Joe Shults wins Cocke County mayoral election. Here are the priorities he plans to tackle during his time in office
Shults defeated independent candidate Chad Burchette in Thursday’s election.
COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) - Republican Joe Shults has defeated independent Chad Burchette to become the next mayor of Cocke County.
Shults will now face two major challenges — rebuilding the county jail condemned by Hurricane Helene and attracting higher-paying jobs to the county.
When it comes to the jail, Shults says delaying the work any further will carry a financial cost.
“Each year that we don’t get this jail built, just in materials, not counting labor, is costing this county about $1,720,000 a year, just in the increase of materials,” Shults said. “And now that Jefferson County has put us on the clock, we’ve got to get this jail built.”
His idea for a new jail is a hub-and-spoke model, which differs from his opponent, who suggested a pod system.
“My proposal is a hub-type jail center. And then build like spokes of a wagon wheel — 150 beds here, 150 here,” Shults said. “We don’t need a four-story jail. We need one level. With those numbers, we can build a 350-bed jail here for roughly around 42 to 45 million dollars.”
As for his other priority, Shults said he believes the county’s nearly complete innovation park is a key opportunity for job creation, and recruiting businesses to the park is the next step.
“We’ve got about seven sites there that will accommodate some pretty large scales,” Shults said. ”We have one section that’s 14 acres. So the next thing that we have to do is get busy starting recruiting.”
He also believes Cocke County should work to draw in revenue from Sevier County.
When speaking about his decision to run, he said he was actually approached by people in the community asking him to.
“I just had some members of the community come to me and just ask if I’d be interested in running for the mayor’s position,” Shults said. “Because everybody in the county knows that I’m just a straightforward guy.”
Shults defeated independent candidate Chad Burchette with 57.1% of the vote.
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