County Commission - Regular Meeting

like to call the county commission meeting for February 17th to order. Sheriff uh Eid, would you lead us in prayer? Absolutely. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for another beautiful day you given us to live and serve you. Uh thank you for this county and the citizens that live here. Thank you for this county commission elected and appointed officials come together to serve the people of Dixon County and uh give us wisdom as we move forward with the county business and and go throughout the state in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Everyone stand for the pledge.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam clerk, call one. Yes, sir. Mr. Simpkins here. Mr. Ledger here. Mr. Mane here. Mr. Batty here. Mr. Dawson here. Miss Spicer here. Mr. Buckner here. Mr. Britt here. Mr. Penny. Mr. Williams. Mr. Groves here. Miss Gray here.

Thank you. We do have a quorum. The first order of business is the approval of the January 20th, 2026 regular session mean minutes. Open the floor for motion. Motion by Commissioner Grove. Second by Commissioner Spicer. I haven't looked at the minutes thoroughly. Is there something controversial in there? Y'all are like call for a roll call vote on the minutes on the minutes. Roll call vote objection. Madam clerk's call roll. Yes sir. Mr. Simpkins. Hi Mr. Ledger. Hi Mr. Mane. Hi Mr. Batty. Hi Mr. Dawson. Hi Miss Spicer. No Mr. Buckner. No

Mr. Britt. No. Mr. P. Mr. Grove. No. Miss Gray. No. I appreciate your intent. I think I see [laughter] because after about 350 consecutive meetings I've as mayor I've never gotten to break a tie but I think I'll have to defer to our attorney on this unfortunately uh I think it requires uh all 12 commission be here attorney could give us a a ruling yeah [laughter] I'm sorry he he can't vote on this well with that vote with a vote of five to five the minutes fail [laughter]

So, but when all 12 of you get here, thank you for giving me that opportunity. I I've got I think 11 more meetings after tonight. So, uh someone from the prevailing side which voted no can bring that back up and uh to vote on that again. Who was one of a no voter? Miss Gray that to bring that back who is another no voter miss sponsor. Thank you. Have a proper motion to second to revisit the minutes. All in favor of revisiting the minutes state I opposed. Thank you. Now the the it's the madam clerk, could you call the roll again? Mr. Simpkins. Hi. Mr. Ledger. Hi. Mr. Mane. Hi. Mr. Batty. Hi. Mr. Dawson. Hi. Miss Spicer. Hi. Mr. Buckner.

Hi. Mr. Britt. Hi. Mr. Grove. [laughter] Mr. Gra.

Thank you. It does pass. and I I appreciate your your outstanding sense of humor. So, but you got 11 more chances to get me in one. So, thank you. Next order of business is public comments. Uh the first is on um the actually no there are no public comments on the agenda. So, we have there'll be public hearing after this next item. The third item is committee reports. Any committees to report? Hearing none now public hearing. The first is reszoning request for Trent uh Smith Alice Jefferson tax map 109 partial 032.0 2.2 acres Eno road Dixon Tennessee uh A1 agriculture to R3 residential. Mr. pays.

This is a reasonzoning request from A1 to R3 for the construction of 10 new town homes on Eno Road in Dixon.

Now, at this point, the public hearing is open. I don't This is on the Eno road. So, I have no request to speak on this. Next item is uh for public hearing resoner request for RAW callin Anesta uh tax map 136 parcel028.18 19,400 ft 2652 highway 46 South Dixon Tennessee A1 agriculture to C2 general commercial. This is a reasonzoning request from A1 to C2 of a small parcel that joins property that is already C2 that the applicant has purchased and the adjoining property is zone C2 as well.

Thank you. We do have one person here for a on public hear on that. Miss Pam Redden, if you come up front, uh we'll let you speak to the commission and give you three minutes. I really didn't even know I needed to speak and I don't have to speak but um what he bought he's turning into Burns Garden Center expanding his business. There was a small parcel as he said 19,000 square ft that they used the explorers Bible study for a one-bedroom house. It is completely surrounded by commercial property and that's the highest and best use would be commercial. Thank you. Thank you.

There's no one else signed up for the public hearing on that. The next item is public hearing on Dixon County plan growth area associated with the amendment to the growth plan for Dixon County. Uh Mr. Mills. Thank you, Mayor. Uh commissioners, good evening. Uh I passed out before the meeting a packet just so you have information about this process and two maps. We'll go over that in a minute. um gave this presentation to the Dixon County Planning Commission. They held their first public hearing on this and now it's before you tonight for the public hearing in a moment and then a vote which I'll cover in a second. Um in December, Mayor Riyle initiated an amendment to the Dixon County growth plan under the statute. That gives us 6 months to go through this process and submit a comprehensive growth plan uh to all the jurisdictions. So going through the handout if you want to follow along, what is a growth plan? Every county has one and it determines where and how a municipality can annex new territory. How can cities and towns in this county and all counties in Tennessee grow? And where is the planned growth area for the county for Dixon County? This is a statemandated law. It went into effect under public chapter 1101. I think it was passed in 1999. And counties had so much time to adopt their first growth plan. Dixon County did that, but our growth plan is nearly two decades old. We've seen a lot of changes over the past uh 20 years. And so what the growth plan does is really it establishes four areas. One is where are the municipal limits of all of the cities and towns? We know what that is. That's not up for debate in this process. Two, where are the urban growth

boundaries for each of the jurisdictions? Where's the city of Dixons, Burns, White Bluff, Charlotte, etc. Where is the planned growth area for the county? and then where is the rural area of the county. Um, so those four areas are really what gets delineated in the growth plan process. Like I said, ours is uh about 20 years old. Um, and so there were a few reasons uh to update it. The first, especially from the county's perspective, what we adopted back in the 2000s is not terribly exact. And what I mean by that is it was, you know, I don't mean this derogatory, but it was crayons on a map when we zoomed in on where these areas were. They were splitting parcels in half when city of Dixon, Burns, White Bluff was getting to the edge of their urban growth boundary for annexation. It was hard to determine is this in the county or is this in an urban growth area. So, one of the things that's happening with this process, the county has contracted with GIS services. So, there will be a GIS map for the entire county, and that's going to be a huge uh improvement to what we currently have. A couple of things I do want to clear up in this because this has been repeated questions. Annexation into a city, I know counties don't annex, but I know you may get this question. Annexations into a city can only happen if the property owner requests it. 10, 15 years ago, there used to be annexation by ordinance where cities could go and pass an ordinance and grow their boundaries without owner consent. That was changed by the legislature. It's now annexation by resolution and it can only be initiated barring very limited circumstances by the owners of record. [cough] They have to submit something in writing to the city and say, "I want to be annexed." um until

you are if you're in an uh UGB, an urban growth area, you are still in the county. You are under county law. You pay county taxes. You do not pay city taxes. That is a question that's come up often. So, I wanted to clear that up. Part of the reason for this process, some of the cities, I know Burns was a big uh driver of this was looking at where do we want to see ourselves grow into where does it make the most sense for cities to be versus plan growth area of the county and the rural areas of the county. So that's where this kind of came from multiple cities um asking the mayor to amend uh the growth plan, start the amendment process. And so that letter was sent on December 19th and that's why again we're on this clock. Every jurisdiction is in the process right now of holding two public hearings and their governing body voting on their piece of the puzzle. Now, I'm going to ask you to look at your maps. You have two maps in front of you. The first one uh that should be on your desk is the Dixon County planned growth area map. So, you can see where the current planned growth area is unchanged. There's been some back and forth adjustments made where it's being conceded and where it's expanding. So, if you have any questions about that when we get to the voting item, you can certainly ask. We can clear that up. Um, so that's that's our piece of the puzzle tonight. That's the county planned growth area. That's what we're going to ask you to submit to the coordinating committee. And we'll talk about the coordinating committee in a second. But before I get there, your second map, that's the entire puzzle. Now, that's all proposed. Some of it's in flux. I know Charlotte uh changed theirs by a couple of parcels. White Bluff just voted. The city of Dixon votes in a couple of weeks. Um but that's what all of these maps put together look like on this multiolor map. You see the city of Dixon where their boundary is right now,

where their UGB is, where the county PGA is. Same for Burns, White Bluff, Charlotte. One note, Vanlier and Sladen have opted not to participate in this process, which means under the statute, their uh UGBs do not change. So, what you see up there in the northwest part of the county is what's been there for two decades, and it is not changing because they've chosen not to participate. All right. The coordinating committee is a group designated by statute to receive every jurisdiction's vote on hey county here's RPGA city of Dixon sends up their UGB burns white bluff they receive all of these maps and resolve any differences the composition of that committee is a representative from each of the governing bodies the default is the mayor uh then you have the largest utility owned by municipality uh Dixon Electric, you have the largest uh utility not owned by a municipality, water authority, etc. There are 14 members of the coordinating committee. They are trying to schedule meetings in March so that when they put this all together, they'll have two public hearings. They will have a vote and they send one unified growth plan down to each of the jurisdictions, you being one of them. So, you will see this again. This is not your only time. This is just sending up our proposed piece of the puzzle, but ultimately the coordinating committee will resolve any differences, send an entirely comprehensive growth plan down to everybody, and everybody has to approve it or it fails. So, city of Dixon has to approve the county, Burns, White Bluff, Charlotte. Um, so that'll probably we're looking at voting meetings in April for that. Again, we're on a six-month clock. We can't get to the end of the process. and I'll tell you about what happens if we don't meet the clock, but the state gets involved. So, we want to avoid that. Uh, some

final notes. Again, this is under public chapter 1101. It has a lot of components, but growth plan is part of it. It [clears throat] having an updated growth plan, especially with GIS, can help with applying for grants. There's a lot of planning uh abilities that can happen from it. and in talking with some of our utilities being able to look at zoning maps in our GIS and overlay and then possibly start putting in some utilities in there. Again, this is designed to be a quarter century planning document. Where do we expect to see any type of growth? Uh, and letting the schools know. Schoolboard has a rep on the coordinating committee. Uh, soil conservation district has a rep on the committee. Uh, Commissioner Sipkins is that rep. So, you know, bringing all of these stakeholders together to figure out what's best for the county um in terms of planning. Uh so, that's the overall process. Um obviously, if anyone's here to speak on public hearing, mayor, I will turn it over to that and then if there's any questions when we get to this at the end of the agenda, I'll be happy to answer it.

Thank you. This is a public hearing. We have uh one on this. Miss Deborah Rosenthal, if you would come up and uh you have three minutes. I only thought I had two minutes, so I am going to get through my prepared remarks and then I want to respond to something that Mr. Mills mentioned. Um, my name is Deborah Rosenthal. My husband and I own Best Hope Farm on Highway 47 East about a quarter mile north of the back entrance to Montgomery Bell State Park. We are actively restoring the prairie, savannah, and woodland ecosystems that historically existed in Dixon County as well as at the park. Because of this work, I am deeply concerned that the land surrounding the park is proposed to be included in the urban growth boundaries of Burns, Whitel Bluff, and the city of Dixon. This conflicts with the comprehensive plans adopted recently by the county and the town of Whiteluff um as well as Burns. I believe those plans clearly identify development around the park as an environmental threat and call for a protective overlay district with land use design and open space standards. In fact, a committee assembled by Commissioner Gray, including commissioners William and Petty, um, have been working on such an overlay and is expected to present it publicly soon. If the land in the overlay zone is placed inside city UGBS, annexation could override those protections and open the door to urban level density, that would increase environmental pressure on the park beyond what exists under county agricultural zoning. Consequently, please consider excluding the property within the proposed overlay zone out of the UGB and designated rural county where it will be protected. Since the UGB process is being revisited and requires agreement among jurisdictions, this is the right time to align the UGB's with the comprehensive plans. Annexation may be slow and may require a

property owner's request, but the park has existed for 83 years. Few would have predicted back then that it would be surrounded by as much development as it is today. Highway 47 East is especially important. Several large land owners and I are working with the Southeastern Grasslands Institute on a grant-f funded largescale restoration effort that includes the park. Together, these lands form a contiguous habitat of regional ecological significance. that work depends on low density land use and other protective measures um near the park. I have more detailed comments that I would ask to be submitted into the record and if I have a couple more seconds. Um Mr. Mills talked about the process that this is Dixon County's piece that's going to the coordinating committee. Frankly, I don't really understand the process. It seems like there is already a map in place. So, I don't know if you all can give direction to the coordinating committee to consider this, especially considering that the coordinating committee has the mirrors on it, but I would have loved to have raised this issue before a map was drawn for consideration because once you have a map, it is hard to change the boundaries on that map. So, I implore you to do whatever you can to ensure that the comprehensive plans goal of an overlay zone around the park is not undermined in the long run by um urban growth boundaries. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. There's no other to speak on the public hearing, so the public hearing is closed. Next item on the agenda is appointment industrial development board, Mr. Robbie Harmon to fill remaining term left vacated by Mr. Ed Moore and Miss Michelle Street. We brought those names to you back in the uh work session. I'll open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Buckner, second by Commissioner G Grove Grove. Any question, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor with stating I

oppose. Thank you. First item number resolution, financial quarter report, all school funds board of education representative, which appears to be Miss Valerie Randh Hill. They're making eye contact with me. So, these were presented to you back at the planning session [clears throat] and emailed there before I think that Friday before. Do you have any questions for me? Any question, Miss Underh Hill? Hearing? None. We'll open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Brit, second by Commissioner Gray. Any questions or discussion? Hearing all hearing none. All in favor of vote with stating I

oppose. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Underh Hill. Next item of business is resolution. Next resolution is the penny resolution. Resolution authorizing the immediate rounding of a cash transaction to the percentage to the penny shortage. This is what uh Mr. Reagan explained last time. This goes on uh cash transactions to on the rounding either from uh 1 to 4 cent rounding down or 6 to 9 cents rounding up. Um any questions or discussion on that? Open the floor for a motion. [snorts] Motion by Commissioner Leger, second by Commissioner Mwane. Any other questions, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor vote by stating I.

Opposed. Thank you. Next item under other business, reszoning request from Trent Smith, Isa Jefferson, tax map 109, parcel 0320. 2.2 acres, Eno Road, Dixon, Tennessee, A1 Agriculture to R3 residential in the second district. Uh, this is what was held earlier that Mr. Hayes brought up. Any questions for Mr. Hayes? The motion we seek tonight is to move this on to your onto the regular session in 30 days. Motion by Commissioner Ledger, second by Commissioner Gray. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor vote by stating I.

Opposed. Thank you. Next item uh is reszoning request roll. Call in Anista. Tax map 136 parcel 028.18 19,400 ft 2652 highway 46 South Dixon Tennessee A1 agriculture to C2 general commercial 7th district u again presented by Mr. Uh, Hayes, Commissioner Buckner, that's a motion to approve. Thank you, Miss Spicer. Thank you. Have a motion to second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of stating I

opposed. Thank you. On this next one, I'm going to reverse three and four. Uh, the public hearing we just held uh on to move this to the motion is to move to send the Dixon County Plan Growth Area to the Dixon County Coordinating Committee. Is there any other presentation like to make this point, Mr. Mills? Hello, mayor. Uh, but I do need a vote that has two components. The first component is sending this map up to the coordinating committee, and I would ask, given his role so far, uh, that this body designate mayor Riyle as the county commission rep on that coordinating committee, just like all the other jurisdictions did with their mayor. That's all we need.

Thank you. Uh, that what he said. I'll open for motion. Thank you, Commissioner Simpkin. Second, Commissioner Mlane. Any questions or discussion? I can call the roll again if you want to vote. No, we go by this one. You darn right. I say let's call. [laughter] I'm ignoring that. It's not a proper motion, but I do have a proper motion in a second. So, all in favor stating I

opposed. Thank you. Wise. Next item is school presentation. Uh we have our friends here from the school board tonight. This is the presentation we talked about, I guess maybe a month ago, six weeks ago, that they'd be bringing to you. Uh, so here they are. Good to see them. Dr. Southern and, uh, Chairman Brogden, it's good to have you both here tonight.

Thank you, Mayor, county commissioners. Proud of the board members, and district level leadership that's here tonight. You have a folder. I would like to just go over the content of the folder, and then I'm going to ask Chairman Brogden uh to speak with you. In the left hand side of the pocket, you will see district mission, vision, and goals. You're going to see that the Dixon County goals that were set forth by the board are encompassed of instructional goals and operational goals. On the right [snorts] hand side, you see tonight's agenda, a draft facility master plan that is living and breathing. That means it moves. Uh you see a resolution. You also see the Dixon Board of Education budget project phase one and Miss Brogden will speak a little bit more about that. You will see that on this list there are list of items which they are in no particular order is a derivative of many conversations for from board planning sessions and from our long range planning conversations based on occupancy location and conditions. The next form, I have given you this throughout the duration of the 177 um 2024 the resolution that you set forth. Here are the expenditure list and where we are on total. So I wanted to give you an update with that. But if you have any other documents that I have given out, this is the most current. And then I have given you um our projected enrollment for 2627. Miss Broen,

we've had many many meetings since July um of this last year trying to talk about our longterm planning and our facility needs. In December, Mr. Haley came before you and made a presentation explaining the directions we were going and b the factors that we based it on as Dr. Southerntherland said we looked at the occupancy, the conditions of the facilities and the locations and we after many hours of good discussion and good debate which some of you commissioners sat through some of that with us at the meetings. Um, we've prioritized some of our needs and we've had a unanimous vote by the board to present this resolution. And there's a copy of it in your thing. I want to read the resolution. Whereas the Dixon County School Board realizes a need for significant facility projects and upgrades. And whereas the Dixon County Commission also realizes the need and propriety of maintaining and upgrading facilities. And whereas the Dixon County School Board has spent many months debating, developing, and prioritizing the current needs of the school system. And whereas the Dixon County School Board has experienced growth in the fund balance, section one, be it resolved by the Dixon County School Board to request approval from Dixon County Commission to spend up to $47 million made up of $17 million at of school fund

balance and would request a commitment of $30 million of county funds for significant projects and upgrades to facilities. Section two, be it further resolved that funds as available will be spent on the following: Charlotte Middle School, Dixon Middle School, Dixon County High School, William James Middle School, Transportation Garage, collectively and individually called the projects for significant facility projects and upgrades include food, but not limited to the following: classroom additions, cafeteria and food service areas, HVAC and associated systems, window and entry upgrades and enhancements, security upgrades, fire suppression and associated alarm systems, roofing projects at multiple schools, school office upgrades, auditorium renovations, demolition of old Oakmont and miscellaneous finishes and repairs throughout each project. Section three, be it further resolved, funds will be prioritized by board action and the number and scope of the projects to be ultimately determined by the awarded contracts. Section four, be it further resolved that the Dixon County School Board authorizes Dr. Christy Sutherland and Chairman Brogden to present this resolution to the Dixon County Commission at their next meeting. Section five, be it further resolved that this resolution take effect immediately upon passage. The second

there is a list in your folder that further details the breakdown of the schools and I'm trying to find that piece of paper. This phase one project here um shows the improvements and needs that we have broken down by each school. We know this is a lot of information and we delayed presenting to you last month because we were waiting for the state audit to know uh how what the school fund balance was before we made [clears throat] the presentation because we wanted to be as specific as we could uh on what we needed. Our request is on behalf of the board of education, I'm requesting approval on Monday, March the 16th, 2016 for 17 million from fund balance and 30 million from county funds for significant projects and upgrades to facilities. Um, if you have any questions on any of these items on the list, we encourage you to ask us. We'll meet with you, talk with you, because we want you to have all your questions answered before your next meeting.

Yeah, Mayor, if I'm right, this is this needs to be put on the work session first, then bring back up in a month from now. This is a lot of information that we've got, so there's really nothing we need to vote on tonight. We probably just need to take these numbers and look at them, come back with the work session in two weeks and that's when we'll have our questions for you. Yes,

I'm in agreement on that. Um, and it's very similar working with uh Dr. Southern and Chairman Brogdens is very similar to what we do when we present the budget because it is a lot of information and and as y'all all know in May we make that budget presentation come back two weeks later with questions and then come back two more weeks after that to actually approve the budget and I've asked them and they've been great teammates on that. Let's take that view on it because it's a large commitment uh on their behalf on taking money out of fund balance, but it's a large commitment on county general for us taking money out of debt service to do this. So, yes, I agree with that. Now, again, I'm not cutting any questions off tonight. If there's anything else y'all would like to present tonight or if there's just some top questions that you might not want not ready to d get a lot of detail on, be glad to make them available right now. We I'm going to go to bed about 9:30. So, I'm I'm I'm going to give you two more hours if you need it.

Mayor, county commission, I would like to um say that outcomes and funding go hand in hand. Research indicates a strong link between increased school spending and improved student outcomes, including graduation rates and future for our students who 85% come back into our community and they're our workforce. So that would be adult earnings. Funding for these projects would come from the school board fund balance and a partnership with you. This is not one-sided. It's a partnership. We work together to better our community and students and families that believe in the public education system. Thank you for considering this and we'll answer any questions that you may have. Any questions for Dr. Sland or Chairman Brogden or her team?

I don't really have a question. I just want to say thank you for all of this. This is great and it gives us something to actually dig into and look over and and see what the master plan is. So, thank you very much. Well, I will not take full credit. I have a wonderful board that we have worked together, directors that have put a lot of time, had lots of conversation, and it is a big commitment. But if we're all committed, we're committed to our community and our future and that's our students and families. Thank you. We ready to question? I we know. We know. Thank you.

Thank [clears throat] you. The only other comment I'd make on that is, and again, I think we all know the history, but we'll let's walk back through it for a minute. In 2010 when we took office and I know Commissioner Dawson and Commissioner Simpson was here, Commissioner Buckner came along, we we know we were in a pretty serious financial situation that had we had to work through and proudly with their work and all of you that have showed back shown up subsequently that the work has been done. Again, we tell the same stories all the time, but we need to repeat the history. In 2010 when we took office, a jail had been built and it the debt service had not been funded or the staffing had not been funded. Thus, which nobody will ever believe, but once again, that's where the $10 fee came from. We took the $2.5 million, the $10 fee raised at for the landfill. $10 fee and commercial tipping fees fully fund the landfill. No tax dollars go into it. We took that $2.5 million that remained to go to debt service, which half of that paid the debt is paying the debt service on that jail, which were 15 years into a 20-year note. The other portion went to the staffing of it. And again, as you may recall, the staffing was required because of the design of the jail. It required more staffing because the linear design. If it had been made in a more block design, it would take lesser staffing. That was one of my first surprises in September of 2010. but we worked through it. So, the jail was being paid for. We're five years left on that. The staffing's managed now. The next big item that came up was the borrowing for Burns Middle School. And as we had money for that set aside in debt debt service, $40 million, as you'll recall, that was to build Burns Middle School. It was to uh add rooms at White Bluff Elementary, add rooms at Steuart Burns, and redo the

heat and air system at Oakmont. The problem with that was we were getting better. That was about 2017 or 18. We had the money to borrow, but money the tax had to be raised to pay the operational cost. Now we're moving to this borrowing we're on now on this. There's no additional operational cost that will be needed from the county standpoint. We have the debt service amount to fund a $30 million debt without raising taxes. And there's more buffer in that at next the meeting in two weeks on the March work session. I want to walk you all through all the debt service stuff because one, it's important to know while we do this borrowing where what our capabilities are and where we can where we can go with this. Borrowing money is never a small deal and that comes from an old bank loan officer. It needs to be well studied and well done. But the to the work y'all have done along with the finance staff over the last probably 12 of the 15 years that we've been here has put us in this position where you can borrow large money without raising taxes. The money and again I know we we're going to get into the class on that that all you you know and the public needs to understand we have general fund operating costs. That's what pays salaries and keeps everything on the road. We have some other small smaller funds. The the landfill is on a budget by itself. The highway department's on a budget by itself. But we have a debt service budget where all this funding is stored in. We've done a calculation now through the year 2045 to know where we're going to be on debt service. We can take on this debt without raising taxes. And I know that's always a concern. And I'm not recommending what you do. It's your decision what we do. But it's my responsibility to let you know that the work we've done that y'all have done, we're in a position to borrow that money without raising taxes. So I I need you to take that under consideration. It's

up to you to figure out the merits of what the school board asked for and what uh what Dr. Southern's asking for. So uh again, I would recommend and I know none of you shy. I would reach out to uh Dr. Sullivan board members and get a good clear understanding of this so we can move forward on this one way or the other. or if you think these are worthy projects and they're worth borrowing, we need to do it because the rates are where we need to be right now and we're in good shape to do it. So, uh we need to get the trigger pulled on that. If you choose not to it, that's certainly your decision and I'm respectful of that. But, uh again, we got a real opportunity to take a good hard look at this over the next 30 days. So, that's all I've got to say on that. Be glad to answer any questions.

Yeah, the um you're talking about we got $30 million right now that we put on this, right? Yes. It's in debt service. Yes. Okay. We owe what? 80 million. Probably a little less than that right now. Okay. Well, then then why don't we take the 30 million and pay on the 80 and then do this two years down the road or whatever.

Well, the 30 million uh is not cash sitting there. That's borrowing availability that we can take money to pay on that. Again, that's y'all's decision on that. I feel comfortable with the work we've been done been doing because we've been working on this in for 15 years but 12 years in earnest our debt service u and again I'll put that in the presentation next week a county our size can we could double the debt we have and still be considered a great credit risk so uh you base and again I'll get into the technical portions of it your borrowing should never be more than 8% of your assessed property Our assessed our taxable assessed property in Dixon County is over $2 billion. When I started it was less than 1 billion. So in 15 years because of that the size of the county's grown. So that's our tax base. So we should never be more. We're 3% of that right now at $70,000 on 2 billion. Uh we could double it and still be well below the 8% considered good on that. That's a standard that the controllers's office used to determine if we're good credit risk. Much like if you were doing a home loan and you were doing debt to income ratio to determine if you could pay a house dollar in that amount. That's what they use to determine if we're a good credit risk to do that.

But still going to increase the debt to what 110 million. I said something somebody about that the other day and they said, "Well, we counted 400 million in debt." Why we always have to judge I mean look at another county. Why can't we? I mean, you know, I've always been my business. I try to get my business paid for, you know, but we there's never no end to it. And you also you got insurance costs to go up and everybody's going to get another raise. So, and you got operating costs there. So, I mean, I'd like to see a maybe a year laid out what it's actually going to cost the taxpayers. You say that we don't have to raise no taxes. I mean, if we've got that much extra money, why are we putting it toward the debt? I mean, and I understand what you're saying. We worth that. We have to go far, but we'd actually have the money.

I understand. And and again, using Williamson County as an example, that's like the Russian judge and skating. We throw their score out. Uh they're rich. Uh but whenever I use comparable counties, uh not only from standpoint of population, but we use counties that are also metro counties. So the two c the four counties I look at in Tennessee to base where we are here in middle Tennessee it's Robertson and Chetum because we fit right in the middle of those two. The other two are in around Knoxville it's Jefferson County which is almost identical to us in every way and Lowden County and we compare very favorably but with them. Uh, and again, uh, I'll y'all are invited in, uh, two weeks from, uh, two months from today, I'll be doing my final state of the county address, and we've got all those cool stats to show what how we've grown and where we are in this. Uh, if you look at the top 50 richest zip codes in Middle Tennessee, uh, 37029 and 37187, that's Burns and White Bluff are two of the richest zip codes in Middle Tennessee. Dixon County has moved up from like 28th in median income to 19th on a aggregate total. Last year we had the second lowest unemployment rate in the state. So I know I probably used this analogy before, but again we're hard on ourselves as we should be. Uh but from a Nick Sabin standpoint, I'll use the football analogy. They win and you're on the winning team, but at the same time Nick Sabin is picking and pulling apart. I'm not a football coach like him, but I think that's what y'all do and I do by answering these questions right here where it's not a flippant decision to borrow money or to hire people or to give pay increases. It's a wellthoughtout process. And uh to Don Hall's credit, Lori Whitaker, they're looking every day. I'm looking every week. Uh and I I could not have done a I'll stay with football. I couldn't have done a better draft pick to get the finance team I have along with the

department heads we have. We're on the winning team and we're doing very well. And again, I understand making taxpayers understand on a day-to-day basis, it's easy to get rid of debt because you're right and any of your right, we could lower property taxes today. But we could get rid of all the money and the pennies we've set aside in debt service and then we'll get to a po a point like this where we borrow $30 million and oh, we need a 50 cent property tax increase. My commitment to the voters in 2010 was I would never put them or the government in that position again. We're not going to open a jail without knowing how we're going to pay for it and know how we staff it. So again, it's up to y'all on what you decide you want to do. But the school needs are very apparent and all you have to do is go visit them some more than others. So we can decide to do it now. We can kick the can down the road and wait till a different financial situation goes on. But that was one of the discussions we had about building the justice center. Should we wait? Well, if we did, we would have crossed right over 18 and 19 and went right through CO, which are $25 million building would cost 35 or $40 million now. So sometimes you got to you [snorts] got to bite the bullet and move on. But I'm proud to say whenever somebody gets their tax card every year, it's not going to go up unless y'all make a decision to it's not coming from me. uh because I'm giving you a balanced budget this year with no tax increase and pay increases for employees. Uh but the money is there for you to borrow. If you choose not to, that's certainly a decision of this commission and uh what seven or more you vote one way. I respect that and we'll go on to the next project.

I tell you what, mayor, I think you've done a good job. The countyy's done good. Everything we see, it's just like it's never talked about what the debt is. It's never talked what the interest cost the county that we can save if we pay our debt. See, that's that's the key thing. If you think about the money that you pay in interest, that's gone. I mean, you know, they ain't going to do nobody. And we put up with all this stuff out of the school, all these years and everything and all the money they spent the last two years. And give you a little distance about the the burn school. I was the decided vote on that. And I was promised that the kids on White Blood Road would go to the burn school. Well, now they're not going to the burn school. Apparently, we're going to build a new a middle school in White Blood. See, it's all confusing to me and it just it's a never it's like going downhill, you know, and it's it's not a stopping boat. I it gets to the point where that that people talk to me that that's that's been business, they ask me all these questions and I can't answer them because I'm sitting there part of it, you know.

I understand. And again, I understand that I get questions many times on different areas I'm involved in, but when it comes to finances and all that, I'd be glad to meet with anybody anywhere. I was going to say anytime, but before uh a before after 6:00 in the morning, before 9:30 at night. Other than that, I'll be glad to meet with anybody at at Jmart Salt and Pepper or right here in my office where everybody wants to talk. Well, you know, me and you can talk, me and you, two or three of us, but there's 12 of us here and there the side post with with accounts. I mean, I for me, I I can't, [laughter] you know, I I can't see just keeping on and on and on. I I appreciate your opinion.

Does anybody else have a comment they'd like to make? All right, we'll move on to the next time business approval notice. Madam clerk. Yes, sir. James T. Boer, William I. Brown, Veronica S. Edmonson, Grayson W. Forest, Gregory Edward Ganto S. Saw Gil, Brooke Irwin, Jacqueline Johnson, Michelle McDonald, Kyle Orchard, Linda Owens, Jennifer Roberts, Lori Sullivan, Devin Tidwell, Hope Tucker, and Becky Wheeler. We have a motion by Commissioner Batty, second by Commissioner Ledger. Any questions, discussion hearing? None. All in favor of stating I.

Opposed? Thank you. Next item is announcements. Any announcements anyone has? Well, I'm going to make an announcement before you get me. But before I make my announcement, I want to know how let you know how proud I am of you for speaking that much without crying. Thank you. That was awful. But but you know what? You did a very good job. So my birthday is in a couple days from now. So you're not going to get me on that either. So that's my announcement.

Well, I appreciate that. And again, you know, but you you think we're not crying, but you don't want everybody know you need to think for not cussing either. I I'm [laughter] I'm perfectly capable of either one. So, well, Commissioner Grove, thank you for allowing letting us know about your birthday. We look forward to seeing you that looks like we've got a little whiles to go, but so we get to celebrate yours for a couple of months before Mr. Butner decides to have his. So, happy birthday. Anything special going in Burns?

Commissioner Gray, you have an announcement. I just had a question because I was thinking we had to vote in two parts having you on the the committee and we voted for that but did we vote for the second part as well? I think that was included in the motion. One motion one one motion. Okay. I was confused. Thank you. I think I thought maybe we have a chance to have [laughter]

u and I guess while you brought that up I know Miss Rosenthal's left just one quick comment. uh we're following the process on that. Uh the the seven count the seven mayors in the county, the six municipalities and myself all met early on. We had to come up with the starting place. So again, that is a starting place. That's what the mayors agreed on in principle, but the process is moving forward. You know, you you can't get in a car race until you own a car. So that you got a car now. So we will go through the process through the different levels of hearing and seek out your input on on that as we move forward. So, any announcements? Nobody's Somebody thought somebody's having a cooking or something somewhere, weren't they? No one. Okay, that's cool. All right, the final announcement will be the next regular session meeting will be on Monday, March 16th at 7 p.m. in the Beaverdale Beer Junior County Commission Chamber of the Dixie County Administration building for Court, Charlotte, Tennessee. Have a mot Thank you.