SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - A brewing feud between a South Pittsburg city commissioner and a resident who launches regular complaints about the town's leadership erupted into a near-fistfight outside City Hall on Tuesday.
Resident Kenneth McCallie shows up at almost every monthly meeting of the South Pittsburg City Commission to complain about problems he sees with the town and its elected officials.
Tuesday's meeting was no different.
Not long after the board heard a prospective plan to create a huge retention pond in the Richard City area to help with serious flooding problems, McCallie described a city ordinance against allowing stagnant water on properties.
Commissioner Jimmy Wigfall, who has exchanged heated words with McCallie in the past, stopped him to explain that a retention pond would not fit the ordinance's definition.
"Those retention ponds - they don't hold the water forever," he said. "They release it."
McCallie argued that he "had the floor" and didn't want to be interrupted.
"If you don't want to hear what I've got to say, then get up and walk out," he told Wigfall.
Mayor Jane Dawkins pounded her gavel to stop the exchange and instructed McCallie to "get on with it."
McCallie said that Dawkins needed to "put some tape on his [Wigfall's] mouth" or "tell him to shut up."
"Come try it," Wigfall told him. "Come over here and try it."
At that point, Dawkins instructed McCallie to finish his statements or she would ask him to leave the meeting.
The meeting ended without any further incidents, but the two men confronted each other on the sidewalk outside city hall after McCallie told Wigfall to meet him there.
Standing inches apart, the two nearly came to blows before South Pittsburg police Chief Robert "Bobby" Simpson intervened and separated them.
McCallie complained to Simpson that Wigfall had touched and threatened him.
"I didn't touch you," Wigfall responded. "If I had touched you, you'd know it because you'd be lying on the ground right now."
Wigfall was led away by some other residents, while Simpson escorted McCallie to his vehicle after asking both men to leave City Hall peacefully.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.