Having been born and raised on Lookout Mountain, Bill Glascock has recently found a new calling for the community he has grown up with. On November 3rd Glascock was voted to be the next mayor of Lookout Mountain.

Glascock has had a “roll up your sleeves” attitude throughout his life, having various jobs including service me-chanic, real estate agent, and construction and ultimately starting his own company in 1985, starting commercial developments.

He was the developer of John Ross Plaza and Holiday Plaza in Rossville, along with numerous others located in cities like Chatsworth, Dalton, and Rome among others throughout the southeast and Midwest.

In the past ten years, his role has changed to managing some of the properties he once developed.

“I am fortunate that I have the time to put into things like local politics. I can put genuine energy into it,” Glas-cock said.

“My primary focus and the reason that I ran for office is to put a pedestrian pathway down the middle of our city, from the state line to the west end of Wood Nymph trail,” Glascock said.

The pathway was approved by the city council six years ago, and is approximately a mile long, and has one sec-tion completed already from Fairyland school to the town center.

“I am really fortunate a lot of people got behind me, they wanted to see it done, and they helped me win this election,” Glascock said.

Glascock is confident he can complete the two remaining phases of the pathway within his four-year term, de-spite some of the challenges in the project.

The election of Glascock as mayor has been viewed by some as a repudiation of the proposed Chapelbrow devel-opment, which has been one of the most important facing citizens in the past two years.

“They came out against it because of storm water runoff issues and because off the fact it would create urban sprawl,” Glascock said.

He does concede that the loss of Chapelbrow is a huge loss of potential tax revenue, with an estimated 200 homes at an average of $250,000 a home, according to Glascock.

Plans for the cities town center have progressed, but decisions on specifics will likely wait until the new admini-stration is in place.

“If I don’t have a completed town center and a completed pathway in the next four years, I will consider myself a failure,” Glascock said.

Another concern for Lookout Mountain residents is the sewer system that Glascock describes as “hopelessly cor-rupt right now,” Glascock said.

Storm water intrusion pumped from a Flintstone subdivision, Krupski Loop, flows into the system via Covenant College, which took on the subdivision to allow for expansion at the college.

Glascock had been a council member on Lookout Mountain from 2001-2005.

His family, including a total of 11 siblings and about 40 other family members, were out in force on election day.

“The most inspiring moment I had during the election was looking at all those [family members] on the side of the road and being waved at by my friends,” Glascock said emotionally.

Family members took a head count of voters who gave them positive responses, concluding that Glascock was ahead.

Glascock didn’t realize until midway through the ballot count that so many people were behind him, which he called a humbling experience.

Glascock has met several times with current mayor Tommy Gifford. “To his credit, he is a man of integrity. He has been very helpful and answered any question I have had,” Glascock said.

Closeup: Bill Glascock

1970 graduate of Notre Dame High School

Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Virginia in 1976

State wrestling champion during his senior year

Favorite author: Ernest Hemingway

Favorite musician: Santana

Favorite movie: “Wizard of Oz”

Favorite actor: Robert De Niro

Hobby: Offshore fishing

Proudest accomplishments: His two children.

Philosophy: Give more than you receive, and make good use of your God-given talents.

Pets: A Great Dane, a rat terrier, and a Weimaraner.