Cumberland County Mayor's Report for November by Allen Foster
Cumberland County officially owns the former railroad property under the Art Circle Public Library (ACPL)! You may recall the saga of how the ACPL and parking area is built on top of railroad property. The county has been working on this issue for some years. Originally, the railroad offered to sell the property to the county for $40,000. When the county agreed, the railroad decided to change the price to $45,000. After the county agreed and allocated funding once again, the offer to sell was pulled. I talked to representatives of the railroad during my first week in office. We have negotiated and worked on this issue since that time. In the end, the county paid $23,500 for the property. I have talked to some that believed we should condemn the property, but there were legal issues with that, and to others with various ideas on the handling of the situation. In the end, we needed the property and a deal was successfully negotiated. Government can indeed be slow, but I’m thankful to have this issue resolved. Thanks to all that made this happen!
Introducing Go Upper (or GUPPER as Crossville Mayor James Mayberry
has dubbed it)! Cumberland County has a new deviated fixed-route bus system
that began service on November 7th!
During my campaign, many residents talked about the need for public transportation. About a year ago Mayor Mayberry and I were at a meeting and discussed Cumberland County’s needs with UCHRA. The two bus routes go from the general area of the Health Department up to Walmart and will deviate up to .75 miles. A ride costs $1 or $0.50 for seniors and veterans. For more information call 1-833-UCTRIPS or visit http://ucpublictransit.com.
The November 18th meeting of the full County Commission was held with all Commissioners in attendance except Carl MacLeod, and John Patterson.
RESOLUTIONS
The following resolutions were presented to the Board of Commissioners for consideration (resolution sponsor in parenthesis):
RESOLUTION 11-2019-1 – Appoint Cumberland County Solid Waste Director (Foster). I recommended that Conrad Welch take over as the Solid Waste Director on a permanent basis. Conrad was placed in the Interim role at the Solid Waste Department since April of this year. The Commission approved the appointment unanimously. Conrad will now be the Solid Waste Director and the Interim Maintenance Supervisor while a replacement is found to serve in the Maintenance Supervisor position.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-2 – Reappoint Members to the Cumberland County Solid Waste Regional Planning Board (Foster). Everett Bolin and Barry Fields were reappointed to the Solid Waste Regional Planning Board with terms expiring in November of 2025, and Conrad Welch was added to the board with a term expiring in March of 2022. The vote to approve was 16-0.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-3 – Appoint Members to the Wildlife and Fisheries’ Committee (Foster). Wayne Shadden and Charles Daugherty were unanimously reappointed to the Wildlife and Fisheries Committee with terms expiring in November of 2023.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-4 – Budget Amendment, General Fund, Sheriff Department $270.00 (Hyder). This resolution unanimously accepted donations for candy at the Sheriff’s annual Trunk or Treat event.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-5 – Budget Amendment, General Fund, Downtown Crossville, Inc. $1,000.00 (Seiber). Downtown Crossville, Inc. (DCI) generously donated $1,000 to the county specifically for Christmas decorations at the courthouse. The resolution to accept was approved 16-0. I want to thank DCI for this most generous donation, it is appreciated!
RESOLUTION 11-2019-6 – Budget Amendment, General Purpose School Fund, Community Donations, $2,478.00 (Wilson). The Commission unanimously approved the donation from the Fairfield Glade Ladies Club to assist with dual enrollment and industry certification programs in our schools. A big thank you from the county to the Fairfield Glade Ladies Club!
RESOLUTION 11-2019-7 – Budget Amendment, General Fund, Sheriff’s Department, Drug Enforcement $2,500.00 (Cooper). The commission unanimously approved additional grant funding from the US Office of National Drug Control Policy – Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), to offset overtime pay costs for drug related investigations.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-8 – Budget Amendment, General Fund, Emergency Management Agency, Civil Defense $8,000.00 (Cooper). Our Emergency Management Agency applied for and received an Emergency Preparedness grant. The county commission approved acceptance of the funds 16-0.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-9 – Budget Amendment, General Fund, County Buildings $16,335.00 (Wilson). This resolution funded the efforts to replace the telephone hardware and infrastructure improvements needed to move to a Voice Over IP (VoIP) phone system. The resolution was approved 16-0.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-10 – Budget Amendment, General Fund, County Buildings, $84,970.00 (MacLeod). The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires the evaluation of public facilities to determine compliance, prepare a transition plan, and provide recommendations for compliance. In order to develop a plan, the commission voted unanimously to fund and hire architect and engineering services to create the detailed plan that is required by TDOT.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-11 – Budget Amendment, General Fund, Sheriff/Jail, $139,191.00 (Stone). The 25-year-old generator at the Justice Center recently died. The cost to repair was prohibitive. The original resolution in the amount of $139,191.00 was to replace the generator with a natural gas generator. The original request from the sheriff was to replace it with a diesel generator, but after discussion in the Budget Committee meeting, the natural gas generator was approved. After discussion, the resolution was replaced in order to approve the diesel generator at a total cost of $ 96,591.00. The motion to approve was 11-4-1. Commissioners Threet, Wilson, Baldwin, and Blalock voted against the resolution and Commissioner Sherrill passed.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-12 – Accept Offer(s) to purchase (3) three properties owned by Cumberland County (Hyder). The original resolution was to sell three properties, but one was withdrawn before the meeting. The Delinquent Tax Committee recommended approval of the following offers:
| Offeror(s) | Property | Price | Advertising Fee |
| Michael Matthews | 108 Broken Arrow Drive, Tansi | $266.40 | $45 |
| Michael Matthews | 110 Broken Arrow Drive, Tansi | $266.40 | $45 |
This will return the property to the tax rolls after it had been removed due to property taxes not being paid for several years. The resolution was approved unanimously.
RESOLUTION 11-2019-13 – Approve the replacing of the current Cumberland County Personnel Policy (Foster). The final resolution of the night was replacing the Cumberland County Personnel Policy. This is the culmination of many months of work, mainly by the county HR Director, Brooke Shaffer. The policies have been reviewed and revised by CTAS, HR, the County Attorney, the Sheriff, the Finance Director, and me (I hope I didn’t leave anyone out). Many thanks to all involved, especially Brooke, as she put in many hours in this effort to make sure the county is compliant with Federal and State law. The Commission passed the resolution adopting the policy unanimously. If you are interested, the document is posted on the HR Department page on the county website at https://cumberlandcountytn.
FINANCIAL REPORT
Local option sales tax collections came in at $846,819 which is $16,285 below estimated revenue. Overall, we are $11,803 below the budgeted amount year to date. Hotel/Motel tax collections are approximately 31.1% of the $817,283 budget as revised down due to last year’s collection. So far $253,905 has been collected. Property taxes are starting to come in and stand at 16.7% of budget. Prisoner boarding is at 17.1% of budget at $127,374 collected. EMS collections for the month were $324,174. This puts year to date collections at $1,387,565 which is $54,233 above budget.
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