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Commissioners express concerns over excessive county spending, lack of support from mayor
RACHEL TOWNSEND
Managing Editor
The Dyer County Legislative Body [CLB] convened Monday, August 12, for its regular session. The meeting followed two sub-committee meetings, Local Government and Budget. Throughout the Local Government and Legislative Body meetings, discord was evident between members of the commission and Dyer County Mayor David Quick, with sharp words exchanged over the handling of potential future funds to enhance tourism for Dyer County.
The Dyer County Commission present for the meeting included Larry Shawver, Greg Vestal, Brandon Dodds, Steve Moore, Doug Singleteary, Steve Sartin, Jimmy Hester, Mark Korn, Pam Newell, Terry McCreight, Victor McLin, Kim “Peck” Peckenpaugh, James T. “Bubba” Cobb, Debbie Bradshaw-Hart, Debra Roberson, Dob Johnson, Bradley Gray, Hunter Jackson, and Chairman John Uitendaal.
Absent: Robert Kirby
Discussion regarding the controversial designation of hotel/motel levy funds made its way to the CLB following much dispute among some members of the commission during the Local Government meeting, held just before the CLB meeting.
Presenting the matter before the CLB was Local Government Chair Brandon Dodds.
Noted by Johnson, funding for projects will need to be approved through the Budget Committee after being discussed by the Recreation Committee and before being voted on by the full CLB. A large concern was ensuring funds were spent in a manner compliant with the State of Tennessee.
Korn addressed fellow commissioners expressing concerns about the county continuing to spend money on projects without any new sources of revenue. Korn noted the strain that it places on the budget to generate matching funds for grants when citizens are already experiencing an increase in the wheel tax in addition to the 2023-24 property tax increase.
Additional comments from Singleteary who expressed his upset over comments made by the Mayor on social media.
“While I do support this resolution, I was trying to wind my day down last night and I saw on the county’s social media platform…it came from the mayor [Quick]… he said, ‘I passed a hotel/motel tax’… ‘I’…Even though you [addressing Quick] don’t have a vote. You said ‘I’…it takes ‘we’ as a team to do anything,” said Singleteary. “So, moving forward, I wish our county mayor would consider putting ‘we accomplished this’ instead of ‘I’.
“And after the first paragraph I did, Doug,” responded Quick, who went on to pose the question, “Where were y’all [Commission] when I was working on it for a year and a half?”
The post Singleteary was referring to was published on Dyer County Government’s Facebook page by Quick on Sunday, August 11.
The post in its entirety reads:
“I’m excited to say Wednesday the 31st two weeks ago, after working on a project for more than a year, I passed a Hotel/Motel tax increase through our Local Government Committee to be moved forward to the full County Legislative Body tomorrow (Monday) night at 6:30 to hopefully be passed and put into motion. This will be a significant amount of money that can only be used to develop and attract Tourism at no cost to the people of Dyer County.
As I promised when I came into office, this money will be used to upgrade our Diamond Dixie Youth Ballfield as we move toward Travel Ball here in our community, get our new Event Center (Equivalent to the Williams Event Center in Henderson TN) up and running, as well as work on other Tourism projects throughout our community. These events and projects will regularly attract thousands of people (tourist) increasing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues spent with local Hotels and businesses thus increasing sales tax dollars to our community and school systems. I want to thank our Local Dyersburg Dyer County Chamber of Commerce, the City of Dyersburg, and our Local Government for their support and help putting this package together. When we all work together, we can accomplish great things!"
But most of all, I want to thank the people of Dyer County for giving me the opportunity to help our Community. If you know me, you know that helping others and our community is fulfilling a lifelong dream that I have always worked on. Thank you all and wish us luck. God bless you all!”
(It is noted that tourism funds are not free, but taxpayer-funded. Grant funding is allocated through state and federal grant programs. Grants are typically awarded with a required match from the local government body requesting the award.)
Quick concluded the discussion by stating that the Commission needed to work together to help promote tourism and bring new revenue streams into the county through the event center and ball fields.
A motion to approve the resolution for the levy was made by Dodds and seconded by Singleteary. The motion passed 14:5 with all in favor except Korn, Dodds, Shawver, Uitendaal, and Vestal.
Next, Dodds asked the Commission to approve a resolution calling on the United States Postal Service to return mail processing to Madison County.
The motion was made by Dodds and seconded by Roberson.
Dodds then presented a resolution for an interlocal agreement between Dyer County and the Town of Trimble. The agreement will allow Building Inspector Dale Dozier to provide services to Trimble for the “overall health and welfare of the county.”
The motion was made by Dodds and seconded by Cobb, with all others voting in favor.
Noted by Vestal, four properties in Fowlkes were cited to court for violations of the Health and Safety Policy established by the CLB in early 2024. Vestal says he sees little improvement in one of the properties and now regrets his decision to vote in favor of the policy.
Dozier explained that three of the properties have been worked on. A fourth resident is working on cleaning up their property within a deadline of 30 days. Should the resident(s) fail to comply, they will be cited back to court. All residents were required to pay fines ($25/day) for every day spent out of compliance.
Lastly, Dodds presented a resolution to adopt the 2021 edition of the International Residential Building Code and the 2018 Edition of the International Energy Conservation Code. A motion to approve the resolution was made by Dodds and seconded by Cobb, with all others voting in favor.
Budget Committee
Budget Committee Chair Debbie Bradshaw-Hart presented transfers and appropriations including:
*$2,175,971 from the Fund Balance for Capital Projects (Sale of Hornbrook-$950K, hospital proceeds-$316K, CARES Act-$909,971)
*$3,481,722.16 from Funds into Capital Project Accounts (courthouse renovations)
*$69K into Courtroom Security (grant)
*$82,750 into Health Department Immunization (grant)
*$49,316 from Fund Balance to Site Development (rollover)
*$40K from Site Development into Capital Building Projects (ballfield lights)
*$6,125 from Site Development into Capital Building Projects (Office on Aging van)
*$1,000 into Archives (Memory Room)
A motion to approve the transfers was made by Bradshaw-Hart and seconded by Peckenpaugh.
The Tourism Enhancement Grant Resolution was approved on a motion by Bradshaw-Hart, seconded by Jackson. The Resolution as discussed during the Budget Committee meeting held before the CLB, outlines a $130K grant, with a $30K county match. The funds would be used to provide a sprinkler system for the future Dyer County Event Center.
As discussed by the Budget Committee, only one bid was received for the job. The bid was submitted by Harrison Fire Protection. It was noted that Jackson reached out to another business to request a quote but was declined to make an offer.
Harrison’s bid is valid until December.
A motion to approve the resolution was made by Bradshaw-Hart and seconded by Jackson.
Other business
Ross Maldonado, Megan Brock, John Tucker, George Johnson, John Uitendaal, Steve Beasley, Leigh Ann Brandeberry, Charlotte Maldanado, and Jerry Edmundson were re-appointed to the Office on Aging Committee (2-year term).
The motion to approve the re-appointment was approved unanimously. Uitendaal abstained.
Dob Johnson, Alexandria McCuiston, Dyer County Sheriff Jeff Box, Director of the Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse Director Glen Tilghman, Fire Chief James Medling, Scott Tims, and Robyn Russell were all appointed to serve a 2-year term on the Opioid Abatement Spending Committee.
The motion to approve the appointment was made Cobb and seconded by Roberson.