County Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Like to call the county commission regular session order. Uh, Commissioner Simpkins, you lead us in prayer. Let us pray. Lord, be with us tonight as we're here to make decisions for the great people of this county. be with our soldiers who are away on foreign soils that you allow them to come home safely. Be with us tonight as we travel back home to be with our loved ones. We ask this in your name. Amen. Amen. Everyone stand for the pledge. I

to [snorts] 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. M clerk, would you call the role in a breathless manner? Mr. Simpkins here. Mr. [snorts] Ledger here. Mr. Mane here. Mr. Batty here. Mr. Dawson here. Miss Spicer, Mr. Buckner here. Mr. Britt here. M. Danny Williams here. Mr. Grove, and Cindy G.

Mr. Petties has another commitment tonight. We wish him well. Uh, first order of business, approval of the minutes. the December 15, 2025 regular session. Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Gray. Have a second. Second by Commissioner Mwane. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor stating I. Opposed? Thank you. Item number two, public comments. Do we have a public comment list over there? There is.

Thank you. We have one item uh wants to speak tonight. Uh Mr. Derek Norman to speak on uh item number three, additional property agriculture. Mr. Norman, and you have three full minutes.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate your opportunity. I'm here. Uh my name is Derek Norman. I'm the CT director here for Dixon County Schools. Uh the a departments had asked me to uh they had planned to be here to speak tonight. Each group had a conflict and asked me to come out and speak uh to you all uh regarding this uh property and some of the future plans that they are wanting to expand and uh just kind of voice you know their support uh for this endeavor. One of the things uh when I started working with our department uh I started here in July took over Mr. Raya Compton when he retired and uh as an a teacher for the pay I taught a huh for 16 years worked as extension agent before that and so agriculture is a vital part of uh my life and one of the things that I have really pushed our a departments here across the county was how do we expand and one of the things that they really are wanting to look at is expanding their livestock showing opportunities and basically how do we bring that to the younger masses. And this summer when I met with them, I gave each group the challenge. I was like, we don't have middle school FFA right now in Dixon County. Uh, but that's on my radar. That's one thing I really want to do. And so, each high school this year has started working with those students to expand this out. And we really want to see that show string expand. And by having this type facility, we have have the ability, you know, that's one of the things they really want to look for is how do we get more children involved and have a facility that will allow us to host larger shows here. I know right now they have hosted the regional hog shows uh for the western region and uh with the expansion and properties, it will certainly give us it's kind of like I originally came out of West Tennessee uh though the larger the property we had, the larger shows we could have. You know, we had some areas that uh like Weston Safe Fair as their ground started

to shrink, so did their livestock shows. And uh coming out of Gibson County, we expanded some of our facilities and we saw uh grow. Uh people want to go where there's plenty of parking and plenty of opportunities available for them. And I really feel like, you know, our a departments are going to lead that charge and uh we'll be able to take any type of expansion of property and use that. uh we had the opportunity uh to attend the farm to table and those FFA students from each Creekwood Dixon County High School were instrumental uh in making that night a success and they're excited for this. These students are and uh we certainly would appreciate any consideration uh for supporting you know our agriculture departments here that will benefit and allow them to flourish even more than what they already are.

Thank you, Mr. Norman. That's the only one we had time for public comment. Uh next time a business committee report. So Miss Gray, yes, I sent out to everybody um a report on the Humane Society and if you see something or have any questions about it um let Cotner I know and we'll get an answer for you. Thank you. You see a committee report. Commissioner Dawson, were you ready for the phone calls you were just

I'm ready for that. Okay, good. Thank you. Uh, next item is appointments. First is solid waste management director, Miss Jackie Fet. She's here with us again tonight. We brought her name forward uh to fill the position, the vac position, and solid waste director. Uh, she's here to answer any of your questions. And uh, if you don't have any questions, we'll open the floor for motion. A whole bunch of people made a motion. I saw Commissioner Grove and I think it was Commissioner Ledger back there. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor with stating I opposed. Thank you. Congratulations. She's done a great job out there uh in the interim and look forward to making it official starting tomorrow. She'll we'll do the payroll change and everything. [laughter]

You're welcome. Item number two is medical examtor. Uh this is reappoint Dr. Kyle Moore. Open the floor for motion on that. Commissioner Simpkins, second by Commissioner Mane. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of vote by stating I. Opposed. Thank you. Next item is water authority board. This is a reappoint with the water authority board. I think I said last uh meeting it was a three-year term, but it's actually a four-year term. Uh we have two county appointees. Uh Miss Paula Elazar, who was reappointed last year for her four-year term. Now Mr. James is up and would like to be reappointed. Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Ledger. Second by Commissioner Spicer. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor stating I.

Oppose. Thank you. Item number one, resolutions, budget amendment, all funds except schools. Mr. Hall, I believe he sent those out to you. Do you have any additions for changes? I just want to I just want to make sure that they're clear. I sent you a an amendment for the circuit court clerk. When I handed these out two weeks ago, I did not include the benefits on the mental health grant and circuit court clerk. So, I did include the benefits on the amendment that I sent to you or the adjustment I sent to you, I think a week ago or last Thursday or sometime or another. I just want to make sure that you got that. This is paid through the grant where it's a pass through. So, there's no additional county funding for that.

The amendment to the circuit court, the expenditures there equals the revenue that we also get in. So, yeah. Any questions for Mr. Hall? Hearing? None. Open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Grace, second by Commissioner Grove. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor vote by stating I. Opposed. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hall. Oh, I'm sorry. You're again. Resolution authorized execution of 60-month lease contract with Pittney Bose for postage meters and related service supplies. Mr. Hall,

up for renewal tonight is also for the postage meter lease. This is for the court systems over in the justice center. um chancery circuit and general sessions and the total cost for each office is $115.92 and they can cover that in their budget as it is right now. So it'll be 60 months as he said for each three of those offices.

Thank you. I appreciate you letting me rejoin you. I'm sure Mr. Hall answered all your questions. So if he hasn't if he has open the floor for motion motion by Commissioner Williams, second by Commissioner Britt. Any questions or discussion. Thank you. All in favor with stating I

opposed. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Tall did a great job. The next item is the additional property purchase of the ag next to the agricultural center. This is what Mr. Norman spoke on a little earlier today. Uh this money is that way would find those funds of Mr. Hall and Miss Whitaker closed out the books. We had excess fund balance and debt service. So that's where the funds are coming from. It requires no additional funds or any tax increase, anything of that type to purchase this property. U the one of the nuances in here is to whenever we do this, you cannot transfer money out of debt service uh once the budget established. So how we manage this is is that we borrow the money from debt service and we repay that loan. So included in this is a bond to p to to get the money out of debt service and before uh the end of the fiscal year we pay it back and so that's a where we could move money out of any other debt service fund the state law will not let us do it that but this is the workaround which is legal. Mr. Reagan please add add anything to that. So, so really we need to break this into two votes because one of the resolutions you received is the borrowing resolution that the uh bond fund puts together and then we just need to vote on approving the purchase of the property. So, you you'll be doing two votes and you should have both of those resolutions that came with the packet. So, the first resolution is the the agreement on the purchase of the property. So, we'll open the floor for a motion, a second. Any discussion? Motion by Commissioner Sickum, second by Commissioner Maw Wayne. Any question or discussion? This is on the purchase of the property.

This is not a question, but it's just a comment. We appreciate Mr. Norman coming in and showing the showing that type of uh uh to be interested in us doing this and this and the schools being involved also. I think that's that would just help us along with this facility once it gets built. I think we can got many options of building that building out there and uh uh it's not only going to be for certain things. We're going to try to make make it be several things and the more people can get in involved in something like that, the better we can be, I think.

Thank you, Commissioner. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none. All in favor vote by stating I opposed. Thank you. The second portion of that will be is the resolution uh to authorize the issuance of interest bearing general obligation note uh for $775,000 uh and providing for payment of the note and that's what I just explained. Uh this way we borrow the money from debt service and before June 30th we pay it back and we're back at net zero and uh open the floor for motion. Motion by commissioner Spicer, second by Commissioner Buckner. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of vote with stating I.

Opposed. Thank you. Item number four is capital outlay note for emergency medical services and a firet truck. This is what Mr. uh Bayer presented to you. It was the monitors in the fire truck that have aged out. Uh that is the money for that and it's also the purchase of a fire truck. Uh for Mr. Fiser, he's done a good job with using a lot of used equipment, but we have some things that are aging out on that. This fits into our budget plan. This is a seven-year payback on this loan and it fits into what we've done in our debt service budget. If you have any questions, Mr. Bayer, he's in the back or Mr. Fischer's here. If not, I'll open the floor for a motion. Motion by Commissioner Brett, second by Commissioner Gray. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of stating I.

Opposed? Thank you. Next item is a road list 2026 road list. Mr. Hodgees has a resolution in the packet on that. Is there any questions from Mr. Hodgees? He's here tonight as usual. Open the floor for a motion to accept to the road list. Motion by Commissioner Ledger. Second by Commissioner Williams. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of vote stating I. Opposed. Thank you. Item number six, Nails Adams road speed limit change. Commissioner Simpkins, you brought that forward. Uh, have we had the time for the study on that? Thank you,

Mayor. [clears throat] I was not able to get a study complete uh for this one. However, I did go survey the road. It's 1.3 miles. If you're not familiar with it, it has 31 houses on it. And the lay of the road, it's like it's a connector road, but uh between two other county roads. Uh the lay of the road is very hilly and curvy and there's one stretch not even a half a mile long uh would be the only place I could run a survey. Uh you might see some higher speeds there, but uh having driven it uh years ago, I can remember it being a a gravel road, but uh now that it's paved, it's got some fairly deep ditches on it, doesn't it, Jackie?

Yes, sir. So, you know, I think 30 or 35 uh would be appropriate. Even without a study, I could still do a study if you if you wish, but just based on experience and uh the just the lay of the road in and the number of the houses are there and a lot of newer houses and looks like plenty more room to build. So, uh you know, if you want to go with 35, if there's ever a day when there's a countywide speed limit, that would be 35. You wouldn't have to change the sign out. So, Commissioner Simpkins, I I'll make a motion to effect the changes to 35 mph. Do

you have a second? Second by M Commissioner Mane. I can assure you I tried driving that road with my wife in the truck on on uh Sunday and she's still mad at me because I tried to drive it at 45 and you can do it [laughter] but you probably need probably need a new set of tires, too. But, uh so I I agree 35 is plenty on that. Um good. Uh you have proper motion second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor vote stating I

opposed. Thank you. Uh under other business uh school was going to come to make a presentation. Uh after do talking with Dr. Sutherland and Sonia Brogden the chairman they felt like they need to do some more finetuning on this. So uh before they came back and made a presentation on the improvements they want to do uh they felt it' be come best to come back in one month. That'll be the meeting one month from today the day after President's Day. So, uh, I told her we would rather have good and complete information than partial information and that's what they've offered to do. So, uh, I appreciate the work and Mr. Norman, you can tell them and oh, good to see you, too. Have have a school board member here. So, we appreciate their work and the effort they're putting into this because I think that long-term plan that we've been asking for for a long time, it seems like it's falling in place. So, uh, so Miss Sutherland would prefer to do that and, uh, that's how we're going to handle that. So, thank you for your understanding on that. Is any other other business to be brought up by the commissioners? If not, the next is approval of notaries. Madam clerk.

Yes, sir. Linda S. As Akins, Veronica, Randy Blankenship, Carissa Cox, T. Marshall Fusan III, Melissa K. Garton, Dena Gilbert, Mindy Gilmore, Laura Jawuski, Philip Griggsby, Amy Hinton, Matrika Hudson, Dartha Payne, Rebecca Shuckus, Kristen Smith, Michelle Smith, Tracy Smith, Leisa Taylor, and Katrina Wall. Have a motion by Commissioner Batty and second by Commissioner Britt. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor stating I opposed. Thank you. Any announcements?

Yes, Commissioner. Uh, last meeting I announced that uh January 19th was Dolly Parton's birthday and I thought that we need to observe that as a as a national holiday, but it looks like our governor was listening. It might have been because the mayor was there talking to him. I'll be in the past two weeks. So, I if you if you were the ones uh that's responsible for that, I appreciate that. Mayor.

Well, you know, I get blamed for so much. I'd like to take credit for things I didn't do, but I [laughter] I'm not taking the blame for anything right now since I'm not realization. So, I'm not going to take credit either. So, but I I think you uh misjudged yourself. I think you may have been the ground swell. It takes one butterfly to flaps wings for the whole world to change. So, I appreciate that. Thank you, Commissioner. [laughter] Uh it looks like we will meet before the Commissioner Spicer has her blessed event. [laughter] Well, he appropriately announced that. We He He did good. So, he did He did very well. So,

your birthday's February 4th, in case you're curious. So, [laughter] you want me to tell him what year? No, we we were in high school together. That's all she they need to know. Any other announcements? Hearing none. The next regular session meeting will be on Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the Buford Booty Reed Jr. County Commission Chamber of the Dicks County Administration building forcourt square Charlotte, Tennessee. Have a motion. Second journ. Boom.