Deputy Governor calls Roane 'God's Country'

Eley made those comments on Friday during a visit to Harriman City Hall, where he met with city leaders and state Sen. Ken Yager.

“You said that Roane County to you is God’s Country and we take pride in that,” Harriman Mayor Wayne Best told Eley. “It is God’s Country and we love where we’re at. We love being a part of the state of Tennessee. We love being a part of Roane County.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee appointed Eley to the deputy governor position in February of 2022.

“For the past three years, Butch has played a pivotal role in our strong economic recovery and in maintaining Tennessee’s reputation for conservative fiscal management,” Lee was quoted in the 2022 press release announcing Eley as deputy governor. “His extensive public and private sector experience will continue to add enormous value as we invest strategically in infrastructure, education and other priorities to serve Tennesseans and support our state’s growth.”

In addition to deputy governor, Eley also serves as the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation. He previously served as the commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration before taking over at TDOT.

“When I talk about how lucky we have it in Tennessee, one of the reasons is the financial strong position that we are in,” Eley said Friday. “We got virtually zero debt and we got the lowest taxes in the country, so we’re in a much better position than almost every state.”

Yager explained how Friday’s visit to Harriman came together.

“A month or two ago at least I said I want you to come into the district and visit my counties,” said Yager, who represents Senate District 12. “As a result of that about a week ago we started putting it together and here we are. Roads are so very important to cities and counties.”

One road that is important to Harriman officials is Roane Street.

“Hopefully we can see Roane Street paved this year,” Harriman City Manager Scott Mason told Eley. “That would just mean a lot to not only us, our downtown merchants but to Roane County as well because people get excited when new pavement goes down.”

Eley said the state is committed to moving forward with the Roane Street project. The bid letting is reportedly scheduled for next month.

“I don’t think there’s anything impeding that at this point,” Eley said. “The money is there and so we’re ready to move forward.”

Eley said hearing what Mason and other officials had to say was one of the goals of the visit.

“That’s the reason we came out today is just to listen to our public officials and try to respond and react to them the way we can,” he said.

Senate District 12 includes Roane, Morgan, Campbell, Clay, Fentress, Macon, Overton, Pickett and Scott counties. Eley headed to Morgan County when he left Harriman on Friday.