County Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, it's almost, it is six o'clock. If everyone would please take their seat. Is Brother Slaughter in the room? Raise your hand. Okay, I just needed to know. We're ready to do roll call first, is that correct? Five. Okay, we do have a quorum. We have 14 present, five absent. Deputy Davis, would you please declare this meeting open? Thank you. At this time, we're going to open with a prayer. The prayer will be presented by our own Joe Pettigo. After the prayer, please remain standing in silence as we reflect upon the recent passing of Commissioner Joseph Hodge, as well as Commissioner Tim Morris's wife has had a medical issue today. It's the reason he is not here. Mr. Pedigo.

MR. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, we're thankful for this day and its many blessings. We're thankful, Father, especially for your son and his sacrifice for us. At this time, Father, we pray thy blessings upon Tim Marsh's wife, pray be with the medical folks who are seeing to her needs, and pray, Lord, that be thy will, help her to recover. And we also pray thy blessings upon the Hodge family. Father, we're thankful for these commissioners that are willing to step up and serve our county. We pray, Father, your blessings upon them as they go about making decisions that impact the county and help them, Lord, and use good judgment and make decisions that will be beneficial for this county. We pray, Father, your blessings upon those folks who will be visiting our county in the next few days with safe trip here, safety while they're here, and safety as they leave. And help us, Lord, to recognize our need to strive always to follow your will and to try to do what is right. These blessings we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please, a moment of silence. Thank you. I will now ask Commissioner Hirschman to lead the assembly in a pledge to our United States flag. Thank you, Mr. Pettigo. Thank you, Mr. Hirschman.

Next item would be approve the agenda. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to remove item number 9A from the agenda.

OK. We have a motion to amend the agenda by removing 9A. Does he need a second?

Second.

Thank you. We have a second. You guys get that removed, please. I would make a note that 5B, 5- We don't have a motion yet on the floor, Dennis.

Do what now? They made amendment, but we don't have a motion on the floor yet.

I thought he was making the motion to amend. He made the motion to amend removing 9A. But he didn't click the machine.

You have to, somebody has to make a motion to accept the agenda before you can make a motion to leave. So we don't have a motion on the agenda.

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What if I just scratch it out? I've seen them do that before. All right, motion has been made by Commissioner Hertzman, or was. Motion by Miller. You're making the motion to approve the agenda. Is that correct?

The motion is to accept the agenda with the exception of removing 9A.

Does that work? That will work.

Then I can second.

I'll second that motion then. Everybody understand what we're doing? We're removing 9A. We don't need a reason, please. Oh, I see what you're saying. You're saying electronically. Thank you. Now, back to what I was going to say. Guys, the agenda items that say unanimous consent are not. 5B, we will vote on it. 5C, we will vote on it as a group, unless you guys want to start picking those out individually. 5D, we will vote on that as a group, unless you guys start picking individual items out, okay? Just so you understand the agenda tonight. Now, we're ready to vote on the items. Motion to approve the agenda with the removal of 9A, correct? Does everybody vote and know what they're voting on? Commissioner Duncan? Thank you. Motion has been approved with 13. Try to hold that screen a little longer, please, when the vote is finished. Okay, moving right along, the next item will be public comment. We're gonna move down to line six, which is public comment. Anybody wish to speak to any item of governmental nature for Coffey County government?

Hello, thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Stuart McLaren. I'm a Coffey County resident, voter, and someone who believes in the principle of fair and free elections as a core American value. Over the past two weeks, I've been going from department to department trying to figure out what the campaign sign laws are that apply to the green area. right here at the Coffey County Administrative Plaza and who is responsible for enforcing them. Everyone I went to pointed me in the direction of the election commission and said to talk to Andy and speaking with him he made it very clear that his commission was not in charge of enforcing the signs outside. Eventually I was able to find from speaking with Ms. Vasquez that it was the capital outlay committee. And I attended that committee meeting and the process that they described as happening when they removed signs, it wasn't followed the way they described it. And I looked for information about how those laws are enforced and by who. And everything that's in the candidate packet points to Manchester City Codes and the County Codes Office, which all say that they have nothing to do with it. But it falls under the Capital Outlay Committee because it's maintenance of the grounds and not the Election Commission because, according to Andy, it's outside 100 feet of the building. But the problem with the ordinance being proposed tonight is that it was primarily brought on by the mowers. and the way that the current resolution that I haven't been able to find doesn't provide them that authority, at least as far as what I've had in a public records request. I received back only just communication from the election office and what was in the candidate packet. The ordinance proposed tonight, it adds restrictions to something that isn't necessarily an official resolution, so it's sort of a half measure. I would say to include in the proposed resolution an established enforcement authority so the candidates know who to contact if they have questions about the rules or if the rules change after they've already gotten their packets. Just some sort of provision in there that allows equal public access to the rules so that there's no gaps for anything to happen that wouldn't be fair to any candidate of any side. Does anyone want to ask me any questions?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, public comment period.

Good evening, my name is Maureen Burke. I reside in Tallahoma, Tennessee within Coffey County. And I am here tonight just to thank the Coffey County Planning Commission for proposing a moratorium on data centers. I think that's a great thing to do to step back and look at the impacts. I would like to see the same thing with solar farms because we've seen some negative impacts already. So I urge all our commissioners to vote for the moratorium. Thank you.

Thank you. Next. Is there anyone else regarding any Coffey County governmental matters? I would remind everybody to mute their cell phones. I forgot to do that earlier.

Hi, I'm Steven Arnold. I've been a rural Coffey County resident since 1999. So I was here for the 2007-2008 drought. I was here for the recent week-long freeze we had. So I'm very thankful that you guys are taking a look at the moratorium on AI because of its impacts on our water supply. and we need to look at a lot of different factors including the fact that the AI firms are still building water guzzling AI systems, not just closed loop systems. And the closed loop systems have a lot of their own problems because they concentrate the pollutants in the water which either could discharge to Normandy Lake or they send it to our Manchester Water Treatment Plant and expect us to treat it. High concentration of metals that are very difficult and expensive to treat. and i hope as we develop the rezoning and ordinances that you'll take into consideration that ai firms sometimes will phase so they might come in and say we're just building a 30 megawatt but in reality their long-term plan is to build a hundred megawatt mega structure with natural gas turbines or whatever they need so that's a very high concern because then you have a lot of infrasound noise pollution that travels very far and penetrates homes and can lead to health effects. So I'm so glad that we're going to be looking at all these things. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anyone else agenda item or any coffee counter governmental subject?

Good evening. My name is Dina Nicoletti. I've been here 10 years. I live in Coffey County. I was not prepared to be here today. Just so you all know, I just found out about this meeting at 6 as I was pulling in. I really oppose anything to do with AI in our environment, period. If we look at Wisconsin right now, their waterways are being forged with white milky substance. AI is saying that they operate off of water. There's proof and there's a guy that is on the internet that was working for the AI data centers and he's in a different state proving that literally they don't need as much water as they're needing. They don't need to operate off water. And we do need to look into that because we don't need this here already. We're already paying for all the mistakes prior to from not having enough knowledge. I live off the duck river. I literally flood twice a year and I'd hate to lose that. I mean, we literally, we have wildlife that's not going to sustain. We already have other wildlife with diseases and all of these other things that are going on. So even having AI here is going to be defermental to our environment period. It's not, we're not built for that. We are built to be a farming community. That's what we all stand on. And that's what we believe on in coffee County. Otherwise I wouldn't have came here 10 years ago if that wasn't the belief. Now believing to bring in AI, I think it's going to be more hurtful than positive in any way. So I do hope that you guys really look into that and see what the actual outcome is and look at other states and other people that are affecting in rural lands, especially farmers and the horse farmer out in Wisconsin. She can't, she has no more water and she's been there for 40 years. And we just gotta look at that and what it's gonna do to the environment. I am gonna piggyback off of that gentleman right there. He was very knowledgeable on it. I wish I had more knowledge to give to you all. But look at our neighboring states and look at what's going on to our neighbors that are dealing with AI centers, the little guy, not the big guys. Because that's who it's gonna affect and we all pay that salary too. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak in this public comment period? Well, the lady was first, I'm sorry. The lady was already moving.

Thank you. My name is Marnie Sherrill, and I'm a resident of Coffey County. And in addition to the concerns already mentioned about the AI data centers and the moratorium, there's also the issue of the infrastructure and electricity and water infrastructure that would be needed if there were to be data centers. I know that Duck River was asking folks to reduce their water usage earlier this year. and especially with all of the agricultural centers in the area, I would just be concerned that bringing a center like that into the area would cause additional costs to residents to cover that infrastructure for electricity and water. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

A little different spin. I'm Thomas Kroll. I live up on Colbridge Road in Beech Grove. Just a general comment on the assessments that we got laid in wood. Mine personally, 46%. I am retired. My wife is retired. I don't know what people are thinking. I agree with the AI statements and everything, but this is real. Every one of yous are gonna be retired. Our pay don't go up. How do you make up 46%? And here's what no one's thinking about. They say, oh, Mr. Crow, your house is worth more. I don't care what they do down the street next door. I care where I live, protect, and mine. How about the homeowner's insurance? Even if you could eat that tax burden, now your house is worth... You gotta insure it for that much. How is retired people going to survive? Is it a plan to drive the retirees out? I don't know. I don't know. I can't say. But that's just my general statement. Think of the older people that don't get raises. They're not working. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else? Sheriff, nobody else wants to. We still have seven minutes in the public comment period.

I'm just going to piggyback off of what my community member said. If you think about this, he's talking about being driven out by senior citizenship and AI data center. It's not going to bring in a lot of jobs. Actually, they don't bring in as many as you think. There's facts and proof on that. So you don't have to really worry about that. But I do understand about getting driven out. Number two, and he is right. Everybody who's sitting here, and including myself, The decisions we're gonna make today on this AI data center is gonna affect your grandkids and your great-grandkids. It's not gonna affect us right away. It's gonna affect your grandkids and your great-grandkids. That's why I brought my son with me today. He's nine. So the decisions you make today, who he's gonna place blame on is everybody here. So that's what I just wanted to say to kind of follow up on everybody else's like standpoint of his and his and hers over there. And also when that Manchester water drought happened, nobody stopped the car washes from operating, but you told the citizens to watch their water usage. So is that what's going to happen to us again? When we have water issues, the car washes are going to operate, the AI, the data center is going to operate, but she's going to have to watch the water usage. She's going to have to and then he's going to have to worry about what kind of water he's drinking. Just questions.

But just remember, your grandkids and kids will pay the price.

Anyone else, while the floor is open for public comment, agenda item, or any government. This is for the public, Commissioner Brown. Hold on. Unless you have a question for one of the speakers. Microphone, please.

Yes, I do. What she brought up, I mean, we have no control over the water. That's the city. And Mr. Kroll, I wish somebody would explain to him it was the state that, and it's not, it's kind of hard to understand. You need to talk to Ms. Fletcher at the tax office because the taxes are not going up that much because I own property too and I'm retired and I thought the same thing, but it's not as it seems. And then the state's the one that controlled that, right?

Yes. If anybody else in the crowd wished to speak, public comment while this period is open. Anybody at all? Raise your hand or step forward, please. This one's sort of easy to explain since there's nobody here. I know where Commissioner Brown's going with it, and he is correct. Right now, the uniform tax rate is $2.06. I'm rounding it. because of the reappraisals where everything went up, the new tax rate is going to go down to $1.42 of each $100 of the 25% of your appraisal. If you have a $100,000 home, your assessment is $25,000. You divide $25,000 by 100, then you multiply that times $1.42 plus wherever you live, the rural areas gets added a school pennies, rural solid waste pennies, so that's gonna bump it up a little bit, but right now it's at 205 and you're paying 233. If you live on Coleridge Road, you're paying $2.33 per $100 of the former appraised assessment. Now you're going to be paying, Marianna, do you know the number, the $1.42 plus the rural solid and all that, what will the rural rate be? Do you know it, Terry, off the top of your head? It would be $1.61 for rural residents. I'm just trying to help everybody understand that. Coffey County cannot collect more money in totality than it collected prior to reappraisal. That doesn't mean each individual might not see some ups or downs, but the county, Coffey County government, cannot collect even one dollar more than they collected in total before the reappraisal process. That's why The uniform tax rate is very important. Marianna, you know it?

In the rule area, it's 1.61.

Okay, $1.61 is what you, Mr. Crowe, will be paying per $100 of the 25% of your total appraisal. Right now, you're paying $2.33 per $100 of your 25% assessment. I know it's complicated, and it's hard for everybody to get their head wrapped around it, but I'm just hoping everybody does not see big swings up I hope you see big swings down, but that's not likely, but anyway. Still got five minutes if anybody else wants to speak. Public comment.

I just want to ask the first guy that come up a question about the sign thing. We're working on that, and it's a good point you brought up because it has been a big concern, and not trying to jab at you or anything, but I know you from somewhere. Do you live in Manchester or the county? The first guy that come up. Yeah.

Mr. McClaren.

How long have you lived here? Seven years? Okay. Okay. That's all. I just wanted to see where you lived. I didn't know if you lived in the county or city. Okay.

All right, let's move on with the agenda. Nobody else wants to speak publicly. So now we're ready to approve the minutes from our last meeting. We have a motion by Commissioner Hirschman, seconded by Commissioner Watkins, to approve the minutes. The floor is open for any discussion. changes, amendments, whatever, to the minutes. There being none, let's vote please. The minutes have been approved with 12 yes and one abstain. Thank you, next item. We're going to move up to 5B. This is the Memo Office of Accounts and Budgets. We're going to vote to accept this from our budget director. Need a motion to approve acceptance. Got a motion by Commissioner Stubblefield, seconded by Commissioner Duncan. Any discussion on it? Let's vote, please. Acceptance has been approved with 13 yes. That's all that's in attendance. I want to make an announcement. I got told right before the meeting started that we've got a technical issue and we are not live streaming this meeting. I apologize to everybody. I'm hoping that our Media representative can get the proper story out here for everybody pretty quick because we had a lot of important stuff to cover, but it appears as though the streaming is not working, could not get a hold of our IT individual, and I certainly apologize for that. Next item, 5C, school budget amendments. We will be voting on these as a group. Motion by Commissioner Stubblefield, seconded by Commissioner Deford. Anybody wish to discuss these?

I would just like to say that all of these have been presented before the budget and finance, and we approved and recommended acceptance of all of them.

Anyone else? Let's vote. These have been accepted with 13 yes. Thank you. 5D, budget amendments. We will be approving these as a group of four. Motion by Commissioner Stubblefield, seconded by Commissioner Watkins. Any discussion? There being none, let's vote. Commissioner Whatkin. This has been approved with 13 yes. Thank you for that. Next is resolution of memorials. We don't have any of those tonight. 10, old business. 9, new business. Resolution 20609, a resolution to amend the Coffey County zoning map rezoning 39 Goose Pond Road. You have your attachment. That's 11A. This comes with a unanimous positive recommendation from the Coffey County Regional Planning Commission. Got a motion by Commissioner Hirschman, seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The floor is open for discussion.

Hi there. I'm Ernie West. I'm a property owner.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This public comment's over. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ernie. Public comment period was the 30 minutes from 6 o'clock to 6.30. Any item on the agenda could be discussed at that time. Now it's up to the commission. I plainly stated it. I plainly. Does anybody not hear that? If you want to speak, I'm going to let you speak, OK? Go ahead. Go ahead. But remember, for a future, public comment is the period from 6 to 6.30. Any item on the agenda or any governmental, Coffey County governmental item can be discussed.

I'm sorry, I thought it was some other issue.

Yeah, we never discuss items after we're in session. We never do that, but go ahead.

Okay, I didn't know it was rezoning. Anyway, I'm Ernie West. I live in 95 Goose Pond Road. The property along the side, or the Diane Lewis property, I call it, is they're wanting to rezone it, and I don't think that's a good idea. I've talked to a lot of people at Goose Pond. They want to keep it agriculture. We got a good little community. We want to keep it agriculture. Now a new owner is wanting to change it to commercial. and i don't think that's a good idea and i'm not by myself there there's at least over 150 people that does not want it rezoned and i presented that or we presented that that before and uh So I just don't think it's a good idea. The traffic right there off of Woodbury Highway and Goose Pond Road, that's a bad place for a business. And I just don't think it should happen. And I'm not by myself. I just don't think they ought to rezone it. When he bought it, he knew it was agriculture. And I'd really like to see it stay agriculture. So, thank you all very much.

All right, before I'm sure there's others that may want to speak, a chair will entertain a motion to suspend the rules to allow other individuals to speak to this during the business meeting. I make a motion by Commissioner. Wait a minute. A motion by Commissioner Hirschman, seconded by Commissioner Watkins. Is this a motion to suspend the rules or the motion on the item? Got you. OK. I wouldn't.

Mr. Miller made a motion. What do you mean? Ms. Jones seconded.

I make a motion. I think Mr. Miller made a motion to suspend the rule to allow these people to speak, and I second that motion.

Okay. All right. And can we get that up here to vote on it, girls? Or do I need to do a show of hands? Two-thirds of the body. Yeah, I think it's two-thirds of the body here for the commission. So it's going to need 12 votes, just so we all know, all right? Okay. The girls have trouble entering stuff like this. For a show of hands, we need at least 12 hands to suspend the rules to allow people to speak to this item during our business meeting. All those in favor of suspending the rules, please raise your hand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11. Does anybody want to change your vote? Did I count that right? Once again, show of hands. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. It failed to pass. It takes 12 votes. Sorry, guys. Need to pay attention. It was plain. It was plain. Plainly stated. I'm sorry. But that is the rules. All right, moving on. We're ready to, the floor is now open for discussion on this business item. There being none, vote please. Commissioner Deford?

I'm just here representing the property, the owner for Justin Kuhn here tonight. So if there are any questions, I were to answer them.

OK. We're not allowing that. Public comment means everybody in the audience, okay? Correct. If there were any questions. Public comment. Okay. If anybody has any questions regarding that. All right. We have this rezoning has failed with nine. Yeah, it takes ten. Remember this. It takes ten. So the rezoning has failed with nine yes and four no. Thank you for that. Everybody, next item on the agenda is resolution 2026-10, a resolution to amend the Alfie County zoning map by rezoning tax map 06, parcel 009, located on McMinnville Highway. Need a motion, please. Motion by Commissioner Watkins, seconded by Commissioner Stubblefield. Floor is open for discussion. Commissioner DeFord, you have the floor.

Did the Planning Commission approve this?

This has a unanimous approval by our Regional Planning Commission. Any discussion? Commissioners? There being none, let's vote. Commissioner Jones, this rezoning has been approved with 13 yes and zero no's. Okay, moving on. Thank you for that. Resolution 2026-11, a resolution to approve an agreement between the City of Manchester and Tennessee and Coffee County, Tennessee for the coordination of road maintenance and emergency services. Got a motion by Commissioner Hirschman, seconded by Commissioner Watkins. Anyone? The floor is open for discussion. There being none, let's vote. This agreement has been approved with 13 yes votes. The next item on the agenda is the reappointment of judicial commissioners We're changing that term to a one-year term for all judicial commissioners. Every judicial commissioner, when their term, their term will expire one year after appointment. So, had a motion to approve by Commissioner Miller, seconded by Commissioner Stubblefield. Any discussion? Floor's open for discussion. There being none, let's vote. This passed with 13 yes. Thank you for that. The CCAP political sign policy that has the, this is just for, this is not a votable item, it's in your packet, just for an acknowledgement that the Coffey County's Capital Outlay Committee has made some adjustments to the sign language, trying to clean up the front yard. And a lot of counties do not allow political signs at all, And were this not a early voting precinct, I'm going to say we would not allow any political campaign signs in our front yard. That is in there for your acknowledgement. F, resolution 2026-12, resolution to place a one-year moratorium on data center within Coffey County. This comes to you with a unanimous positive recommendation from the Regional Planning Commission. A motion has been made by Commissioner Watkins, seconded by Commissioner Stubblefield. Is there any discussion regarding this moratorium resolution? Commissioner Jones.

I just want to thank each and every one of you that cared enough to come forward and tell us your concerns about the AI centers and they are being heard with wide open ears. We appreciate that.

Any more comments or discussion? There being none, let's vote. This has been approved with a 13 yes. Thank you for that. Next is report of standing committees. Commissioner Stubblefield.

Okay, budget and finance. Commissioner Morris is not here due to his wife's illness. We met, I guess, last Thursday. And we're meeting again this Thursday to iron out the budget. So this Thursday at 5 o'clock or 4 o'clock, Mary? 4 o'clock. 4 o'clock.

Okay. We said 4 o'clock for budget and finance on Thursday. Okay.

Okay.

The website might say five o'clock, I don't know.

It could, but I don't know.

We can change the website in the morning, but you guys did say four, okay. Okay, capital outlay, Commissioner Hirschman.

our next meeting will be july the second at four o'clock so you may like to attend um we encourage you to attend that meeting Capital Outlay's been working diligently to finish up the animal shelter, which has been completed. They're moving in. Ribbon cutting is scheduled to be on Monday the 15th at 3 o'clock, so far as that I know of. Unless it's been changed, I haven't heard anything else, but that's when they're supposed to have ribbon cutting for opening the animal shelter. Health Department is on the phase where they are doing all their punch list items right now and finishing up all their items that they haven't completed. That's where that's at.

Okay, thank you. Health, Welfare, and Recreation, Commissioner Hollingsworth. Yes, our next meeting will be Thursday, June 25th at 6 p.m. Okay, thank you. Law Enforcement, Commissioner DeFord.

The only thing new is we will have a special called meeting probably in July in regards to the reappointments of the judicial commissioners.

Okay, thank you. Legislative Committee, Commissioner Watkins.

Nothing to report, no meeting scheduled at this time.

Okay, thanks. Policies and Procedures, Commissioner Hirschman.

Right now we have a meeting scheduled for the 15th of June at five o'clock. We don't have many items on the agenda right now. I'm not sure that we're gonna have that one yet.

Okay, thank you. Is that it? Okay, that brings us close to the end here. We got statements and announcements. Anybody got any statements or announcements in the body? Commissioner Smith?

I would like to invite everyone here to our Founders Day picnic in Beach Grove on Saturday. It's at the Beach Grove Confederate Cemetery. It's at 11 o'clock. It's a potluck, and there's a wonderful historian by the name of Dr. Bradley. If you've never attended and heard him, it's well worth the trip. We'd love to have you all show up. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Anyone else?

I have two. TDOT has sent me a notice for all the individuals that live in in the sixth district, I guess, would be the ones that, there's gonna be two bridge replacements on Highway 127. When you go into Hillsboro and US-41, you're headed south. When you turn left at the red light, the very first bridge, that you come to, I don't even think it's a mile out of town, they have decided that they need total road closure to replace that bridge. They are suggesting a detour That will take you, anybody that's needing to go to Viola from Hillsboro, they suggest coming back to Highway 55 in Manchester, going all the way to Highway 287, I believe it is, in Morrison, and go back over to 127 and come back into Viola. It's going to be a very significant issue for a lot of people that live out there, and I feel like they need to... be thinking about how they're gonna do this when they're needing to go places in a hurry. This closure they feel like will be 10 months in length. That's a considerable amount of time. So it's something that you guys needed to know. Other than that, we're in budget process and I need to call out an individual that has really helped out our budget. And that's this slick looking fellow over here to my left. Mr. Mark Williams, he has brought to us an agreement for legal services, and he has not been one penny over his retainer that we pay him, and it's public record. But it's a $30,000 per year, and he has done all of our work for that amount two years in a row, unless you plan on going over it between now and June the 30th. Yeah, but anyway, I just need to give him kudos. He sits over here and doesn't say much, but he's done a good job, and we appreciate him. Other than that, a motion to adjourn would be in order. I have one thing.

Sure, go ahead. There is a service for Mr. Hodge on Saturday from 10.

Push your button, please.

This Saturday from 10 till 12 at Trinity Baptist Church, and following that visitation at 12, there will be a possession to the Rose Hill Memorial Gardens.

That's all. Thank you for that. Anybody else? Motion to adjourn by Commissioner Stubblefield, seconded by Commissioner DeFord. Let's vote, please. 13 yes, this body stands adjourned.