Commission - Regular Meeting

Hallelujah. like to call to order the Wilson County Commission meeting, November the 17th. 2025. Welcome all of our guests here tonight. Thank you for being a part of tonight's meeting. Um I do recognize our Department of Agriculture. Um Commissioner, Commissioner Hatcher, I think is in the audience tonight. I'm not for sure where he's at. Um I don't see him at this time. Um

okay. Um but thank all of you for being here tonight. At this time, I'll turn it over to Commissioner Chandler for the prayer and pledge.

Thank you, mayor, and welcome everyone who's here tonight. We do have a packed crowd. Anytime I have an opportunity to do the prayer and pledge, I'd like to highlight some individuals in our community who truly care about people. And these two individuals really care about first responders and police officers and they're colleagues of mine, but also good friends of mine who live in the Mount Juliet area. Uh, but I'd like to welcome Wink Chase and his wife Patty Leard up to the podium. Thank you. [applause] Both of them are chaplain with our organization that helps with the mental wellness of our police officers, but they're also part of the Tennessee Disaster Mental Health Strike Team and Tennessee Crisis Response Network. So, you can imagine the everyday individual may experience three to five traumatic incidents in their whole lifetime, but our first responders experience anywhere from a thousand to 3,000 traumatic incidents in their lifetime. And so they go through some hard times with their mental health. And these two individuals here care deeply about our first responders. I'm so thankful for them. And I'd like to welcome up Wink to lead us in prayer. And then Patty will do the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Wink. Please rise. There's far too much burnout, too many divorces, and emergency services suicides are off the charts. In a proactive effort to counter these awful statistics, the Mount Julia Police Department instituted what has been uh has become a very robust wellness program that encourages and tests physical fitness [clears throat] and well-being and provides meaningful educational growth opportunities to address mental and emotional and spiritual well-being. The department has a mental health professional on staff, a combination sworn and civilian member peer support group, and for the last year, a nine member chaplain corps. Now, when most people hear the term chaplain, they think of prayers before meetings and a bunch of preaching. It's important

that you know that police chapency is about care and comfort primarily for officers, their staff, and their families, as well as community members in circumstances indicate. Chaplain ethics specifically prohibit proitizing or preaching to convert people to a particular faith. Police chapency is not an easy calling and that's why we did not want to be particularly easy to become a Mount Julia Police Department chaplain. During our selection process, more than half who originally expressed interest decided not to proceed. The final nine of us completed 10 required training classes to qualify as basic police chaplain through the international conference of police chaplain, the gold standard in law enforcement chapency. Chief Chandler mentioned the Tennessee disaster mental health strike team and our cross crisis response network which as I am told is the only state supported volunteer team of its kind in the country. We are peer-based team of around 115 people comprised of PE people from law enforcement, fire, EMS, dispatchers, emergency management chaplain, and mental health professionals who were trained to provide initial mental health triage, mental health first aid, and crisis intervention for citizens and emergency responders following traumatic events and major disasters. The strike team includes representatives from WEIMA and Lebanon Fire in addition to Patty and me. And now, if you would please pray with me. Give us grateful hearts, our father, for all emercies and make us mindful for the needs of others. With all that is going on in the world these days, it's sometimes hard to see the blessings. However, here in Wilson County, there is much to be grateful for. It's a great place to live. People are friendly. Schools are good. Area leadership works to be fiscally responsible. And we have excellent responders who have dedicated their lives to being mindful for the needs of others. Tonight, we pray for safety coupled with mercy and grace for all Wilson County residents and especially our emergency responders. We pray for wisdom and guidance for our

elected leaders. We pray that emergency services leadership recognize, embrace, and support muchneeded wellness programs. And finally, for the person here tonight who is struggling to remain positive, who may be feeling a sense of hopelessness and who may be even considering suicide, I pray you will reach out and talk with someone who can help you stay safe for now. Nobody in this family should fight alone. And Father, it's in your loving name that I pray.

Thank you. If you'd all remain standing and say the pledge of allegiance with me. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you both. And thank you, Chief Chandler. Thank you, sir. We'll press yes on your panel to record your presence tonight's meeting. I know Commissioner Costley will not be here. Terry Scrug is out back. They said

and they're here. Yeah. And Chad and and Bobby are here too. Wendle's here too. Okay. So Franklin is present is present. I think everybody's here but only costly. Mhm. 24 present. 24. I got 24 present, one absent. This time we'll have public comment. Anyone wishing to speak before the county commission at this time. You'd step forward, state your name and address for the record. Um, this is not about the reszoning or the lot size. That'll have a separate public comment period. Do I have anyone here wishing to speak? Seeing none, we'll close public comment period and we'll move to the report from steering committee. Commissioner Fields.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. The steering committee of the county commission met in regular session on Thursday, November the 6th in the upstairs conference room. A copy of that meeting is in your packet. I move that it be received and filed. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. Adoption of the agenda. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Everyone has an agenda and I'd like to make a motion to amend it that we move the elections and appointments prior to the public hearing for zoning purposes. Second. I got a motion to amend and a second. I hear any discussion. Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. And now vote on the agenda as amended.

Yes. We can make a motion to accept the and approve the agenda as amended. Second. All in favor say I. Thank you. And consent agenda. We don't have any, do we? We do not have an

at this time. We are excited to have the opportunity to recognize our employees here in Wilson County. We haven't done this before, so there'll be a little a few glitches uh with this uh I'm sure the first time around, but just to give you a little bit of history right quick if I can. Back in February and March, we just began to talk about employees that today uh you know have a hard sometime don't stay 30 years anywhere. Uh, and we had a lot of employees that we felt like that were dedicated to Wilson County and need to be honored. So, we reached out to Kiana and Bethany uh, in HR and said, "How many people are we talking about?" Uh, and she said, "Well, we got to pick a date. You know, when you want to make the cut off, this was in February, March of 2025." And we said, "Well, okay, let's go to December of 2024. Uh, and look back and see how many employees we're talking about this got 30, 35, 40 years of service." and she came back to us with that number. Uh and then we talked about, you know, how do we recognize them? So we broke it down into 30, 35, and 40 years. Uh so that 31, 32, 33, 34 person, they'll get theirs next year when we do this again. Uh if they roll to 35 or that 29 when they roll to 30. So we we found out how many people we had and we said, "Okay, what's it going to cost?" Uh, and uh, we talked about at that particular time for about a month about what kind of awards and Sarah and Brooke and Christy and Susan in our office uh, spent a lot of time with Bethany and and Kiana of trying to figure out the right award and I think they did a fantastic job once you see these awards. Um uh and so we got those wards taken care of and then we talked about food and by the time we came up with a pretty good um price tag on it uh and wondered how do we finance it and we reached around and Michelle Boyin uh and Scott Benson actually also from um

Rackley Roofing said we believe in the employees, we believe in our community. Uh we would like to sponsor that. So all of this is at no cost to taxpayers. Uh and we're excited about that. And at this time, I'd like for Michelle to come up and just say a few words, if she would uh a little bit to the commission uh about her thoughts and in this particular program. I know Mr. Benson is in the back. Thank you for being here as well, Mr. Scott.

Promise keep this short. Uh good evening. My name is Michelle Boyin. I'm the chief operating officer at Rackley Roofing, and we are excited to be able to honor the long-term employees of Wilson County. We uh if you don't know, we moved our building here to Lebanon last year. So, we've been in just about over a year. We were in Smith County, but most of our team lives in Wilson County, including myself. Um, so this is big for us. A lot of us have been here for years. Personally, I graduated from Lebanon High School. We won't talk about the year, but uh been here since uh 1992, and actually Scott Benson was a teacher and a principal of mine many, many years ago. So, uh, all all things went full full circle. But, uh, for the employees, whether you've worked for the county for 5 months or for 50 years, uh, your impact is seen every day by the people of this community. So, thank you for what you do. Um, on behalf of myself and on Rackley Roofing's behalf, thank you so much, Michelle. Thank you for that. And, uh, let's give a round of applause, please. Our [applause] goal as we recognize these tonight, they'll be given the award by their supervisor that will come from my right and the employer will come from my left. And once they uh finish that, then they're going to go outside. And our hopes are is that Wilson County TV will also do kind of a YouTube on each one of those interviewing the employee as well as our supervisor to put out over the next several months to kind of tell a little bit of their story instead of taking a lot of time tonight because we want that story to be something that you kind of hear and learn from. So again, uh we will go forward with tonight's presentation. Uh and I'll start um again by saying the first one is from the A Center. Miss Debbie Fischer is the 30-year employee currently working at the A Center. Uh, of course, she is not here tonight. She had something uh come up, but we want to celebrate her. Uh, next would be circuit court clerk. Um, office would be Susan Gregory.

Susan has 45 years of service as a circuit court clerk and her award will be given up by Miss Debbie Moss. [applause]

She hates to be hugged. I had to do it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Clerk and master, Miss Susan Deumbreium is not here. She has 45 years of service as well in the clerk and master's office. The next will be our county attorney, Mike Jennins, tonight, which serves many hats. Mike tonight will be service for 35 years of service and Commissioner Marlo will hand him his award. Hugs. Okay. Thank you, my friend.

Thank you very much for your service and I was the only one willing to come up here and give it to you live dangerous [applause] way out. There you go. County Buildings tonight would be Auggie Vasola and County Buildings. He's had a loss in his family for 33 years and he will not be here, but we appreciate him as well. In the county clerk, we recognize four members of the county clerk's office tonight that have 30 plus years of service. But we'll start out with the headmaster there and Mr. Jim Goodall who has 34 years of service and he was award will be given by his son Mr. Steven Goodall, our property assessor.

[applause] Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. Thank you. Appcate. There you go. Pocket watcher. Yeah. Great. Thanks. You're going to stay right here. And now, Mr. [applause] And now, Mr. Goodall will present three here. The first one will be to Miss Stacy Wall. 31 years of service in Mr. Goodall's office. [applause]

Stacy uh Stacy runs my Mountain Got office, so a lot of y'all know her from down in there. Does a great job. Thank y'all. Thank you. And next, Miss Tammy Nolles, 34 years of service. [applause] 35 years of service. 35. 35. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good.

She's the real boss is what they told me. Well, wait. I take it back. Here comes another one. uh Miss Sandre Dowy in that office for 38 years of service actually 39. [applause] Let me tell you a little bit something about Sandra. She's been working keeping uh the county commission busy and business and everything for 36 years. She's never missed a meeting. 36 years. It's unbelievable. She's great. [applause]

Thank you, Mr. Jim. And now for General Sessions, Miss Millie Wong. 38 years of service. 39. 39. And I think these are a year off because we stopped it at December of 2024. She's has the honor of being presented by Judge Barry Tatum, Judge Jimmy Lee, and Judge Haywood Barry. Congratulations. You want to say anything? No.

Thank you judges for being here. Yes. Property assessor's office. Mr. Kevin Woodard uh has been the property assessor for 30 years of service is not with us tonight. And Mr. Jeff White for 35 years of service as well in both of those offices. And in the register of deeds, Miss Beth Howard, 32 years in the register of deeds office, maybe 33 now. Uh her award by Miss Jackie Murphy. I want to thank Miss Beth Howard for her service to the register of deeds office and the time she has spent. She has been a true blessing.

Thank you. [applause] Road Commission. Mr. Steve Murphy is currently the road superintendent, uh, but has served at Road Commission now for 34 years of service. And Commissioner Bobby Franklin will give his award. Thank you. [applause] You got you a little money this year. Go forth. Do good work. [laughter] Thank you. Thank you. And now, Mr. Murphy, we'll do the road commission's employees. The first one being Tommy Cooper with 30 years of service.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Next would be Mr. Alan Yelton with 30 years of service as well.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Now we'll go to the sheriff's department. There are five members of the Wilson County Sheriff's Department being honored tonight uh for their dedicated service ranking from 30 to 44 years. The first one would be Mr. Scott Filson, 30 years of service. Sheriff Brian will present these awards. Thank you. Next would be Mr. Brian Lamey. 37 years of service. [applause]

Next would be Mr. Ricky not 38 years of service. [applause] Thank you. We have two more that were unable to attend. Uh Mr. Terry Davis, 44 years of service. Uh and Mr. Barry Graves, 44 years of service. Now we go to Wimma. Wilson County EMA director serves for the uh will be our first one, Mr. Joey Cooper. 36 years of service tonight being presented by Mr. Chad Bernard, the chairman of the WEMA committee. [applause]

Thank you. Now, Mr. Cooper will present these. I would I hope you get a chance to see the awards with a nice pocket watch, a a clock, and a um jewelry case. They're really, really neat gifts. So, I hope you get a chance to see those, those of you in the audience. Starting down the WEMA list, first one is Mr. Daniel Cowan, 30 years of service. [applause] Yes, sir. You got to take a picture.

Miss Lisa Hecman, 31 years of service. Mr. Lee Bowen. [snorts]

Foland, 32 years of service. [applause] Mr. Wayne Cowan, 37 years of service. Mr. Steve Fox, is he here? Mr. Steven Fox, 35 years of service. Mr. Brian Newberry, 35 years of service. [applause] And Mr. Phillips Spears, I do not believe, is here. 37 years of service for him. Please help me thank these employees, if you don't mind, for all of their years of service. [applause]

[applause]

Thank you. When you think about events like tonight, I'm sure we have left somebody out somewhere. We will find out about it tomorrow, but I cannot thank Sarah, Brooke, Christy, Kiana, Bethany, and Susan enough for putting this on and honoring our employees. Our goal will be for December of 2025 to go back and get the next group and hopefully do that sometime between April and March. Mr. Benson, if you could line up the sponsor again, we sure would appreciate that. U but again, thank you so much. At this time, if you're a retired employee for Wilson County government and you're here, we invited you tonight. I know Jordan's did the food outside. We would love if you're a retired employee if you would stand right now and just give us your name, your place of service, and how many years you served if you're in our audience.

And somebody just start and we'll go till we get done. And your name. Glad to have you, sir. [applause]

[applause] Mr. Man. Thank you. [applause] command 34 years [applause] 32 years [applause] management 40 years and 3 months [applause]

[applause]

I'm Argie Tri. I have 43 years, 3 months, and 12 days. [applause]

26 and A2. [applause] Is anybody else? Because I see people standing on the side. And boy, all total I have 50 years. [applause]

Heywood Barry, General Sessions Court, 31 years. [applause] President Halema and the judicial 47 years. [applause] Anyone else? Anybody we forgot? Again, let's give our retirees, if you don't mind, a round of applause. [applause]

[applause] Thank you all and we we we live in a good county and we live in a good county because of you and the ground that you work that you laid for us over these years. We thank you for your service. It's hard to find an employee anymore that will stay too long in one place and our I think our county serves us well with the people that are loyal to Wilson County. So again, thanks to all who made tonight happen. Uh at this time we'll go to elections and appointments and uh elections and appointment. I'll turn it over to Mr. John Gentry. I believe

good evening mayor. We have one part-time appointment to the judicial commission and I was looking for Mr. Buer, but if he's not here, he's here. He's here. Okay. I want to introduce him to introduce the uh person. Good evening. Uh this is Joe Dryden. I'd like to ask that he be appointed to a part-time my last part-time position, which would make me full from uh December of 25 to December of 26. Any discussions or comments? All in favor say I. Any opposed? Thank you, sir, and congratulations. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Gentry. Uh, also Mr. Goodall, anybody be added to the notary list? Do I have a motion to approve a notary list? Any discussion? See none. All in favor say I.

Okay. At this time, we'll go to the public hearing and u we have two uh resonings tonight. One on land lot size and one on a reszone road. I'm going I'm going to turn it over before we start to Mr. Christopher Laws before we go out of session. We have one thing to take care of and then we'll go out of session. Okay. Um before we go out of session for the reszoning um on 3503 Murphy'sboro Road, um the applicant, Mr. David Estri, had sent me an email this afternoon. Um formally requesting a deferral on the hearing of the zoning change at 3503 Murphy'sboro Road till the January 2026 county commission meeting is is his request. Um you all do have to vote on a deferral. I did not have adequate time since he sent me that this afternoon to get ahead of that.

Got a motion, Mr. Evans, second to defer. Uh any discussion about it? Seeing none, all in favor say I. Okay. This time we'll go out of session for a public hearing to hear a motion to go out. Second. All in favor say I.

Mr. Christopher, and then before we start this, Mike, could you give us kind of a a good rundown of what we're looking at as we to do this correctly? Uh yeah, I'll do my best. You have before you tonight is in your package, the resolution has been kicked around for several months now, uh really years, but this is the one expanding the lot size to 80,000 square ft. It was uh sent up by the planning commission. It was also sent up with a suggestion of it being 60,000 square feet. Let me say to you, I've had several of you ask questions about process.

Can we get a microphone? Yeah. Can you speak to the mic? Sure. Thank you. Okay. You hear me now?

All right. Good. Um, I've asked several questions about the process and the procedure. [laughter] There's no case law out there on this that we can find. It is in the statute that uh a reszoning whatever has to come up through the planning commission and it can come with a suggestion. So, what you have before you tonight is the original resolution of 80,000 square ft. The suggestion was 60,000 square feet. You cannot amend the 80,000 any other way if you choose to do so other than the 60,000. The easiest way, of course, uh so we don't get into a procedural quagmire is for you to vote up or down the 80,000 square foot provision resolution. Um the other option is somebody uh really there's two options. One was brought to me by an attorney Friday afternoon. Uh one uh option is to amend on the floor to to go to 60,000. The other is to um defeat the 80,000 and go back and start the process for the 60,000. So, um, you know, somebody's asked me, can I guarantee that we won't get sued? I cannot because we've never been through this. We did get sued before, as you know, we lost that case. It's up on appeal, but we lost because we did not give the proper notice. The planning director, Mr. Lawless, and I think that we've given the proper notice this time. Uh, in fact, we don't know anything else to do other than what we've done. And so that's where we are tonight. Hope that helps. Probably muddies the water more than it helps.

So the options are in my opinion on this uh might correct me if I'm wrong. Uh tonight we have publicly said that the resolution uh that's coming before you from the planning commission um and the committee was 2 acres. So I have to get that on the floor before we can do anything at all on amendment. Uh and then if you want to amend that, you can. or if you want to vote that one up or down and then if we need to go further then we'd come back with a second motion with the solution with the uh the uh suggestion and both of those were have been advertised. Correct.

Not we wouldn't come back with the uh if it's not amended and the 80,000 is defeated the 60,000 would have to come back later. It would at a later date not tonight. That's correct. It was not in the packet. So, the only option is to vote on the two uh or put the two on the floor and amend it to the 60. Put the resolution on the floor of 80,000 and then if somebody seeks to amend to adopt a suggestion, they can, but it's very limited to what the suggestion was. And I hope I'm speaking under the microphone for everybody. And no other amounts could be done. All we can hear tonight is 80,000 or 60,000. Correct.

That's correct. Okay. I think we've answered all questions. Uh we'll have a threeminut time limit. Cory, can you put the clock on the here so that when we have public people talking, they'll know how much time they got in case they need to wrap up. Uh we're out of session. Mr. Christopher, I'll let you read what you've got before we start the comment.

Okay. [snorts] Uh this is the notice of public hearing. A public hearing will be held before the Wilson County Commission on Monday, November 17th, 2025 at 7 PM or thereafter in the county commission room on Wilson County Courthouse, 228 East Main Street, Lebanon, Tennessee. Item for consideration is the resolution amending the lot size and allowable use criterion within the agricultural and residential zone districts within the Wilson County zoning ordinance. resolution is being forwarded from the planning commission with suggestion to amend the A1 minimum lot size from the original proposal. The copy of this request is on file in the Wilson County Planning Office located at 228 East Main Street, Lebanon, Tennessee 37087 and is and has been on our website at Wilsonountn.gov. Is also available for inspection during regular business hours. Anyone desiring to come is requested to attend tonight's meeting. At this time, I'll start down the list that I have in front of me. You'll have three minutes. We ask you to hold your applause or comments, please, and keep it as professional as possible. Uh, I'll give you three minutes and I'll move on to the next one. Mr. Jim Key will be the first one. Is there a clock supposed to be on the screen? Is there a clock supposed to be on the screen?

Okay. Thank you. We'll do that, Courty.

All right. Uh, my name is Jim Key. I'm 20 plus year resident of the Tucker's Crossroads area. Um I'm concerned about the growth too quickly growth. On your uh desk I have given you a 1925 projected cost of crime here in Wilson County. Um 74 million 75 million almost. As the population increases that's going to be more of a problem. Sheriff Ryan is here I'm sure that can uh let us know about that. On the other side are environmental issues. Uh failure of the uh privately operated sewage systems, roughly half of them are no longer uh meeting uh codes. They violated uh EPA requirements. Uh you are being sued. The Wilson County company um county is being sued by the law center on behalf of Scenic River Association and Sierra Club because of dumping raw sewage into streams. Where are we on solving that issue? Because it's only going to get worse as development increases. So, I'm interested in you gentlemen voting for at least a minimum of five acres. These sewage systems do not guarantee that we're keeping the environment safe. Uh I've dealt with environmental issues in uh the nuclear facilities for 40 years. I'm aware of how these systems fail. Um, recently the Lagardo Elementary School was connected to one of these safe systems, community sewage systems, and they have had to uh pump and haul uh waste from that school because that system failed them. So again, gentlemen, uh ladies and gentlemen, excuse me, uh please please

let's slow down this growth because what I've mentioned here are problems you have now and they will only get worse and you're here to serve the people. Please do so. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] Bill and Mariana. Mariana and the last name Zeke. Zeke. Zeke. Thank you.

Sorry. Um yeah, I think uh we um came with a different impression. So, I'm just going to go ahead and read what I have here. Um good evening to all. My name is Mariana Zeke. I'm a resident of 1545 uh Phillips Road. My husband and I started our hunt house hunting journey in 2019 with intention to move into Tennessee after we both retired. [snorts] Our search through the years brought us to Lebnham, which we're very grateful for. We came across this home um in February and we closed at the end of March. When we looked at the property, we noticed that at the market, it was on the market for 260 days. We learned that one of the negatives that was um a deterrent potential buyers was the south property line. The front property line on the south side is about 60 ft away from our front door. Before buying, we were told that our neighbor was willing to sell this property of on the of the north side. It was more than she wanted to begin with. This is why we pursue purchasing our home to plan to buy a piece of the land extended to our front yard. Our reasoning for doing this is to make it more advantageous if we sell years from now as this was one of the issues that the builder faced when selling this house. Also, as our if our current neighbor was to sell to a family with less concerns for neighbors, this can become an issue for us. We move to the country to enjoy our retirement years in a peaceful and quiet surrounding. By keeping the current zoning or um whatever is decided, it would allow our neighbor to move forward in the direction that we were under the pressure from beginning to buy this home. We ask that you keep it um either current or if any changes that you least take um make exceptions for those that have already purchased the property. With that said, we are in support of keeping Wilson County at its best. And no matter what direction this goes, we appreciate our situation be taken in

consideration, us buying a piece of our neighbors property will not have any negative impact on anybody else, but will have a positive impact on the two homes. And we thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Mr. Bill. And I'm Bill Zeke, the other half of 1545 Phillips Road in Lebanon.

Restart it, Corey. And I will uh try not to uh repeat what my wife just shared, but both our neighbor that my wife referred to and us reached out to the zoning and planning contact numbers given to us about midsummer. Uh and she was told and I was told shortly after that it couldn't happen because her property was under the 80,000 square foot uh limit, but something in the future um like future legislation that might change. Well, this past Friday, we just happened to walk in down in the basement here to find out that um there was I guess a 45day window where this could have happened. Um but there was a meeting tonight on all this. So, uh with that said, uh if we had known about a potential window to uh for her to uh offer her property to us selling it wise, we could have moved forward. So, uh, we're here tonight just to ask that you would vote, um, if I'm understanding the a proper language here, uh, to deny raising it up to 80,000 square feet. As my wife said, we're new here, uh, and we love Wilson County and where we're located. I understand there's a fear of overgrowth and trying to preserve a rural character. I fully understand this since I grew up on a country farm. However, I do ask that you consider voting tonight to deny raising that limit up. [snorts] Um, especially for existing properties. Um, even where we're located, there are covenants in place to prevent future dwellings uh being erected on existing properties, which prevents development or increased population. Um, by increasing that square footage, it would infringe on our neighbors right and ours simply to move a property line. Uh if you absolutely have to increase the minimum size to meet everyone in the middle, I would ask

that you would consider the following. Uh first, do so at just a bare minimum. Secondly, if you have to adjust the A1 zoning, um maybe if it's possible to consider applying it to new developments rather than existing properties. And then lastly, uh if you vote to increase the minimum size, which I encourage you not to, uh but if you do, uh maybe if it's a possibility under consideration to create another window to give an opportunity for existing property owners that are new that were unaware of a 45day window like us and maybe some others to move forward as we've uh described, uh this would extend mercy and be fair to all. Thanks for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Mr. David Yoast to David. Thank you. I'm David Yoast from the Statesville community. Uh this is the second time I've come before you to talk about this issue. What originally came up the last time I was here. Uh it's too bad that we ended up having a lawsuit over this, but uh I'm here to state tonight that I would like to not only keep it at 80,000 square feet, but if there's an opportunity in the future to actually enlarge it being in the community of Statesville, we've seen a lot of uh growth in the last few years, believe it or not, even in the Statesville. Uh we got one stretch on Johnson Hollow Road that uh [clears throat] they have put 18 houses in and a very short amount of road frontage. And we also have other houses that are are coming in u fairly frequently. We're destroying the rural aspects of our county by doing this. I'm going to end up looking like Antioch and I don't think we want to go there. you know what we're doing to this county right now. Uh so far it's been relatively controlled, but if we do things like reducing the 40,000 square ft in an A1 agricultural area, you know, we're not doing the people who live there now justice. If you want to go to lot smaller lot sizes, go to the R1, go to, you know, go to the residential areas. Let's keep the A1s at a larger lot size. And if people want to go to a smaller lot size and

agriculture area, perhaps we may want to take a look at A2. I understand there's no A2 properties in this county. I'm not sure what the rules are about A2 because you know this not my what I usually do but let's keep A1 A1 at 80,000 you know there are other ways to handle this you know if you want to reszone and go to R let's go through the reszoning process let's not reduce the 40 the from 80,000 to 40,000 thank you

thank you Mr. David. Angela Kelly. [applause] Angela Kelly. Angela Kelly. Angel Kelly. [clears throat] Angela. Did I get it right?

Thank you. Uh, Angela Kelly. I live out in the Tucker Crossroads area on Charlesdale Ferry Pike. And I'm going to ask you guys to keep it at 80,000. Uh me and my husband moved here about eight years ago and we again specifically looked for something that was over three acres because we wanted that rural feeling. We wanted that open field. We wanted the separation from neighbors. And I don't know how you get rural at an acre. That's not that's residential. That is not rural living. So, we need to keep it at a minimum of two. Of course, I would love five acres or more, but you know, compromises being made. We need to slow the growth, not stop it. We're getting some new neighbors across the street from us. They're on six acres. I I'm happy that we're getting that, but we need to keep it at a slower growth rate. We need to keep it at 80,000. So people like me and my husband who chose specifically to live out there, our way of life is not ruined basically because you get houses built, you get 500 acres developed here or a thousand there. Now we're dealing with step systems and we're dealing with light pollution. We're dealing with traffic issues. Um, anybody that's traveled up and down Trousdale Ferry Commerce, those roads, they can't handle the big developments. they just can't. So, um, I'm going to ask you to keep it at 80,000 and, uh, support your people that already live there. Thank you.

Dan Jollies. [applause] Dan Jollies. Mr. Dan.

All right. Bear with me because I wrote a lot. Okay. My name is Daniel Jones. I live in the Oakland community. Currently, I am the state GI specialist for USDA. Anything comments I made are solely my own, not of that of USDA. USDA. I've worked at Oakidge National Lab as a research associate creating critical infrastructure data sets for us for the US and FEMA um and DHS. I worked with the Census Bureau in Denver in the in the re Denver regional with the Census Bureau in the Denver regional office mapping population pattern movements. [sighs] I'm accustomed to looking at analyzing and consuming data as a regular part of my job. I've lived lived in Lebanon since March of 23. I was not born and raised in Lebanon, but I was born and raised in rural Tennessee. I'm from East Tennessee in Green County. My wife and I chose to live in Lebanon because it's a lot like where we're from in East Tennessee. We want to raise our children in a place that's similar to where we grow up in the country. I'm here to support keeping the A1 agricultural lots at 80,000 square ft. I along with many others feel that this number is too low and should be increased to the 20 the two thou 217,000 square foot or 5acre lots as Davidson County and Rutherford County have. From 2010 to 2020, Wilson's County [snorts] population grew by 30%. So you can project that the population in Wilson County will have grown by 15% or 16,872 people by the halfway point which is where we're at now in 2025 to the next census. I would bet as many of you would probably also by the time we meet reach the 2030 census Wilson County will have exceeded that 15% growth projection for that time period. I tried to pull the ACS 5-year community survey data but it it's not out yet. And the ACS has estimates for over five year

periods and one-year periods. Okay. Since I moved to Lebanon in 2023, I've noticed a significant increase in traffic in the mornings and in the afternoons. The 2023 2024, there was a 20% increase at the Hartman I40 interchange in traffic counts. According to T Dots, this was also recently publicly acknowledged by the Wilson County Schools when they sent out emails asking the public for solutions. I'm specifically referring to the email about the school buses not making it to school on time due to traffic congestion. Like the schools are literally thinking about changing start stop times because of the traffic congestion throughout the county. It would also noted that the county is also having a hard time keeping up with the maintenance on the school buses and keeping them running. I I got kids in the Wilson County schools and I routinely get emails saying this bus is down, that bus down. The buses are constantly going down from what I can what I can tell. During another recent public meeting, it was brought up that the county is also having issues.

Your time is up, sir. Snap. Thank you, sir. All right. Steven Wheelie. Steven Wheelie. [applause]

And if you would if you could hold the applause, I would appreciate that. Let me clear up one thing before we start with Mr. Steven. So, a while back, for the most of my tenure here, uh A1 lot zone was 40,000 square feet. Uh back in 23, uh the commission chose to go to 80,000 square feet. um that was recently overturned by a um a court case and it's back at 40,000 square feet today. Uh tonight what's in front of them is the resolution saying to go to 80,000 square feet. The planning commission gave them suggestion of 60,000. What's on the docket tonight is to go from 40 to 80. So some of the commissioners just text me and said just be sure that you guys knew it's not 80 right now. It's 40 right now and they've got the option to go to 80 um or a suggestion to go to 60 just to try to be clear. Commissioners, am I good with that? Okay, Mr. Steven. Thank you, sir. I appreciate the opportunity to speak and I have maybe a more unique look at this than most people since I spent my whole career as a in construction building custom homes and some commercial work. And a little over a quarter century ago, I was on the opposite opposite side here because I was president of the homebuilders association. And this is when they came up with the very first impact fee suggestion around 989. And at that time, construction was just starting to pick up here. So myself and all the other builders in town who retired to going to Nashville to work were against that because we wanted some growth then. But we didn't want what we've got in the last 25 years. Myself and others were custom home builders. And I know myself particularly, I'd say 25% of my clients were lifetime Wilson County residents, couples moving

from a starter home or a lot of times a house trailer up to their very first real house. And usually on five acres that was given to them by their dad or their granddad or something like that out in the country. So it was a whole different ballgame. I wasn't building in subdivisions hardly ever. I was usually building out in the country on acreage tracks and even all the other people who were in the home build association then we weren't building subdivisions and we certainly weren't building humongous tracks of town homes with 500 people in them and it's just gotten totally out of hand in my opinion. You know, I went from being a a pro-reasonable growth person to I'm totally anti-growth now. I mean, in my opinion, there should be a five-year moratorum on any construction in Wilson County because the roads here are a joke. A joke. You can't keep building houses and have the roads exactly the same as they were when I moved here 48 years ago, 47 years ago. I live on Johnson Holla. Fortunately, we got it widened about 20 years ago, and there are like 18 new homes on it. But Greenville Roads exactly the same. Canesville roads the same. Statesville road same. Every other road out there is exactly the same as it was 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. They're narrow. There's no shoulders. They're winding. They're accidents waiting to happen. And there's 10 times the traffic on them there used to be. It's just absurd. We's overwhelmed. They're short-handed from what I've seen in the news. It just can't keep on the schools. You you build a new school, it's full within a year. It's the dog chasing its own tail. Tax increases. People keep saying more tax revenue. That doesn't mean a thing

because more people here means more tax consumption for WEMA, schools, everything else. It's got to slow down.

Thank you, Jason Denton. [applause] Jason Denton. My name is Jason Denton. I live at 5051 Coast Fairy Pike, right next door to Mr. Jerry McFarland. In 2012, me and my wife bought a piece of property that's very unique. The reason why it's unique is because it butts up to my mother-in-law. At my gr my father-in-law's dying wish, I told him I would take care of his wife. And that's what I promised to do. We bought this property and it's unique because it's two tracks, but each track is less than four acres. Now, let me repeat that. It's less than four acres. I have four kids. Each track is divided up and already has two soil sites. It already has electric conduit and already has water run to the soil sites. My dream was to be able to give my kids each a piece of property. You all are missing a sector, a class of citizens that could be directly impacted by this and that is someone like me. I cannot divide that property if you increase it to 80,000 square feet. I cannot give my kids the property I worked hard for. You know why that's important? Because I grew up poor. I grew up in a trailer park in Gallatton, Tennessee. I'm a litigation lawyer. I'm a senior partner at RMA. I do personal injury and death cases. I've litigated in over 19 different states representing people who have been injured or hurt or dead. You can't take rights away from someone like me just because there's a sector of people that want to be able to control growth.

I'm like the Zeke's here. All I want to do is be able to give my kids something that I've earned. Nobody gave me that property. I didn't inherit it from mommy or daddy. I earned every dime of it. I got laughed at when I was said I was a fourth generation farmer. And I am. There are 52 bales of hay in my front yard right now wrapped in American flag netting. I raped, mowed, and bailed every bit of it with my 75year-old father. I raise goats, cattle, horses, and chickens on my property. We sell the eggs. My wife is a teacher. She's been a teacher 24 years. She's taught underneath some of these people. Even Mayor Hut when he was a pre principal, Scott Benson, I'm vested in this in this community. I'm a I am a a devout devout leader at our church. 23 years I've been in leadership at my church. But I'm also going to tell you one other thing that's going to surprise you. I'm conflicted a little bit because it took me 15 minutes to get out of my own driveway this morning. All right. But if you change the law, you're creating a class of people and you're eliminating the rights of some citizens just like me who own less than four acres.

Thank you, Mr. Jeremy Hayes. Mr. Jeremy Hayes. This is a uh an interesting point in my life. You know, I I'm old enough to remember when uh and I still have a hard time saying Mayor Hu. Coach Huau was legendary coach at Lebanon High School. Uh you know, we have a great community in Wilson County. We have tremendous schools led by director of schools. We have an amazing Wilson County Sheriff's Department led by um [snorts] our amazing police chief over here for the county. We have Chief Tyler back there or you know Mount Julid, you guys are doing a great job [snorts] overall. The only complaint that I have is please slow down uh development. You know, uh as the gentleman just said, he was he [snorts] was torn because it took him 15 minutes to get out of his driveway. Tonight coming up here, I turned out on a central pike and traffic was backed up from South Mount Juliet Road all the way past uh south uh southwest Cook Road where I live. You know, the the issue that we have with development in the city of Mount Juliet and I, you know, my property is right here. I can have one foot on city in the city. I can have one foot in the county. The issue that we have with infrastructure isn't just the city. It's not just the state. So we continue to approve developments outside city limits where they have to put nothing towards infrastructure and then those people travel our roads whether it's the county or the city adding more and more congestion to everyday life. [snorts] Whether you guys vote to do the lots at 60,000 ft which is a what acre and a half 80,000 ft which is two acres I believe. You know in the grand scheme of things an acre and a half lot that's a good size lot for someone. Two acres is great as well. Would I love to see it more? Absolutely. My biggest request is just please slow down infrastru or please slow down development. We have to get caught up on

infrastructure first. We have a great community. You guys are doing a great job overall with our leadership. Just please slow down the development. Allow our community to stay what it is. It's a great community to live in. Please do not um add more homes to it to where you know it it just continues to wear down on our daily lives. Thank you guys. Andy Vanic. [applause]

I may not have said that right either, by the way. No, you did. You did great.

Thanks so much. Thanks everybody for doing what you do up here. We really appreciate it. Andy Van Shake, live off Bluebird Road. Uh, I just want to say we've we've been down this path back in 2023. We passed it for a reason. Yes, the eyes weren't dotted, the tees weren't crossed, whatever that scenario was. Let's let's make it right. Make it back to the 80,000. I feel for some of the guys that live here that have some issues that they need to go over. But I think we have a pretty fair variance system in place for for those kind of special circumstances. So, I think generally as a as a wide range um rule, let's keep it at at least 80 because we we just we can't afford to do smaller pieces. There's too many houses being bought that are a couple acres sliced up. Now, two houses are going in place. We we just can't we can't encourage that. So, I ask that you keep it at 80,000 if we can't go higher. And thanks so much.

Thank you, Author Coons.

Hey, I'll make this pretty quick. I'm in favor of the 80,000. My preference would be five acres if if at all possible. Um, and I'll just make it real simple. I'm a single issue voter. I want Wilson County to remain as rural and u keep the keep the current feel that the community has right now. So, thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Thurman Mullins. Thurman Mullins.

Thurman Thurman Mullins 1597 Central Pike, Lebon, Tennessee. Um, I keep a trailer with panels on it. And the reason I do is I have cars and trucks and all kinds of stuff going through our fences. And this happens a lot. And it'll happen when it's snowing. It'll happen when it's raining. It'll happen whenever. And I'll be out there in the middle of the night dragging panels unless I can get a hold of my county commissioner over here and get him. He he will come help me if I get him. But the truth of it is is that uh there was a time not too long ago that we used to drive cattle up to the road, me and another fellow on horses. We'd open the gate and one guy right out in the road, look both ways, open a gate, we drive the cattle across the road, 20 minutes tops, no problem, no nothing at all. Then came I840. Well, when I840 popped in, that changed a lot of stuff. And we started taking and pinning the cattle and putting them into arena, hauling them around the other way. But something else started happening. We have a a monument out on Central Pike and it's a stop sign with Oak Grove Road. Now that sign will get knocked down sometimes as much as three times a week. Now that's not only semiis trying to cut too short. That's also is little old ladies in a hurry to get wherever Dollar General before they run out of coconuts. I don't know what they're doing. old men like me that's maybe want to make a checker game, something important. But whatever it is, they run through my fences and I get real tired of it and I me the sheriff's gotten to be good friends over these fences and I try not to really lose my temper, but I do sometimes. But uh basically uh people we get more and more people. You get more and more real good drivers and you also get more and more people that drive like idiots. So you get eight more drivers, but out of that

you got six good ones, you got two more idiots. So you got that many more to look at. Within within a half a mile of my house, I've been the first one on site at three fatalities. There's been five within a mile of my house in recent times. People killed and just accidents, but they were accidents nonetheless. T DOT, I've gone and talked to T Dot with Senator Pod on all new construction. All T DOT cares about is pulling out an entrance, exits and entrance. They don't care what happens a mile down the road, five miles down the road. Not too long ago, they had to divert traffic. So, they put all the oversized loads instead of having them go down by the racetrack, had them come down Central Pike where we're at. What that meant is is almost everybody got a new mailbox out of the deal. So, Brian Tugle got five mailboxes and the plane, the road is eat up. It's in bad shape. uh it's not getting any better and uh we just really need to stop and and get some infrastructure fixed before we go to building anything else or increasing or decreasing. I think definitely I'm for the larger size homes. Thank you for your time,

Mr. Dan. [applause] Dan Hodgeges. Dan Hodgeges.

Yeah. Thank you all for tonight. I'm going to read off my phone so I don't say anything dumb. I'm Dan Hodgees, Ben Green Road, also known as Phil O'Neil's neighbor. And Chris Dow used to bush hog my front pastor back in the day before I was born. So, thank you, Mr. Dao. I'm a software engineer by trade. I'm not a farmer, but my wife and I moved to Tucker in 2019 for one reason, and that was the rural way of life, and we found it. Our neighbors have treated us like family, and we put down roots and even done a little hobby dairy farming. But I'll be honest, if we would have seen houses every two acres, we would have just kept driving. Uh through the no industrial park and keep a country movement, I've collected and analyzed thousands of survey responses from people of various different backgrounds, very diverse people. And barring a handful of exceptions, which I do understand there are exceptions, there's really only two groups. The first, and I would say this is the overwhelming majority of Wilson County, do not want higher density development. the people in this room represent only a tiny fraction of that group. Uh and even the current proposal at 80,000 minimum lots is is to many already a betrayal uh of their interest in public trust in the planning process to a large extent unfortunately is eroding because people feel unheard. They're furious about 80,000 lots. They feel like that's tiny and they're going to have people right on top of them. Secondly, I do think there's a much smaller group and there might be as many as 50% of that group represented within the room tonight that stand to profit from more density and they want more density. And yes, there are exceptions, but when you look at the overwhelming data, I think we all know that people do not want more density. They want to preserve the rural way of life we have in Wilson County. So, I guess my question would be um you know, how are we going to to represent these people? Um let's not play games and pretend like something like 60,000 would be a fair compromise between what the

people actually want and what we have presented before us. Thank you. Houston Neil. [applause] Houston Neil.

Good evening, commissioners. Mayor Huo. Um, Houston Neil, 300 Murphy Lane. Um, I [clears throat] get I probably I've met most of y'all. I try to introduce myself to y'all or you probably know the some of the Neils. I definitely know y'all know my uncle Perry Neil. He's been up here quite a few times. But uh um you know, we've been around here for for a while and we we plan to be here for for a long time. We're all raising our kids out here. Um you know, I appreciate these meetings. I appreciate everything y'all do. I know you all have really tough decisions. Um, so I'm a professional uh engineer uh work on the bridge side, so I deal with transportation all the time. Um, [snorts] and like most engineers, we like dealing with numbers. So I wanted to share some numbers I looked up. Um, Wilson County has grown 15% since 2020. So that's basically 25,000 new residents. If I'm if I'm math right, that's 400 new residents every month. And then the projections show that in 20 years from now, we're going to be at 250,000 residents. And that's basically a 30% increase from [snorts] today. Um, you know, that's a lot of growth and I feel like, like a lot of people have said, that's put a lot of pressure, a lot of strain on our infrastructure. So, I did a little bit more digging. According to the Tennessee Advisory Commission regulation or relations, which is basically a report of the public infrastructure needs, y'all probably know more about that than myself. Um, but it said over the next five years, we'll need $1.2 billion to keep up with all the infrastructure growth. That's $591 million for transportation, which is roads, bridges, road widenings, traffic signals. 470

million for new schools or additions or renovations or and then a 216 million for water and wastewater system needs. [clears throat] Well, last year the county spent 2.1 million in highway funds. Well, the numbers I just read out and 2.1 that's a big gap and that just shows that the growth is outpacing uh what we have what we can keep up with. Like people have said, it takes, you know, 45 minutes an hour to get across 11 these days. Um, so I just I just think we need to slow down growth. It's over it could overload our schools. It's overloading [snorts] our road roads, our utilities. Um, so I'm in support of just the larger lots, the two acres. I don't think it necessarily stops growth. I just think it slows it down. Um obviously it just puts less houses on on the the amount of roads per mile on the water lines, all utilities, etc. schools. Um so in summary, uh I'm for the larger lot sizes. Um let's let's put A1 back to 80,000 square feet. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Perry Neil. [applause] Perry Neil.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you guys for uh tolerating this and letting us come up here and uh speak with you guys. I've got a uh quick comment here. We're going to go back to junior high history here, American history. And that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Understand that was not written about county government. But I think it I think it starts with county government. government, all the people, by the people, for the people. And I think that uh that's what we're here about tonight, you know, and that's you guys have the responsibility u to govern Wilson County. You know, according to the latest numbers that I could pull up, uh there's approximately 170,000 adults in Wilson County living in Wilson County. You guys represent those 170,000 people. Very few people here. You don't represent just the farmers. I'm a lifelong farmer. You don't just represent the real estate guy. You don't just represent the developer. You represent each and every one of these 170,000 people that live in this county that that go to school here, work here, whatever. And so I ask you, they're not here to speak, obviously, all 170,000 of them. We all know what they want. What does everybody want? Slow down the growth. We want responsible growth, control growth. the the best step you have. There's two ways to do that. Larger lot size, adequate facility tax. That's a two way. That's a two options you got to slow down growth. And and right here today, you have a golden opportunity, 80,000 square foot in A1. Send a message to 170,000 people across this county and give them what they want. Government of the people, by the people, for the people. It's right here. Uh I I'll make this very brief is

is comparison to surrounding counties. So you know what what's A1 in Williamson County? Five five acres. What's A1 in Rose County? Five acres. What's A1 in oh let's say Summer County? Five acres. You know here we are begging begging for two acres. You know let's let's do the right thing. I ask you each and every one of you, each and every one of you, send a message. How great would it be if we come out of here and this thing was passes 25 24, there's only 24 of you here with 24 votes for for A1 to be at 80,000 and and you know, thank you very much. Appreciate your time.

Bob Zincer, Mr. Bob Zincer. Hello, I'm Bob Zanker. I live at 6258 Old Murphy'sboro Road. So, first I wanted to say thank you to the Tucker Crossroad community for kind of coming out and speaking to really for the whole agricultural area uh and really supporting the 80,000 square feet. Um I just wanted to kind of represent one the discussion related to the the previous that deferred uh resoning related that's in my neighborhood. But while I'm here, I'll take an opportunity to say that also south of the city of Lebanon in our area in Southside, we also have agricultural, you know, uh, plots. There's a lot of rural living that's down there, and we don't want to see it go away either, and we don't have the infrastructure. We'd like it to be slowed down. We came to Wilson County 15 years ago, a little bit more now, to raise our family in a community that is one that we can be safe, that we can enjoy our public schools. We want to be able to continue that. So, we ask to please slow down the growth. Thank you, Mr. Hayden. Watt. [applause] Good evening everybody. How we doing? My name is Hayden White, a lifetime resident here in Wilson County. Um, my profession is a real estate agent and an auctioneer. I have the opportunity of helping families sell their family assets all across Wilson County, whether that's in Cottage Homes, Beards Mill, Tucker's Crossroads, Hunter Point, and Gladeville, just to name a few. When a family is at a point of selling their property, it's more times than

none it's because of the tragedy of someone passing away. The threshold of selling that property, if they choose to do so, is one of the final steps of grief, but it's silver lined with a step of comfortability. One last gift, if you will. They deserve the right to do with that property what they wish. But if they do decide to sell, they deserve the opportunity to get the most out of it if deemed suitable by soils and the county guidelines. So we ask please keep it the way it is right now. Thank you and God bless. Mr. Mark, Mr. Mark Connor. Hello, I'm Mark Connor, uh, resident of Lebanon and a property owner on the square who, uh, my my business is I'm a real estate appraiser. I've been a real estate appraiser since 1998. uh primarily in Wilson County, but from Long Island to Houston, Tampa, everywhere in between, I've appraised real estate. Of course, I deal with values. I deal with estates. I deal with a lot of the things that uh Mr. White just spoke about. I deal with people a lot of times in these estates. [snorts] They've worked their entire lives, whether they be farmers, developers, or whatever they may be. They like me are working for future generations. You work your whole life. You leave your kids, your grandkids farm. Farming's great. I love to farm. I have a garden. Uh not

much of a farmer. My tomato crop failed. But anyway, uh but they work their entire lives to leave these assets to their children. A lot of these people that I deal with, they continue farming. A lot of them have no desire to farm. Some of them live out of state, but it's still something that their parents, their grandparents did for them, paying it forward future generations. Me as an appraiser, I know what the impact of value is [snorts] when you decrease density. I know the struggles that this community goes through. I'm I'm stuck in traffic every morning just like everybody else. But if there is a person in this room that owns property, strict strictly from a financial perspective, you have substantially increased your wealth because of the growth that has occurred in Wilson County. Good, bad, whatever. It's good if you go to sell it. If you decide to to hold it in perpetuity, it it really makes no difference. But everybody has benefited financially if you're a property owner. So what I ask is this. Let's be careful about taking property rights from people cutting their values in half on uh large acreage tracks on small acreage tracks. A five acre track with road frontage across the way, you may be able to get five lots off of it. That's not a huge asset to leave to somebody, but it's [snorts] still money and it's still uh means something to somebody, means something to kids, grandkids, whatever. When you take property rights away from people, you really have to be careful when you when you think about are we really a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We are talking about

taking property rights away from individuals. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ally Jones. Alli Jones.

I've been a resident of Wilson County pretty much my whole life. Um, I am raising a family here now and I have recently married into a farming family. I currently live in the middle of Lebanon and have chosen to move away and will soon be moving to Norine to live a calmer, quieter life. And I definitely think that it should be 5 acres at least. So 2 acres, less than two acres, it shouldn't it shouldn't be any lower than that. Um, people should be able to live a calm, quiet life where they've chosen to and it shouldn't be ruined by development. Thank you, [applause]

Michael Swope. Michael Swope. Michael Swope. Uh, my farm's out on Bobo Road. I want to start out by thanking the commissioners as well for you guys' service. I know we kind of touched on that this morning, but I've spoken with a few of you like Miss Bowman talking about how um nasty some of y'all's constituents can be. So, um I appreciate what you guys are doing. Um as y'all consider the changes to zoning densities, I'd ask you all to consider uh if less than 1.8 acres is agricultural. Th this government hired GNRC to get a pulse on what the public wanted. The compromise in the public square as identified by that neutral third party was three or 5 acre minimum lots in agricultural zoned areas. 60,000 or 1.3 acre lots is not a compromise [snorts] since it obviously is not. Why would uh why would you amend it to 1.3 acre lots uh if if that's what's on the table? Um, there are people here that have made great points and I and I really don't want to um I want to I want to approach everybody with the greatest degree of charity and I and I know that inherently there's going to be some uh consternation and strife in here. Um but um you know as as neighbors and I really want to make sure that I'm not harming anybody with my comments, but um y'all have the power to change the zoning. You have that right. So if if a twoacre agricultural lot doesn't work, then just change it to R1, change it to R3, change it to C5. That's your prerogative. Uh and if and if that doesn't work, then they can go to the zoning board of appeals. I mean, there there's several avenues. So 1.3 acre lots are not agricultural. 1.8 aid is questionable, but uh do what the people want and protect the rights of the property

owners that live in those areas that aren't looking to exit this community that are looking to stay and looking towards the next generation. Thank you for your guys' time. Leah Derek, Leah Derek, [applause]

good evening everyone. My name is Leah Derek. I'm 11 years old and I live with my family at 1290 Grant Road, Watertown, Tennessee. I wanted to speak tonight cuz I love the countryside. I mean, who doesn't? In front of my house is Mr. Jack and Miss Kayle's farm. It's so beautiful. The sunrises are gorgeous. They grow they grow delicious crops to eat. And I love to look out over their farm and think. [snorts] Imagine if it was covered in houses. I would not like that. And many people in my community would not like that either. I have some neighbors who are trying to sell their land. And I hope it gets sold to someone who will take care of it, not to developers who will make a bunch of houses. When I was writing this speech, I asked myself, why your farm's important? And this is what I came up with. Everyone needs to eat. That is a requirement all of us have. And you can't eat if there's no land. How can we grow produce and livestock if there's no land to farm on? We like our home just the way it is. This is our home, and we want to keep it country. Please vote to increase the lot size to 80,000 square feet. Thank you for listening to me tonight. I appreciate it very much.

Derek Dodson [applause] Derek Dodson. Derek Dodson Derek Dodson. 106 Chapman Drive. I remind you all of this map and the dark areas are the A1 which all [laughter] y'all have a copy of that map I would I would guess. So I have three points. I think it was in 2024 there was a Wilson County land use planning summit at Cumberland's alumni hall. A speaker was the former planning director of Williamson County whom detailed the extensive or rather extensive study that county had funded which became the county's financial basis for zoning the most rural area farmland whereby a minimum it could be subdivided was into five acres five acre lots. Point number two. Well, no, I skipped a Obviously, there is no need for Wilson County to find to fund the same study to tell Wilson County Commissioners the same financial report regarding the cost to the county of rule 5 acre tracks versus 1acre lots and A1 zoning code. Point number two, at the last planning commission meeting on October 17th, two members of that body whom are not county commissioners, the two without verbalizing any reasons whatsoever put forward for a vote for the A1 rural land zoning to be a minimum lot subdivision of an acre and a half or 60,000 square feet. Before the vote, not one person tried to make the case for that. yet it was voted on and passed by perhaps one vote. So on an epic county land use decision, not one person then

made a case for the 60,000 square foot A1 zoning. Uh that's pitiful. Point number three, I have heard a nonsense, indefensible reason for A1 to be either 40,000 square feet or 60,000 square feet, which is about property rights. the right to try to ensure that rural Wilson County becomes akin to rural New Jersey. Your role as elected officials is to drive outcomes that promote long-term public good, common good for Wilson County and not to instead promote the long-term financial options of a few hundred owners of acreage that is located in the very few areas of the rule A1 zoning. That said, there should be some variance uh process defined where people like Mr. Denton have an opportunity to get around that. And lastly, uh I have family members who have over 500 acres of farmland on the outskirts of Lebanon, and I'm confident that they would agree with every word that I just said. Thank you.

Scott Hok, [applause] Scott Hok, I do not envy y'all's job. Okay. Um, I guess I don't think there's anything I can come up here and say that it hadn't already been said. I have compassion for people who want to make what they have work for what they need. All right. Um, I've been on the developer side of the house. I understand appraisals. I understand that kind of stuff. You know, leaving something down for your kids. I get that. All right. I was a part of that in my younger days. All right. I'm in a different perspective now

as I'm older and I have a family.

I understand what it means to say keep it country. But my perspective is a little bit different. I understand what's coming down 40. All right. Now, we may make concessions here tonight, but in five years, sooner or later, somebody's going to throw enough money at this problem where it's not going to be a problem because money, we all know money makes makes all this stuff work. So, sooner or later, somebody's going to start throwing down enough cash and it doesn't matter what anybody wants, it's going to happen. Now, this is my perspective and this is what I fear. The urban sprawl that's coming down 40, I don't want it. Okay? And y'all know what I mean. Y'all may not want to say it, but you know what I mean. The crime's going to go up. All right? There's the schools are full. The schools suck around here. Okay? Y'all look y'all look y'all look to see where the schools are ranked. They're not that great. There's fights. You You know it. It's not good.

I have to disagree with you. Well, I don't care. I do not care. Go ahead. Okay. It is my three minutes.

But the urban sprawl coming it defeats the way of life that we have. Okay? It defeats the way of life. And that's what I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for my son's farm. Okay? That's what I want. Now, I ain't against any man doing anything. I I have a hard time with this because I believe an individual should be able to do what he wants to with his own land. I do. I do. Okay? But it doesn't mean that I should allow everything to come in here and say we're taking over. Okay? It's going to come and alls I'm trying to do is kick it down the road a little bit. All right? And that's my whatever I time I got interrupted. Thank you, Abby Hicks. Abby Hicks. Abby Hicks. [snorts]

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Abby Hicks. I live in district district 7. [gasps] I'm here to voice my concerns about the minimum lot size. As a young expecting mother looking to relocate for my growing family, my concerns are increasing that the lot size would make it even more difficult to afford than it already is. The availability of affordable housing is already extremely limited. This will only make it worse. Additionally, my career is in the building supply industry. I'm concerned about the negative impact that this will have on my job. In closing, please keep in mind the thousands of young individuals in mind before approving this measure. Thank you, Brian Hackett.

Brian Hackett. Thank you for the opportunity to get up here and speak. My name is Brian Hackett. I live in District 23. I stand before you not only as a resident but as someone deeply concerned about the long-term impacts increasing the minimum lot size [snorts] could have. When my family moved here, we bought a home on a smaller lot. My main concern is that my um my two sons that are in their early 20s aren't going to have that same option. Larger lots mean higher mortgage and taxes. that shuts out young families, seniors, and workers who keep our community diverse. These workers are vital to the workforce growth. Employers need a diverse range [snorts] a diverse range of housing for employees. If workers can't afford to live here, business will str businesses will struggle to attract and retain talent. [snorts] This is this is an unintended consequence. I feel bigger lots don't protect farmland or open space. They just spread houses out farther apart and drive sprawl. And and and I'll I'm going to say that again. Bigger lights don't protect farmland. It just spreads the houses out a little further. Sprawl increases traffic congestion, strains infrastructure, and raises the cost of providing public services like water, sewer, and emergency response. In closing, [snorts] increasing minimum lot size may sound like a simple zoning adjustment, but the consequences are farreaching. [snorts] Higher housing cost, more sprawl, weaker

economic growth, and less diversity. [sighs] I urge you to consider policies that expand housing choices rather than restrict them. Let's build a county that is affordable, sustainable, and welcoming to all. Thank you. Any lamman. Sorry, that wasn't a good move.

Anna Fay Layman, 1610 Ponder Rosa Trail. I probably don't need a microphone, but anyway. Uh, I was raised on a farm. My mom and daddy had about over 80 acres at the Glade on Franklin Road. He mom and daddy gave each of us three kids an acre and a quarter of land. That was plenty. They had the right to do it. The parents today, if you've got land and you want to give your kid an acre of land to build a house on, you got the right to do it. This county commission needs to remember that. What I've heard tonight, half these people that spoke up here are not native Wilson County, Tennessee people. They've come from here, yonder, and everywhere. And they want to tell us it's been here all of our lives what to do. And that's not right. We were here first. We're the natives. And I'm going to tell you something. This county changed, started changing. The first change was when I40 came through in the mid60s. You got a federal interstate, you're going to start opening up land. 1990 it was introduced. 840 and 109 extension. That really changed it. It came right through the middle of my mom and daddy's farm, 109 extension. Did we like it? No. But you know what? You made the best of the situation cuz you could not stop the state of Tennessee. And the bottom line of it is mom and daddy sold what was on the other side left. That took care of daddy till he died. Then mama sold the rest of the farm and that took care of my mama till she died. and they allowed me to quit my job and come home and stay with her. If they had not had that land that they could do with as they pleased, we couldn't have done this. And neither one of them spent one night in a nursing home. Not not not one hour that were

taken care of at home. The problem today is we got a lot of people and a lot of us sitting on this commission. Y'all don't live on a lot of land. I can I can probably name the ones that live on a farm and that that probably a handful is it. You live in subdivision lots. You don't have any acres. You don't understand the giving some an acre of land to your child or your grandchild to build them a homeowner. And they have the right to do it. And you're going to and and then if you go to sell that land, you're going to make more to take care of your family because you're gonna sell off several acres in and oneacre lots if they will perk. If they'll perk out in the county and you can put a septic tank on it, there's nothing wrong with doing it.

Nothing. There's a farm in the glade right now that's that's that they're trying to sell to settle an estate right now. has been denied, but they got the right to keep it at an acre and get the most they can to settle an estate and it's not right to take that away from people. Thank you. It's not right. Thank you. Thank you. That's just what I got. This time we'll go back into session. Do I hear a motion to go back into session? Second. All in favor say I.

Christopher. [cough] All right. Before you is the resolution amending lot size and allowable use criterion with the agricultural and residential zone districts within the Wilson County zoning resolution. Um, this does come to you with a positive recommendation for from the planning commission. Um, I don't typically do this, but I've been asked specifically by the planning commission to distinguish the votes. It was 64 and four against. And that was solely because the recommendation comes to you with the suggestion of the 60,000 square foot. It was all in one motion. The four against are specifically against the suggestion, not the resolution as a whole. So the four nos are for the suggestion of the 60,000 foot amendment. Um it went through the planning and zoning committee on September 9th and then again the planning commission on October 17th. Happy to answer any other questions you all may have on it before you vote.

Commissioner Denton, I guess I'm a little [snorts] concerned about why in the world are we seeing a suggestion? Why did we when we have a resolution given to us, why does it come tagged with a suggestion? That should not even be in question here. That should not even be on the table. a suggestion when we have a resolution that is with a positive recommendation to it. What why is there a suggestion which has been emphasized repeatedly tonight? We not we're not normally faced with we got an option here. If we wanted it, we'll vote for it or not vote for it. What is why?

Mayor Jennings can answer that for us. Yeah, the statute specifically allows for that to come out of the planning commission. So that's that's it's statutoily approved. Last time they made an amendment which was why we had the lawsuit. Correct. It was. Yes, sir. Any other questions from anybody? Commissioner Marlo, I got a couple of questions. You know, we we talked about choices and we talked about the 80 and the 60, but if I'm Correct me if I'm wrong, if we if the county commission voted both of them down, it would stay at 40. Is that correct? That yes, that would be correct.

Okay. You don't you don't necessarily have to vote both of them down. You could just deny the resolution and they would both die together. You don't have to have two votes. The only reason you would have to have two votes if you want to accept the suggestion from the planning commission.

Okay. Um is there and Mike maybe you're can answer this question. is um is there some way to put in the in this resolution um that states that current property owners with less than 80,000 uh square feet of property um cannot be held to this new zoning?

Not in my opinion, Commissioner. the uh you know the 80,000 is what's before you uh here and as Commissioner Denton asked about the only other possibility of tinkering with that for lack of a better term is the suggestion which was 60,000 square ft. So you can't grandfather people in or grandfather people out. So

so we couldn't put in there some sort of variance. Well, I mean, any property that's currently less than 80,000 square feet, we're not going they're they're going to be nonconforming uses, but they're not going to be we're not going to send out zoning violation letters to all those property owners. Is that what you're insinuating? Yeah. Yeah. I guess where I'm headed is for for the few people that did speak to it is that there's folks out here that have less they have property that equals up to less than 80,000 square feet that they bought in the past and with the plans of building a house on it. Uh, so

you would you would if you if you bought a property yesterday that was 72,000 square ft and this gets voted in to 80,000 square ft, you would we would still issue a single family building permit for that tract. We're not going to penalize anybody for having less than 80,000 square feet if they haven't built yet. They're going to be grandfathered into their lots of record. They're just not going to be able to subdivide it if they have less than that. So, if you had 120,000 square feet and it changes to 80 and your intent was to build two homes and you've not pulled those permits, you would no longer be able to do that, but you would be able to still build one single family residence on that tract.

Okay. You know, there's a lot of talk about growth, and I was just looking at our latest report uh concerning the number of homes that's been built in from July through October. And there was 461 homes built in that period of time. And only 80 were out in the country. And that's only 17.3% of the homes being built is out in the country. So, uh, there's probably not as much growth going out in the country as some of the people would really like to think.

Commissioner Bree, I just have a couple clarification questions.

Can you tell us what the current R1 lot size is? The current uh well that's a moving target at the moment. Um the current R1 lot size if you are on public water and public sewer allows for 25,000 foot lot minimums. [snorts] It allows for 30,000 square foot lot minimums if you get a special exception for T deck with um um [clears throat] good soils on the property. And then if you are on anything other than that it is a 40,000 square foot lot. R1 lots on a well are have to be oneacre minimums.

Okay. So, this resolution will also change that as well, right? It takes all that away from R1 and um limits it to a 40,000 foot flat lot regardless of public sewer or public water. Okay. So, if R1 goes to 40,000 and A1 stays at 40,000, do we have any other residential categories? I'm just asking. Let me five. Um I wouldn't ask if you vote the resolution through R1 and A1 will not be the same. Okay.

Um because the resolution changes R1 to 40,000 ft and it currently changes A1 to 80,000 square ft. But to answer your next question, we have an R1 which do you want the current zoning size or what the resolution's proposing? No, I was going to ask, do we have any residential categories in our zoning laws that have the same square footage for two different categories? No, ma'am. Okay. We do not. We have five districts. We have A2, A1, R1, R2, and R3. And all at present have different zoning sizes.

Okay. And that's the point, right, for zoning is different categories with different lot sizes. I mean, I don't know why you'd have two zoning districts with the same lot size. It seems a little redundant. I agree. I was just asking a clarification question. Commissioner Franklin. Yeah. I just want to I guess to to Commissioner Breeze's point somewhat. It's a lot more R1 lots in this county than A1 lots. Is that true? Are you talking physical lot count or wise count number? Yes. Yes, sir. like by a lot like by a factor of probably 10 maybe.

I think there's 80 85,000 parcels. Yeah, I don't know if it's a factor of 10, but yes, it would be more. It's drastically more.

The reason that I bring this up is because this zoning ordinance amendment affects R1 a whole lot more than it affects A1. And it reduces the density in this county almost 50% over a lot number 10 times greater than the total amount of R1. And so if this doesn't pass in some form, you can still get a step system and get a 25,000 foot lot in an R1 subdivision which is all over the place everywhere. Both growth areas of Lebanon and Mount Juliet have R1 everywhere. If it passes, you can't do that, right? Yes.

If it doesn't pass at all, if it fails, probably the worst casualty in all this won't be A1. It'll be R1. It will be And if you if you really want to reduce density in this county, passing this won't occur, won't occur at any level, whether it's 60 or 80,000 in A1's, not going to really make all that much difference. If it fails, R1's going to go back to 25,000 and that's going to increase density tremendously in this county or it's going to leave it at the the rapid growth rate. Is that is that a fair statement? Put me on the spot, but yeah. I mean, it would it would increase

I'm just trying to put it in perspective. We've argued we we've heard from the public all night on 15% of the growth, but the R1 represents a lot of the other probably 50 or 60% of the growth. Yeah, currently the A1 district, if the resolution has passed, it has it has the density allowable within the A1 district. The A1 district in the county currently is roughly 71% of the county's zoning. Um the R1 district, granted, there are more parcels. Um and when those develop, they are higher density. Um this almost has what you could get on that as well.

And the deciding factor for that increased density in R1 will no longer be a utility decision. That is correct. Public sewer would not weigh into that density increase. We still allow our cluster provisions, which is part of our preservation aspect of the county in A1 and R1, but you would have to drastically have more acreage in both of those because those have a 50 lot minimum. Thank you. Yeah, Commissioner Baldman, Christopher, our current zoning, how long has how many years have we had the current zoning?

Um zoning ordinance was enacted in 76. It got changed. R1 got changed I believe I want to say in the early 2000s 2001 maybe and that's where it sat until it was changed until in 2023. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um and then it we've been in that since then. Okay, Mr. McFarland. Oh, hold on. I'm sorry. Got a couple more questions. I'm sorry. [laughter] I thought you said okay. Sorry. Um,

is there a process in place if a land owner wants to upzone their land? So, say someone wants to move from the current A1 zoning of 40,000 square ft. Is there a process in place that they can voluntarily choose to change that zoning to A2 and change their land to 80,000 square feet? Um yes, there you could you file an application with my office and it goes through the same reszoning process. Um the only thing that would be different about that is that would not require a land use amendment which a lot of the stuff you see does because that is still low considered um low density residential. So that would get a positive recommendation from staff on the base level. Um we actually call that a down zone because it's less dense. Um, but I don't I can't foresee any issues where that would get a decline. I mean, you're lessing density and lessening the impact on public infrastructure, but anybody could come in currently and do that and most likely get a positive recommendation from staff. I can't speak for what the planning commission would forward that with, but you would get a positive recommendation from staff to do that.

And has anyone ever taken that step to move from A1 to A2? There is no A2 in this county. We've had A2 since um I believe 2018. Um since we created that zone district, we've had no reasonzonings to that district.

And along those same lines, land conservation. Is there a process in place that a land owner can voluntarily go and place their land in a land conservation in our county? We don't have any sort of county um land conservation easement in lie of um you would have to contact the state and put it in like a state forestry trust. Um I think they have agricultural trust um with University of Tennessee as well for land. But as far as like the county having their own entity, no. And do you know of anyone in our county who has taken the step to put their land in a conservation? Uh not off the top of my head. No, ma'am.

Okay. I'm sure there are there has to be. Thank you, Mayor. Sorry. Welcome, Commissioner McFarland.

We We've heard both sides of the story tonight, both sides of the opinion. The uh minimum 80,000 and and those such as my neighbor lawyer Denton, who right now we're planning for the future of this county, and he was 20 years ago bought his property, planning for the future, which is here and now. So what what relief is there for these folks that if we went to 80,000, these folks that had decided to cut their acorage up and give it to their children and and have 40,000 there. What what what relief is it for them to do that because that's their goal in life and we shouldn't interfere with that.

The only form of relief that we have at present for that is if you're agreved by the resolution that you all passed tonight. There's a board of zoning appeals that the county has and they could um create an exhibit with a surveyor on the desired lot size for that tract of 40,000 square foot lots in A1 per se. Um and they would submit that to the board of zoning appeals and the board of zoning appeals would be able to get grant a variance on that specific tract for that subdivision. That doable? Um yeah, it's doable. You can also res. Anything else? Anybody before we take a motion? Motion to approve the resolution. [clears throat] I got a motion. Do I hear a second? Second.

Okay. Any other discussion before we vote? Commissioner Weathers. Yes. I'd like to ask that we that we uh amend this resolution at the suggestion and recommendation of the planning commission on October 17th to 1 and a half acres or 60,000 square foot lots. Doubling the size from 40,000 to 80,000 or from 1 acre to 2 acres is too extreme. Second. So, I got a motion and a second to amend it to 60,000 square feet. Discussion. Commissioner Hall.

I would have to disagree with that 100% that amendment. I'm going to vote no against it. I'm just going to go ahead and be upfront. Um, the overwhelming majority of land in my district is A1 with the [snorts] exception of the city of Watertown and one or two commercial lots out in Norine. Um, every I won't say every single person, the vast majority of people that I represent are in favor of at least 80,000 square foot lots. And I'm going to do the will of my people that are in my district that the and I have the most A1 in all of Wilson County in my district. It I have it all. I don't have it all, but I have the most. And so the the vast majority of people that live out in district, they they are [clears throat] in favor of at least 80,000. They would love it to be I believe 80,000 is a good enough uh compromise. I I mean I just don't see any reason not to approve this. We have more and more people that are in favor of this over doing something that increase that that increases density in these districts. And like I said, there are several there are other districts that have A1. I'm not denying that, but my district [clears throat] has most of it. I would appreciate anybody supporting going to 80,000 instead of 60. Commissioner Gentry,

I've noticed listening to the people speak today, many of them have bought four, five, even more acres of land to build their homes. And now they're saying they want anybody else that gets out there in that area to have two acres minimum, but they're already there and they have a lot more acreage. So, I'm not sure that uh 80,000 is the right way to go. I listened to the uh the lady was speaking that she gave an acre to this person, an acre to that person out of her land. And I think land rights is a constitutional right. Now, we can limit it to an extent, but I don't think we should take it away. I think 80,000 would take it away. I agree with the people that spoke in favor of keeping it at at least 60 even an acre. Thank you, Commissioner [snorts] Bowman.

Sorry, Mr. McFarland. Got to keep him over here. He's He's a squirrel. [gasps] Thank you. [sighs]

Decisions about land and lot size are not about being pro-developer and anti-growth or [snorts] anti-developer and progrowth. Decisions about land and lot size are always about being prroperty rights or anti-propy rights. And we as a commission either believe that land owners, the people who actually own the land, have legal rights to the land that they own [snorts] and those rights should not be infringed upon. Or we as a commission believe that people who own the land should allow us as the government to take that land away, devalue that land, and limit the rights of those property owners. We all agree that we need solutions to encourage healthy, sustainable growth. And there isn't a single magic bullet that stops growth because a single approach won't fix our growth problem. What will work is respecting our land owners and their property rights by increasing A1 from the current 40,000 square feet to the 60,000 square ft as recommended by the planning commission while also raising the standards for building in Wilson County with our subdivision regulations, our codes, and fixing our step system issues. But [snorts] this gets the big out ofstate national developers who are not invested in this county out by raising our standards for building here. And also we need to study and use the information in the watershed studies that Commissioner McFarland is leading. That information helps us plan and forecast the impact of building and flooding in all areas of Wilson County. And finally, we need to finalize our master land use plan, having a vision for where and what we want Wilson County

to be for the next 20 years. It takes all of these things in a comprehensive approach to healthy, sustainable growth to to make a plan that actually works. Putting all of our eggs in the basket of only increasing A1 lot size to 80,000 square ft will not magically preserve land and it will not solve our growth problems. This single solution is a recipe for disaster leading to more lawsuits to more taxpayer dollars being wasted in court. All the while the growth problems still are not solved. We're setting a precedence tonight. For almost 50 years, if I heard correctly, no land owners in Wilson County have ever voluntarily chosen to put their land in a conservation. For almost 50 years, zero land owners in Wilson County have changed their land to the 80,000 square feet voluntarily. I want us to really stop and think about that. For 50 years, our current A1 zoning has been in place and not one landowner has ever voluntarily made the decision to put their own land in a conservation. And for 50 years, not one landowner in Wilson County has ever chosen to change their zoning from the current 40,000 square feet to A2 80,000 square ft. Both of these options have been available to every A1 resident and no one has ever voluntarily taken these options. President Ronald Reagan said, Perry, I'm I'm going to go with you tonight. President Ronald Reagan said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

That should give us pause. We are the government. As county commission, we are the government of Wilson County. [snorts] And are we helping to harm the very people we should be protecting, our property owners? As a Green Belt land owner in a district with a lot of green belt land owners, we toil, we labor through blood, sweat, and tears for the land that we own. Sacrificing and giving up more than anyone could imagine for the land that we live on. That land toil is an investment. Yeah, that

that land tool is an investment. It's an investment in the same way many of you invest in your 401k. No one wants to wake up and their 401k be cut in half. If we increase A1 from the current 40,000 square feet to 80,000 square feet, that's exactly what we're doing to our land owners. 60,000 square feet is a starting point. It has an impact but not at the magnitude of 80,000 square ft. The law of diminishing returns tells us that the value of land to the property owner is in the 40,000 square ft and any additional increase in the square footage to the lot size is at a lesser value to that land owner. We are stewards of every A1 landowner's investment tonight. As you press your button, ask yourself, am I the government here to help? Commissioner Breeze.

Well, after Beth's comments, I'm not sure I want to. Well, I still have Well, here's the thing. I have questions, and here's why. I pulled our zoning regulations. So, this is directly from the document that we have right now. So, here is the definition, which hasn't been read this evening. A1 general intent. This district is intended to accommodate uses typically conducted in agricultural areas in addition to rule density residential uses. To me, agricultural areas are farming. So, I'm not sure with 60,000 square feet how you're supposed to accommodate us is typically conducted in agricultural areas. Now R1, the general intent says this district is intended to accommodate single family housing types in very low density residential developments. The rural residential districts are defined as areas within the county which have only rural levels of public services including streets, utilities, and fire protection.

[snorts]

So my question is this. If the idea of zoning or of our entire zoning ordinance is to help define various different categories, the way land is split up in this county. Shouldn't there be a variation between two categories more than 20,000 square feet? And secondly, I don't understand why somebody who owns A1 land can't parcel off an acre and ask to have it reszoned R1. At that point, you are recognizing people's land rights and it also makes sure that there are there is infrastructure for smaller lots in that area. So, as we go through this and I agree with Beth that at the end of the day, I don't want to be the government, but at the same time, I also want to listen to my citizens and I want to be true to the vote the zoning ordinance that we already have on the books.

Commissioner McFarland amendment. Nobody else is into hopper, so we're ready to vote. If you are, we're going to vote on the uh resolution as amended. had a motion and a second to You're voting on the suggestion in the form of an amendment. Voting on the suggestion. Not voting on the res. You're voting on whether or not you're going to move the suggestion into the resolution. [clears throat] And then you'll vote on Yes. No. Then you'll vote on the resolution. Same thing though, right? I'm voting on the amendment to the resolution. It's on the floor. You are. I don't think that's what you said. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I That's I had a motion whatever

and Okay. But but be so I'm but I'm voting on the resolution as amended right now. Correct. No. No. I'm voting on the resolution to be amended. Amended. There is amend. There is an effort on the floor to amend it. Yeah. If it passes then the resolution will be amended. That's where we differ. Okay. We're voting on the amendment of 60,000 square feet. I got a motion in a second. Are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote.

Commissioner Rich and Commissioner Clark. The the panel. We have been so long on not using the panels. I think somebody timed out. So we just they just need to restart them. Okay. So, Corey's taking care of you. [laughter] I don't want to speak.

It won't allow me. Commissioner Clark, can you give uh Miss Dowy your thoughts?

All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 10. Yes. 14. No.

So, the suggestion amendment um fails. Now, we're back to voting on the resolution as [applause] as it is. [applause] Got a motion and a second on the floor for the resolution. Any more discussion before we vote? Commissioner McFarland to my agend is there any grandfathering preservation any anything for those that have already we discussed that have smaller acres no for their division

that is what came out of the planning commission and that's where we got in trouble last time we [snorts] started changing it on the floor. We can't do that here. You either got to vote it up or down. And then if you want to do some of those things in the future, you can take a look at it. Yeah. Commissioner Hawk,

I would just like to point out that anybody who is in the A1 district who would like to cut off less than 80,000 acres of or 80,000 acres 80,000 square foot of their acreage, you have the ability to do so. If you reszone into R1, you still have that right. And so there should be no qualms about this at this point. If you need to do that, you have the right to ask to be reszoned into R1 to allow you 40,000 because that's the highest density you can get is my understanding. If we pass this, correct? In in your district, yes.

I'm talking about across the county. What's the highest density in the county if this resolution passes? We have an R3 um which allows up to 12 units an acre. Um we also have an R2 which this resolution bumps to 20,000 square feet which is just over two units an acre. Um but speaking for your district, the only thing that it would allow without a land use amendment would be R1. Correct. But those options are there if it if somebody's needing to develop to get higher in density. Those options are there in this resolution right here where you can go all the way to 12 homes on one acre.

Correct. I'm mixing up. Watertown is 12 units. R3 is eight units in the county. Eight. Okay. Excuse me. My apologies. Thank you. Mixing up ordinances. Commissioner Fields. Yeah. Mayor motion. I did not. No. Commissioner Franklin need a second. Commissioner Gentry, however, you got to go through the zoning board. You got to go through all that. And now, how many people think you can reszone it to build 12 homes or what or apartments on those kind of

in A1 and move it to R2 or three or whatever that is. it wouldn't pass. It wouldn't pass in the committee and it wouldn't pass here. So, I think that's that's a uh a false, you know, dream. I think that's a dream. If you think you're going to reszone A1 to put 12 houses on an acre, I'm sorry. Thank you. At Starruck Farms. Nobody else in the hopper. You ready to vote on the resolution? It's on the floor. Please cast your vote.

Commissioner Keith. Yes. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 17 yes. Seven no. Resolution passes. [applause] [applause] reports from the um minutes committee. Commissioner Fields on Thursday, November the 6th. A copy of those minutes are in your packet. I move they be received and filed. All in favor say I. Commissioner Glover. They're still

got a motion to take a fivem minute recess to hear a second. All in favor say I.

I don't know what I was saying. I know. Y on sir stand up you You too. I appreciate all y'all taking the ball. We were in the process.

And then we come here tonight and say, We had it all done. Yeah,

I think it's situation. That's why you have the appeals, I guess.

I think they'll think they're aware of Thank you. I got Time Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Sit down. I don't know. So we go home.

Call the order county commission meeting back into order. We have reading of the minutes. Motion to discuss the read. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. communication from the chair. Uh I have Mr. um the trustee, Mr. Kenneth Hackett here. He wants to speak to you um in a request that we had last month uh just to hear about the um um property taxes being able to be paid at the bank. Commissioner Hackett, I mean Commissioner Hackett, not Commissioner Hackett. You don't want that one tonight, do you? Mayor Trustee, thank you.

Excuse my voice. I can hardly speak tonight. So, but thank you, mayor. Thank you for commissioners. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to address any concerns in reference to my decision to ask banks to take property tax payments. I got a few notes to read. Take a couple minutes. As you recall, I was appointed to this position during the last two weeks of this year's tax season. Two things stood out immediately to me. The number of people who choose to make their payments in person even though they have the option to pay online or by mail. And I'm sure there's various reasons for choosing to do that. The other thing that stood out, excuse me, [clears throat] is a number of people who stated they wish we had a an office in Mount Juliet to make it more convenient. Um, they would site hours of operation in our office and being able to get here by 4:00. [clears throat] The thought of having a satellite office in Mount Juliet briefly entered my mind, but I realized it would be at a substantial cost, so I kind of put that on the back burner. Fast forward a few weeks, we began looking at the 2025 tax bill and what if any ch changes we would make need to make. Being new to the position, I looked at adjoining counties tax bills for comparison. The first thing that stuck out to me was that Sumry County used banks for payments and that Pinnacle Bank wasn't one of those banks. When I asked the leaders of Pinnacle Bank here to do the same, they agreed. All they had to do is to train their employees and get that started. That equals three satellite offices in the county at no cost. Wilson Bank and Trust holds a very large amount of our money and our CDs. I asked them to do that. They they were not set up for trustee payments, but did agree to helping us out. Spent three months developing software that was needed to do that. This now equates to having 13 satellite offices in the

county. Again, this is at no cost to the citizens of the county. Uh, looking around at other counties, there are 28 other counties that already do this, some as long as 30 years. Uh, Sar County brings in about 10 million through their banks. Williamson County about 9 million. So, it's a very useful tool. As of November the 14th, we had already brought in over $619,000 through these banks uh with through 285 payments. Uh I'll finish with two more reasons that I think justify the use of banks. According to numbers I got from the property assessor's office. In 2015, there were 55,340 parcels in the county. Today there are 71,617. It's a 29.41% increase. And as you all know, the income limit for the tax freeze program goes up to over 60,000 [clears throat] this next year. That will bring an estimated 18 to 20% increase in applications for senior citizens. To me, it makes sense with this information that at some point down the road, there would be a need for additional personnel. I strongly believe that utilizing banks not only benefits the citizens of Wilson County by making paying their bills a little easier, but it also benefits the county by basically eliminating the need for satellite offices and for additional staff in our current office for a very long time. Any questions?

Any questions, Mr. Hackett? Thank you for coming, explaining that we had some questions last month and uh I'm sorry. Uh Commissioner Evans, Commissioner Evans, thank you. Appreciate it. Commissioner Evans, also wanted to say thank you for doing that. And just in case anybody couldn't hear the the banks are doing this at no cost, correct to the county. Correct. So, thank you to Wilson Bank Trust and Pinnacle. Right. And I've talked to two other banks and they're um we're trying to work out some details on them doing it too. Commissioner Gentry, how do you interface to do that? Well, they set up the software. So, Pinnacle is pretty simple. They just deposit the money directly in their general fund, right? But um um Wilson Bank

the bank could do it or Yes, they can go to the bank. They can um of course you already had the option of paying online or coming in person, but a lot of people want to pay it in person. They would go to the bank and get money and drive here to pay it. So now they can go to the bank and pay it. They can pay it. Their hours are up till 5:00 weekend uh Saturday hours. Um but they have to pay through check or cash. They can't pay by credit card. and the the tax relief folks. Um it's harder for them to do it because they have to come in and bring some proof of, you know, paperwork. So, yeah. Commissioner Rich, did you have a question? Okay. Anybody else? Thank you, Mr. Hacket. Appreciate you being here. Report from Emergency Management Committee. Commissioner Bernard, no report.

Emergency management director's report. Director Cooper.

Yes, sir. No report. Just kidding. Um, I'll make it real brief. [snorts] Uh, we've been very busy. Um, this time of year, uh, two highlights I want to make. Uh, tomorrow will be my 12th year as EMA director. Um, [snorts] and I want to, you know, do a public thank you to the county commission, uh, mayor's office, EMA committee, uh, for the continued support that we've had, uh, throughout those 12 years and hopefully we can have some more. Uh, I think the department's in a great place thanks to all you and I think we can do more as we go along. And I just want to personally thank you for [snorts] for what you do and happy Thanksgiving to every one of you and special thank you to the mayor and his office. That concludes my report.

All in favor say I. Thank you, Director Cooper. We do appreciate your service and your communication to us every time there's an issue out there. Report from law enforcement committee. Commissioner Curts. Law enforcement committee met on November 11th here in the courthouse. I moved. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. Sheriff's report. Sheriff Brian.

Thank you, mayor. Your reports in your packet. Um, num numbers are pretty much on par for this time of year. Uh, real quick, I know it's getting late, but we've got something important coming up that I I just want to talk about just a minute, and y'all have heard me talk u for the past several months about retention, retaining, and retention of employees. Every time I come in front of you each these committees, I tell you, I've lost so many. Well, between that last two th two Thursday at the budget committee 10 days ago. Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy. 1 2 3 4. Uh we've lost more people,

two detectives, a few patrol officers, and I I don't know the number of correctional officers. You've got a resolution in front of you tonight that it's important. Listen, it's not important to me. It Well, it is important to me because I love these guys and girls back here risking their life every day. Every day. It is important to me, but it's more important to them. It's more important to their families. It's a big step in helping retain and retain these people and supporting them as as as for what they do every day. I said the other night that listen I all county employees are important to me and I've heard it's said several times you know what about they deserve it too but I'm standing here tonight saying the c the sheriff's office employees deserve to be able to they come to work every day and risk their life. Okay. And I said the other night, I've had them shot at. I got somebody with a bullet in their foot. They've had a I hate to say they had to take somebody's life several times, few times because they was getting shot at. A bullet goes flying by one of them's head. And that's why I'm standing here tonight. I'm standing here tonight for my employees. And I ask that y'all really take a look at this resolution tonight and vote for it because it will is is it a fix all? No, it's not. It's not. But I can sit here and say tonight it's it it goes a long way for these employees. It's a big step. I can tell you that.

And I ask tonight that y'all vote for this, support it, and support your sheriff's office employees. And that's where I'm that's where I stand. I'll leave it at that. That concludes my report unless there's any questions. Any questions? Any discussion? All in favor say I. Report from education committee. Commissioner Marlo. Education committee met Thursday November the 6. Minutes are in your packet. I move they be received and filed. Any discussion? [snorts] Seeing none. All in favor say I.

Director of schools report. Mr. Jeff Leil. Thank you, mayor. Just briefly on my report, we'll point to your enrollment numbers. Total enrollment. That's prek through our adult programs, 20,954 students. Uh prek through 12, 20,763. Uh so probably going to see 21,000 this year. Uh we will be out Thanksgiving break next week. 12 month employees of course will be in the office Monday and Tuesday. Personnel update. Mr. Bill Hoover, longtime employed in transportation department, has been named as new transportation director. He replaced Mr. Hardaway. Uh be naming a Springdale Elementary principal [clears throat] the end of the week. Uh that principal is coming to take a position in in our attendance office at ATC. Uh so we we'll have that be looking for that by the end of the week. Uh veteran day programs were held many of our schools. You know, we had we celebrated Veterans Day and just want to take opportunity to honor and thank all of our veterans that have served in the military and currently serving. Uh very a good day. It's a day that we we don't need to forget and often we forget it too quickly. So, [snorts] uh but excited our kids were participating in that at at many of their schools and bringing in community veterans uh to to honor them. We had our career quest 4th annual Wilson County CTE Career Quest. November 11th and 12th, it was held at Farm Bureau Expo Center. Brought 2,000 eighth graders. Students from across Wilson County. And the purpose of that is to explore a variety of career pathways, many of them local. We thank our local businesses and companies for uh setting up and giving our students an opportunity to see what they can get

into in the CTE arena. that that leads to uh wonderful careers with many of them being local. Open enrollment for our district is uh closes December the 1st. I provided all those numbers and seats available. Don't it looks complicated but to us it's not. Uh we do think we'll be able to manage open enrollment again [snorts] this school year. With that do have some current building data and [sighs] want to give it to you. as you can see is highlighted schools. We we highlighted any school that's 87% capacity rate. Uh but we have several that will be coming off. Rutland Elementary is at 97%. Um almost 1,400 students of course when we open new Central Pike next year that will really help that number. [snorts] Stoner Creeks at 93% school we just opened what two years ago. uh they're sitting at 93% capacity with building all around it. Uh so, but I want you to have those numbers. If you have any questions, reach out to me. I'll be glad to discuss those. Uh Glabel Elementary sitting at 88% of course when we open uh the Central Pike Elementary that will help that too. It's going to provide relief. So, we'll get a couple of those off. But, I want you to have those numbers. As you can see, we got some high schools hitting Lebanon is at 91%. Mount Jude High School's back up to 87%. Wilson Central 84% and as you know when it hits that 90% mark you you're looking at planning schools and that's that's a three-year plan uh at the minimum when you look at planning funding and and staffing and everything. So so that's the numbers you have right here halfway point and what we'll be facing. We do monitor that. I get qu questions all the time. Yes, we are aware of of developments get developed and we go ahead and plot them and and look and see what's that going

to do to us and that's that's the driving force as we plan. [snorts] Uh but I want you to have that because there will be some decisions will have to be made in the near future on where the next schools go. Uh and and you know 10% seems like a lot but 100 kids just to be honest with you is about two years or one development. And if if they all hit uh you you could be looking at this number increasing in capacity quickly in the next five years. And that's going off what's already been approved. Uh but that does include my report. I will take any questions. Mr. Rich,

just wanted to say in reference to the comment that the gentleman made earlier in the open forum, uh my Google search shows us uh 11th out of 194. So, uh, I wanted to tell you I think you're doing a great job and hope we can keep you around for a while. Amen. Thank you. Motion approved. I actually wasn't going to take up for him, but I was going to take up for the schools.

Yeah. Well, here here's the thing, and I want everybody to know this because when I get mad up here, I I mean, I might get voted out. I don't really care. But if it's something that I'm representing, I'm sitting here and I'm representing the whole county and ain't nobody going to talk about our employees. I'm just not. So,

I will say one thing. I think that when our Oliver data comes back, we [snorts] may invite you to a little ceremony. We'll celebrate our data that's upcoming. It's it's embargoed, but I know what it is. And I feel strong testament that our teachers, especially our teachers, our staff, our school bus drivers, our cafeteria workers, our administrators are working hard every day and we have a lot to be proud of. So might get an invitation that we might do a little announcement to show exactly what the state says we're performing in the past year. Commissioner Glover, echo what everyone else said. We're proud of the schools. You show us uh at every budget education meeting uh how we're doing and just very proud.

Commissioner Franklin. Yeah, I got to attend the power attend U regional meeting for planning commission hours. I have to have and our our good mayor spoke. He did a good job by the way. But uh I'll just tell you the other counties in the area know about Wilson County Schools and they they they see you coming. Keep up the good work. We had some another county that I think brought about 13 principles into our county just last week. Two or six of our schools met with our principles and some of our coaching or instructional coaches to look and see how how we were doing things and why we were doing the way we're doing. So, Commissioner Hall,

I will speak as a teacher right now and I just want to say thank you to to those of you who have spoken up about that. Um, but I'm 100% certain that the teachers working in Wilson County schools and the results that Wilson County Schools are producing is the reason why we just took up the question of how we can manage the growth in this county. And so, and it's a testament to the leader that we have standing here in front of us and to the people that have come to work for Wilson County Schools. And uh, but yes, that is a testament to that. Thank you. Seeing nobody else, I hear a motion to approve. All in favor say I.

Thank you, Director Lel. Report from public business committee. Commissioner Weathers chairman Thursday, November 6th at 5:00 in the upstairs conference room at the courthouse. The minutes are in your packet. I move that be received and filed. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. A center management. Commissioner Scrugs. Animal control, Commissioner Breeze, no report. Audit, Commissioner Glover, no report. Broadband, Commissioner Franklin, no report. Developing tourism, Commissioner Brown, no report. Ethics, Commissioner Dao, no report. Finance Commissioner Hall. [clears throat]

Finance Committee met Monday, October 20th at 6:45. The minutes from that meeting are in your packet. I move they be received and filed. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. Health and Recreation Commissioner Smith. Mr. Chairman Health Committee met on November the 6th in the upstairs conference room. Your minutes are in your packet. I move that they be received and filed. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. Insurance Commissioner McFarland. Insurance 28 October 5:00 p.m. The minutes in your packet. Move to be received file. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. Judicial Commissioner Gentry. Judicial Committee met 30 October. The minutes are in your package. I move that they be received and

second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say I. Legislative ad hoc. Uh, Commissioner Weathers. No report. Plann and zoning. Commissioner McFarland. Planning zone met 13 November at 5:30. The minutes are somewhere. I don't have them. And I move be received and file. Any discussion? Seeing none. [clears throat] All in favor say I. I didn't see them either. There's not any. There's not any, are they? They'll be in next month's packet because one out. I'll vote no. If they're there, they got passed. If they're not, we'll do them next month. Rules. Commissioner Keith. No report. Urban type facility board. Commissioner Scrugs. Urban board. Your packet be received and file.

Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. Finance director's report. Mr. Aaron Mayor. anchor down.

Yeah, I know. I feel like the Imperial death march should have been playing as I was headed up. Uh budget amendment on your desk uh for the sheriff's department raises. I want to explain that to you. Um the first two lines affect the general debt service fund 151. We said in the budget committee that we would take that out of interest earned. So you have a decrease in the interest that's going to go into 151 and you have a decrease in a fund balance account committed for debt service. Uh then you have an increase uh the third line down is the interest income that will be going into the general fund that 1.2 million and the rest of the increases are all the individual salary and benefit lines that would go into the sheriff's department uh for the $1.2 million raise as was discussed in the budget committee. Um, my apologies for this not coming out sooner. That's on me. Uh, I'll take it. Yep. I'll take it 100%. Um,

what will fund balance being general? Uh, general debt is still way up there. U, I don't think I've even brought a fund balance report up here with me, but it's quite healthy. I can $15 million. Oh, way over that. Way over that. Commissioner Gentry. Yeah. there on the money that's been used. It seems like is it interest that's not recurring. Is it interest? Are we going to use interest to the next year to

Well, that's an excellent question, sir. You I It's not I do not recommend that you consider that you're going to fund this raise indefinitely out of interest income. Might it be there? Will it be there this year? Yes. We've collected $6 million in interest already. Uh remember you already committed $1.7 million in interest to the 4% payable adjustment that you gave at budget time.

So you've already committed 1.7 million. Now you're committing another 1.2. Uh so you are what? 2.9. You're at 2.9 uh right now. Uh next year that 1.2 would go to 2.4. So you would be at 4 whatever million. Um, I don't know that you can count on interest income forever. Last year, we collected about $19 million in interest income, but you got bond proceeds out there that are drawing interest income. You got ARP funds out there that are drawing interest income. You know, those things will will go away over time. So, I don't recommend that you consider doing this longterm out of interest income. Do you project that the growth money would take care of this or

the growth money would take care of it if you did absolutely nothing for anybody else for two years? So if you did what you did this year, which is we're not granting anybody any needs for two years, then yes, the growth money would pay for it. I don't think that's probably realistic since in particular, you have a jail that you haven't staffed yet. Correct. Now, didn't we just give a raise in this last budget, though? Correct. You gave a 4% table adjustment. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other question, Mr. Mater? She's looking at me like she has one. I don't know.

Too much for my head. You know, there was nothing in my repetition. Yes. I again, uh I apologize for that. I take responsibility for it. Any other questions for Mr. Mayor? Commissioner Smith.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your report. Uh, question. So, you're pretty much telling us that you would recommend or not recommend us to fund this with the interest. So, how would you recommend us or how would we fund this? What is the best practice? Look, if if it's not this year, if next year at some point, you're looking at either a a wheel tax, which I know you guys have passed a resolution basically saying that any will tax would first be considered for roads. Uh so you're looking at a wheel tax increase that could be used for operations, or you're looking at a property tax increase that could be used for operations. This that we're talking about tonight, 2.4 million at the current uh value of a penny [snorts] is 3.25 25. And on a $475,000 house, it adds about $38 to a tax bill. Now, that's if you did this and nothing else. Again, I'm only addressing what you're considering here tonight. I'm sure that when the time comes, there's going to be other things to be considered.

Commissioner Rich,

I guess I'm putting it in layman's terms. uh you've reached into the cookie jar so many times now you're not pulling anything out at this point you've done everything that you can with our current funding. So, I guess I'll be the person that says the no no word and says that it's coming down to, like you said, a wheel tax, which is never going to go through. Or we're going to have to ha ask our citizens to understand that we're going to have to do a property tax to fund not only our employees, but the future of Wilson County. Uh 2016 was the last time we did a property tax increase. It was 39 cents. uh that lasted a long time, but we're at the point where we're knocking on the door. And the reality is it has to happen. Uh when it comes down to it, I'll be able to go and knock on doors when I run for reelection and tell people this is why I voted for it and I'm going to. That's just what I think.

Commissioner Brown. Director Mayor, you mentioned uh 3.27 cents. I believe you mentioned and that's at the current rate. So if we're looking at funding all of this and not touching growth funds then we're talking about the $42 million. Mhm. And that would represent double that amount at today's value. Yes, sir. So we could really say higher than that. Yes, sir. Commissioner Bree, actually. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Oh, I'm I'm going to correct myself. When I ran that math, it was only 2.4 million. So the 3.2 my my apologies. I ran it for next year because next year would be the first time that you would have the opportunity to actually fund it. So the 3.25 at the current at the current value of a penny is the 2.4 million. My mistake. Commissioner Maurice. Yes. I just clarification point here. I think that the the raise is a total of $2.4 million, right? For annual next year. Yes. 1.2 2 this year starting in January next year would be 2.4. Right. Yes. So I was just curious where the 4.2 came from that Commissioner Brown was talking about. So I don't know on the 4.2. I'm not sure. Uh

I thought we were talking about growth money. Yeah. Taking the growth money out of that.

Yeah. So the the 3.2 just to just to be sure we're all on the same page. The 3.25 cents at the current penny value would not touch growth. your growth would still be available for whatever. Now again, remember a million dollars of your growth off the top goes to the pay plan. So if your growth last year was $2.05 million after the pay plan was funded, you had a little over a million dollars to take care of other needs. So we're playing a completely different game than what we've been playing for years. The game that we played for years was basically we give everything away and then we come down to what we're going to do with employees. So we are we do have employees at the top of the list. We don't have them. Am I standing up here telling you we have them where we should be pay-wise? I don't think we do. But again that's you know just based on data that's been given us by pay study people etc. So

any other questions for Mr. Mayor report. All in favor say I. Report from budget committee. Commissioner Marlo. Budget committee met Thursday, November the 6. Minutes are in your packet. I move they be received and filed. Got a motion in a second. All any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Mr. Marlo. Resolution Resolution 25-11-1 approving the medical provider agreement with family medical community. Move to approve.

Discussion. Seeing none, are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 241. 24 and one absent resolution 25-11-2 approving the attach grant amendment discussion seeing none are you ready to vote please cast your vote commissioner

all hearts and minds good with your vote please record 241 24 and1 resolution passes. Resolution 25113 amend the budget and appropriation resolutions for line item transfers to sheriff's department. Discussion seeing none. Are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. Commissioner Jones. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 23. Yes, one no, one absent. 23 and one.

Resolution 25114 is to correct resolution number 25107. Second. Any discussion? Chen, are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. Commissioner Gentry. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 24 in one. 24 in1. Resolution passes.

Resolution 25-11-5 to amend the budget appropriation resolution to make an appropriation from general fund to veteran services. Discussion. Seeing none, are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 24 in1 24 in1 resolution passes resolution 25116 to amend the budget appropriation resolution for line item transfers in information technology got a discussion here commissioner Breeze

I just want to take this opportunity to thank publicly Aaron Wilson and Corey Watson for stepping up over the past several months working overtime to cover this department as we all know technology and computer systems are needed by every department in the county to do business. So, thank you for making sure that everything continues to run smoothly so we can efficiently and effectively serve the citizens of Wilson County. Commissioner Denton, yes, I I I think I've answered my question. This this is just for two employees. Yes, sir. And they're not salary. Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. And it's really for the future to have in the line item.

Any other conversation? Commissioner Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, again, we'll keep asking what about the director spot? Uh, I will communicate with you soon on that. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thanks for asking. Any other discussion? Are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 241. 241. Resolution passes. Resolution 25117 reflecting revenues received but not included in the original budget budget to make an appropriation into information technology.

Any I got a motion to hear a second. Any discussion? Are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record 24-1. 24 in1 resolution passes. Resolution 25118 amend the budget appropriation resolution to making an appropriation from archive fees reserve account and data fee reserve account to circuit court.

Any discussion? Seeing none, are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 241 241 resolution passes. Resolution 25119, a resolution authorizing the issuance, sale, and payment of general obligation refunding bonds of Wilson County. Second. Any discussion? See none. Are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. Commissioner Chandler. All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record.

241 24 in1 resolution passes. Resolution 2511, a resolution authorizing the issuance, sale, and payment of county district school refunding bonds of Wilson County. Any discussion? Are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. All hearts and minds go with your vote. Please record. 241. 241. Before you go before uh Mr. Marlo, uh these bonds were refinanced at a lower interest rate. Savings about 3 million plus I think is right Aaron for both bonds haven't been refunded yet. We have to pass them here.

But that's what they'll project you to do. Yes. And so no extension of life there. And Mr. Ashley Menalty, sorry that you had to stay to a long meeting for this, but thank you for being here tonight and making us aware of these to have these savings for our citizens. Thank you for that, Commissioner Marlo. Resolution 2511. Hang on, Commissioner Hall. I was just going to ask, is that yearly or over the life of those loans? Over about 11 years. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Resolution 2511 uh to amend the budget appropriation resolution to make an appropriation from general fund to sheriff's department discussion.

Are you ready to vote? Sorry. This one didn't have the budget amendment with him. So you're not going to need to move to amend to add that to it. So move say what I need to say. I'm not going to change his vote. I am going to participate in vote whenever it takes place. Okay. Need He needs to read his disclaimer. He wants you to read your disclaimer when it comes time to vote if you would. Hang on. He's already given it to me. Okay. Yeah, I told you. I told you wrong.

Yes, sir. persuance to TCA 5-5-102 C3A. This is an acknowledgement of be because of being Wilson County Sheriff's Department employee I do not have a conflict of interest about being voted here. However, I do declare that my argument and my vote answer only to me and my conscience and my obligations my constituents and citizens this body represents Okay. So, you have a resolution on the floor. It has been amended to add the budget amendment to it because it didn't go out with that. Ready to vote for the amendment on the resolution. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. Or I. Can I do that?

Yeah, you did. Just do. Thank you. Call on the other. Yeah. Well, I I messed up once already, didn't I? Well, probably more than once. Uh yeah. Now you're ready to vote on the resolution as amended with the budget amendment to it. Commissioner Franklin.

Yeah. I'm I'm not speaking up to try to try to persuade anybody to vote with me on this at all. I This is tough on me. Um I wish you know it's kind of like on planning commission sometimes there's three answers. There's yes, no, and not yet. I wish I could just vote not yet, but I can't vote for this and I'm going to tell you why. Um, we're a third of the way through a budget that we are tied on, but we did everything we could to give our employees raises without taxing our citizens in an inflationary economy that was not good last year, by the way. And we there's just too many unknowns for me. I mean, I I represent a district and they they look to me to make educated decisions the best I can, right? And I'm not very educated on this because I don't know a lot of things. Here's I'm just going to list some things. I don't know. I don't know if we're going to make it in the black this year on our budget. Onethird of the way through it looks all right, but you know, it's early. Um, health insurance for employees. I'm not sure we're going to get all the way through the year without having to throw some more money at that. Health insurance for inmates. Not sure we're not going to have to throw money at that. Not sure how much money I'm going to have to throw at jail staffing. uh don't even know what our growth rate's going to be this year. I mean, it may be two million. I hope I hope it's five, but it may be 1 million. I mean, we don't know. It's early. Uh so, if if we're going to have to raise property taxes, that's obvious. I think everybody in the room knows that. We just have no idea how much. And then finally, and and the reason why we usually do stuff like this at the end end of the year for budget is because it's the same time we set the tax rate. The biggest if I don't know is I don't know how 13 people are going to vote if if they're even going to raise property taxes because we're not doing that at this time. So, what happens if we were to vote what if I voted for this and

then we got to the end of the year and we couldn't get 13 votes to pay for it or or you know, I mean, are you confident? I mean, does anybody even know who's going to run against them? Does anybody know the future past three months in four months into our budget? I don't. And so, I want to vote for this. I think we need to do it. I really do. I just wish there was a button on here that said not yet. Any other discussion? Commissioner Jones?

Yes, sir. Um, these employees are very they are just go above everything. they are deserving, but we're just getting getting the cart before the horse here. We have to uh find a revenue source to fund this. We we can pass this tonight as proposed, but more or less, we're just robbing money out of the general fund. Come June, we're going to be obligated to right at $2.5 million to continue to fund this. And we'll be obligated then. If you vote yes now, you you're essentially voting for a property tax increase because we have to continue paying this raise from now on. Um I'm certainly not opposed to employees getting raises, but we've got to isolate the revenue to do this before we do it.

Commissioner Kurts, I'm voting for it and I'll tell you why. We built an $84 million building over there and our employees are getting blamed. These sheriff's department employees sitting out here are getting blamed because we voted to build an $84 million building

and didn't take care of our employees. And we promised our employees we were going to take care of them. We sat in this room and we talked about it and we talked about making the pay plan right and we didn't make it right. We just put a patch on it. And we may be voting to end a property tax increase, but it's not because of this. We spent money different places, but they're the ones taking the blame. And I'll tell you what, I'm sure glad I got them. And everybody in here ought to be glad we have them because when I go home at night, I feel safe. Most of them are my friends. But if we would have taken care of them in the beginning, we wouldn't be sitting here. We might not have an $84 million building. And we may have judges mad at us and clerks mad at us, but I don't want my friends and my employees that work for this county that serve us. And I agree with Mr. Hall. The reason we were in the position we were in today is because we have good employees that make this county great, that people want to come here, and we should pay them what they're worth. And we're not even going to do that with this vote tonight. Even if we pass it, it still needs to be worked on. That's why I'm voting for it.

Yes. Commissioner Chandler.

Yes, sir. I mean, this breaks my heart we even have this conversation. I always hear how much we support our police officers and sheriff's deputies. Like Commissioner Kurt said, we never send money their way. They're 29% below market. 29%. that that doesn't even catch them up to what other agencies are paying around us or in the county because I'm just factoring in well maybe Wilson County Sheriff's deputy should still make a little bit lower than everyone else which is sad and 11% barely gets them anywhere. What they make today by HUD is the low income threshold. I don't think our sheriff's deputies should need to qualify for HUD assistance. That's pretty sad in in a county of Wilson County like we are. We are in the situation we're in. Not just because today I'm part of the problem. I've been a commissioner for three years. We are all part of the problem why they're in this situation today. And I think it's important today because the sheriff has come to us and said he's bleeding deputies. This problem doesn't affect City of Mount Juliet. Bobb's fine. Diane, you're fine. Robert's probably fine. You would be shocked how many times the city of Mount Juliet has responded with a single deputy to very dangerous calls. I have that insight. I know when we go help them. I've done it myself. When Lifellight crashed, guess what? I, as the police chief, was out helping answer

calls in the county because our folks were busy. I feel obligated to get to work. And I went and responded to calls in the county. [snorts] Responded to Breezy's district. I responded to Robert's district just to help them because they didn't have anyone available. And even on a normal day, I'm shocked how often we have to respond in the county to help their lone deputy encounter domestic with a knife, armed person, multiple calls like that. And we're sending deputies by themselves because they're not adequately staffed. And I hear people talk, is it a leadership issue at the county? Why are people leaving? I've heard every story out there. [snorts] But what I do know is the facts in front of me. They simply don't make enough to live. They qualify for HUD lowincome assistance. And that is sad for a county our size. But we are all the reason why they make what they make today. because we've all been a part of this issue, at least all of us on this commission for three years. Yeah, we got another year. Yeah, we got to worry about running again for those of who are running again. But at some point, we have to make hard decisions and I get like Mr. Franklin said, and I love him to death. He's a smart guy. But at some point in time, we have to take care of our deputies. And when they're bleeding like they are today, now's the time. 11% only gets your year 10 deputy up about $7,000. Still way below what year five police officers make elsewhere. Like I said, it's they're 29% too low below the market.

11% doesn't touch it. So then what are we going to do next year? We got to do it again. And we're going to keep doing again till we get to a point where [snorts] we're watching our county employees the pay scale properly where we start looking at cost of living raises every year rather than this weird thing of a pay plan we got that always keeps us behind. And our county just can't stay behind anymore. Not in the situation we're in with the urban growth that we experienced. Trousedell County touches us. [snorts] their sheriff had to send a warning out to its community members that you may not have a sheriff's deputy respond to you and they're a believe a metro county so they don't have other agencies out there to respond and Mount Juliet we can't go to places out near Watertown to back their deputies up hopefully Lebanon sends them I'm sure they would looking at Glover over there he has that insight but if they called and asked us Mount Juliet I would get in my car and drive out to Watertown town if they needed me to respond through mutual aid. But I am shocked to hear about the many incidents in this county that are very, very dangerous incidents where someone is calling for help, someone's life is on the line and just one sheriff's deputy shows up. That is scary. And my heart breaks for those people in the rural areas like in Tommy Jones's district or in Terry Scrug's district or Blake Hall's district, Haskell's district, Danny's district, Jeremy's district where you are in a rural area and if you have someone come break into your home and if you're not prepared to take care of it yourself, one deputy may show up in about 15 minutes.

Show up. if you're lucky. So, I hope you're right with whoever to ensure you can handle that for 15 minutes. I listened to a sheriff's deputy on the radio of the Lifellight call trying to get this individual out of the helicopter, which I'm sure some other people nearby. These are stories we don't hear. I wish we heard more of them cuz today you probably wouldn't have that hard of a decision to press yes on here just to get them up 11% when there's 29% too low. I have no problem pressing this yes button at all. And I know people who I represent have no problem understanding it. It just has to be explained a little bit because when they realize how much their deputies put their life on the line in in so many dangerous situations, they will understand that they are a blessing and they will understand how how grateful they need to be that all of us in this room press yes on this button to give them just 11% raise. They do amazing work. I don't think I could do it. I've spent my whole career in a city that has supported me, has supported our agency, [snorts] has ensured we are well staffed, so we don't send officers to calls with armed people by themselves. And we all know the statistics. Officers are more likely to be killed or injured or assaulted when they're by themselves. A little backup goes a long way. So, I would hope all of you understand that and as I press yes on this button, you understand in your heart while you're pressing yes as well.

Commissioner Fields. Yes, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to affirm Commissioner Chandler and Commissioner Rich, I am vote voting yes. I don't like taxes. I don't like to spell taxes, but sooner or later we have to bite the bullet. We have been we have not been proactive at all. I remember several years ago, I think it was Commissioner Curts that brought up the term property tax and everybody kind of shoved. Well, maybe had we acted back then, we wouldn't be in this situation now. So, I'm joining the I'm joining the yes crowd. Thank you, Commissioner Denton. The question, Commissioner Denton?

Yes. Um, I don't have any problem voting yes on this because I also do not have the problem of blaming our sheriff's department and our deputies and all of their staff for this problem because it's not their fault. It was our fault because we were told we could afford an $84 million courthouse and we voted to correct the $2.5 million error by $30 million worth of interest. Well, which makes it hundred and something million. We were told we could afford that and here we sat trying to come up with $2.4 million wondering where it's going to come. And that's what why we have to raise property taxes because of that decision, not because these men need these men and women need what we need to give them to see if they take care of this county. So I can press yes and not blame them one bit for property tax. If that has to happen, everybody seems to think it does, but if that has to happen, it won't be our sheriff's department's fault. Commissioner Rich,

I'll be brief because most people have drove the point home. Uh I just want to take us back to the beginning of the meeting when the chaplain started the night off. Uh he said most people, most individuals go through four to five extremely stressful events in their lifetime and law enforcement goes to 2 to 3,000 in a lifetime. I'm looking at some of the pay here on some of these uh deputies. 58 60 61,000. I guess I'm asking you to raise your hand if you're willing to get shot at for that money or are you willing to take a life for that money because that's what we're asking our deputies to do right now and it's not worth it. That's why we're losing them.

Are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. [clears throat] Commissioner Evans, Commissioner Weathers.

All hearts and minds good with your vote. Please record. 19. Yes. 40. One abstaining and one absent. Resolution passes. Move forward. Resolution 25112 to amend the budget appropriation resolution approving Wilson County Board of Education budget amendment 2605. Second. Discussion. Seeing none, are you ready to vote? Please cast your vote. Commissioner Hall. All hearts and minds go with your vote. Please record.

241. 241. Resolution passes. Um, I have on mine 25113 amending zoning resolution. I guess that was earlier tonight, wasn't it? Yep. Any old business come before this body? Any new business? Commissioner Mcfarlland, Mr. Chairman,

Mr. Chairman, fellow commissioners, uh, I think we did absolutely the right thing tonight on the two acres. uh 80,000 acres, 80,000 square feet, but there are probably some out there that have been left out in this chairman planning zone. And I want to put some thought in our fellow commissioners heads and the chair the the committee people's head. [gasps] We probably need to look at at at a criteria A5, A6, whatever, uh where somebody has got a third of an acre or 2/3 of an acre or whatever, and can't do anything with it because of our action tonight, some small farmer or inheritance, whatever. So, I'd like to have a meeting with the planners on the commission in the future, look at some criteria that uh that they could apply for and maybe we can give them some relief. So, that said, we'll have a meeting in a couple of weeks and address that. Thank you. Any other new business to come before the body? I need one more motion.

We are journiving. Happy Thanksgiving.