IF YOU GOThe Grundy County Commission will meet in a called session at 6:30 p.m. CST today at the Grundy County Courthouse, 68 Cumberland St., Altamont, Tenn.
Grundy County residents have until mid-December to submit a petition with signatures from at least 10 percent of registered voters opposing a new justice center, but some county commissioners disagree about whether a resolution authorizing bonds to pay for it even was approved.
A resolution published Nov. 25 in the Grundy County Herald states the county will proceed with a $10.5 million bond issue unless 10 percent of registered voters sign a petition opposing the move within 20 days.
But county officials are divided on whether that published resolution was the one commissioners thought they passed in November, and some say the measure could be rescinded at a meeting tonight.
District 3 Commissioner Charles Rollins said commissioners never approved the bond issue resolution.
“My understanding was that we were going to put a public notice in the paper that at some point in time that we would be renovating or building a new facility for the jail,” Rollins said. “Then the next resolution that came up was to borrow $10.5 million.”
Rollins said that motion died for lack of a second.
PDF: Resolution documentSpreadsheet: Inspection
Rollins said he hopes commissioners will rescind the resolution tonight just to clear the air. As it stands, the public and officials are confused, he said.
Grundy County resident Kelly Foutch, an independent who lost to County Mayor Lonnie Cleek in August elections, said the resolution amounts to a ticking clock.
“If 10 percent of the voters don’t come out with a petition against it, then they’re going to go ahead and build a justice center,” Foutch said. He said that would be about 900 signatures.
Commission Chairman Ralph Rieben said the resolution on the bond issue and petition is “normal procedure” in Grundy County.
“One of the reasons that we went ahead and got this out early was to get the public input, so we can react to whatever the public view is,” Rieben said.
“At this point, we’re really just studying it,” he said. “We really haven’t made any decisions. But it’s the general consensus that we need a jail.”
Grundy officials studied a new jail in 2007. Sheriff Brent Myers said then the existing jail was built for 23 inmates and regularly held twice that many.
The Tennessee Corrections Institute has not certified the jail since at least the mid-1990s.
Records show numerous health and safety problems, including raw sewage flowing through the jail periodically, a limited supply of drinking water and too few working toilets.
Cleek, a former chief deputy, said tonight’s meeting probably will settle at least some of the confusion.
Cleek said commissioners thought they were voting on a resolution similar to one passed in October to notify the public that the county was planning for a new jail.
“They did vote on a limited resolution to build a new facility,” he said of the October vote. “They didn’t specify what kind or anything.”
Last month, Rieben told commissioners about the resolution that was published, but Cleek said he thinks most commissioners didn’t realize which resolution was before them.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.