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Incumbent Morristown City Councilmember Ken Smith is seeking another term as one of the council’s at-large members.

The pharmacist who also co-owns several downtown businesses says he hopes voters give him the chance to keep working for Morristown and improving things in the city.

“I think Morristown is a great place to be and live and raise our families,” he said. “I’m proud to see us doing things to make it a better place to live.

“We’re involved in the community business-wise and church-wise,” he said. “We’re proud to be here.”

Smith said the city’s team is made up of a lot of different players but he’s proud of the teamwork.

“It’s very important we work together as a team,” he said. “It takes a lot of people to make this team up.”

Smith, who served on planning commission before city council, said one thing he’d like to see change in the city is seeing more youth involved in city government. He threw out the idea of a summer internship program, but admitted he hadn’t worked out all the details.

“We need to train young people so they can take our place,” he said.

Smith – and his family – are heavily invested in downtown. As a downtown business owner, he has insight into what is needed to keep downtown on the upswing.

“We’ve been very interested in seeing downtown restored,” he said “We’ve seen the peak of downtown and … then we saw downtown go down. Then in the early 2000s it started to come back … now we’re almost to the point we’re going to see some great growth downtown. We can do that by listening to people – what do people want, what would you like to see downtown – we do a lot of listening.”

Smith agreed with his fellow speakers at the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum that the roads in Morristown are a major issue.

“That needs to be on our radar to fix this and it is,” he said, pointing to the sewer work that was court ordered prior to the handoff of sewer operations from the city to Morristown Utilities. “We had a mandate that MUS had to repair the sewer lines and it tore up every street in the city. And that’s one reason the street’s are in such bad shape. There’s other reasons but that’s one reason.

“We’ve been trying to do all we can each year to repave these streets but you know it takes a lot of money for that asphalt and we can’t do more than we’ve got money to do.”

Smith pointed to the Highway 160 Bypass and the red-light cameras that monitor traffic flow and adjust accordingly as successful traffic allieviating alternatives and said the council needs to look at more solutions like it.

“We need to do better and we can do better on our paving and our street planning,” he said.

When asked about what major civic project should be on the city’s radar in the future, Smith pointed to a peforming arts center.

“I know that’s not on the radar now but…, look at Greeneville. They have a performing arts center. It’s well respected and I think we could have something like that, too. But not now,” he said. “But still, that’s long-range planning and you have to do that.”

Smith also addressed others concerns about the Morristown Landing.

“You know a lot of industries when they come to town, they look to see what the town had, what they have for their employees,” he said. “That’s one of the things that they usually want to know, ‘Do you have a community center that our employees can enjoy and benefit from?’

“It’s maybe not for everyone. We’ve still got the Talley-Ward Center for basketball and pickleball and so forth.”

Smith said that with their membership, the Landing does have something for everyone to do, pointing to the Landing’s Rotary Splashpad – which is available at no cost – as well as the indoor features that do require a membership such as the climbing wall, the walking track, the weight room and the pool.

“It does have something for every one,” he said. “We need to be proud of it and make use of it… it’s a good thing for the community overall.”

In the end, Smith said there are three things that are important in his life: faith, family and friends. He said he considers the people of Morristown his friends.

“We want to do the most for the most people we can,” he said.

The election is May 2. Early voting begins April 12. Videos of the candidates for Morristown City Council and Mayor are online at www.citizentribune.com.