be of service. I was a teacher, a minister. My father’s a minister. My sisters are nurses. I want to continue to serve my constituents in District 9 and the whole county. Since I’ve been on the commission, I’ve worked hard to learn every aspect of it. I volunteer for a lot of committees, and I’m on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which I’ve recently been elected vice chair of. I’ve got a good background in education and education law. More than half of our budget goes to education, and I think it’s really important to have people on the commission that understand the needs of our educators and our children — which I do. And I have the time. I’m retired, and this has become my full-time job. I spend 30, 40, 50 hours a week on this job.
Q: If elected, what would be your three biggest priorities?
A: Infrastructure improvement is the first that comes to my mind, and primarily roads. We have overcrowded and unsafe roads in our area. A TDOT (Tennessee Department of Transportation) administrator analyzed Hunter Road in my district. He said it has more curves than a 5 gallon bucket of fish hooks, and it has deep ditches and no shoulders. When you have 1,500 new houses there and you have beginning drivers coming through, it’s very dangerous.
Schools need to be helped. Teachers need a livable wage and a competitive wage with other districts. It’s not just the wages, it’s school improvements, too. We made a $260 million bond, the majority of which has gone to schools.
What we can do to help our senior citizens is important, especially low-income senior citizens. A lot are very concerned about property tax increases and different tax increases in general. We need to do everything possible to help our senior citizens. I’ve had several call and say if their taxes go up, they can’t buy their medicine and their food. We need to take care of them.
Q: What do you think is the largest challenge facing your district, and what would you do about it if elected?
A: I think infrastructure is the greatest challenge right now. I am for private property ownership and people being able to do what they want to with their property, but if you have a limited right-of-way, it’s hard to even widen roads — if you’ve got the money to do it. I’ve suggested roundabouts. It keeps traffic moving.
The mayor has recommended about $16 million for infrastructure improvements and road improvements, but we’re probably about $150 behind. We’ve kicked the can down the road. The greatest challenge is trying to get those road improvements, first, where they can be safe, and second, where there’s not a huge time delay trying to get to work, get to school. One of the commissioners came to my district for an event last week around 5:30 p.m., and he said, “My gosh, the traffic is horrible. It took me an hour to get from (Highway) 153 to Harrison.” That’s what we’re dealing with every day. We need to take care of that.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County commissioners add to roads fund after questions)
Q: Do you think the county needs to attract more industry to the area? Why or why not, and how should that be done?
A: I think it needs to be done in a thoughtful manner. I would like to see more industry. I think we need to be very careful about where we place it.
I was not for putting it in the nature park. Volkswagen has an option for 800 acres that they have not yet exercised. If they want to build on it, they can, but if they don’t, that’s 800 acres that’s already zoned industrial. We need to be creative in looking at pieces of property where we can develop industry. Where it’s feasible, where it’s close to roads and railroads and highways. We have used a lot of our industrial land, but I think we still have some, if we’re cautious and careful, that we can find.
I think it’s important that we create jobs for the next generation. I want my grandchildren to be able to have good jobs and live here. I’d like to see them raise families in the community where I am.
Q: Where would you increase county spending? Where would you cut it?
A: That’s the $1 billion question. I am going to every minute of the budget hearings. The finance chair this year is Chairman Eversole. I like his three bucket approach, where people have to justify what they’re doing, where they’re cutting when they can and why they need the money. I’m taking notes on this.
I’m careful with my own money, but I’m way more careful with taxpayer dollars or church money. I think we need to be wise spenders. We need to trim where we can and not necessarily give people the same amount we’ve always given them if they don’t have the need.
I hope not to raise taxes, ever. I’d love to keep it where they are. We have a very enviable tax base. We need to spend money where it’s needed and not spend it where it’s not essential.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County Commission delays property tax freeze vote until July)
Q: What do you think is Hamilton County’s most pressing infrastructure need? How would you respond to that need?
A: The greatest need is roads. I’ve tried to work with the mayor and encouraged him, and I’m appreciative of his efforts and the commission’s efforts to raise funding to improve the roads. It’s not just the rural areas. I look at Glass Street in East Chattanooga. I drive it going downtown often, and it needs some improvements. There are city and county needs, and I think both mayors are trying to work on that, but I think that needs to be a primary focus.
Also, schools are infrastructure. When we’re building massive subdivisions, we’ve either got to add to the school buildings or build new ones. When we took out the $260 million bond, the vast majority went into schools and maintenance. But we’re going to have to do that again in a few years. We need to plan ahead, five years, 10 years, 15 years down the road — roads and schools, and sewers.
Right now, we’re dependent on the sewer treatment plant in the city of Chattanooga. We need to work on that as well. If you’re on septic, you’re very limited in what builders can do.
Q: Do you think your district is growing too fast or too slow? Why?
A: I think it’s growing too fast for the infrastructure right now. We’re putting houses up, and the builders are doing a great job, but we don’t have adequate infrastructure for them. I’d like to slow it down at least until the infrastructure can have a chance to catch up or get ahead.
Q: Anything else you’d like voters to know?
A: I consider the role of commissioner as a servant’s role. I’m serving the constituents, not just partisan constituents, everyone in my district. I want to meet everyone’s needs the very best I can. Some things I can’t do. But if I can’t do it, I try to direct them to someone who can. For example, a lady had a problem with her neighbor having farm animals in a subdivision right next to her. I got her in contact with the Health and Safety Board, which works out of the County Attorney’s Office. If it’s a roads problem, I’ll talk to the commissioner of roads for our county and ask them if they’ll look at it.
We approve the budget. We make policy for the county. We approve zoning changes. But I also think the job of the commissioner is to meet the needs of the people, giving them advice and telling them where to go. I’m pretty good at that. I try my best to answer every phone call and every email.
Contact city and county reporter Siena Duncan at sduncan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.