Grow Puryear · Puryear, Tennessee
JESSE WELTERfor AldermanHenry County’s northern gateway.
US 641 is being widened to five lanes through Henry County, with a new bridge and a first view of the town as you come off it. That project does not invent a second northern door. It makes this one bigger and faster. Puryear is still the first city in Tennessee from Kentucky. Highway 140 is still the first intersection in this county. Before anyone sees Paris, the industrial park, the courthouse, or the lake, they see us.
City of Puryear · Election Day
November 3, 2026
Tuesday. Polls generally 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Confirm your place.
The question
From the north there is no other door.
From the north there is no other door. The five-lane expansion is why Puryear is the only candidate for Henry County’s northern gateway — and why the job is now. A gateway that looks tended tells the rest of the map that this county takes care of what it has. A gateway that looks unfinished tells them to stay on the five-lane and keep going. We do not get a second first impression. Lights, a walk, shops that look open — not a lecture. Public ground that looks cared for. I will work with Henry County and the Henry County Mayor so the plans, the grants, and the welcome treat Puryear as what the highway already made us: the northern gateway town.
01
Lay out the city
Off the new bridge, onto a sidewalk that ties to TDOT’s 641 plans, in front of a door. Ornamental lights, a path downtown, trucks kept on the five-lane instead of the side streets — a reason to stop instead of staying on 641.
02
Present for investment
Who to call. What is available. What the city can and cannot do, in a week, not a season. Structure is the welcome mat.
03
Add a charm. Do not swap the chain.
Railroad town. Front Street. The kiln. The people who stayed. New work should sit on that bracelet — another charm, not a replacement.
04
Businesses land. The tax base grows.
The city’s money still comes from shops that are open. Ready streets and a town worth turning into grow that revenue without raising rates. A betterment fund is the lockbox: when businesses do better, a named share goes back onto the public ground.
Henry County
Henry County’s northern gateway
Puryear is the northern gateway of Henry County. The five-lane expansion is what makes it the only candidate. It should look like the county we claim to be.
I will ask Mayor Jonathan Lodge’s office for three things that office is built to do — not to pay for Puryear’s sidewalks or the kiln. A path for county letters of support when the city applies for sidewalk, multimodal, or tourism grants. The county’s voice with TDOT so side-street cut-through, pedestrian safety, and business access are written into the southern-section plans while they are still ink. And a short look by Tourism Authority staff at the kiln as a county welcome — the first stop in Tennessee — rather than a local hobby. That is a real thing. A small city carries a county door by using the voices the county and the state already listen to.
The northern gatewayThe books
A betterment fund. Not a new tax.
The city makes money when businesses do. The five-lane will send more cars. Those cars become city money only if they stop. A betterment fund names a share of that growth and locks it to the public ground — so the northern gateway still looks looked-after the year after the ribbon.
This is an ordinance I will ask the board to write in the first year. Not a rate hike. Not a special assessment. Not a raid on today’s bills. Grants still pay to build the three-phase walk. The fund is how we keep what we have — and what the highway makes possible — from going shabby.
How the fund works
Off the bridge
What do we look like when they first see us?
Coming off the newly built 641 bridge, ascending into Puryear — that is the first impression, and the county’s first door. A family, a truck driver, or a visitor sees us before they see Paris. We can look like a town you turn into, or a place you pass. If the intersection looks unfinished, or the volume pours onto side streets, the impression will be that we were not ready.
It is built with local people who want to invest, with the shops already here supported and still reachable from the road, and with a city that looks inviting to the next owner willing to take a lease. Ornate lights and a finished walk are how the public ground presents — quietly, without a scold. Traffic on a five-lane is not a customer until there is a door worth walking through.
Henry County’s northern gatewayThe bracelet
Add to the charm of Puryear. Do not sand it off.
History is why someone turns off a five-lane. Railroad town, Front Street, the kiln, the people who stayed — each is a charm. New work should sit on that chain, not replace it.
01
Northern gateway
The first door in Henry County. The first stop in Tennessee.
02
Railroad town
The reason there is a street here.
03
Front Street
Where the registers already are.
04
The kiln
Marker, rebuild, a welcome. First stop in Tennessee.
05
Who stayed
The shops and names that held the line.
06
The five-lane
The next charm — if we set it.
The kiln
The first town in Tennessee. A kiln worth stopping for.
Coming south from Kentucky on 641, Puryear is the first city you meet — Henry County’s northern gateway. Highway 140 crosses here — the first turn toward Paris Landing, Land Between the Lakes, and the rest of that tourism country. A welcome belongs at the kiln. I will ask county Tourism Authority staff to look at it as a county welcome, not a hobby. I will not pretend they already voted.
The kiln and a welcome
Present for business
Keep what we have. Make the next opening obvious.
Existing owners are the tax base. New investment is how the base grows when the highway arrives. The city has to be easy to deal with, and easy to read from the road.
