Tim Simmons, Independent

Question: Why did you decide to run for Road Superintendent?

Answer: I’ve run a business for almost 17 years, I have hands on experience with the public relations. They’ve told me their concerns with the roads in the county. I’ve seen them myself, I drive on them. We all appreciate everything that’s been done up to this point, but I see an opportunity to do more with the money that’s been presented to us. I think I can help everyone in the county with my business experience because that’s actually what you are doing for the county, you are running a road construction company that is funded by the state. This is just taking somebody to know where to put the monies at. We are still gravelling roads several times a year, with the same amount of money we could go ahead and tar and chip roads and we would be done with it. Just minimal maintenance, instead of going back every time after a rainstorm and have to maintain it again. Our tar and chip roads, we have got a base down. You always weigh all of your materials before you start to resurface a tar and chip road and make it another tar and chip road. County improvements stay the same. Weigh the cost of all your materials, all of your labor, fuels, all of this. Put it together, see what the overall cost is going to be and then get a bid from an asphalt company. See what the difference is when you put a solid road down better than what you already have. There are a lot of trees hanging over the roads. My concern is to help everybody in the county, is the reason I wanted to do this for everyone. There are several different ways of doing things. Getting all of the materials here in this town, just everything we can do to cut costs that way and improve. There is aid out there, but you got to go ask. Government help, you got to be there every meeting, and be known and get to know the people you are talking to. You have to present them with all of the facts when you go in there. You can’t just go in and ask for $50,000 or $200,000. They want to know why, they want to know where you are putting it and, of course, you would want to present five or six roads instead of just one. You want to give them an option as to what they are going to do for us. Our county, I would like to see it even better than what it is already. We need to catch up to the ones around us, we drive out of the neighboring counties and we go from asphalt to gravel on some of our roads. I want to try to change that for everybody. It’s beating our cars to death, people are driving one way an hour and a half out of town a lot to go to work. Fuel costs alone is enough out of their budget not to have to worry about their car being beat to death. Snow, make sure we got enough salt and enough snowplows, I’m not sure how many we have. We don’t need to be sending a road grader out on our roads to push snow. That was not what that machine was designed for, that’s wearing it out and it’s not cost-efficient. Get some plow attachments for the trucks we have, and push for them. Get it out of the way where people can get to work. Don’t shove trees in the ditches, remove them, get them gone, take them out of the way. You are creating a dangerous situation there where you are leaving limbs sticking out where you sawed it off with a chainsaw. There is still ice on the road and someone sliding in there and going through their windshield or side glass, that’s gonna hurt someone, let’s not do that. Potholes in the existing roads that you do have to maintain until you can do better. If you are coming back week after week, dig them up, see what’s going on. There is usually a wet spring or a soft spot. If there is no ditch there, of course it’s just going to settle water under the road. It’s going to make a sponge every time it rains. And it’s going to bust the road up every time. Let’s get some adequate ditches, do these things right one time and not have to go back over them. The biggest thing is making the money count every time you spend it. I do it in my business and I want to do for everybody in the county.

Question: What are your qualifications for office?

Answer: Like I said, what you are doing is actually running a business. I grew up in the coal company era. Me and my Dad, we run equipment, but I understand this is not an equipment operator’s job, it’s a supervisor’s job. A supervisor can’t get on a piece of equipment, all of the employees are going to be watching him, instead of working. You got to be down there, you got to have somebody who can do all these things. I’ve done them. I’ve budgeted money, I’ve handled employees, I’ve had to deal with suppliers. I have to get them down, get the best prices on the best quality of services that we need. You have got to do these things, such things as buy salt in the summer time. You don’t buy it in the heart of winter. Or asphalt, if you’re buying a ton of it, you buy it in the heart of winter before the plants open. You get those deals, you work with these folks and do that. I think that is something I have to offer. It’s hard to bring a lifetime employee that’s never wanted the responsibility of the boss. It’s a big difference between going home at 4 o’clock and staying there late, making sure the equipment is ready to go the next day or if something is broke, finding the parts for it, finding the manpower. Getting someone over there to work on it so you can continue on the next day. I know you are going to be getting phone calls. I’ve accepted that. I’ve dealt with the public before, it’s not a problem for me. I think I can stop a lot of the calls by resolving some of the problems. We’ve still got gravel roads ten years old or better, let’s improve them. You put rock down five or six times a year, that’s more than enough money to tar and chip that road. Fix your problems, don’t always just keep going back. That’s my biggest thing I have to offer, this is a business to run. And make sure that you do everything. The employees, you have to have a good work environment, I understand that. I’m not going from working beside somebody to being the boss. I’ve been through that already, I’ve had those problems laid on me. I enjoy the work, I enjoy being outside, that’s one of the other reasons why I wanted to do the job. Just to help everyone.

Question: If elected, what do you think is the big problem you would have to face? How do you plan to correct it?

Answer: It is going in and evaluating all the roads, figuring out which one is prioritized. Starting in that community and working there and building your way up. The road systems to me, getting our gravel roads in our communities. Heavy traffic areas that are still gravel, subdivisions that have been gravel for several years. We have to go all the way into Cumberland County now to maintenance one gravel road. That’s thousands of dollars every time we go up there after a rain storm, and people don’t think about the labor, the benefits that man’s getting paid too on top of that and you have to add it all in. And the fuels, we’re taking a low-blade out there with a back hoe and hauling a grader out there and all these things. And it’s a big expense every time you do that. And as I said before, when you’re doing that, you have to weigh the cost of everything. The bridge has been appropriated funds to repair it and it’s still there, the old bridge is. When we have situations like that, people don’t like to deal with the EPA sometimes, but it’s something you have to do when you get into a running stream. You get the permits, you get their approval in doing things and you don’t stop there. You get the Army Corp Engineers in, you talk to FEMA, you know that the water flow is going to go over that bridge, don’t leave it the same height, or it’s going to flood the new bridge. Build it up, also ask them if you can go above the bridge, create a reservoir. As you do the reservoir, make a spill for a pond, put the rocks, the bigger rocks, if they will allow you to do it, to slow that hydraulic flow down. That way you solve problems and you’re not going back again after you spent all this money to repair it. Repair it, do it once right and don’t go back anymore. The gravel roads, I guess is the biggest issue and the potholes on our existing tar and chip roads.

Question: How do you think the office of Road Superintendent is currently viewed?

Answer: I’m sure they’re doing things to the best of their ability. Of course, as I touched on earlier, I see things that I know that can be done better, the money can be spent wiser. We are buying rock out of town right now, that’s just not cost efficient. It’s wearing our vehicles out, and a few other things, just like the gravel road staying rock. Let’s improve, let’s not stay the same, let’s move forward. Of course, they’re retiring, so it’s an opportunity to just keep growing. We appreciate everything they’ve done, but let’s go on and do better.

Question: What three things in your life do you consider to be most important to you?

Answer: My family to start with, and of course the way I live my life. I always treat everybody the way I want to be treated. I’ve done it in my business and my life, and it always helps me to do that. My hometown, I enjoy it here and of course my beliefs would be the top three. I like it here, I like to call it my home. You know, I want to give back everything that I can that has been offered me to help everyone here.

Question: How do you hope the people of Bledsoe County will remember you by after your term?

Answer: Happy, I hope. Smooth roads, safe roads. Our children are a big issue. The school buses don’t have adequate width to pass on these roads, I hope we can change that. Blind curves that can be straightened out, talk to the landowners, try to get that extra property. I’ve been out talking to several folks and they have informed me that they have offered several times to allow the road to be widened on a lot of our county roads. The easements, some of them are grandfathered in and aren’t wide enough. You’re talking about 13 to 15 foot wide road and it’s just not wide enough to pass on. You take a bus and a dually, an emergency vehicle or an ambulance, they are coming after our loved ones, they’re speeding trying to get there fast. We don’t want them running into the ditch and not able to get to us. We don’t want a road washed out where they can’t get all the way to our homes. Maybe, they couldn’t have done no more if they made it to the home. I would like to think they make it all the way to my house on the county road if my loved one is in need. That’s very important to me to know that they’re safe. Let’s not leave a legacy of all these things to our grandkids. I would hope to change that. Whoever would follow me, if I get the opportunity to do this, I hope they go into an easy thing to do, just maintenance the roads. You’re not going to work yourself out of a job by eliminating gravel roads. There is always something to do. Have the time so they can mow the grass on the side of the roads, take care of the existing problems. You have got tiles that are rotting out, try to eliminate these things like this right here for everybody. So the next guy that comes along, he don’t got to worry about these things. Everything goes smoother and we can spend    our money to hopefully get our roads paved and            do these things. One road a year would be awesome, if you get hot mix. A nice, smooth road for everyone, if we can get to it, that’s even better. Have the improvements done first so that nobody else has to handle them.