Lewis County Herald - Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898

During the County Committee meetings on Monday night, it was announced that the decision for business owners to sign an affidavit, which allowed them to waive their right to use the Lewis County Transfer Station and no longer pay their commercial solid waste fee, did not pass.

In an email to County Mayor Jonah Keltner, County Attorney Jack Heath stated that the law requires “a majority of the members of the body, not a majority of the quorom.”

This means that it takes a majority vote to pass a resolution, but what is considered the ‘majority’ is not based on how many members are present. Instead the majority is based off of the total members of the committee.

There are six Solid Waste Committee members: Chairman Wendell Kelley, Secretary Allison Tanner, Jim Grinder, Doug Jobbitt, Bill Dyer and Larry Hensley. During the previous committee meeting, only five were present and all motions concerning the affidavit passed with only three votes.

As a result, all parties involved were notified and invited to attend this month’s Solid Waste Committee meeting in order to take a re-vote.

Business owners Jason Drum, Paul Potts and Lawrence Boyd were present to hear how the committee voted. All affidavits were voted down either by a majority vote, or lack thereof, meaning the business owners will still pay their fee.

The resolution for Drum was voted down by majority. Commissioners Dyer and Hensley voted in favor of taking Drum off the Commercial Solid Waste fee list, and Commissioners Tanner, Jobbitt, Kelley and Grinder voted no. The resolutions for Potts and Boyd received were both null and void as they did not receive a majority vote. Commissioners Kelley, Tanner and Jobbitt voted against the resolution; Commissioners Hensley and Dyer voted in favor of the resolution; and Commissioner Grinder abstained.

Commissioners Jobbitt, Kelley and Tanner pointed out that the Solid Waste Committee would be open to solutions, but without them, business owners could not be taken off the list.

Commissioners Dyer and Hensley disagreed with their fellow committee members, saying the business owners should be taken off of the list, but did not offer a solution when asked by another commissioner.

“It would be great if we could take everyone’s word for it when they say that they don’t produce garbage,” said Commissioner Tanner. “But there are people who would take advantage of it.”

Commissioner Jobbitt agreed, saying, “Until we put something in place, we cannot take people off the list... We need some kind of program on how we deal with businesses who don’t have any garbage.”

Veteran Tommy Carroll, accompanied by other local veterans, addressed the committee to ask why the discount for veterans had been voted down during the County Commission meeting last week.

Chairman Kelley responded that the problem was that the resolution was not just for veterans, it also included the elderly, disabled and widowed. There were also no numbers given to the commission.

“If we could get the money from the general fund, then I’d vote yes for it,” said Jobbitt, “But the solid waste fund doesn’t have enough money in it.”

Reporting on the Committee meetings will continue next week.