By Mark Millican
CHATSWORTH — After serving as mayor of Eton for four years and seeing the city grow, Greg Hogan wants to pilot the Murray County ship as sole commissioner.
Hogan’s term as mayor from 2004 through this year was the result of his first run for office. He has been “in and out” of a trucking business he has run from his home since 1985, and also owns and operates Hogan Tires & Lube in Eton. He resigned as Eton mayor to run for the commissioner’s seat in the July 15 Democratic primary against incumbent Jim Welch. Republicans Rick Pritchett and David Ridley are also running. The commissioner post has a salary of $94,248.
“Permitting fees in the county are out of hand,” Hogan said of immediate changes he would make. “The cost of permitting fees puts a hardship on people. It needs to be easier to build a house, and the fee on a new trailer is outrageous.”
Another concern of Hogan’s is the spending of tax money.
“I think we need to change so much money being spent,” he said. “Taxes are so high, and I think I can make a difference there. For example, there’s no reason for a county manager. We could spread those funds around to other employees. We lose good employees to Whitfield County because we can’t pay them enough. These people lay their lives on the line for Murray County every day.
“When the five-man (commission) board was voted in (1992), they were all part time and we had to have a county manager. Now we’ve got a full-time commissioner and I think that position (county manager) could be eliminated.”
Hogan said if elected he would immediately “look at every department” in county government and meet with the managers.
“I wouldn’t go in and fire a bunch of people, but the first thing I would do is meet with every department head and give them my expectations. I’ll listen to their input, too. We need to downsize some of the trucks (county employees are driving) to save gas. We have to do more with less.”
Hogan said accessibility to the commissioner’s office would also be a priority.
“I want public input,” he said, “because I want to know what people are thinking. We won’t have meetings at 9 in the morning, but at 6 or 7 in the evening once a month when people can attend.”
Hogan also has an issue with the “dog pound,” or the animal control department.
“If the county is going to put money into that,” he said, “they need to do more to catch an animal than to give you a cage.”
He said he would look into hiring a grant writer, “or look in-house to find one,” to help Murray secure more state and federal monies.
“Some of these grants are 50-50 matches,” he said, “so if we started them we’d have to keep them up.”
Hogan said Murray County should be able to work with Whitfield County and the city of Dalton.
“A lot of people may not like Dalton,” he said, “but we have to work with other governments, especially with the water issue being what it is.”
