Puryear, Tennessee
The plan
Lay out the city. Present it. Add a charm.
Not a jobs pledge. A city structured as Henry County’s northern gateway: the five-lane is why we are the only candidate, and the southern section is still in design. Infrastructure, a path for investment, and the history of Puryear kept on the bracelet. I will ask Mayor Lodge’s office for letters of support and a voice with TDOT — not for the county to pay for the walk or the kiln. A betterment fund is how business growth pays for the ground, without a new tax.
Infrastructure
Set the city up before the traffic does
The widening is already the plan. The southern section is still in design — sidewalks and a Main Street signal are on those drawings. What we do with the first view off the bridge, whether a person can walk from 641 to downtown without sharing the street with freight, and whether shops stay reachable — that is the work of being ready.
Structure
Make Puryear simple to invest in
Name the gaps. Show the buildings. Publish the path. An owner who already pays taxes here, and one who might, should get the same straight answer. Mystery is a tax we collect by accident.
Charm
Another charm on the bracelet
The history of Puryear is the reason to turn off the highway instead of staying on it. We add to that charm. We do not sand it off to look like every other five-lane town. Presentable here means tended — another charm on the bracelet.
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.
Puryear is the northern gateway of Henry County because the five-lane comes through here and nowhere else from the north. The walk, the kiln, the shops, the fund, and the work with the county and the state are how it looks like we meant it.
Work with the countyThe walk
Two business districts. One walk.
Three phases. Grants, not taxpayers — including county letters of support when we apply, not a county invoice. Downtown shops and the boardwalk on one end. The kiln, former Spanky’s, Dollar General, and the next leases on the other. A person should be able to walk both ways without sharing the street with freight that belongs on 641. Lights and a finished path are how the city looks cared for — without a word against anyone’s door.
Phase 01
Main Street sidewalk
Connect to the sidewalks already in TDOT’s southern-section plans along 641, and to a Main Street signal that is already on those drawings. South side of Main Street, from the corner of 641, to the existing sidewalks at the post office and the downtown buildings. Ornate city light posts along the way. Those pieces only work if they reach downtown and shops stay visible from the road.
Phase 02
Railroad boardwalk
A lighted concrete path along the downtown stretch of track. North end at the city park. South end at Poplar Street, tying into the Main Street walk. Unique landscape. Extends the city easement and the downtown business footprint. Where the easement meets city land at the runoff ditch, a pedestrian bridge crosses to the urban pathways.
Phase 03
Urban accessibility pathway
Asphalt path starting on the southeast side of Poplar, running along the railroad to the old Laird Brick concrete loading dock. Adequately spaced lighting. Both directions: from downtown to the kiln, and from the kiln back to downtown shops, businesses, and the boardwalk. Former Spanky’s, Dollar General, and room for a new district sit on this path. Marker, rebuild, gift shop, and welcome are a related project — not this walk.
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.
Marker, rebuild, welcomeThe 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.
Where the money comes from
Growth from business. Not a new levy.
Puryear’s city money already comes from people spending in shops here and from commercial property on the books. When those shops have a better year, and when a new door opens, those receipts grow. The fund is a named share of that growth — the extra — after a baseline year. The baseline stays in the general fund and keeps paying today’s water, police, and lights. We do not invent a percentage in a campaign speech. The board writes the share in public, on a one-page money map people can read.
What already comes in
Sales that happen in Puryear, business licenses, the commercial tax base. The highway does not write a check. People who get out of the car and spend here do.
Only the extra
Pick a baseline year. What the city already collects keeps doing the jobs it does now. The fund is locked to growth above that line — a better year at an existing register, or a new lease that was not there before.
Why the five-lane matters
More lanes are more cars, going faster, through the only northern door. That traffic is not city revenue until it stops. The walk and the gateway are how it stops. The fund is how the extra from that stopping is not lost in the general pile.
Grants are still the build money
The three-phase walk is grants, not this fund, and not a tax increase. The fund is the lockbox after: lights that stay on, a path that stays whole, a town that still looks like it expected company.
How it is spent
Public ground only. Written down.
If it is not on the street, the walk, or the look of the gateway, it does not come out of this fund. People should be able to point at a light, a sidewalk, or a stretch of path and say: that is what the better year bought.
The threshold
Ornate lights, sidewalks, the railroad boardwalk, the urban pathway, landscape along the public easement. The ground a visitor actually steps on.
Keep the grant work tended
Match, maintain, and finish what grants start so the ribbon is not the last good year. A path that goes dark is not a gateway.
A published list
Each year: what went in, what it bought, what is next. If it is not written down, it is not a fund. It is a slush, and I will not run one.
What it is not
Not salaries. Not a rate hike. Not a special assessment on a shop. Not a substitute for chasing grants. Not a number I will fake on a flyer.
What the city gets
A door that pays for staying tended.
A betterment fund is how the flywheel stays honest. Shops do better. The street looks better. The next car has a reason to stop. The city’s books grow without raising the rate.
The gateway does not go shabby
Five lanes will open whether we are ready or not. The fund is how the first impression still looks cared for after the construction trucks leave.
Shops can see the loop
A better year at the register lights the street they sit on. That is not a favor. It is the city putting their growth back where customers walk.
The next lease gets a reason
An owner looking at empty ground wants to see a town that reinvests in looking open. Ready streets are the welcome mat. The fund keeps that mat from wearing out.
Revenue without a rate hike
The city’s money still comes from businesses. More stops, more open doors, more receipts — locked to the ground that made them. That is how we do the work people want without asking them to pay twice.
The bracelet
Another charm. Same chain.
Name them in public so the widening cannot erase them by neglect.
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.
First year
What an alderman can actually do
TDOT pours the road. The board decides whether the city is ready for it. This is a public list, walked in order.
- 01
Write the first impression off the new bridge
What a driver sees as they ascend into Puryear. A reason to stop — not a reason to stay on 641. Bring that list to the board as a sequence, not a feeling.
- 02
Sit down with Mayor Lodge’s office
Three asks, not a county invoice: letters of support on sidewalk, multimodal, and tourism grants; the county’s voice with TDOT so cut-through, pedestrian safety, and business access go into the southern-section plans while they are still ink; Tourism Authority staff look at the kiln as a county welcome. Offer to walk Main Street and the 641 corner. Do not wait to be invited.
- 03
Put the three-phase walk on a grant track
Main Street sidewalk, railroad boardwalk, urban pathway to the old Laird Brick loading dock. Connects the two business districts both ways. Costed, sequenced. Grants — not a tax increase.
- 04
Put the kiln and a first-in-Tennessee welcome on a public list
Historical marker, rebuild the kiln, gift shop, tourism stop. Laird Road into the former Spanky’s / Dollar General district. A welcome at that site — 641 from Kentucky, 140 to Paris Landing. Partners and grants, not a tax increase.
- 05
Publish how to open a business in Puryear
One page: who to call, typical timeline, what the city can and cannot do. Local people who want to invest, and people who might, get the same straight answer.
- 06
Name the charms in public
Railroad, Front Street, the kiln, the shops that stayed — a short civic list so the widening does not erase the story by neglect.
- 07
Start a monthly business roundtable
Owners only, one hour, written notes in plain English. First meeting in the first 60 days. They know where the structure fails.
- 08
Publish a one-page city money map — and stand up a betterment fund
Where the dollars come from, where they go. Then a named line: growth above a baseline year from business activity — people spending in shops here, new doors opening — spent only on the public ground. Baseline stays in the general fund. Grants still carry the three-phase walk. No new tax, no invented percentage. Put the ordinance on the table in the first year.
