Yager visits Scott County
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Yager visits Scott County
Senator provides legislative update to Chamber of Commerce
By Shane Gilreath
Photo by Shane Gilreath
Rhonda Shelton attended Senator Yager’s legislative update at the July Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Shelton, and her husband, Randy, have been deeply concerned about issues that face their neighborhood in light of plans for a secondary landfill.
With landfill demonstrators outside on the street, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce met for their monthly luncheon on Thursday, July 24, 2025, at the Senior Citizen Center on Main Street in Oneida. The event – attended by a full house – hosted State Senator Ken Yager, who provided a legislative update on an array of issues, including the controversial landfill, which the senator said was largely a local issue, redirecting the matter to the permit process from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). “All of your local government bodies are absolutely in opposition to this,” Yager told Chamber members. “I’m not going to do anything to stand in opposition to local government.”
The original permit was issued in 2010 and with Knox Horner, the face of the landfill, telling the Scott-McCreary Environmental Coalition that the site was permitted and construction would being in September, SCN reached out to TDEC for comment. As previously reported, TDEC’s Nick Lytle told SCN: “Law states that if the landfill doesn’t construct within one year of the permit date, they must recertify prior to construction and waste placement. That is where this permit currently resides,” Lytle said. The previous claim that the landfill has a permit is technically true, according to Lytle, but that permit has not, as yet, been recertified as required.
Yager had arrived prepared for the controversy and spoke with demonstrators on his way into the meeting, after Oneida Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones took the Senator across the area earlier in the day.
“Mayor Phillips-Jones wore me out this morning,” Yager joked, having toured the water plant and other areas largely associated with grant funding.
The Senator did, however, bring attention to the contentious school voucher bill – the Education Freedom Act of 2025 – that he controversially supported (after previously opposing it). The legislation drew criticism from many in Scott County and across the district, splitting the vote of county legislators in Nashville. The bill, which was a pet project of Governor Bill Lee, who called a special session of the state legislature to push the bill forward, will provide school choice to Tennessee students.
“My steadfast opposition has been the loss of funding to local districts,” he said, echoing the concerns of many of his constituents. “It would have cost a hemorrhage of revenue, and I talked to the governor about this, and he fixed the problem.”
In the end, the bill offers $7,200 vouchers to at least 20,000 Tennesseans for private school education.
“If an eligible student applies and receives (a voucher),” Yager told attendees, “the public money will continue to come to public schools until the student turns 18 years old.”
Saying he had met with both local directors of schools, the legislator indicated that Scott County should be proud of the work and advocacy from Directors Bill Hall and Jeanny Phillips and the direction of local districts. Both directors had asked the Senator to address issues for students with intellectual disabilities. To varying degrees, much of Senator’s address revolved around the education and protection of Tennessee’s children.
“I’m very concerned about the children of our state, that they should be nurtured and protected,” Senator Yager said, addressing a pandemic of assaults and human trafficking that continues to plague the country. “You look into a child’s eyes and you see love and trust. We have these people taking advantage of that, and I will not stop as long as I’m in office.”
On a distinctly different note, the Kingston-based Republican also addressed concerns with agriculture, an industry that impacts citizens across the state, including Scott County.
“We face a problem in Tennessee where we are losing agricultural land being eaten by development,” Yager cautioned.
Since 1997, 1.7 million acres of farm lands have been lost, an issue that will ultimately erode the state’s agricultural impact and economy. Per data from a 2021 study by the University of Tennessee, 610 Scott County residents are employed in agriculture, and the total direct agricultural output is estimated at $87.3 million. With multiplier effects, which refers to the proportional amount of increase, or decrease, in final income that results from an injection of capital, agricultural output has a total estimated economic impact of $108.3 million. It is the #1 industry in Tennessee, adding $89 Billion to the state’s economy.
It was an issue addressed during the 2025 Session. Yager reminded Chamber members that the Farmland Preservation Act was passed into law and signed by Lee in May. The law creates a $25 million fund to assist Tennessee farmers in protecting their land with permanent conservation easements, a voluntary, legally binding agreement that restricts land use to protect its conservation values, ensuring the land remains preserved for future generations.
When responding to a question about emergency service providers, the senator called himself a champion of the industry.
“I’m a strong supporter of ambulance services and they just don’t have the revenue to do what they need to do,” he said. “I don’t know how you keep the doors open.”
In addressing the issue, Yager said he had been working on a bill of support. “Help is on the way,” he said, saying the bill – Ground Ambulance Service Provider Assessment Act, which Yager sponsored – will require that ambulance services are more adequately reimbursed for their services.
“I have found the money,” Yager told the audience, later telling SCN that the bill should provide $300,000 in revenue to Scott County.
“On behalf of Scott County, I want to thank you for all you do on behalf of Scott County,” Oneida Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones told the senator.
“The people of Scott County have always been very welcoming to me,” the senator responded. “The class of people in Scott County are second to none.”
