East Ridge Mayor Brent Lambert invited mayors from all over Southeast Tennessee to discuss the possibility of forming a Southeast Tennessee Municipal Mayors Association, and the mayors in attendance voted unanimously to do so.
Currently, West Tennessee and Middle Tennessee have similar associations.
Fourteen Southeast Tennessee mayors met and discussed the need for and the purpose of a Southeast Tennessee Municipal Mayors Association.
Mayor Lambert was elected as the chairman of the new association. In addition, a volunteer committee of three was created to consider bylaws for this group. This committee is comprised of Mayor Dwain Land of Dunlap, Mayor Ralph McGill of Farragut and Mayor Jim Adams of Soddy-Daisy.
The association will meet again in March to consider a recommendation to adopt the bylaws, to elect additional officers and to set a regular meeting schedule.
The following mayors and/or their representatives were in attendance:
—Dale Hurst, Lenoir City, representing Mayor Tony Aikens
—Ralph McGill, Farragut
—Bill James, Decatur
—Troy Beets, Kingston
—Monty Millard, Red Bank
—Bob Vincent, Dayton
—Burke Garwood, Etowah
—Bill Lusk, Signal Mountain
—Dwain Land, Dunlap
—Candice Poole, Ridgeside
—Greg Brown, Lookout Mountain
—Jim Adams, Soddy-Daisy
—Ron Littlefield, Chattanooga
—Brent Lambert, East Ridge
There were eight area mayors who were unable to attend the inaugural meeting:
—Hal Buttram, Athens
—Tom Rowland, Cleveland
—David Jackson, Kimball
—Carl Koella III, Rockford
—Doyle Lowe, Sweetwater
—Don Mull, Alcoa
—John Turner, Collegedale
—Ken Wilkerson, Lakesite
