From the issue of healthy trees being cut down to the visual blight of clear cutting and concerns about the best way to harness useable, environmentally-friendly energy, “green” topics have been in the news a lot in recent years and have touched every town in the nation, including our small city of Jacksonville.The city in recent months submitted a grant proposal to turn cooking oil into fuel for the city’s diesel-run vehicles, a tree ordinance is being readied for submission to the city council and the city is even looking into ways of using the methane gas given off by the wastewater treatment plant as an energy source.
With all that going on, it is no surprise that many of the candidates running for positions in our city government have included environmental concerns in their list of issues important to them.
Trees and other plants have long been an integral part of Truman Norred’s life. As a member of the Jacksonville Garden Club and a Master Gardener, he not only spends hours working with the plants and trees in his own yard, but also volunteering to help with horticulture at the attention and detention centers in Anniston and with other projects.
“I’d like to see us become a Tree City USA and protect our trees. Of course, urban forestry is a term now that has become a common term because we have a lot of trees in town. I think there ought to be some sort of regulation on totally clearing property of trees. They need to leave some tree buffers,” said Norred.
Norred, who is running for election to Place 3, would like to see any tree ordinance approved by the council be applied to public land, allowing homeowners the ability to decide for themselves what happens to their trees.
Among the other “green” projects he is interested in seeing come to pass are a greenway from the Chief Ladia Trail to the square, pocket parks throughout the city and the greening of Alabama Highway 21 on the south end of town.
Norred’s opponent in the election, Bill Owens, is also concerned about giving the citizens of Jacksonville a fair tree ordinance, one that would not infringe on their private property rights and he would like to see stricter, and more environmentally-friendly, requirements for businesses building in town.
“My pet peeve has always been when we allow people to build businesses and we don’t require them to green it,” said Owens, adding the current landscaping ordinance needs to be expanded.
Owens would also like to see time constraints on the franchise agreements granted to utility companies. He believes that as Jacksonville’s circumstances change, the city should have the right to adjust the agreements.
“I am definitely opposed to cutting down trees rather than trimming them,” he said. “You have to adjust with the times whether it is a contract to deal with trees or a contract to deal with people because circumstances change and times change.”
Sandra Sudduth, who is running for re-election to Place 4, agrees with Owens that the city needs stronger landscaping requirements for businesses. She acknowledges it would be impractical to require residents to adhere to a tree ordinance at their homes, she hopes the city can begin to educate the public and encourage them to keep and plant trees.
“You can encourage people without always making a law or an ordinance about greenways and keeping the trees. I know a lot of times when we have subdivisions being built and we have people who don’t want all the trees cut down that our builders and our contractors will work with the community and will work with the neighbors on saving trees,” said Sudduth.
Sudduth sees the city’s current recycling program as a step in the right direction and would love to see more environmentally sound programs like that implemented.
“We have been to quite a few state meetings and national meetings and one of the big things is tring to come up with a way to save our environment, whether it is by recycling or whether it is by having our citizens reuse the oil and grease and things like that,” said Sudduth.
Lovelle Buchanon, who is running against Sudduth for Place 4, sees the focus on going green as an opening to introduce a more healthy lifestyle to the city. Part of that in her mind is making sure businesses and industries in the city are held accountable for what they release into the environment.
She would love to see more sidewalks throughout Jacksonville, increasing the walkability of the town and encouraging the residents to walk, rather than drive, to nearby places.
“We have the trail. If I get on the Jacksonville City Council, my vision is to make the city where you can get out and walk more. The trail is good, but I would like to see sidewalks put in the city where everybody will be able to benefit,” said Buchanon. “If we provided sidewalks, more sidewalks in our city, people would get out and walk more and then we could decrease some of our health expenses by a healthier community.”
Buchanon would also like to see community gardens in the city, cared for by those living near them and growing things useful to those residents. She envisions a place where young and old residents work together and teach each other the best ways to grow plants.
“I would love to see a community garden where you are doing multiple things. Having youth and the elderly work together on this project and then everybody in the community can benefit from it,” said Buchanon.
To see how the other city council candidates and the mayoral candidates answered this question, see the accompanying graphic.
