Published: June 25, 2008 10:43 pm            

Cantrell wants to ‘strengthen’ Eton

ETON — Having served as a city councilman here for eight years, Billy Cantrell believes he has been part of strengthening the north Murray town. He would like to continue that as Eton’s new mayor.

Cantrell has resigned as a councilman and will face Jimmy Bartley and former council member Judy Bostic in the July 15 special election. Former mayor Greg Hogan resigned to run for county commissioner. The position of mayor pays $5,200 a year.

Cantrell works at Centaur Marketing in Dalton as chief operating officer. He ran for Joan Dooley’s council seat unopposed when she did not re-qualify prior to the 2000 election, and lost by a vote to Greg Hogan as mayor in July 2004. He qualified for his former Seat 1 post and won it in September of that year against Tony Pais.

“I’d like to see the city continue to grow in the way that it’s been growing,” he said. “We had no population, then the city approved the new subdivision behind Eton Elementary, so that gave us a little tax base. Then the strip mall came (downtown) after we approved it, and that set the ground for the future growth that we want to continue.”

Cantrell also mentioned giving potential businesses a “one-year tax break” as incentive for moving into the city. The tax funds could be replaced by “the revenue you didn’t have before,” he explained. “The yield increase would be there even if you gave them a break on the occupational tax the first year.”

He said when he came into office in 2000, the city was somewhat in “financial trouble” because of having to borrow money to get through the year with a tax anticipation note. Eton also had part of its most recent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funding from Murray County “substantially” cut, he said, from 2.5 percent to 1 percent.

Cantrell said the reduction resulted in a loss of between $400,000 to $600,000 over a 7-year period.

He said Eton officials worked with former Murray sole commissioner Tyson Haynes to bring sewer service into Eton, fortifying infrastructure.

“I see nothing that we backed up on,” he said in response to a question about anything left undone during his two terms. “We moved forward, worked on the budget. Having our SPLOST funding pulled away hurt some, but we still purchased a garbage truck and a police car.”

Cantrell pointed out that during his time on the council he tried to create community events to draw people from Chattanooga and Atlanta, including a motorcycle cruise-in and the showing of movies in Eton Park that were approved just before he resigned.

“We wanted the city to grow properly,” he said of the mayor and council. “We want to have agreements with other governments in the county, but we also want be able to stand alone. That’s why we’ve been doing a 1-year, 5-year and 10-year plan.

“I’d like to be mayor so I could oversee that.”

        

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