Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of interviews with some of the local candidates running for office. General election voting is Aug. 2.

“Franklin County is on the verge of good things,” said State Representative David Alexander, candidate for Franklin County mayor. His seize-the-day vision zeroes in on the opportunity availed by the soon-to-be constructed Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT). Alexander’s three daughters sought employment elsewhere after college.

“I want the job opportunities in Franklin County to be good enough and the variety wide enough that our children want to stay,” he said.

Alexander sees the TCAT as the county’s prime industrial recruitment tool. “We can design programs specific to industries’ needs,” he stressed, pointing to the shortage of nurses at rural hospitals as one example. “I want to be mayor to help the county use the TCAT to make the county better.”

Alexander’s personal story reflects the same seize-the-day approach to life. A family tragedy prompted him to abandon his pursuit of a master’s degree in English literature and return to the rental equipment business, the profession he’d worked in since the age of 14. Born and raised in Jackson, Miss., by the early 1990s he was managing a large store with multiple locations throughout the state. When a conglomerate bought out the store, he and his wife Cile decided they were ready for a change and the appeal of a different climate.

Alexander looked for a small rental business to buy and found one in Winchester. He and his wife loved the area, but not the company. “They had old, worn-out equipment,” Alexander said. In 1994, the couple moved with their three daughters to Winchester and opened their own rental equipment store. In 18 months the other company was out of business. Today, he and his wife live just off the square, pleased they can walk to downtown’s many new offerings.

Alexander points to solid waste disposal as the growing county’s most pressing need. He cited decreasing landfill locations and more stringent environmental regulations as the cause. “For an area to grow, you need a place to put your trash,” Alexander insisted. He lauded the county’s recent purchase of a machine to chip and recycle waste material as a step in the right direction. “An additional remedy might be a gasification plant,” Alexander said. In use elsewhere in Tennessee, gasification plants combust waste and produce electricity.

Asked if he would support a 10 percent property tax increase to fund building two new middle schools, Alexander said, “There is another route we can take.”

“People griping about spending money on the schools need to visit and see the mold and mildew in the bathrooms,” he suggested, “and the pails and trashcans teachers put out to catch water when it rains.” Referencing the recent proposal to build two new schools and salvage the gyms by covering them with a membrane roof, he asked, “If they can fix the gym roofs, what is to prevent them from fixing the roofs on the other pods? Once the buildings are dry, then we can deal with the mold and mildew problems.”

Alexander said the county’s biggest challenge is “to do the things that need done for education, economic growth, and law enforcement and do them within our financial capabilities.”

He praised the county for recently reinvigorating its Long Range Planning efforts as a way to bring together the diverse elements in the county with a view to the future instead of just tackling immediate needs.

“My perspective is larger from my past eight years as state representative,” Alexander said. “There’s a lot of help available if you know who to ask.”