County Commission - Regular Meeting

like to call to order the work session for the Dixon County Commission for February 2nd. If you'll all uh bow your head and pray with me. Dear God, we want to thank you, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for a beautiful icy day and icy week. We got to spend it with our loved ones. As we conduct our day, we work to to make sure that forever in our hearts and our thoughts, we do what your will is. We ask for your love, guidance, protection, and everything we do. Please watch over those who mean the most to us. And as this weather continues and let us make good decisions as we move forward in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Can everyone stand for the pledge? time 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 cler

Mr. Simpkins here. Mr. Ledger here. Mr. Mane here. Mr. Batty here. Mr. Dawson here. Miss Spicer here. Mr. Buckner here. Mr. Brit here. Mr. P here. Mr. Williams, Mr. Ro, and M. Gray here. Do have a quorum tonight. It's good to see you all. Uh, first order of business is approval of minutes the January 5th, 2026 work session. Have a motion by Commissioner Buckner, second by Commissioner Petty. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of stating I.

Opposed? Thank you. Item number two, committee reports. Any committees to report? Hearing none, the next is appointments. Uh, we have two listed on here, number two and three. We're going to move down uh to our next meeting because I was unable to uh have a conversation with those folks before those appointments are made. So, we'll put that on February's agenda. On the industrial development board, we have uh two vacancies on there. One uh was with Mr. Ed Moore who uh we know Ed that he was deceased and uh we need to fill his term and then we have another vacant seat uh was created uh on the on the Mr. Moore seat to fill out his term. Uh, I'd like to bring the name Mr. Robbie Harmon. I think y'all know him working at uh Tristar Bank to add to that. And the other is uh Michelle Chandler Street. Uh she's a banker at First Bank and I'd like to get her on there for a full six-year term. Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Batty. Second by Commissioner Ledger. Any questions or discussion?

I'm sorry. Industrial Development Board. We do have a proper motion to second. Uh all in favor vote by stating I opposed. Thank you. Item number four, new business, quarter of financial reports, all school funds. A board of education representative, Miss Underh Hill.

Good evening. Um these were sent out I think on Friday. Um these are quarterly second quarter reports um for all school funds. So this is July 1st through December the 31st. And um for 141 general purpose school fund, you'll see that revenues are at 52% expenditures at 42% of the budget. 142 federal projects fund revenues are at 35% and expenditures are at 37%. Um and the federal projects is on the reimburseable basis. So we spend the money and then we request it from the state. Um the 143 is a school nutrition fund. revenues are at 33% and expenditures are at 52% and um the USDA is typically about two months behind on our revenues and then you'll see the 177 capital projects fund. Do you have any questions?

Any questions, Miss Underh Hill? We need a motion to carry this on regular session. Motion by Commissioner Brett, second by Commissioner Mane. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor stating I

opposed. Thank you. Thank you. Item number two, we need to move down uncollectible debt solid waste. This is a deal with Dixon Electric. Uh because of the weather, our solid waste uh people and board have been able to meet. They're on other mission right now. So we're going to move this to March. Uh March. Yes. Uh item number three is penny resolution. Just want to have a little minor discussion on that. uh when we uh with the lack of the penny out there uh we are working on and Mr. Reagan I'll let him speak to it specifically uh with no penny uh there's an issue of how we have to round that and we need to come up with a policy if we go down to zero and up to five uh Mr. Reagan has uh gotten a resolution uh that uh I believe Putnham County had done uh and we're we're thinking about mirroring that, but I want him just let you describe that. This goes only on uh um electronic and not only on cash

payments. It doesn't affect electronically, but if you're cash payments, if you show up, it's either going to be a rounding up or down. I'll let Mr. Reagan tell about Putnham County.

Yes. So, the comproller's office has put out guidance that has gone to several of the county officials and so they're all getting pinged with this same thing at the same time. And um so when they take cash payments because we're not going to have pennies, you got to figure out what you do if it falls, you know, in the gap where pennies would be involved. And so, uh, if we adopt something similar to what some other counties are doing, then, uh, what you would be designating as a policy for us would be, you know, if it's one or two cents, you're going to round down to zero. If it's three or four cents, you round up to the nickel. Six or seven cents, you round down to five. Eight or nine, you round up to 10. And so it just gives you a way for everybody to be consistent in how they're going to apply that in their offices. It's not going to apply to electronic transactions because you can still obviously do that, but for cash it will apply. And it's going to be things like property taxes, interest, penalties, court fees, permits, or other county charges that are paid in cash. So

make the motion discussion on that. I'll make the motion approve it just like Brian said. There's a motion by Commissioner Grove. Do I have a second? Second by Commissioner Spicer. Any questions or discussion? Yeah. Mayor, is this a is this going to create revenue? I mean, is it going to create extra revenue? If you don't go if you like if you're at a I don't quite understand. I don't guess. I mean, if you're going to raise it a penny, a penny and a half, two pennies, did that create more revenue? I mean, it might, but again, you're going to have the opposite the other way. And so what it might end up being would probably be negligible. I mean either way I can't imagine it's going to be a lot.

Okay. Any other question discussion on that? The vote we're looking for the motion we're looking for tonight. Uh I think I have the motion, don't I? Yes, I do have the motion. Uh this is to move it on the regular qu regular session on February the whenever it is 20th 19th 20th thank you 17th just pick it yes it is the 17th thank you holiday is on the 16th oh yes it is Tuesday the 17th now that we clarified that anybody want to talk about this resolution hearing no other discussion all in favor vote by stating I opposed thank you commissioner Simpkins.

My question doesn't pertain really to that, but you know, when we raise property tax, we usually do it by the penny and we have uneven. I think ours right now is uneven at like what is it 261 or what is our tax rates? It's less than that. I think it's 236 or No, it's one something. I apologize. 169. 169. I had 69 right. So the when we need to do that again in the future and we don't have a penny to use, are we going to have to go by nickels?

No, this is just uh because that's more of a percentage on the on the whole. Uh and again I and I I should have talked to Miss Pendergrass today, but whenever you I write my real estate property tax bill, it ends in zeros already. So that's why it comes back to uh just these rounding transactions when someone pays cash to the clerk's office uh where it might be a different deal. But again, when I think my my tag's $89 a year, so it's already rounded. So no, it won't it won't affect that because when you take a penny, you're talking about what it affects on the hundreds and thousands of dollars. So uh where it generates roughly around a4 million dollars. So we use nice round and clean numbers. So we stay away from the decimals.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Under other business, I'd like to go over about uh the events. Did we?

Yeah, we voted on other that was just a comment. Listen, guys. Come on. It's been a long week. Don't Don't throw me off now. I'm on a roll over here. So, let's go. Miss Gray Baleiff, if there's another issue over here, I'm going to need some help. Thank you. Just want to make the first announcement and I'll go into some other business. Uh I know that y'all kept up with what the county government's done u over this uh winter ice storm we've had. Uh for tomorrow, Dixon County government operations will be back to normal business. So, we'll be opening at 8:00 and clos at 4:00 or whatever hour various hours they have. The other thing we're going to do is is the Dixie County Convenience Center in Burns and the new site in Charlotte will be open again on a Tuesday. Typically, convenience centers are closed on Tuesday and Thursday, but we're going to have a special opening on those again from 10:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. to help folks get rid of their household waste. The city of Dixon uh I know they're picking going to try to start picking up waste, but uh they're leaving it up to driver's discretion. So, we're going to be probably a few days from uh the municipal standpoint on what they can do, but again, the convenience centers, we expect to have them all open up back on their normal operating hours on Wednesday. Uh I can go into some detail on that, but uh um I I'm probably going to get on a roll here so you all know how I am. So, grab the rope and hold on. Uh basically we'll go back to the beginning of all this whenever this occurred back on Wednesday January 21st before the ice storm came we have emergency preparedness meeting which consisted of Jeff Thomas our maintenance manager uh Jackie Fet our director of the solid waste. Jody Burgess our operations manager at solid waste. uh Donnie Bayer, Aimless Director, Rob Fischer, uh uh our

emergency management agency director and uh uh to uh deputy chief Murphy uh was there on behalf of the sheriff's department. I think that got everyone along with Jackie Hodes at highway. Most importantly, uh we had that preparedness meeting knowing what the weather was going to bring. Uh it was still the question, is it snow or ice? Uh we found out obviously over time it was ice but after we had that meeting uh the the game plans in place uh we moved forward uh we reached out at that point in time with the u um the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency American Red Cross the Dixon County YMCA Dixon Electric Water Authority Dixon County the other two utilities in Dix County and all the mun municipalities in Dixon County. So we engaged them directly on what was about to open on Saturday morning, January 24th. Uh Mr. Fischer opened our emergency operations center at that point in time because the storm was coming. Um I'll let Mr. Hodgeges speak uh mainly to the roads that will u what the work he did because they've done a fantastic job. The thing that uh I know you understand and 90% of Dixon counties understand is this was an ice storm. It was not a snowstorm. Snowstorm is fun. Get in the yard, you make snow angels and snowmen. We had ice and then snow. This was more akin to what versus a what a spring shower would be versus a tornado. This uh this type of event would be comparable to a hurricane on the coast because it was not directed any one area. It was widespread. the power outages that went on simply were more more than half of electric meters in Dixon County were down at one time. So the first thing I want to compliment is is the work Dixon Electric did. They that was outstanding and that's from lessons learned in 1994. And I think we got mostly old folks over here or if you

don't know about 94, I'll give you the story on it some other time. But the what Dixon Electric did with James Peter when he took over after that and everybody since then, the line clearing has been substantial and above board. Again, no disrespect to our friends at Nashville Electric, but you get in some of the parts of of Nashville that are hurting right now. It's where people love their trees and their bushes and their pearl driveways and all those hip things, but it doesn't give clarity around their electric lines. Dixon Electron knocked it out. So you I cannot tell you what the job they did. Uh Mr. Hodgees, I'll I'll go and tell you part of what he did. Whenever you go through a storm, you have a four or have emergency, you got a four-step process. The first thing is helping people and using the old Marine deal. Everybody's a rifleman, so everybody needs to get out and do what they can do, and everybody did. The second is getting the government operations up. That means the most vital operations that we need. The next is recovery, which we're in the stage of, and then replenishing, getting your supplies back where you need, which some of that has already started. So, we're going through that four stage process right now. But, um, we've had the what the folks did at at the highway department. I'll go to Totes Horn. I'll let him talk about it in a minute more detail to help Dixon Electric get where they need to be so they could clear roads to get the electricity back on. So, we had, you know, I think probably all total, uh, it was by Saturday morning, everybody in Dixon County had their electricity back, if I remember the dates correctly. And I apologize cuz ever since last week, every day seems like Saturday to me, uh, on that. But um we also after that meeting uh I did a disaster declaration and what that allows us to do is is ask Tennessee Emergency Management Agency to help send supplies during when this first was created when this was going on. There was no need for that. What it what it

allowed us to do was get assets to people such as food. And what we did by declaring that uh TEMA through us went to the American Red Cross and gave food where they could help people that were in need. Uh we housed people at the YMCA which they were initial part of this conversation. We met can't beat them. Great partners ready to go. Um when we got around some of the waste issues we're having, we had partnership with Mayor Grove and uh along with Mayor Wise to get the roads cleared to the convenience center. The convenience centers at Burns and the new one at Charlotte opened up on Wednesday and have remained open. Uh we were able with the city of Dixon's help get the roads open on Eno where we open Eno road because of the waste we were collecting in Charlotte Burns was massive and excessive. Uh so we were able to pick trucks up to keep those two sites open. I was at the burn site for a few hours on um yesterday on Sunday. uh uh the people that came through there, they're surely appreciative of what you funded to do there because without that and the sites we have that we have not improved, we couldn't have taken waste in and and um again, you got to watch um Dixon County and at their best. Uh people pull up with trash and you could tell after talking to them that they they not only got their trash, they were helping get their neighbors. And I mean that's in that kind of situation that that's amazing. And it you you get to see the best uh at a time like that. So again, I know I'm hitting all over the board on this. Uh but u there there's several other things I'll go over, but I'm going to let uh Mr. Hodes talk about what Highway did and how they've managed this uh process uh to this point and going forward.

First off, thank you. I got a lot of phone calls from from some of you and I appreciate y'all having my back through all this. It's it's been as as tough a storm as we've ever been through and we started out the season with more salt than we've ever had stockpiled. It's just 350 tons, but normally we don't use that much. Uh, we had some in our new bin that we just put up this year and then we had some in the at the old place where we always had stock salt stored. We got five salt trucks that we use. They're pickups with blades on the front and spreaders on the back. They're small. They got to make a lot of trips in and out. We got two grers. We've got three. When this process started, the one of them over on that side over there, it run for about two hours and blow an air compressor. Well, that one's down. We're still waiting on parts for it to come in. Caterpillar clos was closed down most of the week, so we couldn't get parts for it. We started this process Friday night before the storm even got here. We went out, we pre-treated a whole lot of the roads trying to get some salt down in front of it. We We started out with 12-hour shifts. Beginning Friday night, I had crews running day and night. It was 24 hours. And then sun late Sunday afternoon is when the temperature started dropping and it turned to ice. Well, we worked up as long as we could be pushing snow. As long as it would push snow, we was pushing it. And at that point, we come back in, shut the night shift off. We came back in Monday morning and for the next two days, Monday and Tuesday, we cut trees out in front of the electric department. A lot of trees on the south end of the county. That's where the hardest ice was. I'm sure Becky can attest to that and Carl and everybody that's out down there. The ice got a whole lot rougher on the south side of the county. Uh we started back saling Wednesday. Of course, it was cold when it dropped Sunday. Y'all know the temperature didn't move much at all. It

It's Today was the best day we've had since then. We had uh crews both salting plowing and still had three crews going around cutting the low line low limbs everything else hanging in the other trees that failed through the process. And then during the latter part of the week I realized that what you know what we was doing wasn't very effective. We were doing it but we just wasn't making it much. At that point I got in touch with Bob Rob Fiser. We started the process and got something together and sent into Teima requesting help. We we did get some help today from T DOT. T DOT sent us down five trucks. There's some private businesses in the in the community that actually pitched in, put some graders on the road for us, private individuals out there with their farm tractors. I appreciate all of those. Uh around lunchtime today, we we approximately 150 miles is what we've got cleared. Now, when I say cleared, there may be a patch of ice here and there, but they're travelable. You know, people can get up and down them. Just everybody's got to still at this point use some caution. It's been a very challenging process for us. Of course, the cold temps is what turned everything into that thick sheet of ice. And it's been tough, real tough. Uh, as of this afternoon, we put a total of 3,537 hours worked by 46 employees from Friday night until this afternoon. That's how many that's how many man hours that we put in and women hours. We've got two ladies in the front office that's they've been taking the brunt of it for us as far as the phone calls and they have had their hands full. I want to thank everybody at the highway department, all the men and women. They've been working tirelessly through through from the beginning of this till now and they're still out right now plowing. I've still got all my salt

trucks on the road. Uh I'd like to thank T DOT and the private companies that went out and helped us as well as the individuals that went out with their farm tractors, skid steers and everything and helped us out. It was it was a big help. Without them, we wouldn't be near as far as we are today. The social media posts, I'm sure all of you have seen them. They've been unbearable at times on some of them. That's 90% of them. Great people. Great. Everybody out there, a lot of people got their backs. And I I appreciate every bit that everybody has done for us on that. But of course, you've always got those that's, you know, I get it. They're in hard times and getting everything's bad, but we we're getting to them. You know, it's it's one of those, you know, the bad is bad, but that's what we signed up for. every everybody at at the highway department. We we enjoy serving the people of Dixon County and that's what we'll strive to continue to do. Just to give y'all a little bit of comparison, we started out 350 tons of salt. We're getting down almost to the point of being out. That's, you know, we we throw everything we can at them. Five trucks, two graders on the road. Our neighbors to the north. I get compared to McGomery County all the time. Everybody does. McGomery County started out with 32 plow trucks, tandem plow trucks. They've went through over 8,000 tons of salt. They just finished getting their roads cleared tonight. They're they're finishing up tonight. So, we're not too far behind them just to give you a little bit of a comparison.

Well, the other things I'm allowing questions because we want to make sure we get all the information out. But thank you. I know the work that they've been putting in. uh we we uh pushed out government operations because we felt like it was more important for the highway department to be on clearing roads than come and clear this building out. Again, as I typically remind everyone on Dixon County government Facebook page, when Dixon County government closes, that means 70% of the people work for Dixon County government are still at work and on duty. So, the all that's closed is administrative offices, things that can wait. Uh there was a lot of work done with the help of the highway department, the sheriff, the jail crew this past Friday that allowed this building to be open today. And that's work they did to get us to that point. And uh Mr. Hodes is 100% correct. 90% of the Dixon counties are here and supported because they get it. I only ran into about three overt cases of lack lack of manliness. U I hope somebody can sober those up or talk to their priest or find a friend. But, you know, uh, be strong for your family. If you can't be strong for yourself was what I'd tell those people. Uh, you get on social media screaming and crying, the sky's falling. Well, you're scaring your family if nobody else. So, be a man. Pride is cool. But as you move forward, everyone that we had on duty at the landfill, we actually had someone injured today at the landfill who works for us that was clearing a space so we could get these excess bags of garbage in there. He was transported. He's in good condition. and they expect him to be back work on Thursday. There's putting them there's people putting themselves in harm's way to make this government work. And so I know you do. I know 90% of Dicks counties thank them. So again, I want them all to know how much I appreciate them. The folks at the Lway, Highway, Sheriff's Department, maintenance, ambulance service, emergency management, uh, and all some of these others I name that are not directly related to Dixon County

government, but they're here in support situations. um the lo the volunteer fire departments, people that had to go in and get people to get them out to the highway to get them to an ambulance. That's the kind of work we had going this community. And and you know that that's you get point. You can't help but be proud to be a part of Dixon County and that happens. So again, y'all know I either cry or cuss, so I'm not going to try not to do either one right now. Do y'all have any questions for myself or Mr. Hajes? Hey, mayor. I got one comment. lady that's the name of Doris Jones who lives down Trace Creek she is his hero she been in h in the house for a week he came out there on on what was it Saturday put and done that he put salt on can't tell you what to do

she called me she said cod said that's that's absolutely fantastic and and the clay fire department went down to the end of nose gay road's house caught on fire down there and they the big old steep hill going down and they finally got down there it's been tough it has It really has and I'm proud of the county, everybody. I mean, that's I am too.

I appreciate you pointing that out, Commissioner, because it it's a it's a good job, you know, and it gets a little it's stressful, but as Mr. Hodge says, that's what we sign up for. And again, you know, it sounds a little bit self- serving, but I don't have to be because I'm not running for reelection. But there's a group of folks that we have that operate your county government dayto day. There there's none better. No. And uh if this happens again, I want the whole same group back together, work through it. So, thank you to Thank you to everyone on that. Be glad to answer any questions, give you information on what we're going to do, what the plan is, but u love to hear from you. Got a couple more pieces of business after we get done with that.

Rob Fisher called me. I think it was Monday or Tuesday morning. It's early. He said, "I want you on your tractor. I want you go over there on this road over in Hickman County, not too awful far from me. Won't you take your tractor? I want you hook to that car and pull it out of the road." I was like I said, "Can I do that?" He said, "Yes, you can." cuz they got the electric department blocked. And they said, "Just hook a chain to it and pull it out of the way." I was like, "Okay." I didn't know you could do that. He said, "Oh, yeah." He said, "This got them blocked. People don't have electricity." He said, "Don't worry about what you do to it. Pull it out of the way." Yeah. It's about helping people no matter what we do. So, thank you. You see these little guys running across your field with a backpack on their back. Leave them alone. Leave them alone. Yeah.

Cuz they they out there for a reason. and they're they're clearing these light lines and stuff so you can have fire. And I appreciate all the advice you give me on the pre-treatment and and the contact we had. Uh and mayor, I was in constant contact. I'm not going to ask you to talk cuz you're going to cry in a minute. And when you start crying, I'm going to cry. I'm surprised you went this long without balling up there. But I Hey, we was in constant contact. The mayor did a very good job of leading us all. I appreciate it. I'm I'm a firm believer when everybody's working together, you get there a whole lot easier. Yep. That's exactly right.

But I do appreciate you guys having my back on a lot of this. That means a lot. I thank y'all.

Good. Thank you. Thank you everyone. U back to a little bit of regular business. Couple of things that we need to add to the agenda. One of them is I believe it's on your table a notification of a public hearing. That will be on the February 17th public hearing. uh and then it'll come back a month later for its normal vote as I recall on that. The only other thing I need to add on here is the and we don't do this resolution on the bonds. We just need simply uh our medical examiner, Dr. K Dr. Kyle Moore and uh Lynn Collins, our clerk and master. It's time for their bond to be renewed. Uh we just need to get a uh I'm going to just take a voice vote on that. All in favor of that vote by stating I opposed. Thank you. Uh, any other business from the commissioners? Commissioner Spicer, do you have any business?

Yeah, it is this weekend ain't it? I saved you. He's trying to forget it. Well, we look I'll be I'll be the same age as you. You You've caught up with me. Took a month. So, don't that makes me old. You are. Well, I hope you have a happy birthday. Thank you. And hopefully it's warm when you outside with your No, I'm not 70. Be careful now. She's about 62. Commissioner Grove, we'll we'll get you. We're not going to rush. Okay. Just just kind of on deck.

Uh any other announcements hearing? None. The final announcement will be the next work session meeting on Monday, March the 2nd, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the Beaverdale Bey Junior County Commission Chamber. for the Dicks County Administration.