WHO WILL YOU CHOOSE FOR DISTRICT #1 COMMISSIONER?

Limestone school board member James Shannon and District 1 foreman Stanley Hill are in Tuesday's runoff (July 15) for the county’s District 1 commissioner. The runoff winner will not face a Democratic opponent in the Nov. 4 general election.  We let one excellent candidate slip by in June by not taking time to vote so be sure to vote this time.  It does matter and Elkmont should always have a better turnout then we did in June.  

Hill Spirit attended both Spring debates.  Seth Parker had the best ideas but Stanley Hill was a strong candidate as well. He was knowledgeable about the office, and had experience with the roads.  James Shannon's campaign was based on serving on the school board and working with budgets.  Hill Spirit's vote is for Stanley Hill.
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School board to commission?
Shannon has served on the seven-member school board for 12 years, and says this has given him experience managing public funds. The Limestone school system is operating with an $89.9 million. “We’ve got to go get money and we’ve got to manage it right. I’ve had plenty of experience with that working with the school system. We have to manage our money — we have to work on that all the time,” he said. budget for fiscal 2014.

“I would say the roads (are the biggest priority), but I would also say (cleaning) the ditches out. Keep the water off the roads because you can’t build a road unless you keep the water off it. You can patch it, you can do whatever you want to it, but you’ve got to get the water going where it needs to go,” he said during the forum. “... We’ve got to go to Montgomery and get with our legislators and get some money in here. There is just not enough gasoline-tax money to cover Limestone County.”

 
Foreman to district boss?

Hill, 62, has been a county employee for 14 years, including the past 7 1/2 years as foreman for District 1. He has taken the required leave of absence while campaigning for district commissioner.

He said the top priority for District 1 residents is improving and maintaining the roadways. District 1 has 270 miles of roads and 45 bridges, according to County Engineer Richard Sanders. All districts receive a limited amount of money for roadwork in their budgets.

“The biggest concerns that I’ve heard is the bad roads — 90 percent of the messages they were sending back to me were about wanting better roads,” Hill said. “We’ll have to use the (resources) we have available to fix the roads because we wouldn’t be able to plant-mix everything — this is the real smooth stuff. We’ll have to put tar and gravel, or chip-seal, and that would be one way to address the issue. Taxpayers do not like tar and gravel but in order to improve them, that’s what you have to do. Some of the roads need ripping up because they don’t have a base. We’ll need to plow it up, put a base down and put in the chip-seal.”

Hill said that “a lot of roads need attention,” adding he would formulate a plan for repairs and improvements.

“We’ll have a priority list and try to fix a schedule. State aid roads, when they get in poor shape, the state supplies 80 percent and (the county) 20 percent of the funding. If we don’t do the work when the state says we have to do it, we’ll lose the state funding,” he said. “The second priority would be the most traveled roads with hazards and third is those that are costing us more to maintain. Instead of (repeatedly) patching a 100-yard stretch of road, we’ll need to put down a new surface.”