Of the 16 candidates for the board, eight of them attended the forum at Piedmont Crossing Retirement Community. Incumbents Don Truell, Sam Watford and Billy Joe Kepley, as well as challengers Jason Hedrick, Owen Moore, Eddie Gallimore, Kenneth Cavender and Larry Allen, attended the forum.
“Everybody here is going to tell you that we need jobs,” Truell said. “That’s going to be the priority during the next four years. That is going to be the priority for everyone. We have lost a lot of jobs – especially, over the last six or seven years with the furniture industry moving out.”
Watford, who is also a business owner, said he had made efforts recently as a commissioner to encourage companies to invest and create jobs in Davidson County. Last year, Watford led efforts to get several of the county’s municipalities to adopt a policy that allows the cities to provide incentives to any business that invests $50,000 when the county’s unemployment rate has been at or above 10 percent in the last six months
“Anybody who is in business for their self, you know that we are getting the same amount of work with less people,” he said. “It’s still going to be that way.”
Kepley said the county should do more to promote Lexington’s rich heritage of barbecue. He also said he had tried unsuccessfully several times to solicit K&W Cafeterias to locate in Davidson County.
Hedrick, the lone Democrat who attended the forum, said he wanted to help out the community through economic development and job growth. “If we get our people back working, our economic development will follow,” he said. “I want to do what we can to make Davidson County proactive in searching for jobs and business, whether it be restaurants or manufacturing”
Allen, a former commissioner who lost in his bid for re-election in 2008, said that commissioners need to market Davidson County better.
“We’ve got market Davidson County,” he said. “We’ve got to promote things like our geographical friendly location, our low tax rate and a workforce ready to go to work.”
Gallimore, who ran unsuccessfully for commissioner in 2008, said he believes it’s time for new people to start working to take Davidson County into the future.
“The jobs in the county, they are bad,” he said. “I am in the construction business, so I know how it really hurts, House building is way down, so my work is few, far and between ... I think it’s time for new leadership to start being involved in the county.”
Cavender also expressed concern about jobs.
“When it comes to jobs, nobody is more concerned about jobs than I am,” he said. “Six years ago, I was the plant manager at a plant in Welcome. All of the manufacturing jobs moved to China.. After that, there were no jobs available. We need to work on commercial development and do everything we can to help existing businesses to grow.”
Davidson County voters will be able to vote for four commissioner candidates during the May 4 primary. Davidson County Board of Commissioners Chairman Max Walser, who was up for re-election this year, chose not to run again.
dignasiak@hpe.com | 888-3657
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