'I'm home now,' says new city codes director

Ed Dodson, Shelbyville's new planning and codes director, says he will be spending the next few months listening and settling in to his new job. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Listening is what Ed Dodson, Shelbyville's new planning and codes director, intends to focus on in his first few months on the job.

Dodson has returned home to Bedford County to fill the position left vacant by the resignation last fall of Kip Green.

He says the most important thing for him to do right now is listen.

As an architect, Dodson said he gained a lot of experience dealing with building code issues, zoning and planning, and that he feels he has "a pretty good overview about how all those things are suppose to work."

Open ears

"What I need to do first in the first three or four months is do an awful lot of listening," Dodson said, which he describes as his main role for the time being.

One of the things Dodson has to look forward to is his first meeting with the city's planning commission, which takes place next Thursday at 6 p.m.

Dodson said that he will have opinions on the best way to approach things, but he first wants to pull together a consensus of the people who make up the decision making process in Shelbyville.

"I've got opinions and I'll be sharing them, but want to make sure that a consensus is made on everything," he said. "Then, my role will be to enforce that."

"My role is not to change anything right now --- my role is to listen."

Record of success

Dodson graduated from Shelbyville Central High School in 1971 and was a member of the National Honor Society. In 1976, he received an Bachelor of Architecture degree, with honors, from the University of Tennessee.

Following graduation from UT, Dodson was employed with a variety of architectural firms in Tennessee and Georgia from 1977 until 2008, and was project designer on a number of structures in Nashville such as the H.G. Hill Shopping Center, Bordeaux Hospital and restoration of four buildings in the Second Avenue Historical District.

Dodson was also the project manager or architect for buildings in Atlanta, Raleigh, Jacksonville, and Los Angeles.

Local roots

His mother was Sara Dodson, who taught at Central High School from the mid 1960s to the early 1990s and she was also a county commissioner. She died in 2002.

Dodson also had high praise for the education he received at Central, saying that when he reached Knoxville, he found that he was ahead of many of his fellow students from across the state.

His family is from Flat Creek, a place which he has "a very emotional attachment to" and that's where he's looking to find a home again.

He has a 30-year-old daughter who lives in San Francisco and the new codes director says he will be putting his home in Atlanta on the market this spring.

Dodson has also been getting reacquainted with "some" of his old friends, but mostly he has been reconnecting with family the most.

"I've been planning this move for about five to six years," he said. "I'm home now."