Meeting recessed until Monday
By Kendall Patterson
Editor
The Chester County Commission meeting was conducted with an audience full of Chester County residents who came with expectations of the ARPA funds (Covid-19 Relief funds) being committed to different projects.
By the end of the meeting, $434,444.35 was dedicated.
The largest amount of money committed was a donation of $300,000 to Dixie Youth for a new building that would replace the current concession stand and bathroom and also serve as a meeting area.
District 5 Commissioner Tim Crowe motioned to give the amount of $300,000 to Dixie Youth in four withdrawals, but told the Dixie Youth board that they need to clean up the misinformation that has been spread regarding the county not giving Dixie Youth any funds over the last so many years.
“There’s a lot of misinformation this county has took heat on…I’ve been on the budget committee since 2010. We never cut your funding. One year, 2013, we cut it to $2,500, but then the next year it went back to $10,000.”
He continued saying that the budgeted amount for Dixie Youth has been $10,000 every year with the exception of 2013.
“There’s been years y’all didn’t come pick it up, but with saying that, I’m happy to make the motion tonight. I’m just asking for y’all’s help. When we deserve to take a hit, we deserve it, but the hits we’ve been given on cutting out y’all’s funding, we didn’t deserve that,” he said.
He was seconded by District 2 Commissioner Al Mckinnon.
With three commissioners absent from the meeting (Ann Moore, Joseph Melaro and Russell Clayton), the motion to donate the $300,000 to Dixie Youth was praised with a standing ovation with the results of 15 voting in favor and no commissioners against it.
The ARPA funds continued to be used for the kids with the commission also voting with 15 in favor of giving $114,650 to Carl Perkins for the renovations of the building that they will use as the new location of the Chester County Carl Perkins Center.
The building that the Chester County Carl Perkins Center will be moving into is the former McEarl Electric building at 245 Record Dr., Henderson. It will be purchased with an anonymous donor’s donation of $300,000.
Chester County Rescue Squad also was given their request of $19,794.35 out of the ARPA money to replace their current radio communications. The communications equipment they have been using has not been upgraded since 2008 and Rescue Squad has been losing connection with other first responders when they get out of the city limits.
The motion to donate the $19,794.35 to the rescue squad passed with 14 in favor of the decision and one commissioner, District 1 Commissioner Kevin Faulkner, abstaining due a family member on the Chester County Rescue Squad.
To date, a total of $702,344.35 of the ARPA funds have been allocated of the total amount of $3,359,739, including previously committed amounts of $144,000 to broadband and $123,900 to the health department.
Chester County Administrator of Elections, Kathy Vest, on behalf of the Chester County Election Commission, approached the commission again about getting a new, secure area for the election commission office.
She made this request about five months ago following the Homeland Security Department of Tennessee giving the election commission 17 pages of findings that they saw as issues that needed to be resolved.
“It’s something we can’t keep putting off,” Vest said.
As of that night, she gave the commission new information about the A1 Pools building being available and that the owner would sell it for $350,000. If purchased, the election commission would still need $75,000 to renovate the building to meet the criteria for the election commission.
After District 1 County Commissioner Jerry Lowe motioned to give the election commission the $425,000 and District 2 Commissioner Jackie Butler seconded the motion, but they rescinded their motions. After discussing the motion some, the rest of the commission decided it was best to put off until their next meeting so that they had time to view the building and talk with the owner about the cost. Vest told them that if they waited until then it would be too late for the commission to have the election polling equipment moved into the building by the November election. Therefore, the county recessed until 7 p.m. Monday, July 25 to reconvene and make a decision after they view the building and meet with the owner the afternoon of Monday, July 25.
This will be the only item discussed that evening.
The county also approved bids for the removal of asbestos of the old medical building and the demolition of the old medical building. SEG incorporated was awarded the bid of $29,750 for the removal of the asbestos and Triple H Backhoe was awarded the bid to demo the building at $$52,020.03. Both the removal of the asbestos and the demolition will be taken out of the Governor’s Initiative grant.
Toward the beginning of the meeting, the county commission approved, with 15 in favor, the transfer of funds equaling $336,871.55 from the Chester County recycling hub’s general fund balance to the recycling hub’s expenditures account for a new baler.
The 15 commissioners present also approved for elderly low-income homeowners under T.C.A. 67-5-702, disabled homeowners under T.C.A. 67-5-703 and disabled veterans under T.C.A. 67-5-704 to be exempt from the Solid Waste fee.
In regard to the Educational Support Program for the department of health employees, Chester County Mayor Barry Hutcherson received the answer that the county will be paid back the money toward the program if the employees did not maintain a B average.
During other business, Hutcherson also addressed those in attendance about the crude oil spill that occurred in Chester County on June 29. He said that, even though the spill was 201,600 gallons of crude oil and the seconded largest oil spill in Tennessee, no health hazards resulted from the incident.
