JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF) – County Commission chairman Johnny Bruce had a plan to streamline the commission workshop Monday evening, limiting the time to an hour and a half with any time extension requiring a vote to continue for an extra 30 minutes. As it turned out, commissioners had to take two votes to extend the meeting as discussion and debate stretched into the night. Watch the meeting HERE on demand.

Among many other topics, the county’s  Sanitation Department landed on the hot seat again as Scott Kitts asked for an explanation of claims by the LaFollette mayor that the county had stopped recycling. Sanitation chairman Ralph Davis denied that claim, explaining, as he had in a meeting last year with city officials, that the county is recycling everything brought into the Towe String center or picked up from county convenience centers.

“As I told city mayors in a meeting last year, we will not accept recyclables from the cities that is mixed with regular garbage. We don’t have personnel to separate their garbage from recyclable materials if they don’t do that before they haul it to Towe String,” Davis stated.

Sanitation Director Bill Rutherford followed that discussion up the next day with an email message to commissioners and news media that referred to “misinformation” brought to his attention regarding the workshop. See the full email HERE. Rutherford emphasized that “We are currently recycling number 1 and 2 plastics, steel, aluminum cans and cardboard paper products here at our facility.”

Rutherford continued to emphasize that the recycle center requires county citizens to separate and sort recycle items into the proper bins. He added that “the county will take the separated recyclables from the municipalities and sort through them if they are not contaminated with waste.” If the municipal refuse is contaminated with waste, it will be disposed of as waste, Rutherford continued, insisting again that the commission received incorrect information at the workshop. “Recyclable items has and will continue to be recycled at this facility.”

Later in the workshop Davis had some positive news concerning the Sanitation Department, reporting that the newly-installed compactors at convenience sites are successfully cutting down on the number of trips that county trucks must make to haul garbage. “In one month we’ve gone from 156 trips down to 15. Instead of hauling everything to Towe String first, we can haul the compacted garbage straight to the landfill,” he pointed out.

Mayor E. L. Morton informed the commission that TWRA has received a 3,700 acre donation of land to expand the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. A map distributed to commissioners showed the tract of land expanding the Royal Blue Unit of the management area to the southeast, appearing to cover much of Walden Ridge and Caryville Mountain south of the Caryville city limit.

After voting to extend the workshop another half hour, commissioners added more items to next week’s meeting agenda, which was already growing lengthy. Among the topics:  requests for letters of support for Highland Telephone’s grant proposal to expand broadband service, approval of an extension of the current COVID relief policy already approved by the school board and a request from Clerk & Master Dennis Potter to upgrade the surface of new counter tops at his office to marble, with Potter paying the cost difference.

The commission then had to vote to extend the meeting another half hour to allow representatives of various offices and groups to make presentations during the public input segment of the workshop. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 02/16/2022-6AM)

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