By ZOË HAGGARD - zhaggard@t-g.com
With the annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration going on in Shelbyville, many Bedford County natives are reminded of the 84-year tradition while many new residents are experiencing what all Bedford has to offer.
Bedford County Mayor Chad Graham said, “The Celebration is a cornerstone of our community. It’s not only a big part of our economy; it’s part of our public image.”
He said the preliminary numbers from this year’s show have all been positive, indicating a great year for the show.
“My hope is that our visitors to Bedford feel welcome. I would especially like to thank all of those in the community who make the show possible – whether it’s by working on the grounds in some capacity, buying a ticket or a box and turning out to support the show, or by just showing hospitality to our visitors during this busy time. I also want to congratulate the Celebration’s leadership for their hard work and dedication.”
Four-year reflections
Graham said he has been on this road to becoming mayor since 2010, when he ran for school board and became involved in community enrichment activities. He said this was to make the learning curve of the office less steep.
When Graham was sworn into his first term in 2018, he did not predict three hurdles: organized protests at the Courthouse, the COVID-19 pandemic, and credible death threats.
For the first, Graham’s office saw protests from Black Lives Matter, White Lives Matter, and the Bedford County Listening Project groups beginning in 2017 and last through 2020.
Then COVID hit in 2020. Having had a background in healthcare as Emergency Medical Services director, Graham said they trained for pandemics such as this. “But that was from a medical standpoint, not a government perspective.”
And within the last month or so, Graham said he received credible death threats on social media by one resident in the Bell Buckle area. The resident also named other elected officials as well as Graham’s staff, which is when the authorities and district attorney were notified and a warrant was issued, according to Graham.
To say the least, it’s been a term filled with many ups-and-downs for Chad Graham. Still, Graham said he and his team accomplished a lot, including several projects to “better Bedford.”
For example, Graham added that good things did come from COVID, referring to the $9.6 million in the American Rescue Plan funds that the county received. The funds allowed them to implement an updated emergency radio system (around $5 million) as well as provide funds for the new Community High School CTE wing and apply for a broadband grant.
Graham explained grants aren’t quickly processed and the money can’t be spent until it’s received. So with the rising cost of supplies, this fixed amount of money is challenging to use.
“Government loses its efficiency by having a lot of these checks-and-balances, or stop gaps, in their process,” said Graham. “But we have those in place because people have misused their authority and power in the past.”
But often, the process of checks and balances in codes, zoning, and planning can “save you,” Graham said.
The mayor was glad to report progress in his three main areas of focus: education, public safety, and economic development.
Education
“I’ve always said it’s not the county government or mayor’s responsibility to dictate how you educate the kids or design the school,” Graham explained. “But our responsibility is to provide a funding mechanism and a place for the bricks and mortar so you can have that rich learning environment.”
In his words, this allows for the best chance for the best outcome as well as get kids out of poverty.
Graham said his administration’s accomplishments included the new Tennessee College of Applied Technology facility on U.S. 231. Graham said if nothing else comes from his term, he was honored to be a part of the project to create the next generation, state-of-the-art facility.
He also said his administration saw Cascade High School completed, the start of Cartwright Elementary, and groundbreaking for the new wing at Community High.
Public safety
For the area of public safety, Graham said the county made improvements in staffing models, particularly with 911 communications, while providing emergency personnel with new body cams, cars, fire trucks, and ambulances
But just as important as that, Graham added, was the capital improvement plan. For this, Graham said the county has “pennies on the tax rate” tied specifically to the plan so there won’t be big investments out of the operating budget.
“We didn’t have a running list of items that we knew we had to replace at some point,” Graham said (like for vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, weapons, radio systems).
“We need to know when we need another firetruck, not buy five firetrucks at one time,” he said. This plan examines the life expectancy of items and technology, then incorporates their cost into the budget later on. For example, widgets typically expire in seven years, so the plan would include the need to purchase another widget in seven years after purchase.
“It’s always been a reactive system. This allows us to be proactive.”
Economic development
-Graham partially jokes that the reason he ran for mayor was because he wants his grandbabies to live in Bedford.
-“When you start talking about the next generation—your entrepreneurs, your business professionals, and your millennials—they have some minimum standards,” said Graham. Most of this generation look for great places to live before they select a job.
“You’re going to have to have some amenities people are interested in, and it’s not going to be what my grandparents were interested in... We’re not where we were 30 years ago,” he said.
His biggest goal was to get a next generation economic model, which is what led to the Shelbyville-Bedford Partnership, that would be progressive and proactive.
“People are coming to Bedford whether we like it or not. The question is are we going to live with what shows up or are we going to go after what we want,” he said.
Graham added that the industrial park sat empty for at least six years before he became mayor. But now the industrial park will be occupied by TCAT-S, Duksan Electera, and another industry to be announced soon. This is in addition to other U.S. 231 improvements including the Nearest Green Distillery, Tennessee Downs, and Middle Tennessee State University’s aviation department coming to Shelbyville Municipal Airport.
“That is a tremendously successful four years in my opinion. Economic development is slow-going, so we’ve wrestled and fought trying to find enough money to put infrastructure in the ground to convince companies to come on in here,” said Graham.
Also, correcting the pay structure through the new $2.32 property tax rate has enabled the county to qualify for hiring highly skilled workers, addressing recruitment and retention issues.
“We as a county haven’t done a good job in the past in investing in our product and our product is our people,” said Graham.
The next four years
But now it’s time to focus and follow-up with those projects.
“We’re probably not going to see the kind of gains over the next four years that we have the first four because we’re going to have to actually see these projects through and tweak them out,” Graham said.
Graham said on the argument of whether the government should make their priority clean water or affordable housing, before touching on other development, that he instead wants to see the entire system “float up.”
“I wasn’t afraid to dabble in multiple things at the same time with the hope that if it takes hold, it will float the whole system,” he said.
“We talk about we’re making big investments over here in the industrial park to bring in industry, but we have people over here who don’t have affordable housing or clean water...I feel like the solution there is that I’ve got to dilute those issues to bring some other things in that can then help us to lift the system,” said Graham.
He added that at the same time the county should focus on bringing in people who will “support some of these things that make this an attractive place,” according to Graham.
