Constable position awaits being
abolished during March meeting
The special called county commission meeting on Tuesday Feb. 22 started off with Chester Co. Sheriff Blair Weaver requesting that the commission abolish the “constable” position.
Weaver explained a constable is a liability to the county.
“They go through very little training if they decide to go with the training… It’s just a liability this county don’t need,” Weaver said. “They don’t have to answer to anybody.”
With Commissioner Tim Crowe motioning to abolish it and Commissioner Joe Melaro giving the motion a second, the motion passed unanimously.
The motion will have pass a second time during the commission’s March 14 meeting with a resolution.
Though two people qualified to run for constable, Kathy Vest, Administrator of Elections, said that the position of constable would just be taken off the ballot.
Then, Chester County Mayor Barry Hutcherson let the other individuals/organizations speak who reached out to him about thoughts on spending the ARPA funds.
Representatives from Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation/Aeneas spoke first, asking for funds to finish giving broadband access to Chester County.
In order to finish the project, they needed Chester County to make a pledge to an amount that night.
In regards to the area of the county that is served by Pickwick Electric, the STEMC/Aeneas representatives said Pickwick has “pledged any help that they can offer to us to see that Chester County is served by Southwest and Aeneas entirely.”
The Commission unanimously voted to pledge the lesser of $144,000 or 10% of the project for STEMC/Aeneas to expanding broadband to all of Chester County.
Emily Rushing of the Chester County Health Department then approached the commission to use some of the ARPA funds toward upgrades to the Health Department building.
Upgrades included: an electronic sign that will be visible from the main road, complete overhaul of their four bathrooms, overhaul clerical area, roof maintenance, new flooring and new paint.
Rushing said that the project in total is $495,500 and the state will cover 75% of the costs leaving the county $123,900 to put toward it.
With a motion by Commissioner Barry Smith and a second by Commissioner Jackie Butler, all commissioners were in favor of providing the $123,900.
Next up was Vest of the Chester Co. Election Commission to discuss a new facility for the election commission.
The plan she has and one the county has as an option is the old medical building.
She shared a variety of reasons why they need a new facility; a lot of them coming from the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security after an audit.
The concerns homeland security had included:
- Voting equipment is currently stored in multiple facilities and locations. These storage spaces are small which forces the equipment to be stacked and scattered. There needs to be a designated single, secure location large enough to house all the voting equipment.
- The space should be large enough to conduct pre-election equipment checks and to perform weekly accountability checks without having to physically move equipment out of the storage room.
- When conducting pre-election voting machine checks, the equipment is staged in the main hallway of the courthouse.
- There needs to be a designated space where voting equipment can undergo functionality checks without being exposed to potential tampering.
- Sensitive and high value voting equipment is subjected to inclement weather while being loaded/unloaded to and from the precinct.
- Pavement is uneven in the loading location which creates increased risk in damaging the equipment when loading and unloading.
- An awning is needed to shield voting equipment from water damage while being loaded and unloaded into delivery vehicles.
- The primary storage areas for the equipment have faced flooding, mold, and ceiling decay. Sensitive and high value voting equipment should not be subjected to potential environmental threats.
Other concerns included: There is the potential for 11,000 voters to come through the election office multiple times per year. In 2022, there could be potentially over 33,000 people in the election area.
It is impossible to provide 6-foot distance between voters in the current space.
Voters waiting in line to vote must stand in line outside regardless of weather conditions.
Annex building is handicap accessible but it is still difficult to get into because of the distance and configuration. This creates potential liability for the county in the event someone is injured, while the average age of a poll official is 76.
Depending on where the voter parks, they must walk 110 – 188 feet up an incline to access the building. There had been at least one senior adult fall exiting the building.
Because the courthouse is within the 100-foot boundary of Early Voting, candidates must enter the courthouse from the front and are not allowed to walk down the sidewalks behind the courthouse.
There is limited parking for early voting. Voters generally have to walk from the parking lot behind the mayor’s office to the annex.
There is no space to accommodate the absentee counting board in the current location.
This group must have a private, sequestered location with enough space to accommodate 10-12 people, tables and chairs, and voting equipment.
Supplies are currently stored in seven separate areas which is inefficient, inconvenient, and makes it difficult to determine exactly what is needed.
The City Hall location needs to be moved because the mayor’s office is within the 100-foot boundary.
Vest even recited Tennessee Codes relative to election facilities.
TN Code § 2-3-107 – The county election commission shall designate as polling places only rooms which have adequate heat, light, space and other facilities, including a sufficient number of electrical outlets where voting machines are used, for the comfortable and orderly conduct of elections.
(2) Upon application of the commission, the authority which has the control of any building or grounds supported by taxation under the laws of this state shall make available the necessary space for the purpose of holding elections and adequate space for the storage of voting machines without charge.
TN Code § 2-12-109 – Except as otherwise provided by law, it is the responsibility of the county to fund the operations of its election commission. If a county fails to appropriate funds sufficient to pay expenses that are reasonably necessary for the discharge of the statutorily mandated duties of its county election commission, such commission may petition the chancery court of the county in which such election commission is located to compel the appropriation of such funds.
Vest wanted to clarify that this is not a concern that arose due to the ARPA funds, but with the ARPA funds, this may the only time the election commission office situation can be resolved.
“We don’t really have a choice in this… We have to provide a place to vote and a place to keep the election equipment away from everything else,” said Smith.
Smith motioned for Mayor Hutcherson to take bids on remodeling the old medical building in a manner that it would be satisfactory for the election commission by the next meeting.
Mayor Hutcherson said that he will have a price for a new building as well.
Sylvia Flowers then approached the commission for some of the funds to be used toward improving Tender Loving Care Daycare Center.
She gave a cost estimate of $65,000 for the project.
Specifics on her plans for the daycare, if they were to receive money, include: providing a place for parents to sign their children in rather than having them stand outside as it is now; asphalt replacement; improving the air conditioning system.
She asked the commissioners to visit the site as both the city and county mayor did.
Melaro asked about the daycare’s nonprofit status, and Flowers confirmed with Melaro that they did have 501c3 nonprofit status.
Crowe asked Flowers to specify what she desired the ARPA funds to be for versus a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grant in which Tender Loving Care is in the application process of through Southwest Development District which was mentioned at the February City of Henderson Mayor and Board of Aldermen meeting.
Flowers stated that the CDBG grant would be used as an expansion to the current building while, if given, the ARPA funds would be used for the improvements stated earlier.
Flowers said that the CDBG grant would not allow for remodeling of the current building. It would just be for the expansion.
No actions regarding Tender Loving Care were made on that night.
The last person to address the commission regarding the ARPA funds was Mike Neisler on behalf of the Dixie Youth ball park.
Neisler requested $300,000 of the ARPA funds to improve the bathroom and concession stands at the park.
His plan is to build a two-story facility to accommodate various needs.
The first floor will be for larger bathrooms, a food and supply storage room and also a larger concession stand area.
The second floor design is for office space, meeting area space and a small storage room.
Reasons for the new facility along with more upgrades the Dixie Ball park is seeking include:
-Raising the elevation of the building to improve sewer drainage
-improve accessibility to bathrooms and increase bathroom capacity
-upgrade from an overhead electrical setup to an underground one,
-increase the concessions food prep area
-meeting room for league and tournament meetings
-office area to keep records and conduct business
-the park provides for 600 kids that play ball each year (more than 1,000 county residents nightly, including families)
-state tournaments bring in a lot of people from across the state
-increasing the meeting area increases the opportunities for larger tournaments
“We bring more people into this county than anyone except FHU,” Neisler said.
According to Neisler, the current bathrooms/concession stand building has been needing remodeling or a new building entirely since the mid 1990s, but the only work that has been done on it has been to patch it up.
Neisler then quoted from a statement by Nicky Bridges from March 25, 1996.
“The current concession stand is in poor condition and the board should look at building a new two-story building with meeting rooms upstairs… As we found that there were no grants and the county commission could not afford to help we started patching that building up.”
Those who manage the Dixie ball park are prepared to demolition the current building in late July and have new construction completed before the 2023 dixie season.
Mayor Hutcherson mentioned that he would like for Neisler to look at all possibilities in lowering the cost of $300,000. Suggestions he had included; reaching out to Freed-Hardeman University since they use the fields for intramurals, sponsors and STEMC.
Commissioner Jerry Lowe motioned to go forth and provide Dixie with the requested funds with a second by Commissioner Al McKinnon.
Before the roll call vote, different commissioners stated they were not against giving Dixie Youth funds, but did not want to make a decision that night so that additional funding opportunities can be researched along with just cautioning the other commissioners not to designate more of the ARPA funds that night. They desired to be able to look at the full picture of all the ARPA fund requests together before proceeding further.
Lowe’s motion did not pass with only three in favor of the giving them the funds (Lowe, McKinnon and Butler.)
