County Commission - Regular Meeting

20 April 20th. U let's see. Commissioner Batty, would you lead us some prayer? Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Please be with our leaders of this county and this great nation and help them make the right decisions. Heavenly Father, be with our military and help them keep peace wherever they are in the world tonight. Heavenly Father, be with the sick and people in need. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for everything you've given us. Help everyone home safe tonight. Christ's name. Amen. Amen. You 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, would you call one? Yes, sir. Mr. Simpkins here. Mr. Ledger, here. Mr. Mang here. Mr. Batty here. Mr. Dawson here. Micer here. Mr. Buckner here. Mr. Britt here. Mr. Katy here. Mr. Williams here. Mr. Bro here. M here.

It's good to see you all here tonight. First order of business is approval of the minutes of the March 16th regular session. I have a motion for approval. Motion by Commissioner Petty, second by Commissioner Buckner. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All in favor of vote with stating I. Opposed? Thank you. Item number two is public comments. No one signed up for public comments. Item number three is public hearing. Amendment to the zoning resolution regarding sanitary or hazardous waste facility development standards procedure for special exception for mining activities and definition of mining activities. uh who would be presenting on behalf of the county. No,

thank you.

So, mayor, this is a citizen request for an amendment to the zoning resolution. It was taken up by the planning commission last year uh and has made its way to this body. This is for public hearing tonight. There are two main amendments. The first one is a change in section 4.130, the development standards for sanitary landfill or hazardous waste facilities. It's replacing subsection G, which did not have um exacting parameters with two requirements. One, the minimum lot size shall be 250 acres. And number two, no sanitary landfill or hazardous waste facility shall be located within 2,000 ft of any parcel zoned R1, R2, or R3. The other change is very similar uh in 8.060 on the procedure for authorizing special exceptions. Um and this is on mining and mining activities. It's the exact same parameters. uh a minimum lot size of 250 acres and no mining shall be permitted on any property located within 2,000 ft of a parcel zoned R1, R2 or R3. Um it also necessitated uh through notice and working with Mr. Hollowman, the citizens attorney. Uh a change in the definition of mining and mining activities to make sure that they were synonymous because sometimes the zoning resolution talks about mining, sometimes they talk about mining activity, but it's making it synonymous for the purposes u of the zoning resolution and these amendments. So that is the overview of these two uh amendments to the zoning resolution. It was recommended uh unanimously favorably by the planning commission.

Thank you, Mr. Mills public hearing is now open and before us we have Mr. Jason Hollowman. Mr. Hoffman, you come there and you have three minutes.

Okay. Thank you, mayor. My name is Jason Hollowman. I'm an attorney in Nashville, Tennessee. Uh as the mayor stated, we uh began working with him and with your county attorney. Uh back last summer, almost nine months ago, uh my clients are just concerned with growth and uh the way that things are booming in West Nashville. Uh two of the two of the byproducts of that can be uh a lot of cing for rock for for both building and road building and landfill needs. And uh these these uh ordinances are really just designed to be proactive about having reasonable regulation on those types of entities. Doesn't prevent them. Uh but what it does is puts a uh a reasonable buffer so that if those activities do come in here uh there's a buffer between residential areas, residential property owners and those high impact uses. I will say um that the general assembly a few years back uh adopted the vested property rights act which in some ways uh protects citizens property rights but what it also does is means that there's a much lower threshold for vesting property rights. So if if a landfill or a rock quarry was to come in, uh the ability of of them to pull a minor grading permit or a building permit for an ancillary building could vest the entire operation before you would have time at that time to address the kind of time, place, man, or restrictions that you'd probably want to look at for any site. uh and this just does that proactively so that residents, residential property owners uh have some sort of safety and a buffer before that kind of activity happens. Thank you.

Thank you. Next name we have is Miss Ellen Yansy.

Thank you, mayor and commissioners. Um I'm a resident of Dixon County since 1997. I live on 1390 Jones Creek Road and I am literally about 2,000 feet from the rock quarry. So, it didn't really it's not really been a bother. Uh Tuesday at 10:30, you feel the blast. Um I haven't had much structural damage. Um this item came to my attention in the summer and I agreed to come and speak to the planning commission and again tonight. Um, some of the surrounding area counties are encountering issues with landfills, what to do with them, people quaring neighborhoods, um, and explosions and rock and all that sort of thing. I think it's wise to take a proactive stance and have a plan in place so somebody can't buy property and you find out it's going to be a landfill or they're going to put in another rock quarry without really a lot of information. Um when I bought my property, the the rock quarry was there, so I knew it was there. I went in with open eyes. But I just suggest with the growth and the new homes going up um that it's nice to try to protect what we're growing here in Dixon County. That's all I'd like to say and I hope I'm I'm all for making a proposal where we have some limitations on what can happen.

Thank you, Miss Yansy. Okay. Thank you.

That's all that have set up that are up for the public hearing. So the public hearing is now closed. Next item of business committee reports. Any committees to report? Commissioner Gray. I sent out the uh Humane Society quarterly report and all the commissioners should have gotten it this weekend. And just to do a real small summary, um this quarter there were 52 dogs um from the county with 18 of those returned to owner and 58 cats with four of those returned to owner. But if there's any other questions on the uh on the report, just let myself or Cotton know. Any questions for Commissioner Gray? Any other committee reports? Hearing none. Next item is appointments. First is planning commission. Uh these are reappointments. The first is Miss Amanda Barry, Miss Tina Ferris, and Mr. Todd Lindseay. Reappointed for four-year terms. Open for motion. Motion by Commissioner Williams. Second by Commissioner Ledger. Any question or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor with stating I.

Opposed. Thank you. Item number two, audit committee appointments. First is these are all reappointments. Miss Fenet Miller, Mr. Tim Span, Miss Mary Stacy. These are two-year terms uh the audit committee that Mr. Hall manages. Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Britt, second by Commissioner Spicer. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor vote by stating I. Opposed. Thank you. Item number three, equalization board. Miss Anita Nicholson, Mr. Henry Frasier, Miss Doris Griggsby, Miss Rhonda Burgess, Mr. William Frasier. Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Batty. Second by Commissioner Mane. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of vote with stating I.

Oppose. Thank you. Item number six, resolutions. First resolution, a budget amendment, all school funds, board of education representative, which is tonight, Mr. Steve Haley. Thank you, mayor, county commissioners. Uh work session two weeks ago went through plan to utilize some of our reserve funds. Uh we have to have your permission to transfer that from our line items into the individual lines. If you recall, it was a total of 19.5 million, all of which is in our reserve fund at this time. 17 million of that goes into the 177 fund for the capital outlay. multiple middle school projects and the remaining two and a half is for buses and some curriculum and educational purposes. After the detail from two weeks ago, I'll leave it open for questions. Otherwise, ask you to approve the resolution.

Any questions for Mr. Haley? Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Grace, second by Commissioner Ledger. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor by stating I. I opposed. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tray. Thank you.

Item number two, Pittney Bose postage meter contract for Dixie County Administration building. Uh this is before you because the contract is over a year. It's a 60-month contract, $345.31 a month. Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner McWain, second by Commissioner Buckner. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor vote by stating I. Opposed. Thank you. Item number three, speed limit uh old stage road. Commissioner Simkins, I think last month uh the sheriff was here and he recommended 30 mph on that. I think what's in the minutes whatever whatever he recommend is what I'll make a motion to approve.

Motion by Commissioner Simpkins to set that speed limit. Second by Commissioner Spicer. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor vote. All in favor vote by stating I. Opposed. Thank you. Item number four, speed study, Merl Road. This is brought by Commissioner Buckner. Is you here to present the speed study tonight, Captain Davis? Uh, yes or no. Merl Road's not complete yet, but they said by the next meeting it should be complete. All right. On Merl. All right. Very good. Is that fine, Commissioner Buckner? We'll put that on the bay regular session. Thank you. Uh, next uh item is number five, interlocal agreement with Ignite Broadband. Mr. Reagan.

So, we discussed this a little bit at our last meeting, but uh this would be you authorizing the county to enter into an agreement with Ignite Broadband so that uh the county can utilize those services directly without having to go and bid that service. And it would allow the county to use Ignite for purchase of phone equipment, all types of data and internet equipment and also subscribe to the uh internet and phone services that they make available. Any questions for Mr. Reagan. Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Spicer, second by Commissioner Gray. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of saying I.

Opposed. Thank you. Next item, uh, number six, ratifying the growth plan, the growth plan boundaries. Those were sent to you. Uh, is there any questions on those if you, if there are, fortunately, we have Mr. Mills here tonight. Uh, be glad to answer any questions, but this is the ratification to move this forward, which is done by all the other legislative bodies. It's my understanding in the county. We're the last one. Mayor, all the other participating municipalities approved. You're the last body to vote.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Mills? Open the floor for motion. Motion by Commissioner Simpkins, second by Commissioner Petty. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of stating I opposed. Thank you. Item number seven, other business. As you heard earlier, we had a public hearing amendment to the zoning resolution regarding sanitary Hatter waste facility development standards procedure for special exception for mining activities and definition of mining activities. Uh you heard Mr. Mills make a statement on that. Uh we'll open the floor for any questions or discussion you may have for him. R the rock core is in Dixon now. What's the average acreage on it? Do you know?

Nobody knows about it. They would be grandfathered. Obviously this is only for new rocks. And nobody wants a landfield. I understand this. But at some point we're going to have to address a landfield. Why average acreage for a landfill? Has anybody done a study on that yet? No. Across Tennessee, you'll find landfills of berry side from the county owns that or several acres maybe 15 20 acres all the way up to the institutional ones done such as uh the one midpoint in Murphy'sboro, Rutherford County and West Camden landfill. Those were in the hundreds of acres.

Yeah. Just you know, y'all know the dire situation we're going to be in in five, six, seven years. I understand there's people working on a plan. and I just don't want to handcuff up us to where we're we we become to a dire situation. Make sure that that we're good with it.

I appreciate that and you're correct. That is a a long-term issue that we're going to have to deal with and uh ironically we were having that discussion a little while ago in my office and there has to be a regional and statewide approach to it. Frankly, the state of Tennessee and Department of Environment Conservation has to get some guts uh to make those changes because there's no way counties, especially smaller counties can do that and do it alone. So, as you talk to your uh candidates for state rep, state senator, and governor, this needs to be an issue they need to deal with. That's uh uh I think I've used the analogy here before. Asking a a county, us being the 28th largest county in the state, trying to do a landfill by oursel is no different dot asking us to go out and build three miles of interstate. There's no way we can do that without us grouping together. So, it's uh I don't mean to get all political up in here. Otherwise, I need to go down there. But regardless who you're voting for, that needs to be a issue that needs to be discussed. It's points well taken.

Any other questions? Yeah, mayor. If uh just like uh we're changing this or this is going into effect, whatever. I mean, what is the uh zoning on a rock quarry? Is it industrial? Commit Mr. Mills, right? Permitted in A1, A2, and B1. So, quaries are allowed in the act. So, it'd be it'd be virtually impossible to get one zoned in the county. So why would you have to, you know, go through what you doing now? That's a question I'll let our legal answer. Again, this was this was a citizen request to put more restrictions on these two types of activity. This would be

Well, what I'm saying if no matter if the citizen did bring it forward or whatever, it's still he can't go and get it zoned. How would you get it built if you didn't get it zoned? Well, again, there's a lot of county that's A1 and a mostly A1. So, already for that. That's a permitted use in the A1 district. Part of the thinking that is not just exclusively the M1 district that allows

and I know there's other questions. I don't want to cut those off. We'll continue discussion. But I do want to remind you tonight on a plan on a reasonzoning or this type of issue. This is first reading tonight to move it on from the meeting in 30 days on the third on the third w Monday of uh May. So, but please continue with any discussion you have. Commissioner Williams, I think you had something next. So, impermissible use A1. That's by special exception and the the board of zoning appeals approves that. Who who who gives that special exception? All special exceptions will be approved by Okay. I need to look out real quick. That's that's fine.

And this wouldn't apply to any cities then, right? This is only in the county. Only the counties. Okay. And is the county held to this this regulation? The county itself. Yeah. For purposes. No. So for for he was asking the landfield. So, if the county decides to do a landfill, do they do they have to go by the uh this zoning amendment? Because I know sometimes governments are exempt from I know I've had that experience before to where governments are exempt from zoning. I'm just asking that question.

The technical answer is no, you're not. But it's not great practice to not follow your own laws. So, there's a balance there. it probably better to take up an exception for government rather than just ignoring your zoning resolution.

But consider to on a landfill and it's about to start a dirty discussion, pun intended. U that we still have to if anyone wants to put in a landfill, you still have to go through the Jackson law and all the other hoops you have to jump through. And as we all know from a historical standpoint, if we decided tonight or anybody decided tonight they're going to have a landfill in this county, it would be 5 years for the first bag of trash is thrown in there. So all the same steps you have to go through through TD deck, the sided waste board, uh Jackson law, all that, all that is still in place. So there's still that protection. This is just something additional being asked for by the citizens. And mayor, if I may, all of mining operations are special exceptions in all three of those districts. So A1, A2, it's already a special exception.

Other questions?

Well, the vote request today is to move this on a regular session. And as when we have a discussion like this, there are also it's obvious that there's some unanswered questions. if you can accumulate your questions here over the next uh third less than 30 days when the next meeting shows up uh better sooner than later. Let's get those to the attorneys so we can have proper research done before we take a vote on the third Monday in May. But I don't want to call discussion. Is there any other discussion or questions? The motion will be to move this on to regular session. Uh motion by Commissioner Williams, second by Commissioner Grove. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor vote by stating I

opposed. Thank you. Item number eight, approval of notaries. Madam clerk, there's a ton. Kathy Cameron, Deont Daniel, Cassandra Davis, Matthew Douly, Tanya Elbertson, R. Scott England, Raymond Arrington, Michael Eubank, Michael N. Eubank, Michael T. you back. Regina Jones, Diane Lkins, Holly Luffman, Shannon McMillan, Heather Miller, Pamela Murphy, Karen Petty, Sharon Porter, Shirley Reed, Emily Rollins, Diane Smithson, Philip Stinsgard, Robbie Tanner, Sierra Bone, Laura Wayick, and Laura Wilson.

Motion approved by Commissioner Batty, second by Commissioner Ledger. Any question or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of stating I

opposed. Thank you. Next, announcements. Any announcement by commission. We had a we had an unfortunate request last week uh by com by Commissioner Buckner. And we understand because I asked for the same thing and it was unfortunate after I heard it. But we're going to give you that honor because Commissioner Buckner on April 9th, you had I'm sure a glorious and delightful birthday, but you didn't self-report. So, you get sung to. Who wants to lead this off? It's not me. Happy birthday, dear Carl. Happy birthday to you.

I'm going to tell you what, there's something out here that's pretty decent singers out here. They they covered up what happened last time. Okay. Yes, sir. Commissioner Buck, I I appreciate all of you and uh it's been a been a long ride. Uh this will be my last trip around this sun over here. So, anyhow, uh after 31 years, it's about time to quit.

There you go. Well, we appreciate your service and we're going to make you hang out four more months or or if you're counting seven more meetings. I'm not. Uh, does anybody else need to self-report something unfortunate happens in May? Maybe. What day is that on? Did I just miss it? Did I miss the cut off? We I'll allow you if you want to. We What day is that actually on? Is that We'll meet before them. Oh, we do meet before them. Man, that was a close call. I'm self-reporting. So, you did self-report. May 10th. May 10th. Okay. Yeah, we got a load of

Well, good. But we're getting this crowd back. I'm telling you, somebody's good out there. Brian says because they were Church of Christ. So,

there you go. U out here tonight. We, you know, we always get nervous when people show up. You're like, why are they here? We got to hear from two of the why they're here and we recognized some others, but I see a good chunk of the leadership class of Dixon County this year. Give everybody a wave. There you go. I did them on state government day. I can assure you they weren't quite that shy. So, they have plenty to say. We appreciate you being here. And if you need anything signed, we'll get you signed. Just come on up front here as soon as we're about to be done. Any other uh announcement? Anybody's got a fish fry? Anything non-political we can talk about here? Barbecue rice. this Saturday.

All right. We know. Just ask a candidate and you know what's going on. So that's good. Okay. We'll get a list out. Thank you. If there's no other announcements, the last announcement will be the next regular session meeting will be on Monday, May 18th at 7 p.m. in the Beaverdale Beauty Re Junior County Commission Chamber of the Dicks County Administration for Court Square Charlotte. I mot second journ. Thank you.