1 Commissioner Gives City an Answer
by Ashley Murphy

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

After Legislative Assistant Amy Moore provided commissioners with the news of the City Council's proposal on the fire contract last night, Commissioner Howard Thompson made a proposal of his own; no contract whatsoever. Thompson wished to place on the agenda for the county's next voting session a motion to completely do away with the contract option all together and leave it to the remaining two options: a merger or a separation of the two departments.

Commissioner Jeff Yarber had an issue with this and argued his points before being told by Chairman Louie Alford that Thompson has every right to place the item on the agenda and if you don't like it to vote against it. Yarber finally conformed and agreed that Thompson did have the right to place an item such as this before the full commission.

Commissioner Ed Elkins had some concerns of his own, as well. Elkins seemed more worried about whether the proposed motion interfered with the previous motion from the last voting session to wait until December to discuss the fire issue again. However, after a little discussion, Thompson wasn't denied his motion submission.

Doug Berry, Vice President of Economic Development came before the commission to ask for three separate resolutions to be placed on the agenda for voting: Resolution of the County Commission of Bradley County, Tennessee, approving payment-in-lieu-of-tax (PILOT) for a distribution facility known as Project ASAP #2; Resolution for fast track infrastructure development program grant funds for project ASAP #2; Resolution for industrial access highway assistance from the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

Berry stated that the resolution for the access highway is a requirement from TDOT. It does not, and will not, cost the county money at this time and hopefully won't ever require the county to put forth its own money.

Negotiations for this confidential distribution center are still ongoing, but if it were to come to the area, it could create up to 200 jobs. If the company comes here and everything goes as planned, groundbreaking and constructions could begin by December of this year and jobs could be implemented by Fall 2011.

Before the meeting adjourned, Yarber requested that a resolution be placed on the regular agenda to request Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to reconsider large bonuses and salary increases. The numbers were an extremely large amount and Yarber believed the money could be spent a little wiser in times such as these.

The Bradley County Commission will meet again on December 6, 2010 at 7 p.m. for their voting session.