Commission Meets For First Vote Of 2019

The Jefferson County Commission met for their first voting meeting of the new year on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 in the Historic Jefferson County Courthouse. The meeting was called to order by Commission Chair, Jefferson County Mayor Mark Potts. All Commissioners were in attendance. Following the approval of the agenda and minutes, the Commission heard concerns from several citizens that included CARE financial reporting, third party billing, grant writing and Parrotts Chapel.

Commissioners approved Notaries and Bonds before moving to Committee business. With the recommendation of the Nominating Committee, the full body appointed Jeff Depew and Steven Hammer to 6 year terms on the Jefferson County Industrial Development Board ( both were current sitting members) and Chris Myers to a six year term, as well. Mike Norton was appointed to finish out a unexpired term that will last one year. Eddie Woods was named to the EMS Board under the recommendation of Mayor Potts and will fill the unexpired term of the late Hoagie Snodgrass. Jimmy Henry will serve Snodgrass’ unexpired term on the Sanitation commission and Sue Hoke and Wayne Roberts were reappointed to the Jefferson Memorial Oversight Board and the Public Records Board respectively.

The bulk of new business brought before the Commission was in the nature of general housekeeping including cleaning up language for rules of procedure amendment which would allow the County Attorney to attend meetings on an as needed basis. A list of County Roads was presented and approved, as well as several surplus items. Four County and one School System budget amendments were presented by Budget Committee Chair Scarlett and all found favor with the Commission. Also finding favor was a request from CARE for additional funding in the amount of $10,000 to cover expense due to larger than expected animal intake numbers. Originally the organization had requested $20,000 but the number was reduced to $10,000 when approved by the budget committee . Marcus Reed offered an amendment to the budget committee recommendation for $10,000 to raise the amount to $20,000. Scarlett offered a failed amendment to the amendment that would have left the dollar amount at $10,000 but would have been reviewed in the fourth quarter to assess need. Scarlett’s amendment failed to find favor with the full body but Reed’s amendment to increase the amount to $20,000 passed 13 to 8 and the motion as amended also passed.

In other action, the Commission approved on a 15-3 vote a resolution that will waive the County Motor Vehicle Tax for vehicles receiving exemption under the state act that waives fees for Volunteer Firefighters and Rescue Squad Personnel.