To address the issues facing
Tennessee ends today from 10 news.
This is inside Tennessee.
Good Sunday morning.
You're watching inside Tennessee.
We're pleased you could join
us I'm John N John Becker.
We'll be joining us shortly I
think it's a election season as
you know we're devoting a lot
of these Sunday mornings to some
of the key races in our area.
This morning.
We want to focus on a Knox
County Commission race,
a seat that has come open and
it features 2 candidates,
a Republican and a Democrat.
We have Gina Oster,
the Republican seeking the four
year term along with Stuart Hall,
who is the Democrat.
Welcome to both of you and good morning.
Thank you, good morning.
Thank you, good morning. Appreciate
you being here.
Let's just go ahead and jump right
in and we'll start with you, Gina.
We're interested.
It's a standard question,
but what is it about County
Commission that makes you
want to run for that seat?
What is it you want to do?
I've been in our district for about
25 years and I have been involved
in the local politics in Knox County
for about 25 years and I feel
it's so important to be connected
and understand your district.
I feel like that's exactly what I
do and I look forward to getting
out and serving our district.
We've got, we've got a great array
of people that live in our district.
We actually picked up a new
precinct which was really exciting.
Have a ball camp come over to District
3 and join us over here at Cedar Bluff
and we were happy to see that and I
enjoy taking care of issues with citizens,
finding the answers to the
issues that they're having,
the problems that they're having
working with our city with our county
with our mayor and I definitely
look forward to serving District
3 in an official capacity.
Thank you. Overall,
let's hear from you now.
What's prompting you to run.
Sure, I I for one, I think this is
incredibly important decade for the
county and what I'm looking to bring to
this position is a penchant for problem
solving and not problem creating. We have.
We love living in Knox County and I
want to keep it that way and I want to
work on the issues that we have that
are going to be issues down the road.
In particular we're talking about
infrastructure and a lot of our local
issues and that's what I want to bring to
this position is a mindset of public service.
It I give every single person you
know my my cell phone number and this
is a position that really should be.
Available there should be accessible
and should be accountable to the
people in my district.
I want to tell every single person that
they are more than welcome to reach
out to me during my campaign or after.
You know,
hopefully I win this thing and I want
to get down to work on the local issues
that impact everyone in their daily lives.
And that's what I'm really
excited to be doing.
Let's take a little further
and stay with you. Mr.
Hall talking about the issues that
you think matter and you mentioned
infrastructure as one of them.
You both know that Knox County,
for better or for worse, has seen a
lot of growth that's been happening,
especially in the last 10 years.
So Mr. All talk a little bit about
kind of what the issues are that
you're hearing out in that district.
District 3 and what you want
to do to address them.
Yeah, absolutely we we do have a
big problem when it comes to growth
and development we like I said
we love living in Nice County.
A lot of other people would
love to live here as well.
And to that end, we have to find
some creative solutions we have to
solve these problems when it comes
to how we are thinking about zoning.
How are thinking about land use?
How are thinking about community development?
And. I'm really looking forward to
working on the those by looking to
incentivize community minded development,
working with our developers to
make sure that.
We have a clear vision of where
we want to go.
I don't want to sit there and
play legislative whack a mole.
I'd really like to incentivize.
Ways that we can get the community that we,
the people.
In my district one and also
the people in my district.
They're hurting.
The housing market is has created a
lot of problems when it comes to people
just trying to get into the houses.
You know,
a lot of the houses,
especially first time homes.
They've moved out of reach are rental.
Our renters are struggling.
They're rents going up to two and $300.00.
So Gotham Bill is one of the one
of the foremost things that I hear
about the most in my community
that I really want to work on
solving those problems, the.
Beyond that,
you know my wife's a public school teacher.
She teaches elementary music and we
we can do a better job here in Knox
County when it comes to prioritizing
our schools within our budget,
I don't get to line item things
out like the school board will,
but what I can do is make sure
that we're getting the support
and the resources they need so
that we stop getting out competed
for teachers when teacher pay.
We're losing teachers left and right
to all the districts that touch us.
And I also want to work with
student resources beyond that,
community safety is a big one.
I'm really looking forward to
working with Sheriff Spangler
and I would think he's really
excited to have somebody that is
willing to work with him as well.
We can sort.
Community safety is hugely important
to the people in this district,
so I definitely want to be a resource
that can solve some of the problems.
We have a staffing.
Beyond that,
you know we have a great history of
creating green ways and green spaces.
When I have been out in the community.
It is one of the things
I hear about the most.
I wanna be a supporter of that.
I want to make sure that we
have the recreational areas
that this community desires.
And finally,
but definitely not least important,
I want to provide effective leadership
that's willing to work with others,
and I believe I can do that in this position.
Alright, thank you.
That was quite a bit that he
just hit on Gina. Feel free to
address what are your priorities.
He did mention things like land use,
which has become an issue.
Kind of across Knox County.
But tell us kind of some of the
specifics that you're thinking about.
If you were to get into office,
say, September one that
you're gonna go right after.
Well, I think I bring a little
bit unique skill set to
Commission because I am a realtor.
I'm actually out there.
Boots on the ground every single day,
right in 10 to 12 offers.
Sometimes for some of my clients
that are at being outbid,
I'm excited that we have
growth coming to Knox County,
and I'm excited that the people that
want to live here because they know
what a great community we have but
also don't want to see our local
people be pushed out of our county.
I want to keep our local people here
and so to do that we are going to have
to work on responsible development.
We're going to have to get more
houses on the market at this point.
We have less than 500 houses on
the market and a typical market.
We would have 15 to 1700 houses.
It is a bloodbath out there for our
buyers and it's it's really hard to watch,
so I will be working with our
developers on issues like land use.
Zoning,
obviously in development we could
probably put 5000 houses on the
market today and and we would still
be getting multiple offers on them
because that's not even enough.
Infrastructure is an issue and
we're about 20 years behind,
so it's going to take somebody
who has the skill set who has the
understanding to work with our
developers and work with Commission to
get them to understand how important it is.
Because I I want our kids and our grandkids
to be able to stay in Knox County.
If they want to,
and to do that,
we're going to have to.
We're going to have to work on development.
We're also going to have to sit,
think outside the box,
and there's gonna be issues that have
been working and for our developers
and not working for our developers.
We're going to have to look at that.
And we're going to have to have
some roundtable discussions and
get everybody on the same page
to understand what's actually
going on out there.
So I feel like that I bring a
pretty unique skill set to that.
I'm excited about that.
Everybody has my cell phone number because.
Of course I'm a realtor and and
on my push cards at the doors
that I'm at every single day my
cell phone numbers on there.
My e-mail address is on there and they
know that they can get ahold of me.
That happened during the primary,
and I think I've proven that I'm
a leader to be able to get out
there and work for our district.
Also,
when our district to know that this is
a team sport and that I am here for them,
I'm accessible,
actually will be taking a
little hiatus from work.
On September 1,
so I can truly focus on Commission.
I am at every Commission meeting.
I feel like that is hugely
important and this has
been going on for years because I want to
know what's happening in our district.
I want to be able to take care
of issues that are happening and
I want people to know about it.
Another big issue for me
and I have promised this,
I promise very few things at the
door because you've got to have
five other people to get on board.
But I can promise this and my community
is very excited about district
meetings being brought back into our.
District I'm really excited about that.
I set and watch for two years of
our citizens having to go downtown,
pay to park,
get babysitting and and all of that
stuff to talk to representatives and I
just feel like that that is unacceptable.
So we will be having district meetings
in the PTA meetings and HOA meetings.
We've heard solid information
from both Gina Oster,
Gina Oster and Stuart Hall,
both running for Knox County Commission
District 3 we're gonna take a break.
Right now. You're watching inside
Tennessee. We will be back.