The Claiborne County Commission met for its April session. After a few additions to the agenda and a review of the minutes of last month's meeting, both the agenda and the minutes were approved.
The monthly county reports were also approved after the County Mayor, at Commissioner Mabe's request, clarified several expenditures including the replacement of a failed heat pump. The county commission also approved local notaries and notary public bonds.
The first item of old business was the third and final reading of the resolution to add J.D. Keck Lane to the county public road list. With no objections, the resolution passed and the county road superintendent was directed to add this road to the public inventory.
Added to the evening's agenda was a continuing discussion of the January resolution that approved a $5 million loan for county road improvements. The commission's earlier decision approved borrowing the money from Cumberland Securities at 3.5% interest. For various reasons that included several recent rate hikes, Cumberland Securities was not able to provide the money at the approved loan rate. In order to get the road improvements program back on track, the county commission directed the road superintendent to obtain firm quotes from the Tennessee Loan Pool. The commission will review the loan details at the next meeting.
The second item of business added to the evening's agenda was a request by Commissioner Keck for the County Mayor Virgil Herrel to write state officials and request that Highway 33 be widened to four lanes all the way into Tazewell. Mayor Herrell agreed to contact TDOT and other officials again to express the county's needs in this area. Several attendees also explained that other county agencies and officers had been in frequent recent contact to explain the county's need for Highway 33 road improvements. These agencies included the local Industrial Development Board and the County Road Superintendent. Highway 33 road improvement is also a key item in Claiborne County's Strategic Planning Document. The Strategic Economic Planning Document was approved unanimously by the commission (Resolution 2005-251) as the first item of new business.
The commission also approved Resolution 2005-253 which allocated a $5,000 grant to support purchase of equipment and uniforms for a tri-county memorial honor guard. The honor guard will render customary honors at veteran's funerals in Union, Claiborne and Grainger counties. Those counties made equal contributions to the honor guard and membership in the honor guard is open to members from all three counties.
The commission also approved budget plans for the county road department and the Board of Education. The change to the Board of Education budget merely reflected the addition of state money.
Resolution 2005-255 failed to pass. This resolution called for the county to change the title of the senior county official from County Mayor to County Executive. Initially, all members of the county commission voted to send a request to the state legislature asking for permission to make the change. On March 10th, the request was approved by the state legislature and the approval signed into law by Governor Bredesen on March 23rd. The title change was subject to re-approval by the county commission. The resolution failed to obtain the required two-thirds vote with the following councilmen voting against the change: Bill Brooks, Barry Thomas, Phillip Mabe, Steve Mason, Dennis Graves, David Mundy, and James Hatmaker. Four councilmen abstained from the vote: Juanita Honeycutt, Bill DeBusk, Tom Daugherty, and Shawn Peters. The final vote count was eight in favor, seven opposed, and four abstentions.
The remainder of the resolutions on the evening's agenda were passed by acclamation. These included an amendment to the Drug Court Fund budget and two resolutions dealing with Highway 25E construction.
The county commission adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
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