Published: May 02, 2009 10:11 pm      

Eton looking forward to growth

ETON — Before Billy Cantrell was elected to the City Council in 2002, he said the small burg above Chatsworth was “financially distressed” and had to get TAN (Tax Anticipation Note) funding to pay its bills.

Since then the city’s budget has increased from $180,000 a year to around $1.3 million a year.

“There are mixed emotions about a small town,” Cantrell, now Eton’s mayor, told the Rotary Club of Chatsworth-Murray County recently. “Some people don’t want to see the city grow,” he said. “Some have said, ‘You’re bringing in schools (referring to Bagley Middle School and an effort to annex the new North Murray High), but you can’t run a city off residential taxes.’ But new residences will draw growth from businesses who come in to meet their needs.”

Cantrell said credit should be given to former sole commissioner (and now Chatsworth mayor) Tyson Haynes, who envisioned Eton as an area where growth could happen. In his first year on the City Council, Cantrell said he saw infrastructure stretched from Eton to the Franklin Corners area, where Highways 225 and 286 intersect and Bagley Middle and Woodlawn Elementary School are situated.

“We said, ‘Let’s take the sewage (lines) and capitalize on it’ for growth,” he said of the council. “We can grow for about two-and-a-half years on what we have now — land and infrastructure — but if we don’t plan now the growth will stop and that will hurt us. Tyson (as mayor) and (commissioner) David Ridley have agreed to put growth wherever possible, and I think we can capitalize on that.”

Cantrell said he plans to present the idea of annexation to property owners west of Eton, where lines of infrastructure are in place along Highway 286 to service the schools. He also hopes to offset a loss in revenue from the in-town carpet mills — in work force reduction and lower franchise fees — by luring retail businesses and restaurants.

“Super Saver (a grocery store chain) has signed a contract to purchase property, and they have told me they will employ 22 folks from this county, including a manager,” he said. “I think that will be a perfect fit for Eton and the surrounding communities.”

Cantrell said he is also trying to get a steakhouse in town.

“Fatz (Cafe) has not said no,” he reported of the chain of eateries in several Southern states. “The bad thing is the economy we’re in — it makes them hesitant to make a move right now.”