BLUFF CITY, Tenn. – Citing personal reasons, Bluff City’s third mayor since 2008 resigned from office during Thursday’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
“I hate to do this, I really do,” Todd Malone said as he read from a prepared statement at the meeting. “It has been a great honor to serve the citizens of Bluff City.”
Malone took office as one of the town’s five aldermen in July 2007 and wound up serving as its mayor less than a year later after the town’s previous two mayors, Bob Thomas and Tom Anderson, resigned before the end of their terms in office.
Then, in the May 2009 election, Malone was elected to serve a full four-year term as mayor, after beating LonGene Leonard in that race. Earlier, in November 2008, Leonard, a former alderman, tried to have Malone and three other board members removed from office in a recall attempt that failed by a 3-2 margin.
While both Anderson and Thomas cited problems with their fellow board members as the main reason behind their resignations, Malone said he has enjoyed serving with fellow board members and his decision to leave office had nothing to do with them.
Nor did it have anything to do with recent issues facing the board, he said.
“It may seem to some that I am running away from the city’s problems and that’s not true,” Malone said, adding that he wanted to continue serving the town in whatever way he could even though he was leaving public office.
Malone’s resignation came as a complete surprise to his fellow board members, who said they had enjoyed working with Malone and respected him.
“We didn’t always agree but we worked together,” Alderman Robert Miller said, adding that he could understand Malone’s decision to resign because serving on the board is “a big time commitment.”
With Malone’s resignation, Vice Mayor J.C. Gentry will likely take over as the town’s mayor. Gentry said he was a little nervous about taking over the new responsibilities.
“It’s a big step,” Gentry said, after Thursday’s meeting. “The board’s got some really heavy decisions to make and it’s going to be tough.”
One of those decisions would likely involve how best to deal with a recent water main rupture that could cost the city more than $100,000 to repair. Mattern and Craig engineer Mark Hill said the water main froze during January’s cold snap and severely damaged the brackets that hold the pipeline under the Thomas Bridge on State Route 390.
“It’s not uncommon for water lines to break, in fact that’s happening all over the Tri-Cities,” Hill said, adding that the water main’s replacement would be particularly expensive because of the damaged braces.
Soon after Malone’s resignation Thursday, the board took the first step toward replacing the water main when it approved plans to spend almost $20,000 to run a temporary pipeline along a suspension bridge across the river next to the Thomas Bridge, which crosses the South Fork of the Holston River.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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