Simonds
At age 29, Joe Simonds is the youngest candidate in the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners’ race. Spurred on by a combination of duty and community encouragement, the Republican candidate believes he’s ready to take on the challenge of local government.
“If I believe in the system we have as Americans, then it’s time to step up,” Simonds said. “My personality and my heart is to serve.
“I’ve had more and more people come up to me and say, ‘We think you’d make a good one.’ I kept getting comments saying, ‘You should run.’ ”
Simonds is running for the District 4 commissioner’s seat occupied by Dr. Dan Eichenbaum. One of his biggest concerns centers around the county’s natural resources. Simonds is an avid kayaker and would like to create better access points to local waters. With two sons under age 5, Simonds also is concerned about recreation opportunities for kids.
“The connection I have with the outdoors, I want to re-create that for anyone who lives here,” he said. “That’s one of my biggest focuses – recreation, creating parks.”
A native of Cherokee County, Simonds has already pastored three churches before hitting 30 and has spent time as a teacher and a coach. He believes there is a certain unspoken language between locals, one that he is fluent in as well.
“They don’t have to say what they want to say for me to pick up on what they’re getting at,” Simonds said. “I understand the way of life, the traditions we’ve grown up on.”
He likewise enjoys getting to know new people and sharing his stories with them. As a result, Simonds believes he is well-suited to bridge the gap between locals and newcomers and find solutions to problems that will satisfy both groups. He describes himself as a “listener,” who aims to find the best possible outcome for everyone.
Simonds said he understands that high school consolidation is an important topic, but he does not believe anything should be done in the near future. He would first like to see the financial impact of lawsuits facing the county and Department of Social Services.
“Right now, I think we’ve got bigger fish to fry in the county,” Simonds said. “We have DSS lawsuits, and that’s looking like it’s going to be a lot of money by the time they get through all the cases. So, personally, I think every bit of the consolidation argument should just be put on the back-burner, let it simmer, tell everybody that we’re not going to do anything else for a while.”
Simonds would prefer to see any consolidated high school built near Murphy High School, but he believes a two-school solution is best.
When it comes to noise from unenclosed crypto mining operations, Simonds believes all routes of diplomacy should be exhausted before moving toward any other solutions.
Simonds said while he feels for the people being affected, he is concerned about government encroaching on private property rights.
“If it’s my land, I’m going to do with it what I want,” Simonds said. “If I want to go outside and crank my truck up at 3 a.m. just to listen to it, it’s going to make everybody around very angry, but it’s my land.
“However, my grandmother lives right below me, my aunt lives right across the road. If both of them came up and said, ‘You’ve got to quit because you’re waking us up at 3 a.m. every night, it’s interrupting my sleep, can you please stop,’ OK.”
Simonds also worries about a planned noise ordinance amendment designed to address crypto mining complaints.
“Once you start putting limitations on what people can do on their own land, it’s only going to get bigger and essentially can’t ever be stopped,” he said.