QuoteWorthy

People who had a way with words in the news last week:

“I’ve never slept more poorly than I have in the last year and a half because I honestly will often wake up in the middle of the night thinking about y’all, thinking about something that we’re working on together. There’s kind of a nagging feeling … that you’re never doing enough.”

— Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp in his State of the County address.

“The silver tsunami is coming, and Chattanooga is not prepared.”

— Gwen Davis, a member of the Glenwood senior center advisory group, speaking to the Chattanooga City Council about the need for a senior center.

“I feel fairly certain that nobody in the legislature had read all the writings of Andrew Jackson.”

— John Vile, an expert in constitutional law at Middle Tennessee State University, on Tennessee lawmakers’ attempt to name 10 official state books.

“A foundation of 120 feet of sandstone? You could build the Empire State Building and probably the World Trade Center up there if you wanted to.”

— Chattanooga developer John “Thunder” Thornton defending his new project to the Marion County Commission.

“Folks, our Christian heritage is critical to this nation. And if we desire to exist, in my opinion, for another 10, 20, 30, maybe 100 years, we need to go back to the roots of our founding.”

— Sen. Paul Rose, R-Covington, while presenting a bill to establish Christian Heritage Month in Tennessee.

“That ticked me off to no end, and I’m still ticked off. He couldn’t talk to me directly, and one of the vice mayors, who don’t know his head from a hole in the ground, was to try to get me a finance answer. He doesn’t have that kind of training.”

— Hamilton County Commissioner Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista, on trying to ask County Chief Financial Officer Lee Brouner questions about county finances. Brouner said he has been accessible to Mackey.

“I’ve seen cases of people waiting for months for a grand jury with no court date. Literal indefinite incarceration.”

— Avery Fairburn, the Hamilton County Community Bail Fund manager, at a community meeting to discuss county bail bond practices.

“It’s not something that we’ve invented just because it’s cute. It is cute, though.”

— Chattanooga Audubon Society Executive Director Jim Stewart on using goats to clear invasive plants from Maclellen Island.

“Finally.” — J. Neil Thomas on a landscaping project along U.S. Highway 27 between Sixth Street and Riverfront Parkway beginning after delays.

“That puts a strain on the school, the principal, the teachers, the SRO, the juvenile court or the DCS that has to take care of this child, until — until somebody from the federal government shows up to take this 6-year-old.”

— Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, the only Republican to vote against a bill mandating state law enforcement officers report the immigration status of people in custody.

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