Brownsville, Haywood Co. mayors discuss State of the Community

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. — Local leaders in one community gathered together to talk about how they plan on moving forward.

Haywood County and the City of Brownsville’s Mayors spoke in front of the community Friday morning to give updates. This event was hosted by the Chamber of Commerce at the Brownsville-Haywood County Parks & Recreation building.

Haywood County Mayor David Livingston was the first to speak.

“The Sheriff announced, and Sheriff Garrett has done a wonderful job by the way, he announced the other day that crime is down in the county for probably the 6th or 7th quarter in a row,” Mayor Livingston said.

Mayor Livingston also spoke about how well the emergency services are doing in the county.

“If you only knew what we do, with our county fire department and our county ambulance services, you would be amazed how we are far above all the other counties around us,” said Livingston.

Brownsville Mayor Bill Rawls got up in front of the attendees to speak as well. He began his talks by speaking about the financial outlook of the city.

“The City of Brownsville has zero debt and a robust and healthy fund balance that has grown since I’ve come into office,” Mayor Rawls said.

He continued talking finances by explaining how they use grant funding to help the city.

“We definitely don’t believe in using grant funding for recurring expenses like salaries, benefits, and things of that nature,” Rawls said. “So, we’ll continue to use the grant funding. As I said, 25% of our budget now is in grant funding.”

Mayor Rawls also mentioned that leaders in every part of the city and county need to work together in order to continue to grow.

Leaders from BlueOval SK and District Attorney General Frederick Agee spoke to the crowd about their recent accomplishments as well.

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