After 16 years on the Henry County Board of Supervisors, Tommy Slaughter, of the Reed Creek District, officially retired from his service to the county.
Throughout his tenure on the board, Slaughter said he was proud of getting the county’s paid Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff and ambulances.
“Benny Summerlin (former County Administrator) and I talked about that when I first started out, and he had the idea and I told him the same thing. I was thinking there were a lot of older folks that were sitting at home dying because they didn’t have the money to pay the bills, pay an ambulance,” he said.
While he knows the usage and cost of the ambulances has increased, Slaughter said he still thinks it’s a great thing for the county.
“That’s one of the main things, one of the most important things that I’ve been involved in,” he said, and added with a chuckle that being able to make it 16 years was also an accomplishment in itself.
Projects he wishes he could have accomplished include infrastructure like paving roads and the like.
“Before I went on, each supervisor got so much money every year, and they could use it towards (road) projects,” he said, and recalled the funds could be spent in the person’s district or “either they (the board) would get together and do a big project” in one community or district, “and next year in another district.”
Slaughter said this was a great option when the county had the extra funds.
“Then the economy took a nosedive and we had to take that money away to balance the budget, or try to get it closer, and so we lost all of that,” he said.
As a result, he said the little roads that need to be re-paved or regraded haven’t been.
When he first came onto the board, Slaughter said he originally intended to just serve one term, or four years.
“Then at the end of that four years I was looking, ‘well, I’d like to see this one (project) through’” and the process kept repeating, he said.
A self-described nosey person, Slaughter said he’d miss knowing what’s going on in the county the most.
“And the camaraderie between the other board members. Cause you know, you get to know a lot of secrets you can’t say to nobody else except those” people, he said.
