Three candidates file to run for Corbin City Commission

Two current and one former Corbin City Commissioners filed official paperwork this past week seeking a seat on the five-member board.
Incumbents Phil Gregory and Bruce Farris both are seeking new terms on the council – for Gregory it would be his third and for Farris his second. Also entering the race is 15-year commission veteran Ed Tye, who lost a bid last election cycle to serve his eighth consecutive term.
Gregory, a retired banker who got the most votes of any candidate in 2004’s crowded commission race, said he’s running again to finish some projects the current commission has started.
“I just feel like there’s so many things we’ve talked about and tried to do,” Gregory said. “There’s a lot of good things happening … some things we haven’t been able to do in the past.”
Gregory said he’d like to push an aggressive sidewalk and curb rehabilitation program in the city, along with repaving of Main Street and other well-traveled roads. He added that he’s also seeking reelection to oversee work on a new civic center in south Corbin, renovations to the old Corbin Youth Center, and supports completion of recreation projects including new restrooms near the Larry Stevens Memorial Playground and construction of seating, lighting, concession areas and restroom at fields near the current civic center.
While in office, Gregory supported raises in business license fees, garbage collection rates and property taxes … all measures he said were necessary to balance the city’s budget.
“Nobody likes to pay taxes. I pay the same thing, just like everybody else,” Gregory said. “All we did was try to stay even with what we were paying out.”
Gregory was first appointed to the commission in 1999 after the sudden tragic death of popular commissioner Larry Stevens in a motorcycle accident. He is a 1956 graduate of Lily High School and has been married to his wife, Jo Ann, for 45 years. He has two daughters and two grandchildren.
Gregory is a member of Central Baptist Church and the Redhound Varsity Club. He said he’s lived in Corbin since 1960.
“I think the majority of people around here know me,” Gregory said. “I’m solid, trustworthy and I love Corbin. I just want to see Corbin prosper and do good.”
Farris, a local accountant, said he originally filed to run for commissioner in 2004 because he felt the city was in a budget crunch, a problem he could help solve. During his two-year term, the city has gone from red to black.
“It has been my privilege to work with the mayor, other commissioners, committee and board members, and many of our city employees,” Farris said. “It is not an easy task to provide all of the services that the citizens of Corbin enjoy. The City of Corbin is a great place to live because of a team effort that is put forth by many people.”
Farris was fourth in the race last time out, narrowly defeating current Corbin Code Enforcement Board Chairman Joe “Butch” White and Tye. Similar to Gregory, he supported raises in taxes in fees to balance the budget, but was the only commissioner not in favor of a resolution that dropped Corbin to fourth-class city status – a key in the commission’s ability to enact a restaurant tax in the future.
“I would like to continue to be a part of our city government. I will seek re-election as city commissioner simply on the promise that I will look at each issue on its individual merits and that I will always try to make the sound financial decisions that should be expected from an elected city leader.”
Farris is 51-years-old and graduated from Corbin High School in 1972, and Eastern Kentucky University in 1976. He and his wife Karen, to whom he’s been married for 27 years, have two sons.
Both Gregory and Farris filed their paperwork last Thursday. Tye officially entered the commission race on Monday ending months of speculation about his intentions this political season.
The long-time former commissioner said he decided to run again because he felt there was some unfinished business left over from his last term. As commissioner, his pet project was the Corbin Creekwalk, something he said he’d like to see extended in the near future.
Also, Tye said money from occupational tax collections in the city should be used to improve the downtown area.
“We talked so many times about fixing Main Street and sprucing it up and putting good parking areas there,” he said. “With this new tax, we should have a little bit of money to do things like that.”
Tye said he supports efforts to collect occupational taxes in the Knox County portion of Corbin, even if that involves a lawsuit. He said Knox leaders lied to Corbin officials in 1999 about a possible tax deal between the county and the city.
“They told us to our faces they would take care of us. When the time came, they didn’t,” Tye said.
He said it’s been difficult watching from the outside city government work without him involved, but has few criticisms of the decisions made in the last two years.
“There’s always things you’d like to change or do differently,” Tye said. “I think we should be moving much faster on the civic center. Not being there and not knowing what the situations are, it’s hard to really say, but it just seems like as long as we knocked it around and they knocked it around, it ought to be further along.”
Tye was one of two candidates last time out to support allowing local restaurants to sell alcohol on Sundays. Though it could be an issue in the upcoming election, Tye said he doubts the idea has much traction anymore because of timing.
“It doesn’t really matter now. It’s too late,” he said. “We missed the window of opportunity. The time we needed it was before everybody else had their alcohol sales. That window is gone.”
Tye, 65, is a 1958 graduate of Corbin High School and a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force where he served three tours during the Vietnam War. He is an elder at First Christian Church and President of the Corbin Kiwanis Club. He first won a seat on the City Commission in 1990.