County Budget nearly finalized for the 2022 fiscal year, Solid Waste Fund has more than tripled

The County budget for the 2022 fiscal year was the hot button issue at last Monday’s County Committee meetings as the budget is scheduled to be finalized in late July.

The Solid Waste Committee was the first to convene during the June 7th meeting. Committee Members asked that a raise in pay be considered for Solid Waste Director Jason Drum. Commissioner Wendell Kelley suggested that Drum should be given a raise of $1,000, taken from the miscellaneous balance in the Solid Waste fund, which would make his pay approximately $17.40 an hour, and his annual salary around $36,300. All committee members unanimously agreed in a vote, which passed the decision onto the Budget Committee. Commissioner Allison Tanner was not present for the meeting.

County Mayor Jonah Keltner announced to the committee that the Solid Waste fund’s ending balance was $296,990.88 as of June 7, 2021, which is a huge improvement compared to last year’s $73,720 which was recorded on June 15, 2020.

The revenue from the scales at the transfer station have brought in a grand total of $47,083.20 since they were installed only eight months ago in October of last year.

The cardboard recycling program has continued to prove its worth by generating a profit of $2,237.25 and a savings of $1,323.27 which made for a total positive impact of $3,560.52 on the Solid Waste Budget from just one truckload of recycled cardboard.

Budget Committee

All members of the Budget Committee were present for Monday’s meeting. The first item discussed was the requested raise for Solid Waste Director Drum.

“I’m just not for that,” said Commissioner Timmie Hinson, “I’m for the two percent raise we had discussed. We’ve argued until we’re blue in the face and I thought that’s what we agreed on.”

When making the initial draft for the 2022 fiscal budget, the Budget Committee decided on a two percent increase for each department.

“What we chose to do was across the board. Nobody got picked as a favorite, and I think [the two percent] is fair,” said Commissioner Aaron Ragsdale.

The Budget Committee decided to keep the raise at two percent, voting down the $1,000 increase of salary.

Don Barber came before the committee to ask for a $1,004 increase to the Park’s budget. “With costs going up the way they are right now, I think we’d have to have the $6,000 to just stay where we’re at right now,” said Barber, “I understand if you can’t find the money, but diesel’s going up, a lot of maintenance and we’ve got two part-time workers. If one of them quit, I don’t think we could hire anyone for what we pay. There’s no part-time work force out there.”

“If we give them the two percent raise for the salaries like we did everybody else, then when and if they need something, we aren’t going to let them go without,” said Commissioner Timmie Hinson.

The committee members agreed with Hinson and Barber agreed that was fair.

Barber then brought up the airport position that still has to filled after the loss of Paul Bridges who volunteered his time to maintain and run the airport. Mayor Keltner said there was a potential candidate and pointed out that they had discussed a hanger fee to offset money used to pay whoever fills the position.

Lewis County Property Assessor Travis Hinson also came before the committee, asking to have part of the federal covid-19 grant the county was awarded in order to help fund a new vehicle and a drone.

Hinson said he wanted the drone with thermal imaging for their safety and the drone’s ability to measure distance. “We can hardly get to a lot of the properties that we assess. A lot of times I’m having to use my side-by-side to get to these places, especially the places with locked gates,” said Hinson.

He also stated that the Sheriff’s Department would be able to use the drone in order to locate missing persons. His proposal for the vehicle was a truck so there would be room to load and unload, as well as store the drone.

The committee agreed to consider his request.

Public Safety Committee

The Public Safety Committee met shortly after the Solid Waste Committee had adjourned.

Terry Cotham had been interviewed for the EMA apprentice position and was recommended by the interviewing committee. Cotham has 47 years of EMS related experience. The apprentice position is an unpaid position with the exception of training and travel expenses. Commissioners TJ Hinson and Kyle Bobo signed the recommendation, giving their approval for the upcoming County Commission meeting.

Mayor Keltner also informed the committee that the Lewis County Government would receive two grants that would help fund upcoming projects. One grant for $75,000 will be used for the new agriculture barn project at Memorial Park. The grant is fully funded which means there will be no county money used for the project estimated at $75,000. The second grant for $90,000 will be used for audio and video equipment for the new Justice Center. This grant is also fully funded and requires no money from the county government.