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Commissioners change meeting days
By Derek Hodges
County commissioners voted Tuesday (Feb. 15) to change their monthly meeting times from the second and third Tuesdays of each month to the first and third Mondays.
The move was necessary because of a time conflict Commissioner Brian McMahan had as a new member of the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority board of directors, said Commissioners’ Chairman Stacy Buchanan.
McMahan, who was late to commissioners’ Feb. 15 meeting because of a TWSA session, was appointed by commissioners Feb. 8 to serve on the TWSA board until Frank Wilkie, who was appointed to the TWSA board last month, could take his seat.
Wilkie has said he cannot serve on TWSA’s board until his term as president of Sylva’s Lions Club, which meets on Tuesday nights at the same time as the TWSA board, has expired.
Since commissioners and the TWSA board meet on the same night, the county leaders voted to move their meetings beginning in March.
Commissioners also took action on a cemetery board that has proven contentious since it was first proposed in January.
Alvin Frady, founder of the Jackson County Cemetery Society, initially said he would fight the proposal, calling it illegal.
Since that time Frady and Buchanan have worked out Frady’s concerns about the board, Frady said.
At a public hearing just prior to the commissioners’ meeting, Frady said he was now “satisfied” with the proposal.
“I’m in favor of the board, personally. I feel in my heart that it’s long overdue,” Frady said.
Frady said he hopes that the county and his cemetery society will be able to work together to preserve the old County Home Cemetery. He suggested the board start its task by continuing the work the society has already started there. The society will proceed with installing grave markers and a monument listing the names of those known to be buried at the site, he said.
The cost of the monument currently stands at $3,000, a charge Frady hopes the new board will split with the society.
“I’m satisfied with 99 percent of the proposal, but a few things can be worked out in the future,” Frady said. “We can disagree without being disagreeable.”
The cemetery board proposal and bylaws submitted for it were both approved unanimously.
Commissioners also approved people to serve on the new committee.
Buchanan led the nominations, submitting Frady as his nominee. McMahan chose Ronnie Riddle and Commissioner Joe Cowan proposed Reg Moody Jr.
Commissioners Crawford and Madden did not submit names at the meeting, but they were given the go-ahead to appoint their members as soon as they were ready.
Frady said he is pleased with the nominees, but hopes several more of the society’s members would fill out the remaining four vacant positions.
In other business:
• EDC audit report – Mitch Crisp of the accounting firm Dixon-Hughes was unable to attend the Feb. 15 meeting to give an update on the report he gave Feb. 8.
Buchanan requested that the commissioners meet with Crisp at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, to discuss the report.
• Sheriff’s office guns – Commissioners voted to sell surplus sheriff’s office guns to deputies and others interested on a request by Lt. Shannon Queen.
The weapons being sold were recently replaced by the county. Queen told board members that some of the officers would like to keep their old guns as backup for the new ones.
Selling the weapons in a traditional trade-in would bring less money than would selling them to the deputies, Queen said.
• Cashiers library – Michael Osowski, the architect in charge of the Cashiers library expansion, presented a report on plans for the building.
Osowski also presented plans for the Freeman and Nichols properties recently acquired by the county, which adjoin the library property.
After discussing the plans, commissioners requested that Osowski rework the plans to incorporate commissioners’ suggestions and return at a future meeting.
• Webster Complex plans – Commissioners authorized a contract and conceptual plan update from Lofquist & Associates Inc., the engineering firm in charge of developing the Webster Complex property.
• East LaPorte property – Part of the land currently contained in the East LaPorte Park is under lease to the county from the Tennessee Valley Authority. The 20-year lease expired in August 2004.
At Buchanan’s request, county Manager Ken Westmoreland contacted the TVA to request the land be given over to the county.
TVA representative Darrell Cuthbertson said the authority would not be willing to give the county the property, but would grant it a permanent easement, Westmoreland said.
The easement, which will be granted after the county re-enteres the lease agreement and the details are negotiated, will be virtually the same as if the county did own the property, Westmoreland said.
The commissioners agreed to request the easement.
• Independent audit – The accounting firm of Dixon-Hughes has been granted the contract to complete the mandatory independent audit of the county’s finances for the fiscal year 2005-06.
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