The Selmer Board of Aldermen meets at 7:00 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at the Selmer City Hall.  The board meets in working session at 4:30 p.m. on the Monday before the Tuesday meeting, and the meeting is open to the public.

Selmer’s mayor is David Robinson, whose four-year term runs until 2009.

Selmer has five aldermen who serve four year terms.  Their elections are staggered. The current aldermen, with the year they come up for reelection, are:

    John Smith (645-6640)                 2009
    John Finlayson (645-3044)           2009
    Paul Simpson (645-3528)             2011
    Lloyd Tennyson (646-0012)         2011
    Edward Smith (645-6835)            2011

The Town of Selmer maintains an excellent Web site at: www.selmer-tn.com. 

Having, amidst considerable huffing and puffing at its two June meetings, removed from the 2008-2009 budget all contributions for the school system’s One to One program, the McConnico Library, the McNairy County Airport, as well as $10,000 for improvement of the school system’s soccer field, the Selmer Town Board at its July meeting voted to approve each of those contributions as non-budgeted expenditures.  It was a matter of principle, you see.  Or something.

The July meeting started off briskly enough before a full house of spectators.  The minutes were accepted without discussion and without a vote, and no financial reports were available for this month.  When Mayor David Robinson asked if there were any questions or comments on the department reports, Alderman Lloyd Tennyson spoke up.

“Mr. Mayor,” Tennyson said, “I’d like to commend one of our employees for a job well done.  Ms Sybil Dancer did an excellent job on 4th of July, Friday, putting the parade together, and also the show at the park.  That was really something.  Thank you.”

“Yes, it was,” Robinson agreed.  “Thank you, Sybil.  You did a great job.”

While on the subject of departments, Robinson said, “As y’all all know, Sunday was Chief Dillingham’s last day with us.  He’s on the way to Jackson to take over as deputy chief there.  We’ll certainly miss him, and thank him for his eight years of service to us.  In the interim, until we go out and search for a replacement, Darrell Roberts will be in charge down at the fire department.”

One to One

Robinson then asked if there was anyone in the audience who wished to address the board, whereupon the school system’s technology director Terry Burns led off the parade of presenters whose requests for financial support had been rejected by the board the previous month.

“My name’s Terry Burns,” he said, unnecessarily.  “I’m with the board of education.  And I was of the understanding that I could come back before this board and ask for a donation for the One to One initiative, so that’s what I’d like to do tonight.  I’d like to ask for $2,000, if possible.” 

Burns then spent some time restating the benefits of the program. “What we do with One to One, the individualized self-directed learning, we use all the senses.   We use seeing, and hearing, and we even go further with reflecting, acting out parts, reasoning, analyzing, visualizing.  It’s all project-based learning, where they learn, and they work together as teamwork.  The things that businesses are looking for are teamwork and writing.  So we address the research, analyzing, visualizing, critical thinking, creative learning, innovation, and teamwork.”

Board member John Smith offered some support. “I was telling my wife about it—she teaches school at Ramer—and she was saying exactly what you just said about these students were excited.  And they have a program, and it involves a GPS, and they had these projects that they made, and she was just talking about how they were excited.  It’s just another voice, there, for what you were saying.”

John Finlayson said that he had heard that the One to One program was hoping to add “two more classrooms before the start of school this year.”

“Yes, sir, that’s correct,” Burns said.  “We’re looking at, right now, at McNairy Central, and the other one is a little tentative right now because of the teacher, but there will be another one.”

“But you don’t know what school, yet?” Finlayson asked.

“If everything works out— “ Burns began, tentatively.  “I hate to say for sure, but if it all works out it will probably go at Bethel.”

Paul Simpson asked, “What is the status of the One on One [sic] program now?  I know you—  Is this your one year, or two year—”

“This is the beginning of the second year,” Burns replied, “and I— You know, there were some rumors that we weren’t going to do it.  I can assure you, as long as I’ve got breath in my body, I will push for the One to One, whether I’m technology coordinator or a citizen.  It works.  And I don’t know where those rumors got started.  The only thing, it’s just a lack of money.  I mean, we’re all tithing, in a lot of ways this time.  I have one of the board members [Tony Chapman] with us tonight, too.  He’s a big proponent of the One to One.  He supports me 100%, and the program.  And the kids and teachers.”

“I make a motion that the city donate $2,000 to the One to One program,” John Smith said, and his motion, seconded by Finlayson, passed carried unanimously.  (All votes at the July meeting were roll call votes.)

McConnico Library

“Is there anyone else?” Robinson asked, and the next presenter rose to reprise his June presentation.

“I’m Paul Estes with the McNairy County Library Board, and I talked to y’all the last regular meeting.  [Passes papers to board.]  This is just a copy of what I handed y’all out the last time about the shortfall we have in our budget with the library.  And I mentioned that before, and y’all discussed it and you chose not to increase our allocation—which I can understand.  I think several of you were reluctant to have that put in as a reoccurring item each year.  But I did get the idea that some of you might consider an additional donation for the library.  And we are certainly open to that, and that’s why I’m here for tonight.  I would like to request $2,700 donation, which would help us with our shortfall in paying for the upkeep and so forth at the McConnico Library.  We are adding some new programs there, while we can, and just sort of, if you give us a donation that will help with this maintenance and will allow us to utilize the other money that the county has given us this year for programs such as, we’re going to add broadband communications there at the library within the next month or two.  We already have it up at the Meek Library, so that anybody can come to the library, or actually they can sit out in the parking lot and use their laptop computers and get good connection to the internet.  So, if any of you have any questions I’d be glad to answer them.”

Simpson asked, “The money that we, that you’re asking for, would go to McConnico utilities?  It would go to the McConnico Library?”

“Yes, sir,” Estes replied.  “It’s just on the McConnico Library.  See, the city of Adamsville provides about $18,000 for the library in Adamsville.  And so they handle, actually they take care of the whole building, and everything, all the utilities and so forth.  Here, in Selmer, at the McConnico Library, the county keeps up the building, and I think they’re getting ready to pay for the air conditioning system.  They’ve been having a little trouble up there, so it’s gotten a little expensive there.  But let’s say, y’all have been paying for, roughly, their utilities up there, and, let’s say, if we could— All this stuff increases each year.  So that’s kind of where we stand.”

Finlayson voiced his support for the request. “The library, I know, is an important resource, especially for kids.  You go to a college, you can see the library is the central learning spot to any type of education.  And for us to let this thing go where it’s not fully funded is just crazy to me, so I want to make a motion that the city of Selmer donate the twenty-seven hundred required to keep the library funded for this year and keep it going.”  John Smith and Paul Simpson seconded the motion at the same time, and it passed by a unanimous vote.

McNairy County Airport

The next rerun was the airport, with Bob Sibley and Chris Tull tag-teaming the board.  Sibley started things off.  “I’ve been here to talk to you guys several times before.  I don’t want to stand here and spend a lot of your time telling you how much I think the airport is beneficial to the city of Selmer.  But it really is.  And, you know, you didn’t want to put a line-item budget in for some money for the airport, so I’m here to ask for a donation as well.”  Chris Tull added that the airport was looking at a $2,700 budget shortfall.

Simpson said, “I noticed in the paper Monday, there was a, several, twenty-four, twenty-seven grants to different airports.  Did we apply for a grant, or what was that for?”

“Paul,” Tull responded, “we’ve been applying for grants all along.  I applied for a 90/10 federal grant for $600,000 that is slated for the Robert Sibley Airport.  We put up 10% matching funds, which is roughly $60,000 and capture $600,000.  This can only be used for the storage of aircraft.  We applied for a 90/10 match on a maintenance grant of federal money that was different than division one-hundred money to put in self-service fuel.  We bought the system ourselves.  That contract is on Belinda Hampton’s desk and is going to be mailed to me this week.  So, roughly we’ve spent $700 to capture $7,000, and anyone can come into Robert Sibley Airport 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and get either av gas or jet fuel.  We’ve applied for a security grant, we’ve applied for another security grant, and I’ve applied for a maintenance grant.  We have absolutely captured every grant that’s out there that we could possibly capture.”

Sibley then chimed in. “But the only thing about that, Mr. Simpson, we have to come up with the matching funds.  So, you know, that’s not in our operating budget.  So, we got $65,000 to operate on this year, and that’s got to cover everything.  We got a $2,700 shortfall there.  So that’s what we’re asking the city of Selmer to do for us, is to give us $2,700 to balance our budget.”

“Certainly the airport is very important to Selmer, as it is to Adamsville,” Mayor Robinson said, supportively.

Edward Smith then pointed out that the town of Selmer had made a $2,000 donation to the airport earlier this year.

“We needed that to capture the security grant,” Tull replied.  “In addition, y’all gave us two thousand, Adamsville gave us nineteen hundred and fifty-five, and I raised the rest through the private sector.  I asked my citizens to give me a donation, and I went knocking on doors to raising the rest.”

“I guess what I was wondering,” Smith persisted, “is this a one-time thing for this budget year for the airport, or are you going to come back at the end of the year and ask for more?”

Tull replied, “I certainly hope we don’t, Mr. Smith, you know, but we are trying to grow, and we are serving this community whole-heartedly, and I certainly hope that I can give back some money to the community this year in revenues, and hope I can give back the taxpayers of the county as I did this year.  I gave them back twelve-and-a-half thousand dollars.  So, I still came up twenty-seven hundred short, but I had twelve-and-a-half thousand dollars left over at the end of this year that I gave them back.  So I’m going to try to do that again.  If I have any, a dime left over that I haven’t spent for the city of Selmer, I’ll save it, or put it to good use, or let you know about it and give it back to you.  But we have a big space issue right now, and that’s really what we’re needing money for.  We’ve got a hanger three that houses aircraft, and it’s full of aircraft.  In fact, they’re spilling over into two.  I don’t have any place to put machines, mowers, and we desperately— equipment storage shed, we have none.  We have an airplane in every place right now that we can put an airplane.  And, you know, we’ve been all about the community.  The Boy Scouts, the pre-schoolers, the home-schoolers.  We’ve served Adamsville city schools, Selmer, McNairy County schools with tours of the airport.  As a matter of fact I think we’ve got a tour Thursday morning out at the airport.  And, you know, there’s just a lot of possibilities there for our community.  Plus the fact that it is the gateway to our community.  It’s the front door.”

“Could I just add one more thing?” Sibley asked.  “Mr. Smith, I hope we don’t have to come back and ask you for any more, but, to give you an example, the city of Savannah funds half of their budget, operating budget, and Hardin County funds the other half, so twenty-seven dollars [sic] compared to sixty-five thousand I don’t think is a whole lot to ask for.  But we do the best we can.  I can’t promise that every air conditioner, compressor that we have on the campus plays out tomorrow, and if it does then we’re in trouble, because our budget is balanced completely with this twenty-seven hundred.  We’ll have to come up with that money somewhere to fix those air conditioners, but hopefully we won’t have to come back and ask you for any.”

Robinson then asked if there were any questions, at which point Finlayson said, “I just know that if you look at the airport it’s such an important economic piece, that the city of Selmer, and the surrounding area also.  If we could keep one industry from leaving and bring an industry in from that airport, there’s no question in my mind that helping them out is the right thing to do.  And so, with that I’ll make a motion that the city of Selmer donate the twenty-seven hundred to help fund the budget this year for the airport and keep that going.”  Edward Smith seconded the motion, which passed (with Lloyd Tennyson casting the lone no vote of the evening).

Soccer Field

“I’d like to bring up one item,” John Smith said, before the mayor could move on to the regular agenda.  “It was discussed last board meeting, but I am very passionate about it.  I would like to make a motion, and I don’t think there’s anybody here to talk about the soccer field, but I’d like to make a motion that, if the school board comes up with their fifteen-thousand to fix the soccer field, that the city would donate the remaining ten.  I believed that’s right?”

School board member Tony Chapman was in the audience and asked to be heard.

“I’’m Tony Chapman, with the board of education.  School board member.  And we have, basically, already voted to, do the $15,000, so, I think it’s probably, you could say it’s a done deal.”

“Yeah,” Robinson agreed.  “I spoke with Frank Lacey and Johnny Blakely, and they say, along with you, felt very strongly—”

“I think we have the votes,” Chapman said.

After several seconds of crosstalk, Tennyson interjected a discouraging note: “Well, I spoke with one of those board members, and he said y’all have not voted on it.”

“Ah,” Chapman began, “we voted to get bids on it—”

“That’s right,” Tennyson interjected, abruptly.

“—and we voted that we, we understood that the bids were probably going to come back at about fifteen thousand, and they came back, what, twenty-seven, I believe?”

“Twenty-five,” Mayor Robinson corrected him.  “To get the field irrigated and sodded.”

“Okay,” Chapman said.  “But I feel like that we will fund fifteen thousand to do that.  And Mr. Tennyson’s right, we haven’t yet voted to do that.  But we did vote to get bids on it.  And I think you can be sure that we’ll come through for that.”

“Well,” Robinson began, “I know the coaches were very excited about the possibility and the opportunity to do that, and I along with—”

“I think I’ve worded it pretty good, you know,” John Smith interrupted, excitedly.  “If they, if the school system decides, you know, if the school decides to do the fifteen, then we will do the ten.  And if they don’t, then we just don’t do it.”

Parks and recreation director Sybil Dancer then joined the discussion. “From a park and recreation standpoint also on this, I’m kind of like John, I have a passion for this, because soccer is fast becoming a big sport in our town, and we’ve got a lot of kids in our area that are really good at this sport.  And they may not can play anything else.  They may not can hit a baseball, they may not can shoot a basketball, but they can kick a soccer ball.  And that is something that I think that we really need to look at, because we’ve probably got some kids in our community that are left out on scholarships because we don’t have a facility for them to go and even improve their game.  So, I mean I feel really strong, even from a parent and a park and recreation director also that this is something that, you know, if there’s any way possible, we really need to fund it.”

Chapman added, “I just think it’s a good partnership with the city of Selmer and the school board, because we have other partnerships where the school board, you know, provides the property for the ball fields out there, to expand and so forth, and that’s been a good partnership for the kids.  And I just think this is another good partnership, and I feel like it will be approved.”

Finlayson seconded John Smith’s motion, then Edward Smith said, “I’d like to make a comment.  Along the lines of what you’re saying, I’ve a grandson that lives in Corinth that’s an outstanding soccer player.  As a junior, last year he won the outstanding player award in soccer, over all the seniors.   So I’m real interested in soccer, too.  But my comment before was, I didn’t think it should be part of the city budget.  I thought it would come as a contribution, and I’m in favor of giving a contribution.  So I’m in favor of doing it.  I just think the city—”

“Mayor,” Simpson spoke up, “I had asked you the other day about checking with our county— city attorney on whether we could put fixed assets, I guess it would be part of a building, on property that we don’t own.  [To town attorney Terry Abernathy:]  Any problem there?”

“What’s the question?” Abernathy asked.

“Okay,” Simpson replied, “this property, it’s owned by the school board, or the county, I guess—”

“And we’re going to place a structure on it?” Abernathy asked.

“No—” Mayor Robinson said, at the same time that Simpson said “Yeah.”

Robinson continued: “—we’re going to donate $10,000 to re-sod and irrigate the soccer field.”

“Well,” Abernathy said, “that’s a different question, Mr. Simpson.”

Simpson mumbled briefly, then asked, “Would that be all right, legally?  To do that?”

“Well, yeah,” Abernathy replied.  “I don’t see any problem there.  We’re not retaining ownership of anything, are we?  We’re just making a donation.”

“Yeah,” Robinson confirmed, “we’re just making a donation.”

There being no further questions, the roll was called and the $10,000 donation was unanimously approved.

Legal Update

“Okay,” Robinson said, “we’ll just move into our regular business session, then.  We don’t have any old business—”

“Mayor,” Abernathy spoke up, “maybe what I’ve got’s old business.”

“Okay,” Robinson replied.

“Two things,” Abernathy began, returning to the podium.  The first was regarding the pit-bull ordinance.  “I wasn’t at the last meeting, but I was told we were going to attempt to change it.  I had a chance to speak to Mr. Simpson about it for about three minutes, and I just don’t, I just, I’ve got too much on my, I had too much on my platter.  But I’ll get a little bit more information, and get it back up here next—

“We said we’d try to have something by the August meeting,” Simpson interjected.

“If it had been a bird dog,” Abernathy continued, “I could have gotten it done, but I don’t know anything about pit bulls.  [Laughter.]  But I’m going to learn.  I guess maybe a little bit more— I just want to advise the board, if our town is correct, and this is a, the logistics of this is a challenge to our small office, but we believe there are nineteen separate items of litigation now filed against the town of Selmer arising out of the tragedy last year.  I want the board to be aware of the number.  There’s certainly a possibility that there could be more, but I’d say that there’s not a probability that there will be.”

“That’s like four additional, isn’t it?” Robinson asked.

“I don’t know, David,” Abernathy said, shaking his head.  “I, it’s so hard, it’s a moving target, I think at one time we had thirteen, and whether this is four more or six more, it’s hard for me to tell.  But I will try to keep you advised monthly the progress of this.  I have communicated with the risk management pool of the Tennessee Municipal League, concerning the steps we’re going to have to undergo to determine the coverage issue.  And I— it’s their turn.  I’m waiting to hear from them.”

“That’s the arbitration?” Robinson asked.

“That’s part of it, yes sir,” Abernathy said.  “And I’ll keep you posted.”

Zoning Ordinance

Robinson then proceeded with the new business.  “The first item on the agenda is ‘the first reading of an Ordinance amending the text of the Selmer Municipal Zoning Ordinance to change Chapter XII, Provisions for the Flood Hazard Districts, 11-1203 B.  Basis for establishing the areas of Special Flood Hazard in order to maintain eligibility in the National Flood Insurance Program.’  Primarily, the federal government is requiring this if they’re going to provide flood insurance to our county.  The county is going through the same approval processes that we are, so this really, you kind of got a gun to your head, so I would entertain a motion to approve on first reading.”  Simpson made the motion, which was seconded by Edward Smith and passed by a unanimous vote.

Parade Permit Ordinance

Robinson then moved on to the first of two items Simpson had first produced at the working session the previous evening, apparently as part of Simpson’s ongoing campaign to restore Selmer’s city government to the state it was in in the good old days, before Mayor Robinson took office.  “The next is the first reading of an ordinance to amend Title 16, Chapter 1, Section 16-110 of the Selmer Municipal Code pertaining to parade permits.  This was given to us last night by Mr. Simpson, and basically what it says, it replaces language where the police chief, the fire chief, and the mayor would review and either approve or deny, with the language that says the police chief, fire chief, and mayor will review and either approve or deny the permit.  Upon their approval, the parade permit application will be submitted to the mayor and board of aldermen for final approval.”

“I make that motion,” Simpson said, and Tennyson promptly seconds the motion.

“Any discussion?” Robinson asked.

“What it’s saying,” Simpson explains, “I think, is the mayor, the police chief, and the fire chief, if they look at it and turn it down, that’s all of it.  If they approve it, it comes to the board for discussion.  Is that what you understand?”

“Yeah,” Robinson replied, “I understand.  It’s basically, if we turn it down, you don’t get…”

“So moved,” Simpson said abruptly—and unnecessarily, since he had already made the motion.

After some further discussion Edward Smith seconded the motion (again unnecessarily, since it had already been seconded by Tennyson) and the first reading was unanimously approved.

Simpson’s Resolution

“The next item on the agenda,” Robinson continued, “is the approval of a resolution that the mayor and board of aldermen approve the hiring of an employee recommended by the appropriate department head.  The resolution says, ‘Whereas the employees are an important asset to the town of Selmer, they are an example of who the town is and reflect on the said town.  Therefore, be it resolved that before an employee is hired in any department, the department head should recommend the hiring to the mayor and board of aldermen, and said board shall vote whether to hire them.’  This is— Paul, you want to explain this?  This is yours, your resolution.  You want to address that?”

“This is the way that—” Simpson began, before starting over.  “I’m not saying just because it’s been done that way, that’s the best way to do it, but for twenty or thirty years before the last several years of Mayor Whittington’s term, the department heads always submitted the employees with their recommendations to the board for hiring.  That’s the way it had always been done, and I just think it’s best to put that back in.  And certainly, let me say, the charter says that the mayor, I think, could temporarily appoint or something.  If it comes up, you know, and the thirty days come up and they need somebody, I think the mayor can temporarily appoint that, according to the charter, and then it comes to the next board meeting.  I think that’s changed, that don’t change that at all.”

Robinson responded.  “One of the things— I spoke with Ronnie Neill at MTAS today about that.  One of the things, he certainly had some concerns, but, two, if, rather, he recommends rather than a stand-alone resolution, it probably needs to amend the hiring section and the hiring policies in the personnel manual.”

Extensive discussion then ensued involving between board members and several members of the audience about the practicality of the ordinance and the details of its implementation. 

Misti Walk, who had participated enthusiastically in the discussion of the pit-bull ordinance at the June meeting, questioned the logic of having the board approve all hires, rather than allowing the department heads to have the authority to hire their own people. “Say that, you already voted this man to be the head of your department, and you trusted his decision to be that head, you’re not going to trust his decision to hire this person?  It has to come before you to make that approval, when you made him head?”

“I would trust all our employees,” Simpson responded, nonresponsively.

“So why is it,” Walk persisted, “why are you taking your time up over silly stuff, when you could be taking your time up for other stuff.”

“It’s what I think’s best,” was Simpson’s reply.

Tennyson, reliably, seconded Simpson’s motion.

“Any further discussion?” Robinson asked.

“I’m opposing this,” Finlayson said, “and this is just like I was before.  I’m not here to micromanage, and when we put our department heads in there then we should put the right people in there to do the right job.  Hire the right people.  And, you know, like I said before, if we got issues there, we’ve got issues with the department heads.  If we’ve got good department heads, they’re going to do the right job.  That’s the way I think it should be, and that’s my feelings on that.”

“I disagree with you because—” Tennyson began, at the same time that Bruce Manley spoke up from the audience: “I think the board needs to be supportive of these department heads.”

“Say again, Bruce?” Robinson said.

“I think the board needs to be supportive of the department heads, and then let them do their job and not be micromanaging them, and you guys get the bigger, better things.”

“I think we always support our departments,” Simpson said.  “I don’t think nobody can say that we hadn’t got the best department heads, and we supported them, we gave them a 5% raise, which is over and above what any other governments have, and I think we have the best employment, employee work force that we got.  It’s no mistrust of anything.”

“I have another comment,” Freed Ware said, from the audience.  “If the department heads cannot hire without y’all approving who they hire, can they fire?”

“They can do that,” Simpson replied. “It can be appealed.  They can terminate anybody.  Hire, fire, terminate, suspend, or whatever.”

“Now,” Robinson observed, “there’s certainly been an incident where, you know, one of the department heads has not been supported.  We just went through that, and you’re probably well aware of that.”  [See the report of the November 2007 meeting, below.]

Guy Buck then asked, “Has there ever been a time when the board denied a department head being hired?  To my knowledge, no.  So it seems like a useless step.  I mean, in the whole history, Paul, you’ve been here twenty, I mean you’ve been on this board for twenty-something years, have you, has the board ever denied a recommendation of a department head?  So, what’s—”

Simpson replied, “The department heads have always made good recommendations.  They’ve thought it out, and—”

Buck interrupted, saying “And the board’s always supported them.  So it seems to me like it’s maybe a useless step.”

John Smith said, “The only thing, Guy, I agree with you.  But, also it could, in a sense, support the department head, in a way.  He could come up here and he’s made a recommendation, and then everybody’s voiced their opinions, that also could support the department head.  You could look at that two ways.”

“Yes, ma’am?” Robinson said, acknowledging Sharon Olsen, in the audience.

“Y’all don’t know me from Adam,” Olsen said.  “What if I went and applied for a job?  How are you going to decide over the department head whether or not I’m good enough to be employed?”

“Qualified or not?” Robinson suggested.

“Right,” Olsen agreed.

“Good question,” Robinson said.  “Very good question.”

“I mean, I’ve worked with this man,” Olsen said hypothetically, indicating utility department head Richard Ashe, “I’ve not worked with y’all.”

Edward Smith said, “This board would go on what he recommended, what he told the board that he knew about you—”

“Then why should he have to—” Olsen began, reasonably.

“—it would be in support of him that we—” Smith continued.  “I don’t think it would ever be one in a thousand that we wouldn’t go along with, probably.”

Robinson then recognized Richard Ashe.

“I need to ask one other question, then after this I promise I’ll hush.  But if I’m going to hire an individual, and I have to bring him up before you before I’ve even worked him but a day.  I don’t know how that he’s aiming to work out.  I don’t whether he just, you know, shot me a line and said that he would work, or anything.  Now, if I could bring him back after 90 days, well then I’ve already got a pretty good idea that he will either work, or he won’t work.  But if I have to bring him from day one, I don’t have any idea.”

“Good point,” Robinson observed.

“And,” parks and recreation head Sybil Dancer observed, “it is so hard to get, when you call on references, they won’t tell you anything but ‘Yes, they did work for me.’  They won’t tell you anything about their attendance or anything, so it is hard if you do it from day one.  Where if you could wait 90 days, then we do know a little bit more about their work habits.”

“Any other comments from the board or the audience?” Robinson asked.

“I don’t think you can go wrong with a 90-day probationary period,” Bruce Manley observed.

Simpson continued to argue for more control for the board. “I think at some point, early, the board ought to have some kind of say-so, some way.  And after 90 days …”

“Well,” Robinson asked, “do you want to have a say-so when the person is being hired, or the position is being filled?  Because you’ve already approved the position in the budget.  The person himself, you won’t know, we won’t know anything about them.  I think the lady makes a very good point.  Unless you do a background search, and you want to start micromanaging and interviewing employees, you won’t know any more, when he says the name, than you do tonight.  So it is kind of—”

Simpson interrupted to say, “We probably ought to do a background check.”

“Well,” Robinson said, “that’s why we hired those department heads, to ensure that they’re running the department, and certainly they’re not going to hire somebody that they can’t depend on or count on.  So to me it’s kind of redundant for the department head to say, ‘Okay, I want to hire this person.  I’ve got the position in the budget.’  And then to have to bring him to the board, again, and say, ‘Hey, can we hire this person?’  I mean, I would have to agree.  I think we’re somewhat usurping our department heads’ authority, and I would agree with Mr. Finlayson, here, that, you know, if the city has a problem in the hiring process, then we need to address that with the department heads.  I don’t think that this board is capable, or equipped, to make hiring decisions.  I mean, in two and a half hours a month, I can assure you that the board members don’t know who the individuals are that they’re bringing before you.  It’s a name, and that’s it.”

At that point Simpson said “I make a motion to table this to the next meeting, and, so we can meet with all the department heads and get their thoughts.”  The motion, seconded by Finlayson, carried unanimously.

The Home Stretch

“Okay,” Robinson then said, “the next item is the approval of an agreement between the town of Selmer and McNairy County regarding the shared expenses for the UT Martin campus.  As we discussed in the working session, this is basically a catch-up agreement.  We have, ever since the campus has been there, we have equally shared in the expenses of that, and Ronnie Neill called it to our attention about, I don’t know, three or four months ago, that we needed to reduce that instrument to writing, and that’s all this is.”  The agreement was unanimously approved on a motion by Edward Smith, seconded by John Smith.

The board with equal promptness unanimously approved, on a motion by Simpson, seconded by Tennyson, “a three-year lease on two police cars, funded through the drug fund.”

“Okay,” Robinson then said, “the last item is a discussion regarding the enforcement of the abandoned motor vehicles on private property ordinance.  You had that in your packet, and we’ve had some complaints about abandoned junk cars, and we’ve been requested to start enforcing our ordinance, and I want to make sure that everyone on this board is in agreement.  And our city attorney, here, has assured me that he’s available for questions.  So, y’all all have a copy of the ordinance.  It basically says, it shall be unlawful to park, store, or leave, or to permit the parking or storing of any licensed or unlicensed motor vehicle of any kind for a period in excess of 72 hours, which is in a rusted, wrecked, junked, partially dismantled, inoperative, or abandoned condition, whether attended or not, on any private property within the town, unless the same is completely enclosed within a building, or unless it is connected with a business enterprise operated in a lawful place and manner, and licensed as such, and when necessary to the operation of such business enterprise.  And then beyond that it gives all the available remedies on that.”

For the next ten minutes the board and Terry Abernathy discussed various aspects of the ordinance, and then the meeting was adjourned.

At right at an hour in length, the June meeting of the Selmer town board was longer than recent meetings, in large part because of presentations by Fire Chief David Dillingham, pit-bull owner Misti Walk, school system technology director Terry Burns, and library board member Paul Estes.

After briskly disposing of the minutes and department reports (without discussion or votes) and the financial reports (approved unanimously on a motion by Paul Simpson, seconded by John Finlayson), Mayor David Robinson called on Dillingham to update the board regarding fireworks in the town of Selmer.

Fireworks (literally)

Dillingham explained that under City Ordinance 550 the Fire Chief was authorized to issue permits to citizens for fireworks displays within the city limits, but he had recently received a notice from the city’s insurance carrier requiring the issuance of a different permit “if we decide to shoot fireworks for a public display.”  That is, if the city itself conducts a public fireworks display, “then we need to fill this checklist out and send it in or fax it in to TML (Tennessee Municipal League).”  What’s more, Dillingham advised the board that if “we get a third party to fire fireworks on our property [that is, city property], TML will not insure us” and the city will have to get special event insurance.

Dillingham said “the reason I brought this, with David’s permission, brought this to the board, is that I felt compelled to tell you about this, that this permit was being, uh, well I hate to say ‘forced upon us,’ but it’s being forced upon every city within Tennessee.”

“David, let me correct you,” Mayor Robinson interjected.  “It’s being forced on every city that uses TML as their carrier.”

“That’s correct,” Dillingham acknowledged.  “I’m sorry.  Yes.  And—”

“The Tennessee legislature passed this, is that right?” Paul Simpson asked.

“No,” Dillingham replied.  “Tennessee passed legislation last year that said if you use any commercial grade, Class C or higher fireworks—correction, Class A and B fireworks or higher, commercial grade—for public display, then you had to get a state fire marshal’s permit, and they had to be certified with a $1,000 bond that they knew what they were doing.  Okay?  But if you use over-the-counter fireworks like we’ve been using here in the city over the years, that I’ve approved, we don’t even need that permit.  The only permit that we need is the one that I grant through our city ordinance that we passed here in Selmer.”

“Let me ask you a question,” Simpson said.  “Each year they’ve got a picnic in the park, the First Baptist Church in Selmer has a picnic in the park, and they always do fireworks out there.”

“I don’t see a problem with that at all,” Dillingham replied.

“That’s not city property?” Simpson asked.

Dillingham confirmed that it was not.

Simpson then asked, “Now, anybody just selling fireworks, this doesn’t apply to, does it?”

“No, sir,” Dillingham replied.  “You and I can fire fireworks off in our front—”

 “I meant, selling fireworks,” Simpson corrected.

“No,” Dillingham said.  “It doesn’t restrict it at all.  No, sir.”

“So it only applies—” Simpson began.

“If we set them off,” Dillingham interjected.

“—if the city does it,” Simpson concluded.

“Or if something happens,” Dillingham continued, “or if we allow it to happen—”

Simpson then asked, “So if somebody wants to do a display off of their own property or something?”

“Yes, sir.  Within the city limits of Selmer” Dillingham said.

“So,” Simpson continued, “as far as we doing that on June 29th, since it’s not on, it’s inside the city limits but it’s not on city property.  They’re still going to have to talk to you on it.”

“That’s correct, sir,” Dillingham replied. “That’s correct.”

“Do that informally?” Simpson repeated.

“Yes, sir,” Dillingham replied.  “We do that informally.  And, see, if someone for, God forbid, would say, ‘I don’t want you, I don’t want you to come look at me getting ready to fire the fireworks, that simple,’ this says you simply aren’t firing them.  And I can use the police department to help me enforce it.”

“So they need to see you, what, a day, two or three days before—” Simpson began.

“As far in advance as possible, yes, sir,” Dillingham replied.  “I could do it within a day before.  That’s not a problem.”

“I mean,” Simpson continued, “you just go out there and inspect what they’re doing and what—”

“Make sure there’s no higher grade fireworks being used, yes, sir,” Dillingham concluded.

Dogs

There being no other questions regarding department reports, Mayor Robinson said, “At this point in time I’ll open up the floor to anyone that has petitions or wants to say something to the board.  We have one here, and one here, and one here.  So, we’ll start with you,” indicating Misti Walk, who sat on the front row holding a petition.

Walk rose and walked to the front of the room. “Our community has band together and we started a petition to try to get a grandfather clause put into the dog ban [several unintelligible words], and I’ll give that to you all.  Here’s the petition.  I also have, I know y’all said you have a lot of information that you collected on that, you know, from e-mails, that I have collected also, and I would like—  I have a report from a vet that has a doctoring degree in here—”

“Has a what kind of degree?” Robinson asked.

“A doctoring degree,” Walk replied.  “And she addresses all breeds of dogs, not just one.  And I also have in this packet, the association of temperament testing.  They test, they go around the United States testing all different breeds of dogs, and your American pit bull terrier and bulldogs are one of the highest mannered dogs.  The bearded collie is the worst for temperament.  And if you can indulge me, I have, I put something together.  It will take me three or four minutes, if it’s okay.”

Robinson signified that it was, and Walk began her presentation.

“As y’all know, my name is Misti Walk, and I live at 16 Moose Lodge Road.  My husband and I and our three children moved into the Selmer community about three years ago.  We moved here because we found this community to be a very family-oriented place, and it has been up until this point in time.  We and about ten percent of our community are some form of pit-bull owners.  We have had our Honey for almost six years, and we got her when she was four weeks old.  A lot of residents here have had their dogs for years.  What has happened in our community to justify this law?  Is all the news coverage from all these bigger cities causing panic, or has something actually happened in Selmer?  As we all know, you cannot always believe everything you hear and see in the media.  There could be a dog attack, and it is covered by the media, and they never show the actual dog that has made the attack.  They always put a picture of a pit bull up on the television, and it could have been a Great Dane that did the attack on someone.  Years ago, all the fears were Chows, Dobermans, and German Shepherds.  Now the panic is the pit bull breed.  A pit bull can be as gentle as a cocker spaniel.  A lot more clumsy, but just as affectionate and loveable.  Any dog can be made to be mean, not just the pit bulls.  Any dog has the capability to kill something, not just the pit bull breed.  The meanness of a dog comes from irresponsible pet ownership.  If a dog is made to be a family member, that is what they are.  If a dog is trained to be a working dog, as far as hunting, farming, seeing-eye dogs, sniffing dogs, or canine units, that is what they will be.  Then you have your ignorant people, who make and train dogs to be mean and to fight, and that’s what they will do.  We keep getting quoted things that have happened in California.  California has a lot more population, a lot more dog population, and a lot more crime compared to our 4,000 population.  This is Selmer, not California.  We as a community are not all irresponsible pet owners.  We love our family pet members.  We know there are bad people that do bad things to animals, but as a community we all should not be punished for a few bad eggs, and especially we should not be punished for something that hasn’t happened here.  There are ways to control and keep our animal population under control.  We can spay and neuter, register our pets, chip them, even take them to the vet to get temperament tested.  We can double-fence our dogs and even hire an animal control officer.  As we know, animals are not born mean, just like children are not born mean.  It is all in how they are brought up.  Now I can’t speak for everybody, but I would personally not own a mean dog.  The first sign of meanness, my dogs get put down.  If we all as a community work together, we can live again in a safe and family-oriented community.  After all, didn’t Noah bring over two by two on ark?  If God didn’t intend for this breed to be here, they wouldn’t be here.  So, please, I’m asking you gentlemen—[gets emotional, which elicits several supportive comments from the audience.]  I apologize.   Do at least grant us a grandfather clause, in somewhere, to save our family pets.  They are not all mean, nor are they born that way.  I understand the law is the law, and I understand that we never will be able to get any more after the ones we have pass away.  But don’t make us have to put innocent dogs down when they haven’t done anything to anyone.  Please blame the deed, not the breed.  Thank you.”  Applause from audience.

“I’d like to respond,” Simpson said after the applause subsided.  “I was the author of the pit bull ordinance.  The only reason that I authored this ordinance was to protect the citizens of Selmer.  There have been instances in other places where pit bull dogs have killed people, have killed animals, and everything.  For instance, in California three years ago two lawyers owned a pit bull dog.  They was walking it in park.  A terrier attacked the pit bull and killed the pit bull and killed the owners.  In Memphis there have been kids that have got horribly maimed by pit bull dogs.  On television the other night there was a boy that sicced his pit bull on another girl uptown, and it bit, it didn’t kill her, but it bit it.  And that boy told the police that he only owned that pit bull for one month.  Now if a pit bull will do that to somebody that’s not an owner, I can see where any dog, I’ve got a dog, I can see where any dog you’ve had for several years, you become attached to.  And it may not hurt anybody, but I don’t want anything to happen in Selmer.  That one instance, this one girl told me that she had a pit bull, the best pet she ever had, and she put it in a cage with her Chihuahua, and it killed the Chihuahua.  The only thing this ordinance is for is to protect the majority of the citizens of the United States.  We’re not going to come, as Hitler or somebody else did, and go house to house and say, ‘Have you got a pit bull?’  The only thing that we’re wanting to protect is the people of Selmer.  We don’t, we haven’t had anybody got to get hurt in Selmer from pit bulls, and I don’t want it done while I’m an alderman.  You know, we don’t need anybody to get hurt, and I’m not saying—  But pit bulls have, and any expert I think will tell you.  I was watching television the other night, ‘Law and Order,’ dramatized, when the two lawyers had it and it killed a woman in California.  That was what the ‘Law and Order’ was.  And this woman got up and was testifying, a woman lawyer, was testifying how gentle her pit bull dog was, and it wouldn’t hurt anybody until that terrier attacked it.”

“Mr. Simpson—” Walk attempted to speak.

“Wait a minute,” Simpson said, imperiously.  “No.  Let me get through.  I listened to you, okay?  And what happened then, when she said that from the witness stand, the pit bull had got a—, had broke the leash and killed this woman, they had got it, and they brought that pit bull dog into court, and it had a mouth on it, it was snarling at everybody and it run its owner.  I mean, I’m just saying there’s a potential there for them to be dangerous.  I wouldn’t have a, I wouldn’t have a child around a pit bull dog.  I mean, that’s up to you, or whoever owns these pit bulls.  But the only purpose of that ordinance is to protect the people of Selmer.  We don’t want any pit bulls out walking.  We don’t want them chained up out anywhere.  As long as you keep it in a cage, and nobody complains or anything, you’re not going to have any problem from us about that ordinance.”

“Can we get that in writing?” Walk asked.

Simpson took umbrage at the question. “If you don’t believe what we tell you, I don’t think you ought to be living here,” Simpson said.  [A diligent search of the Selmer City Charter failed to turn up any “Check your brain at the city limits” requirement for residents of the town of Selmer.]

“If you don’t believe that we’re honest—” Simpson continued, raising his voice to drown out another audience member who attempted to speak.  “But, but, but, wait a minute!  I’ll tell you what.  We’re going to let Mr. Terry Abernathy [the town attorney], he’s not here tonight, we’re going to let him look at that and see if there’s any way he can amend it and still protect the people of Selmer.  Okay?  And I don’t know how it can be amended.  Now the grandfather clause, I don’t really think the grandfather clause will work, because you’re going to have to register that dog, everybody’s going to have to come up here and register that pit bull dog, and they’re going to have to show that they have insurance to protect against that bull—  I mean, I’m just saying that I don’t think that’s very reasonable to grandfather them in, because unless they’re registered and everything, we don’t know when that pit bull dog is gone and another one comes in its place or not.  So I really don’t think the grandfa—  But I do think that you have a legitimate argument, and I think we’ll let Terry Abernathy look at this and see if there’s any way we can amend that ordinance to protect people like you.”

Simpson having finished, Walk said, “I just have one other thing I would like to say, if possible.  When election time come around, and y’all were coming door to door, you [Simpson] come to my door when I lived on [unintelligible address], and I had the same dog I have now.  Mr. Robinson come to my door, asking for my support to elect you all.”

“Did I get it?” Robinson asked.

“Yeah,” Walk replied when the ensuing laughter died down, “you got it.  But, when I answered my door, my Honey was sitting right next to me.  She never offered to bark at either one of you.  Mr. Robinson got a lick on the hand.  Mr. Robinson looked at me and said, ‘Ma,am, if there’s any questions at any further time, you contact me and we’ll go over them.’  I called him about twenty minutes later, and I asked him, I said, ‘I need to know what you are going to do for our children in this community.  We have nothing for them to do here.’  The first thing he says, ‘I’m going to do an overhaul on the parks, and I’d like to find some activities to put in the city for our children.’  Not once was anything stated that they were going to take our family pets from us.  Not once.  That was never been done.  And three years ago when I moved into this town, I moved in here because you guys were all open, you were all family oriented.  And then, wham, we all get slammed.  Three years later we have to break up my family.  And it’s just not fair.  I’m sorry.  When there’s not been an incident here, it’s not fair.”

Edward Smith entered the discussion.  “I understand you’ve got your dog in a good fence.  Is it ever outside—”

“I have a six-foot chain-link fence—” Walk began.

“—is it ever outside?” Smith repeated.

“She has got out the front door on a couple of times,” Walk acknowledged, “but nine times out of ten she’s in the back yard double tracking.  This was before we put our electric fence up.  We have a six-foot privacy fence around our back yard, and then as she was getting out of the weak parts of the fence we fixed those, and then we put an electric fencing unit around it.  So now she don’t even offer to go by our fence.  Mr. Simpson come up to my house last week and asked if we still had our dog.  She was sitting right at our— off our front porch you can see over my fence.  She was sitting there, wagging her butt.  I mean, her whole body was just a going.  My two five-pound mutts were barking their heads off at him.  She didn’t offer to even say a word to him.”

“She’s a beautiful dog,” interjected a lady sitting next to Walk, who had resumed her seat in the audience.

“And,” Walk added, “I brought pictures to prove that not all pit bulls are real bump and big.”

“Well,” Smith continued, “there was some question if you were in the city.  Did you get that resolved?”

“Yes,” Walk replied.  “I’m fifty feet inside the city limits.”

“Jeff,” Mayor Robinson said, acknowledging another audience member, “you need to say something?”

“I just want to make a statement,” Jeff Fisk said, rising to his feet.  “Paul, you’re saying the reason we’re getting rid of pit bulls in the ordinance is to protect the community, is that correct?”

“Is what?” Simpson asked.

“To protect the community,” Fisk replied.  “The citizens of Selmer.  Is that what you’re saying?  Basically, that what I understood.”

“That’s the overriding part of it,” Simpson said.

Fisk continued.  “And it’s simply because you want, don’t want to see anything happen while you’re in office, is your own words, to the citizens of Selmer, pertaining to a pit bull.  Is that correct?”

“As long as I’m living,” Simpson responded.

“Okay.  As a community,” Fisk said with obvious irony, “we want to break these families up.  And that’s what it is.  It’s no doubt that they are a family.  We have a dog, too, and it’s just like a family.  These people have a family.  You’re wanting to break this family up to protect the community, the citizens of Selmer, but we can have high-performance race cars run up and down the city streets of Selmer.  My statement is over.  I’d like for you to respond, Paul.”

“I don’t know if you heard anything I said before,” Simpson replied.  “Our objective is not to take people’s pets away from them.  Did you hear what I said?”

“I heard that part,” Fisk acknowledged, “but I also heard that the pets needed to be something done with them.  You didn’t want anything to happen while you were in office to the community of Selmer and the citizens of Selmer because of a pit bull—”

“That’s running at large,” Simpson interjected.

“You said you personally wouldn’t own a pit bull because of the danger,” Fisk said.

Walk said, “The law in the newspaper does not say ‘at large.’  It says—”

Fisk added, “You talk, you talk in circles, Paul.”

“I tell you what I think,” Simpson replied.  “What I think is what I’m saying.”

Mayor Robinson attempted to move matters forward.  “I think what you got a commitment from Paul and this board to let us try to work with our city attorney to see if we can craft language that would satisfy basically our intent, and also yours.  So if you will give us that opportunity, we’ll try to get that done by—”

“Okay,” Walk said, “I have, I know, and this will be the last thing you hear from me—”

“Well, I hope not,” Robinson interjected.

“—we have—” Walk continued, before reacting to the mayor’s remark.  “No, I’ll be here for the next city council meeting.  The paper said that we had 90 days, and I understand that I’m getting a commitment.  But that’s August 13th.  Is it going to be covered by August 13th?  Because I have plans, and if you guys vote me down, God forbid, when my husband comes home from the riverboat we’re making a trip to Dr. Moore’s and we’re putting her down, [gets emotional here] to suit everybody that don’t want her.” 

Robinson said, “Before, before you do that, yes, I think we can get that handled before August 13th.”

“Because I personally—” Walk began.

“That will be my commitment to you,” Robinson interjected.

Walk continued “—will not give my dog to somebody that might get into the hands of a fighter, because she will not live in a fighting ring.  She’ll die.”

“No,” Robinson said again, “we’ll get it handled before that.”

The woman beside Walk then asked, “Number one, could you tell me, just hypothetically, who’s going to take a five-year-old pit bull in, that they don’t know?  They’re not going to.  So if they’re going to be tried to be placed, no one’s going to take a five-year-old pit bull.”

“Part of the publicity around the Michael Vick,” Robinson began.  “Apparently there were a lot of people taking those dogs.  Of course they placed them, I think they placed them in California, and Nevada, and trying to rehabilitate them, but it was interesting press.”

Another woman in the audience remarked, “Nobody here will try to rehabilitate.  They wanted his famous dogs, these famous sperm donors, to put other places, so they could become other fighting dogs in other places.  [Several unintelligible words.]  But I feel like here in McNairy County, that what y’all did a few months ago, early this year, had, cases like Michael Vick had.  I saw it in the paper, and I think that that was justice done, and I think that they deserved Michael Vick charges.  If anybody’s caught fighting any dogs, which I’ve seen them fight, any kind of breed of dog.  Which I don’t take to that, they deserve Michael Vick charges, if they’re here in McNairy County or anywhere else.”

“And the dog deserves to be put down,” Walk said.  “You cannot rehabilitate a dog that has been put in a ring to fight.  They have been trained to do that, just like the seeing-eye dogs have been trained to do what they’ve done.”

“Well,” Robinson said, “let us get to work, and we will have something to look at at the next board meeting.”

The woman beside Walk said, “When you do check into this, could you also find out what insurance company will insure these dogs?”

“I got a letter,” Walk said. “If anybody needs a look, I got a letter.”

“Is that up here?” Robinson asked, indicating the papers Walk had presented to the board.

“No,” Walk replied.  “I forgot to add that in there.”

“I would like to get a copy of that,” Robinson said, “because I know that’s been a problem—”

“If you go to any of the Web sites I’ve got in there,” Walk said, “the pit bull lovers, they have links for insurance companies, for information, anything you need to know, statistic-wise, on pit bulls.”

“Fair enough,” Robinson finally said.  “I think you’ve got a commitment from this board that we’ll certainly try to get that rectified.

One to One

Robinson then called on Terry Burns.

“My name is Terry Burns, and I was a teacher for several years.  In fact, I taught several people in this audience.  I’m technology coordinator for the McNairy County Board of Education and have been for fifteen years.  I would like to thank the mayor and this board for your contribution, the generous contribution that they made to the One-to-One Initiative last year.  We’ve had some excellent results.  In the One-to-One Initiative we try to develop project-based life learning. Which, if you’ve looked, if you saw the paper Sunday, or just any paper you pick up, is where employees collaborate, or cooperate, with each other.  Through blogs, through communication, through other areas.  It increases correctivity [sic].  It increases cooperative learning.  It increases cooperation among everyone.  And it is the wave of the future.  That’s what we’re doing with the One-to-One initiative.  And it’s working in other countries, it’s working in other states, but more importantly, it’s working right here in McNairy County, in our schools.  It worked when I was in the classroom, and I didn’t have the internet.  But it increased the desire to learn among kids.  It’s a tool for learning.  I’d like to read to you, just briefly, from a survey that we did, it was just given to me Monday.  It’s a survey that they did with the students, in the county, in one of the classrooms.  ‘Laptops allow me to research a topic and read many different views’—95% said yes.  ‘Able to complete most work in class’—86% said yes.  ‘Finding new ideas and sharing these with friends’—86%, that’s collaborative and cooperative learning.  ‘Like to collaborate with classmates while using the technology’—91%.  ‘More likely to revise and edit my work’—91%.  ‘I’d like to have a laptop in some of my classes next year’—86%.  ‘Quality of work is better’—86%.  I would like to ask this board, and mayor, to continue the funding that you did last year.  And I would also like to invite you, and anybody from the audience, to come to our classes.  Call me, and I’ll show you first hand what’s going on.  We’ll have a lot of even better data in the next month, through the University of Memphis.”

“How many classrooms and laptops do you have?” Robinson asked.

“We have eight classrooms,” Burns replied, “and we’re looking at putting Linux in there, which is free software, and it decreases the cost, so we can put more in the classrooms and have more, it will touch more children.  And that’s our most important commodity.  The students of McNairy County.”

Library

Mayor Robinson then called on Paul Estes.

“My name is Paul Estes, and I’m on the McNairy County Library Board, and I’m here to talk to y’all just for a minute about our library budget and the support that we get from the county and the support that we get from the city, the town of Selmer.  I’ve passed you out the library budget.  This has been tentatively approved for this year, and I just wanted to point out a couple of things on the budget so y’all might have a little appreciation for the way our libraries are funded.  Up on the top of it it says ‘Estimated Revenues.’  Now, the two libraries are separated out.  Of course, y’all’s main concern is the McConnico Library.  The Meek Library is the Adamsville library.  The funds that—  It says library fees.  This is $5,000 for each library.  That’s money that the library directors have to raise via donations, late fees, and that sort of thing.  And for the past number of years most all of the miscellaneous expenses, such as writing paper, forms that they use for various sorts of things in their library.  Tissue paper.  Any other, anything other than salaries has been paid by the librarians actually soliciting funds.  And we’re going to try to correct that a little bit, so that we can use our solicited funds for things other than our absolute necessities.  You’ll notice, below that $5,000 on McConnico, $10,800, and that’s what the town of Selmer contributes to the library here in Selmer, the McConnico Library.  This year, the county has given us about $5,100 increase in our budget.  Now, that’s not including salaries.  It’s actually costing the county about $10,000 to give a little bit of raise to the employees, too.  But we’re getting about $5,000 increase to cover some of these miscellaneous expenses that before we had to get money from donations.”

“Paul,” Mayor Robinson asked, “what is the county funding amount?”

“A hundred and five thousand, seven hundred and sixty dollars,” Estes replied.  “Y’all provide $10,800.  The city of Adamsville, for their library, they provide all the utilities and the building.  The building in this city, the McConnico Library, is provided by the county.  But the funds that y’all provide pays primarily the electricity, the water and sewerage, and the lawn care.  And if you will look at the other sheet I gave you, it just shows the charges that we had over the past year for those particular items.  They add up to about $15,000.  Now, down at the bottom of that page, which says [sounds like E-way], that is a year-to-year rebate of our telephone bill.  We may, we will get it this year.  Next year we don’t know.  It’s a strange kind of thing.  The federal government gives the phone companies money to give back to us at our libraries.  That’s supposed to increase the internet usage, and that sort of thing.  Of course, y’all realize that the internet is available at our libraries, and that’s a big source of use by the citizens.  I think it’s real important.  What I wanted to point out was, the $10,800 now that y’all include in your budget is about $2,800 short for covering these expenses.  Now I’m not saying y’all are supposed to be saying those.  I’m just saying that you have, that there’s about $2,800 shortage there.  And of course, if y’all see fit to raise the amount of contribution that will help us a lot.  If not, I’m sure the county could pick up that difference.  But what I would like to do—  Now, three years ago, 2005-2006, y’all’s contribution was about $12,500.  And it was reduced for the last two years.  Now, I’m not aware of why.  I wasn’t on the board at the time.  But what I would like to ask of y’all, when you consider your budget, is if you would consider giving us a $2,500 increase, which would help us pretty much cover all of our additional ch—  Now this is the cost of utilities for last year.  Now we know they’ll probably be up a little bit.  But if we could get an additional $2,500 from the town of Selmer, then it would help us a good bit on our budget.  That’s pretty much all I’ve got.  If anybody’s got any questions?”  There were none.

* * *

Before moving on to the agenda items, Robinson remarked,”We don’t have any old business, but I did want to give y’all an update.  There’s been questions about the railroad crossing down here, and several months ago I mentioned to you we had spoken to the railroad.  Further to that, the railroad has let the contract.  It has crossed across TDOT’s desk, they’ve approved it, and either July 11 or July 18, that’s a Friday, it’s one of those weekends, and I don’t know exactly yet, but they will be completely revamping the railroad crossing.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and TDOT’s supposed to pave on Monday.  So there’ll be plenty of advance notice, so just pass the word to your fellow citizens that they may have to take the detour for four days.”

“Mayor?” Simpson said.  “Can I say one thing?  One of the good things that’s happened in Selmer, I think, is there between, the highway, the bypass, was changed so two lanes could go south on the bypass, and as far as I know, you [Robinson] did that, and we appreciate that.”

“What’s this?” Robinson asked.

“Going two lanes,” Simpson responded.  “We had one turning lane, and it was backed up, and now we’ve got two.”

“Well,” Robinson said, “y’all had a pretty good hand in it, too.  Thank you.”

Simpson continued.  “We tried a long time to do that, and you got it done.  It’s a big help for anybody going down from Adamsville and turning to Corinth.  There’s two lanes now, and we just had one for a long time.”

“Well, I appreciate that,” Robinson replied.  “Thanks to TDOT.  They’re a formidable bureaucratic entity.”

Budget Matters

“Okay,” Robinson said, “We’ll get on with the business at hand, then.  The first item that we’ve got is the first reading of an ordinance amending the 2007-2008 budget of the town of Selmer.  That’s all in front of you.  I would entertain a motion to approve.”  The motion was provided by Simpson, seconded by Lloyd Tennyson, and passed by unanimous roll call vote.

“The next item is the first reading of an ordinance establishing the 2008-2009 budget for the Town of Selmer.  And I might add that the tax rate remains the same.  There’s no increase in the property tax rate.  I would entertain a motion to approve.”  The motion was provided by Tennyson and seconded by John Finlayson, but when Robinson asked if there was any discussion Simpson spoke up.

“I’d like to amend that,” Simpson said, “to take out of the budget item number 47720, which is pertaining to the McNairy County Airport.  That’s two thousand to them.  And an unnumbered ‘One on [sic] One Program,’ take out that one thousand completely out.”

“So you’re putting that in the form of a motion?” Robinson asked.

“An amendment,” Simpson said.  “Yes.  An amendment to the budget.”

“You’re making a motion to that effect?” Robinson asked again.

“Yes,” Simpson replied.  “To amend the budget.”

Tennyson seconded the motion, and when Robinson asked if there was any discussion an incredulous John Finlayson responded.

“So,” Finlayson began, leaning forward so that he could look directly at Simpson, “you’re wanting to take out the money we give for our airport, that the businesses in the city of Selmer use—”

“And the ‘One on [sic] One Program,’” Simpson added.

“—and the One on [sic] One that helps the kids,” Finlayson continued.  “We’re going to take that out?”

“Let me, let me, let me—” Simpson stammered.

“To me,” Finlayson continued, “that’s not much, that doesn’t amount to much, but what it brings back to the citizens of Selmer.  The airport is a very important asset to us.  I don’t know if you’ve been out there, but I’m sure you have in the past, but it’s a great asset. There’s three or four businesses out there that’s hiring people, they’re going to hire people.  Not only is that out there, but the businesses here in Selmer use that airport quite frequently.  So I think that is crazy for us to take that out.  We need to support that airport.  And also, the One on [sic] One Program, too.  You heard the survey Mr. Burns gave on that.  There’s, you know, our kids is our future.  I’m going to be here for a long time, Paul.  And we’ve got to support the things that support the kids, and things that support the economy of this, the city of Selmer.”

“Can I answer?” Simpson asked, but before he could do so Edward Smith spoke up.

“Let me make a comment on that,” Smith said, “pertaining to our board.  This board approved $2,000 for the airport since we came on the board January 1, so we’re not against the airport.  I think, if I understand it right, the feeling of some people was it shouldn’t be a budgeted item in our Selmer, city of Selmer budget, but make a donation, whenever the time comes, according to how the budget, however the committee feels like the amount we need to give, whatever.  That was the way I understood it in the discussion that we had.  That it just shouldn’t be a budgeted item.  It’s not been a budget item before.  Last year it wasn’t budgeted—”

“Well,” Finlayson interrupted, “to me common sense tells me that these, that we’re taking taxes from businesses in Selmer that use it, and the airport can use everything that they can get, and I don’t see what it’s going to hurt to just give that little bit to the airport.  Who knows?  It could bring in an industry that could create two hundred jobs.  You don’t know that, but there’s opportunities there to do that.”

“John,” Simpson said, “I don’t think anybody is against the airport.  They’re not against the One on [sic] One Program.  I know what the airport has meant to McNairy County.  But it’s a county project.  I pay county taxes to support that.  I don’t think our city taxes should be budgeted to include that every year in our budget, because that’s city taxes, and that’s a county project.  How good it may be, and how much it helps Selmer, and I agree with you on that.  And nobody’s against the airport, and nobody’s against the One on [sic] One Program, but I don’t think it ought to be a budgeted item that’s going to stay in there every year.  I don’t think it’s, we should spend the city taxpayers, now if we want to donate something sometimes, whatever this board wants to do.  But I just don’t think, that was my motion, it should not be a budgeted item.  So I wanted to take that out of the budget.”

Mayor Robinson joined the discussion. “I want to weigh in just one, make one comment on that.  If you strip away all the layers of onions and you look at the essence of what we’re talking about, first of all, three thousand dollars over a three million dollar budget is in the third decimal place.  We’re talking one one-hundredth part of this budget.  So it’s a very infinitesimal.  Secondly, realistically, if you look at that airport, there’s two communities in this county that are served by that airport.  Selmer, Tennessee, and Adamsville.  And I can assure you that folks coming into the airport are not coming in to go to Guys, and they’re not coming in to go to Michie, and they’re not coming in to go to Eastview.  They’re coming in to do business in Adamsville and in Selmer, with our industrial parks and their industrial parks.  We recognize and reap economic benefits from that in the form of taxes, in the form of fuel, in the form of folks staying in our motels, where we get motel tax from that.  So, rather than look at it, Paul, as a matter of throwing Selmer’s taxpayers’ money that way, look at it as investing in their future, because that’s exactly what we’re doing.  It’s no different than our Economic Development Commission that we give money to.  If we don’t do that, then we might as well hang a going-out-of-business sign on the city limits, turn the lights out here, and we can all go home.  Because there’s no reason for a government entity like this to be in business if we’re not in the same boat with all of our folks in the county and our other municipalities.  Having said that, I’m done.”

“Call for the question on the amendment,” Simpson said.  Finlayson and John Smith voted no, but the motion carried with the votes of Simpson, Tennyson, and Edward Smith.

The motion to approve the first reading of the 2008-2009 budget without the items for the airport and the One to One Program passed by an identical three-to-two vote, with Finlayson and John Smith again voting no. 

Other Business

“The next item,” Robinson continued, “is the approval of a resolution for a capital outlay note of up to $750,000 for the repair and renovation of the water lagoon system.  Kind of like we talked about last night [at the working session], we are taking the effort as a utility department to try to deal with TDEC [Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation] on the necessary approvals to handle this and save the engineering fees that are there.  Part of the process of capital outlay notes, once this resolution is approved then it has to go to the state, and then they have to approve it and send it back, so there’ll be some, there’ll be plenty of time, and, matter of fact, I think, we got the paperwork from TDEC on Friday— yesterday, and Richard [Utility Department Director Richard Ashe] had spoken to another branch of TDEC about the spreading of the, ah, whatever you pull out of those lagoons.  I don’t know a real good word—[laughter, during which somebody suggested the word “sludge].  Sludge.  That’ll work.  So I would entertain a motion to approve that resolution.”  The motion was made by John Smith, seconded by Edward Smith, and carried by a unanimous vote.

The board then voted unanimously, on a motion by John Smith, seconded by Finlayson, to accept a $2,771,056 bid from Quinn Construction Corp. of Parsons, Tennessee, for improvements to the water plant.

“The next item,” Robinson continued, “is the first reading of an ordinance amending the official zoning map of Selmer, Tennessee, to rezone the herein described properties: (Parcel 20.00, ‘Group C’ on McNairy County Tax Map 80-H, Control Map 80-B as updated April 2006) along Highway 45 and Glover Street as well as the right-of-way of Burke Cove from R-1 (Low Density Residential) to B-1 (General Business).  John, you or Paul need to explain a little bit of that to these guys.”

John Smith explained, “All it basically is, the long and short of this, this piece of property, Ms Mary McCain, you may not be able to see [holds up plat], it’s on the corner of Glover Street there, as you go into college, to your left, and the planning commission has recommended to rezone this area from an R-1 to a B-1,” which, Smith explained, would permit the owner “to have a small business there.”

Simpson asked, “All of the neighbors around there, are they satisfied with that?”

“No,” Smith acknowledged.  “But the board, the planning commission, it was a unanimous vote.”

“This will be the first reading,” Robinson pointed out, “then we’ll put a public notice hearing in the paper before the second reading, so folks can show up and, show up.”

The first reading was approved on a motion by Finlayson, seconded by Edward Smith.  Tennyson “passed,” explaining that he was related to the owner of the property involved.

“The next item,” Robinson continued, “is the approval of a resolution amending the town of Selmer personnel policy regarding sick leave.  This is directed to the discussions we had last month here, and John is going to—”

John Smith explained that, “This was the question that was asked about taking off for a child, and this is the language that it reads: ‘When an employee finds it necessary to care for a sick child, spouse, parent or sep parent at home, the employee may use up to five days, per occurrence, of accrued sick leave to care for the family member.’”  After some discussion the resolution passed unanimously on a motion by John Smith, seconded by Edward Smith.

“The next item,” Robinson continued, “is the approval for me to sign the right of way maintenance agreement with TDOT for the period of July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2009.”  John Smith made the motion, which was seconded by Paul Simpson and carried unanimously.

Robinson then moved to the final item of the evening, “a resolution or discussion of the proposal that was given to us by Floyd Hawkins in reference to mitigating the sick leave.  Y’all know what you have in front of you.  We’ll either discuss it, or I’ll entertain a motion to accept it.”

“Point of reference,” Simpson said.  “Floyd Hawkins, who was public works director for how many years—”

“Thirty-seven years,” Robinson said.

“—thirty-seven years, has exercised his rights under the old policy, which says that you can take sick leave for a serious illness of your wife.  We have agreed in point, subject to this body, to accept an agreement that Floyd Hawkins has presented to our attorney.  And I think that agreement essentially will cost about sixty-nine thousand, and if it had to go through any law suit or anything the city could lose over a hundred thousand.  So I would make a motion that we accept his offer and approve this agreement.”  Edward Smith seconded the motion, which passed with Lloyd Tennyson casting the lone no vote.

“That’s all the, of our business,” Mayor Robinson concluded.  “I did want to remind the audience, and certainly get it in the paper, that there will be a special called board meeting on June 24, that’s a Tuesday, at 7:00 o’clock, in this hall, to have the second reading of both the 2007 and ‘08 budget amendment and the 2008 and ‘09 budget ordinance.  So I’d ask all of you to come.”  

NOTE: The public notice of that special called meeting which appeared in the 11 June issue of the Independent Appeal erroneously gave the date of the meeting as 16 June.  In order to comply with legal public notice requirements, the meeting has been rescheduled for 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, 28 June, at City Hall.

At the 13 May meeting of the Selmer Town Board what didn’t happen was perhaps more interesting than what did happen.

The first thing that didn’t happen was consideration of the budget and related matters, which was put off to a special meeting of the board to be held at city hall at 6:30 p.m. Monday, 19 May.

Next, John Finlayson didn’t vote on the pit bull ordinance (he abstained, and explained his reason), which had drawn a TV crew (if one person can be considered a “crew”) down from Jackson’s Channel 7.

And finally, Mayor Robinson’s effort to remodel the meeting room at the city hall died an ignominious death when John Finlayson’s motion to approve the project failed to garner a second.

Even so, the business of the evening proceeded briskly enough (except for five extremely long minutes during which, at the mayor’s request, Paul Simpson read the text of the pit-bull ordinance into the record, after which several members of the audience were still awake).

* * *

After disposing of such preliminaries as the minutes of the previous meeting (no corrections or additions), the financial report (unanimously approved on a motion by Paul Simpson, seconded by Edward Smith), and department reports (no questions or comments) Mayor David Robinson began the May meeting of the Selmer Town Board by asking if anyone in the audience wished to address the board.

Utility Department employee Anji Deaton did.  “I listened to the recording of the work session that took place yesterday,” Deaton said, “and after listening to the discussion regarding the sick leave policy, as a female employee of the city of Selmer, and also as a mother, I was a little bit concerned and want to get a little clarification.  First of all, I know it said that, for example, if my child was sick and wasn’t going to be able to go to school, but didn’t necessarily need a doctor’s appointment, I was not going to be allowed to take sick leave to stay home and take care of that child.  Is that the way it’s going to be?”

“Who wants to tackle that?” Robinson asked of the assembled board.

“You can take up to twelve weeks a year of family medical leave,” Simpson told Deaton.

“I’m talking about a couple of days,” Deaton responded.

“Well,” Simpson replied, “I mean, it’s an aggregate, as I understand it, it’s twelve weeks over the whole year, so you can break it down any way you want to.”

“Yes,” Edward Smith said, “you can take the time, the whole twelve weeks.”

“Does that answer your question?” Simpson asked.

“No,” Deaton replied.  “The way I understand family medical leave, family medical leave is for an extended illness.  It’s not for, my child has chicken pox this week, has got a strep throat next month, or whatever.  I’m talking about a situation where he’s too sick to go to school, but he doesn’t need to go to the doctor.  The way that the new policy is written, as I read it now, is that he’s sick, but he is not going to the doctor, then I’ll have to take vacation time.  I won’t be able to take sick time.  [Edward Smith shakes his head.]  Well, that’s the way it reads, so I just wanted to get some clarification.”

Edward Smith said, “As long as you’ve got sick days, you can take sick days for it.”

“If it’s not,” John Smith said, “if it’s not clear—because I was under the impression that, just like you said, that you could—so if it’s not clear, it needs to be written where it is clear, so everybody understands.  And also, it’s mentioned about adding parents, and it think it needs to probably clarify step-parents.  So it’s going to be mother, father, your children, step-parents, and I think that’s it.”

“Okay,” Deaton responded.  “Under that, when you say all those people, does that mean I don’t have to have some kind of doctor’s statement where I went to the doctor with these individuals?  If I had, because, like I said, it said if I’m sick, or if my child is going to the doctor.  So does it, if my child is sick—”

“Or spouse,” Simpson interjected.

“So if they’re sick,” Deaton continued, “but not necessarily at the doctor’s?”

“That’s the way I understand it,” John Smith responded.

“You don’t have to have a doctor,” Simpson said.  “You just take a sick day.”

“Okay,” Deaton responded.

“You know,” Mayor Robinson said, “I’d have to agree with Anji.  I think we probably need to spell that out.  We might need a resolution.  Just exactly what we’ve clarified here.  What y’all agreed to.  I think it needs to be spelled out in a new resolution.”

“There may be some changes in the family medical leave, is that what you’re talking about?” Simpson asked.

“I’m talking about—” Robinson began.

Deaton answered, “It’s not family medical leave.”

“So you’re not talking about family medical?” Simpson asked.

“No,” Deaton repeated.

Edward Smith explained to Simpson, “She’s talking about if she has to take off a couple of days for a sick child,” then to Deaton he said,  “Our intentions are that you could take that time.  If it’s not worded that way, we’ll clarify it.”

“Terry,” Simpson said to town attorney Terry Abernathy, “the twelve weeks on the family medical leave, you can take it at any time.  You don’t have to take it, you can take a day or two, just so long as the twelve weeks—”

“You can,” Abernathy began, “what this young lady asked, I’m not sure family medical leave applies.  Because there has to be some definition, of serious illness, or something like that.  This young lady just, that situation every mother faces when a child gets sick but doesn’t need to go to the doctor, but somebody’s got to stay home with him.  And I think we could, if that’s your desire, we’ll just take a look at the sick-leave side and make sure that’s covered—”

“I think we can clarify that,” Robinson said, drawing the discussion to a close.  “We’ll have it on the agenda next month.”

“You’ll write something up to that effect?” Simpson asked Abernathy.

“Yeah,” Abernathy replied, “and I think all it will take is just the employee, like this young lady, she had to be off, she could call in and the next day she could come in, you can have a little form where she simply certifies that on Thursday I had, my child was unable to go to school, I had to stay home.  I think that would be sufficient.  We’ll work on that.”

That out of the way, Robinson moved on to old business.  “The first item is the second reading of an ordinance to amend Title 10, Chapter 10, Section 10-205 of the Selmer Municipal Code.  This basically is the ordinance that clarifies the issuance of citations pertaining to noisy dogs.  Do I hear a motion to approve the second reading?”  Simpson made the motion, which was seconded by Tennyson and passed by a unanimous roll call vote.

Robinson continued.  “The next item is the, and I’m assuming we can do the second reading, here, Terry?  With the changes that were made in the pit-bull ordinance?  Or does this need to be a first reading?”

“We’ve already had a first reading,” Simpson said, before Abernathy could respond.  “This can be amended.”

“The only concern I would have,” Abernathy said, “is the first one didn’t have the, one of the concerns was it didn’t have any penal provision.  As long as y’all are comfortable that this isn’t a total re-write, I think that’s, that’s fine with me.”

“So we can call it the second reading then, rather than the first?” Robinson asked.

“If y’all are comfortable with that, that’s—” Abernathy began to reply, only to be interrupted by Simpson who abruptly said, “I make a motion that we pass it on the second reading.”

“Anybody second that motion?” Robinson asked, whereupon Edward Smith provided the second.

 “Any discussion?” Robinson asked.

“Let me make one statement,” Simpson said.  “I’ve talked to M— I haven’t talked to MTAS, I got their, what they said, and Mr. Abernathy looked at it and made some changes, which is satisfactory, I think.  It’s satisfactory with me, and I hope it would pass muster with the law.”

“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Robinson observed.  “Any further discussion?  If not, Annie, would you call the roll, please?”

Before the recorder could begin the roll call, Abernathy spoke up.  “Mayor, I would suggest, since you changed it, somebody ought to read it.  I think you ought to read that ordinance for all of us.”

“Okay,” Robinson responded.  “Paul, you want to read that?  That’s probably a good idea, Terry.”

“So it will be in this record, plain,” Abernathy added.

Robinson said, “Go ahead, Paul,” and Simpson then read the ordinance aloud, the full text of which appears at the end of this report.

“So,” Simpson said when he finished reading, “we passed a resolution, passed a resolution last time that the Corinth Humane Society would take these these dogs at $35, so I would envision that would, if they would take the pit bull dogs, you know, that’s what would happen.”

“That would be the way we would handle it, yeah,” Robinson replied.  “You’ve got a motion and a second, don’t you, Ann?  Any discussion?  If not, I guess call the—”

Recorder Ann Henderson began the roll call, starting with John Finlayson.

“I’m going to abstain,” Finlayson said, “and I’m just going, I want to get this out there.  I think that this is good.  We don’t need the pit bulls.  But I also think that you shouldn’t penalize people that is taking care of them and doing the right thing.  And looking at the ordinance for the city of Dyer, where it’s pertaining to were it goes in the order the people that’s got them, the restrictions, that it implies to keep the pit bulls only until they sell, they sell them or go outside the city limits, or they die.  Which, you know, they have puppies they’ve got to get rid of them in so many days, and they can’t have a pit bull after the one they have dies.  You know I, just with any dog, you shouldn’t, you know, I don’t feel like it’s right to penalize the owners that’s doing the right thing with them, because the dogs, if they’re raised properly, doesn’t do what you see at the media.  So, that’s just what I think, and I’m going to abstain to this, although I think, you know, we don’t need them, but I’m not one to penalize people for doing the right thing.  So—”

After a pause, without waiting to be called on by the recorder, Simpson said, “I vote yes,” as did all the remaining aldermen, and the motion passed unanimously, except for Finlayson’s abstention.

“That ends the old business,” Robinson said.  “The new business, we were going to read the budget ordinances, the amended budget ordinance tonight, but that has been postponed.  The board wanted to have a separate budget meeting, and that’s been set up for Monday night, this coming Monday night, May 19th, at 6:30 p.m., right here at city hall.  So we would invite all of you back for that.  So getting through that, the next item is, I need the approval to sign the TLM agreement, which is the architectural agreement for the UT Martin extension project.  That’s the $500,000 that was granted to Selmer and McNairy County to expand the campus out there.  The county passed approval last night, so the only thing we’re waiting on is approval tonight and then we can get started.  So I need a motion to approve.”  Finlayson made the motion, which was seconded by Edward Smith and passed by a unanimous rollcall vote.

Robinson then asked the recorder to “note in the minutes that Karl Dudley has joined the Joint Economic Development Commission as my appointee.  I would, ah, the next item is the approval, I’m recommending to you that Jim Stackhouse be appointed to the Selmer/McNairy County Industrial Development Board, and I would entertain a motion to—”

John Smith interrupted to say, “So moved.”  John Finlayson seconded the motion, which carried by a unanimous roll call vote.

“The next item is the approval to donate the water, sewer, and gas hookups to Habitat for Humanity.  That costs about $800, I think.  Isn’t that about right, Richard?”

The Utility Department’s Richard Ashe confirmed the amount, and the board unanimously approved the donation on a motion by Edward Smith, seconded by Finlayson.

“The last item,” Robinson said, “is the approval for courtroom renovations.  Last night I gave you the bid that we have from Mr. [Jimmy] Hawkins, and I see he’s in the audience tonight.  This one is for $15,304.72, which basically, John, as you had indicated last month, it includes flooring—  The difference is it will be sheetrock along the walls and behind, and the paneling will go in the front and back here.  New counter top.  The bid’s in your hands.”

Robinson added that “The carpet allowance is $1903, and that’s comparable carpet.  If we want to go above that, I think that was $17.95 a yard, or something like that.  If we wanted to go above that we’ve got samples in my office, if we want to do upgrade.  But I would entertain a motion to approve.”

“So move,” Finlayson said, which was followed by a long silence.

“Can I get a second?” Robinson finally asked.  When no one responded, Robinson finally said, “I guess not.  So that dies for lack of a second.”

John Smith immediately spoke up.  “I will explain why I didn’t make a second.  It’s not, it’s no reflection against you, Jimmy, and it’s not that I don’t think it would be nice, and that, I’m sure it would look great, but I didn’t second it because at this particular time I just don’t think we need to do that.  I think we could to use that money for something else.”

And on that note the May meeting came to an end.

ORDINANCE NUMBER _____________

AN ORDINANCE TO OF THE TOWN OF SELMER, TENNESSEE, PERTAINING TO THE KEEPING OF PIT BULLS,

WHEREAS, the breeds of dogs known as “pit bulls” include any American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or any dog which has the appearance and characteristics of being predominantly of any one or more of the aforementioned breeds; and

WHEREAS, the characteristics selectively bred into or otherwise commonly found in those dogs include:

(1) A strong fighting instinct, together with a low level of fighting inhibitions, which make pit bulls a hazard to humans as well as other animals;

(2) A strong chase instinct, which, experts believe, causes pit bulls to be a danger around running children;

(3) A tendency to attack even those who exhibit no provocative behavior;

(4) A diminished tendency to bark, growl, or otherwise warn their prey of an intent to attack;

(5) A tendency to fight to the death and never quit a fight once engaged, which results in more severe injuries than those inflicted by other breeds;

(6) The ability to withstand great pain, which makes it difficult for a person or animal to fightoff a pit bull attack;

(7) Powerful jaws capable of hanging on to victims even while the animal withstands infliction of injury or pain;

(8) A tendency to tear flesh, which has resulted in grotesque injuries to human victims; and

(9) A combination of agility, stamina, and strength, together with a genetic predisposition to aggressiveness, that makes pit bulls uniquely dangerous, even to their owners, among all breeds of dogs, especially where improperly raised or trained; and

WHEREAS, other municipalities have found that pit bulls are so dangerous to humans and other animals that special legislation restricting or prohibiting their ownership has been enacted; and

WHEREAS, the mere possession of pit bulls poses a significant threat to the health, welfare, and safety of the citizens of Selmer; and

WHEREAS, current methods of control by pit bull owners in the city have proven to be insufficient in protecting the public; and

WHEREAS, the Selmer Board of Mayor and Alderman believes it is necessary to prohibit pit bulls within the City in order to protect the health, welfare, and safety of the citizens of Selmer; and

WHEREAS, the Selmer Board of Mayor and Alderman has found that the keeping of other breeds of dogs, which are vicious of dangerous is a public nuisance and a serious threat to the health, welfare and safety of the citizens of Selmer.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND BOARD OF ALDERMAN OF THE TOWN OF SELMER AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1 Definitions. The words, terms, and phrases, and their derivations as used in this ordinance, except where the context clearly indicates otherwise, shall have the following meanings:

1) “Pit bull” means and includes any of the following dogs:

a) The bull terrier breed of dog;

b) The Staffordshire bull terrier breed of dog;

c) The American pit bull terrier breed of dog;

d) The American Staffordshire breed of dog;

e) Dogs of mixed breed or of other breeds than above listed, which breed or mixed breed is known as pit bull, pit bull dogs, or pit bull terriers; and

f) Any dog, which has the appearance and characteristics of being predominantly of the breeds of dogs known as bull terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, and any other breed commonly known as pit bulls, pit bull dogs or pit bull terriers; or a combination of any of these breeds.

SECTION 2 Pit bull restrictions. It shall be unlawful to keep, harbor, own, keep, exercise control over, maintain, transport, sell, or in any way possess a pit bull dog within the corporate limits of the Town of Selmer. Any persons owning such dogs at the time this ordinance is adopted shall have ninety (90) days to comply with the provisions of this ordinance.

SECTION 3 Enforcement. The Selmer Police Department will enforce the provisions of this Ordinance.

SECTION 4 Court proceedings against the owner. If any vicious dog is impounded, the City of Selmer may institute proceedings in municipal court charging the owner with violation of this ordinance. Nothing in this section, however, shall be construed as preventing the City or any citizen from instituting a proceeding for violation of this ordinance where there has been no impoundment.

SECTION 5 Court findings. If a complaint has been filed in municipal court against the owner of a dog for violation of this ordinance, the dog shall not be released from impoundment or disposed of except on order of the court and payment of all charges and costs incurred under this ordinance, including penalties for violating this ordinance. The court may, pursuant to this ordinance, order the dog to be destroyed in a humane manner.

SECTION 6 Penalties, repealer, and severability.

Penalties - Any person found violating the provisions of this ordinance upon conviction shall be fined fifty dollars ($50.00) and each day of violation shall be deemed a separate violation.

Repealer - All ordinances, or parts of ordinances, found to be in conflict with the provisions of this ordinance are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.

Severability - Should any court of competent jurisdiction declare any section, clause, or provision of this ordinance to be unconstitutional, such decision shall affect only such section, clause, or provision so declared unconstitutional, and shall not affect the validity of any other section, clause, or provision of this ordinance.

First reading _____ day of ________________, 2008.

Second reading ______day of _________________, 2008.

__________________ ATTEST: ______________

Mayor Recorder

"This may be a very quick meeting tonight," Mayor David Robinson said at the beginning of Selmer's April Town Board meeting, "I found out that there's five up here that want to go watch a ballgame or something.  Apparently there's a game on tonight.  I don't know."  [There was, and as Bruce Pearl will tell you, he and Pat Summitt now hold eight national championships between them.]

After the minutes and the department reports were approved without discussion or vote, and the financial report was unanimously approved on a motion by Paul Simpson, seconded by Edward Smith, Mayor Robinson called on Parks and Recreation Director Sybil Dancer.

Dancer informed the board that "we have a couple of members that have failed to attend several meetings, and one of them even, when he was contacted, he asked to be removed from the board, and so I've got a couple that I'd like to recommend be put on the park and recreation board.  Both of them will be serving a two-year term, and they will be replacing Tommy Robinson and Danny Roberts, Jr.  And who I would like to recommend is Karen Simmons and Harold Knight."  Simpson moved that the recommendation be accepted, and his motion, seconded by Lloyd Tennyson, passed unanimously.

Mayor Robinson then presented a framed diploma to Fire Chief David Dillingham for completing the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer on 11 January.

Robinson then introduced Anthony Knight.

"As you know," Knight began, "back in June of last year, the sixteenth, we had an accident in Selmer resulting in six deaths and sixteen injuries.  Shortly after that accident there was a board set up to disburse funds from a relief fund that had been taken up by donations and stuff.  The board consisted of myself, Sybil Dancer, Greg Gaddis, Terry McDonald, Jack Cheshire, and Dick Brown and Darrell Goodrum.  We have disbursed most of those funds.  There's still a little in there.  We were approached about a memorial in the park.  Some of them really didn't want to get involved with a memorial, that were on this board, and they kind of let it fall by the wayside for a few weeks.  And some of the families have spoke to me, and spoke to John Smith and Sybil, and asked that we look into a memorial.  And we got serious about it.  We have gotten so serious that we have went as far as to talk the airport authority out of a big fountain.  I guess what I'm here to ask you for tonight is permission to put a memorial in the park.  We've already looked at a place, myself, Sybil and John.  We're going to do this 100% on donations.  We're not asking for any money.  I briefly explained to the mayor where we had in mind putting it.  John went out with us yesterday and looked at it, and I'm sure there's going to be some other people that want to be involved in that.  It's going to be, I guess you'd say, on the northwest side of the gazebo, and we have intentions for everything to stay the same motif that's out there, with the concrete and everything.  We want something to look as nice as what we've got out there.  But what I'm here to ask for is your permission to start the process of putting a memorial in the park to honor the people that were killed or injured in that accident."

Paul Simpson made "a motion that we give the committee the authority to erect a memorial," and his motion, seconded by Edward Smith, passed unanimously.

Robinson then turned to the only item of old business.  "The first item is the second reading of an ordinance to amend Title 9, Chapter 9 of the Selmer Municipal Code regulating yard sales in the Town of Selmer.  This is an ordinance that eliminates the $5 fee, the hours of operation, requires that signage be taken down after the sale, not during, and allows citizens to either come in person or phone in for a permit."  The second reading passed unanimously, on a motion by John Smith, seconded by Simpson.

The mayor then proceeded briskly with "our new business, the first item is an approval of a resolution adopting a resolution adopting a schedule of fees pertaining to Title 10, Chapter 10, of the Selmer Municipal Code.  This is the fee schedule for the Corinth-Alcorn County Humane Society that we tabled last month that I brought back up.  So I'll entertain a motion to approve that."  That motion was made by Edward Smith, seconded by John Finlayson, and passed unanimously.

"The next item," Robinson continued, "is the first reading of an ordinance to amend Title 10, Chapter 10, Section 10-205 of the Selmer Municipal Code.  This is the animal control, and basically it clarifies the issuance of a citation pertaining to noisy dogs.  Basically what it is, the first time we'll go out and warn, and the second time we'll probably issue a ticket.  I would entertain a motion to approve that on first reading."  Simpson supplied the motion, which passed unanimously after being seconded by Edward Smith.

"The next item," Robinson continued, "is the first reading of an ordinance to amend Title 10, Chapter 10, Section 10-204 of the Selmer Municipal Code pertaining to the keeping of pit bulls within the corporate limits of the Town of Selmer, Tennessee.  This—and Paul, you might want to expound on this—this ordinance basically prohibits the keeping of pit bulls, and they're defined in here by several different classifications, within the town of Selmer, and when this ordinance passes you'll have 90 days to eliminate the animal.  Is that good enough?"

"I so move," Simpson replied.  "Let me explain.  What we're saying," he then reads from the proposed ordinance: "'other municipalities have found that pit bulls are so dangerous to humans and other animals that special legislation restricting or prohibiting their ownership has been enacted,' and 'the mere possession of [a] pit bull[] poses a significant threat to the health, welfare, and safety of the citizens of Selmer,' so we ask—  And it gives the definition of pit bull dogs, and then, 'It shall be unlawful to keep, harbor, own, or in any way possess a pit bull dog within the corporate limits of the Town of Selmer.  Any persons owning such dogs at the time this ordinance is adopted shall have ninety days to comply with the provisions of this ordinance.'  Now this is the first reading, and there has to be two readings, and there has to be two readings on that, so the ninety days will start at the May meeting.  So I so move that, first reading."  His motion, seconded by Edward Smith, passed unanimously.

Robinson moved on.  "The next item of business is approval of a resolution to amend the Town of Selmer, Tennessee, personnel policy.  This is the section that addresses sick pay in the personnel policy.  Paul, you want to expound on that at all?  Did you want to expound on that at all?  Basically what it does is cap the use of sick leave at twelve weeks for immediate family members, as described in there now, and then if there are extraordinary circumstances, then you can bring it before the board for further consideration, for longer use of it."

"The only other," Simpson replied, "there're are only two things, I guess.  It takes out of the definition of sick leave, and it says 'When you are sick or disabled.  When you, your child or spouse'—and this is the change—'When you, your child or spouse has an appointment with a doctor or a dentist,' and 'When you are restricted to your home because of quarantine.'  And it takes out the serious illness that was in the other thing and it adds that.  And also, the twelve weeks an employee can take for family medical leave act under the federal thing, it says that you have twelve weeks built up, you're an employee and you take family medical leave, and they accept twelve weeks, usually unpaid, but if you have sick pay or vacation built up, you can use, you can get paid those twelve weeks under your sick pay."

There was a long pause after Simpson restated his motion, and then a second was finally provided by Lloyd Tennyson and the motion passed unanimously.

"The next item is the approval of the TEAC management agreement.  I think I spoke last month.  This is basically the same boilerplate management agreement that we have with TEAC currently.  It just, instead of doing it annually, we do it every three years, now.  So I would ask for approval to sign that."  Finlayson made the motion, which was seconded by John Smith and passed unanimously.

Robinson then addressed City Recorder Ann Henderson. "Ann, in the minutes I want to read in the appointment of Jason Speth and Wes Harrison to the Municipal-Regional Planning Commission.  If you'll remember, I think we increased, last month, the membership to seven, which was in compliance with state law that says if you have a municipal-regional planning commission you have to, if you have five members you have to have one of them within the urban growth boundary area, if you have seven you have to have two.  So both of these satisfy those requirements for living in the urban growth boundary area."

The mayor then asked the board to approve an agreement with Williams, Jerrolds, Godwin and Nichols to perform the city audit for 2007-2008.  A motion to that effect was made by Simpson, seconded by Finlayson, and passed unanimously.

That being the last item of business, Robinson asked if anyone in the audience wished to addressed the board.

City employee Jim Walker spoke up. "I'd like to address the board about the part about changing the policy, that before the next time that you have a meeting that you consider getting with some of the department heads to discuss the way it has been and maybe work out a compromise on this thing for the best interests of the employees and for the city of Selmer, instead of just changing it to one basic thing.  You know, have a discussion, maybe at the work session, have the department heads or whatever, and discuss it.  I think there's more to benefit the city and the employees if you will do that on this rather than just saying 'We're going to change the sick leave policy where you can only have the twelve weeks,' and for what you can use it for, whatever.  I foresee more absenteeism and different things that's going to happen when we do that.  It's something I'd like you to consider before the next meeting before you pass that."

When Walker concluded, Mayor Robinson recognized Debbie Morrow, another city employee, who asked, "What are y'all calling your immediate family.  Like, if my mother gets deathly sick, can I take my sick days?"

"It's basically," Robinson replied, "immediate family is your parents, step-parents, mother-in-law, father-in-law, children, step-children—that didn't change.  The immediate family definition remains exactly the same as it is in there right now."

"Does anybody else have anything besides that?" Robinson asked.

"What about the dog board?" Johnny Hollis asked.  "Does that include dogs that have been running loose?"

"As a matter of fact, Mr. Hollis, what we have now been able to do, with the approval of the fee schedule, we now have a mechanism that we can in fact enforce that leash law.  Before, we quite frankly didn't have that, but now we do.  So, yeah."

"Well," Hollis asked, "what do you do?  If you have a complaint, who do you call.  Do you call Paul?"

"No," Robinson responded, "you call the police department.  Tell them there's a dog running at large.  And, quite frankly, the process is, if the dog has a collar we're certainly going to try to find the owner.  If not, then we will catch the dog and we will transport it to the Corinth Humane Society.

"Yes, sir?" Robinson then said, acknowledging Homer Watson, who had offered the prayer to open the meeting.

"What about cats?" Watson asked, to considerable laughter.

"Homer," Robinson said, "I'm going to leave cats up to you."

Watson persisted. "I'm just saying, you know, you got stray cats running around—"

"I hear you," Robinson said, seriously.  "Well, they'll take cats, too."

Paul Simpson then produced more laughter when he said to Watson, "Well, let me tell you how to build a cat house," and then proceeded to do so.

When the laughter subsided, Watson tried again. "But I'm just saying, if I've got a complaint with a cat, I just call—"

"Well," Robinson replied, unhelpfully, "we're trying to get one thing at a time, Homer."

"But I'm just saying," Watson tried one more time, "a stray animal is a stray animal, and you know I've got a bunch of stray cats running in my neighborhood—"

"Well," Robinson said, "quite frankly, if you can catch them, they will take them."

As the crowd began to disperse after one of the shortest meetings in living memory, Richard Ashe recommended that all future meetings of the town board be scheduled on nights when big basketball games were being played. 

The comity and cooperation promised at the February meeting of the Selmer Town Board was shown at the March meeting to be nothing but hot air.  Although the mayor and aldermen refrained from any obviously hostile verbal exchanges, the familiar lack of cooperation was evidenced by the tabling of two items proposed by Mayor David Robinson and the death of a third item from lack of a second.

* * * 

After the initial formalities, Mayor Robinson read aloud a letter which Parks and Recreation Director Sybil Dancer had received from Mark Cummins, Director of the state Department of Environment and Conservation: 

"'Dear Ms Dancer.  It is my honor and pleasure to announce that you have successfully completed the tier one level of the Tennessee Parks and Recreation benchmarking program as part of the Department of Economic and Community Development Three Star Program.  You can be proud of your parks and recreation department and the goals that they have met in order to complete this visionary component of the Three Star Program.  Completing this recreation assessment at the tier one level has allowed you to create a benchmarking system to measure your participation in parks and recreation services against other departments in Tennessee and enable you to provide services and facilities to the citizens of Selmer.  Sincerely, Mark Cummins, Director."

Mayor Robinson then added his congratulations, before mentioning another parks and recreation related development.  "And one other thing that we've been working on, is it tomorrow at noon?  Tomorrow at noon, if everything goes correctly, the city park will be a wireless hot spot.  So you can go out there with your laptops and your wireless communications and sit in the park and enjoy it and communicate with the world."

The mayor then called on Police Chief Neal Burks, who brought Patrolmen Chris Reynolds and Robert Hitchborn into the meeting room with him.  "Mr. Mayor, Board," Burks began, "on February 14 of this year, at approximately 2:43 a.m., Patrolman Reynolds and Patrolman Hitchborn responded to a possible fire at the Economy Inn, apartment number 115.  They checked and found that there were no signs of a fire at that time, but Patrolman Hitchborn went to the rear of the building and did locate smoke.  Both officers then entered the room and discovered a lifeless body on the floor.  Both officers pulled this gentleman from the room, then Patrolman Reynolds pulled him about fifty feet across the parking lot and checked for a pulse, which was negative.  Patrolman Reynolds then began to perform CPR, chest compressions, and after a short time the victim began to respond.  Both officers went above and beyond their duties in saving a life.  The Selmer Police Department and the City of Selmer should be proud to have officers of this caliber working for us.  It gives me great pride to present each officer with a certificate of heroism for exemplary bravery."

The presentation was greeted with applause and further congratulations from the mayor and board members.

* * * 

Robinson then called on "Mr. Ted Moore, who is the Director of Economic and Community Development, newly appointed, I think January 1, to kind of give us a little update of his assessment of where we are and where we're going."

Moore obliged and spent a dozen minutes reviewing the state of economic development in McNairy County.

"First of all," he began, "I appreciate this opportunity.  This is the first time I've got to talk to this group.  After being in banking for many years, and having done this once before in another life in another county, and having a new gentleman at the bank that's learned the ropes and everything, it gave me the opportunity to apply for this position, and I appreciate the Economic Development Commission selecting me to do this.  It's something that I dearly love.  It's something, even though I was in the banking business after being an economic developer in Humphreys County many years ago, I've still stayed active with economic development.  I continue to be a member of the state organization.  I continue to be an active member of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway organization.  So, when the opportunity came around to think about applying it really didn't take me long to make that decision.

"This is a new opportunity for us, too, locally, in putting the economic development and the Chamber of Commerce together.  In the past, having served on the board and as president of the Chamber for two years in the past, the Chamber of Commerce was in a position where they had to spend a lot of time just raising money to exist, and now, under the new organization, with funding in place, it gives the Chamber part of our organization time to be out and doing things that a Chamber of Commerce needs to be doing.  And we're in the process now, we've advertised for a Director of Chamber Programs, and also an administrative assistant.  So we're in the process of doing that.  As we continue to go forward to put the organization together to make it a functioning organization that I think that everybody can be proud of and one that we can be successful at.

"We spent a lot of time, this first couple of months, trying to do a lot of positive things.  As we know, we had sort of a bad year last year, unfortunately, in the national news, and I'd like to say thanks to Russell [Ingle] and the newspaper in helping us trying to turn the corner on attitude in this community.   I think we've done that, and we're ready now, I think, to take some other steps.  We've had one prospect that I was hoping last week we'd be able to turn over a key to him, to the Shefenacker Building.  Unfortunately, that has been delayed, due to somebody taking several thousands of dollars worth of copper wire and so forth from the building from the first time we went in it and looked at the building.  So we're trying to get through that issue.  He will be back in a couple of weeks.  He's still in the fold—" 

"Ted," Mayor Robinson interjected, "I believe he indicated, though, that we'll get through that issue."

"He's still in the fold," Moore agreed, "still moving forward, and I hope in a couple of weeks he will be back.  Moving from California, moving his business, and he's going to bring some things in-house that he out-sourced in California, so I think we'll be looking at probably 80 or 90 jobs that he will be providing our community.  So we are excited about that possibility.  We'll have a ribbon cutting, originally scheduled for March 29, or the last part of this month, for L.E. Johnson Transport.  It's now at the airport.  They've hired about 17 or 18 people, and hopefully, with their business plan, in a couple of years or three, will be a major player in our community also.

"I would commend the airport manager.  He has gone out and recruited another company for another hanger out there, and things are moving forward with that, and hopefully we could see in the near future maybe 40 or 50 jobs at the airport.  There for a while, it was sort of dead on the vine, but it's making a comeback, and that's good.

"We're also, been working on a, just recently with a company that is in a situation which is completely confidential, and that's one of the things that, working together in the future, that this board and also the county commission and the board over at Adamsville specifically, we'll have to learn, I guess, to work with each other, because there are going to be times when I'll be working, hopefully, with a company that's looking at our community that I cannot talk about the name or who they are, and sometimes I won't know the name.  It will be a project that will have a code name.  The last really big one we had was Project Force.  Project Force had a connection to Toyota.  They wanted to start out with about 200,000 square feet and be able to add up to 400,000 square feet to their building in the future.  We made the first cut on that, and Jana Hellums, my predecessor, did a great job with that.  Unfortunately, we got to that point and the company did not get the contract with Toyota.  But those things happen, but you have to go forward every time you get that opportunity to try to make it happen.

"We had another opportunity way back in July with a company that originally announced that they were going to Henderson.  Unfortunately, that company wanted what we call 'shovel-ready' land, and we do not have shovel-ready land.  We do have an industrial park.  It needs some work, and I've got a meeting scheduled for this week with a gentleman from the state.  When Midwest Woodwork started building their building, it took some $550,000 or $575,000 to bring 17 acres of shovel-ready.  Most of that money came from the state of Tennessee, and they have a fund that once you have a, what's called bird in the hand, then they will help you with infrastructure and so forth.  But now they have a new program, and we were the first to be advised of it, that if we're doing things that we need to be doing in the community, then they'll come in before we have a bird in the hand and help us.  And we've got a gentleman coming this week that I hope we get through a meeting with him, and he's a good friend, we've known each other for a long time, that we'll again be able to get money from the state, a 93% grant to bring about thirty acres to shovel-ready in the industrial park.  TLM Engineering in Jackson is working on the application as we speak, and hopefully, if everything comes together, that application will be ready by month's end, and we'll be ready to move forward with that.  And the gentleman that's coming, again, this week will be the one who will decide whether or not we should go forward with that application.  So, I think we've got an excellent chance to make that happen. 

"I have a small company that we'll meet with tomorrow that's looking for just three or four acres to move their small operation that would add about six or seven jobs.  But six or seven jobs is six or seven jobs, and we do have a spot in the industrial park that we can utilize for that. 

"We have plans, later on this month, to have an expert come in and talk about what we call pilot programs.  If we had— My concern is, if we had somebody, a large manufacturer come in and ask for a tax abatement, or, as we call it a pilot, so forth, we've had changes on the Selmer/McNairy County Industrial Board and they've had some, reorganized at Adamsville, and I'd be concerned that we might not be ready to give the answer that we need to give, and be [inaudible word—Russell coughs—may be presented or prevented] and would have to go back and make a change, and that would not be good when you're talking to an industry.  So, we have an expert that's going to come in and sit down with the two industrial boards and go over what an industrial board's all about, and what we can do and can't do, and how we should be organized, and also what pilots are all about, and I think that would be a good next move, because once we get that prospect we don't need for anything to go astray as we move forward. 

"And also, mark your calendar for April 10, in afternoon.  We will have a planning session to talk about where we are, where we're going, how we're going to get there together, so that we can have a county-wide comprehensive economic development plan that we can go forward with, and all of us understand what it is and what we're trying to do, and all of us work together." 

"Ted," Mayor Robinson asked, "where are you going to hold that?  UT Martin?" 

"UT," Moore confirmed.  "If there are any questions, I'll try to answer them." 

"Sounds like you're pretty busy," Robinson said.

"It's fun, Moore replied.  "I'm enjoying it very much.  We had some good success when we did it before, and I look forward for us to have success again.  Again, we've got to have the land, and be prepared, and that's what—" 

"You're working on that now, aren't you?" Robinson asked.  "You might mention the, uh, the trade fair that you're going to.  Is it next week?" 

"The state called," Moore said, "and offered to help pay my expenses to go to Detroit next month to the Society of Automobile Engineers Congress, which everybody that makes an automobile part will be there.  There'll be 700 exhibitors.  So I'll be working the Tennessee both for two mornings, and then in the afternoon I'll be working the Toyota booth, [chuckles] hardly, visiting it.  But it's a good opportunity for us, and I appreciate the state inviting us to do that.  And again, another reason to do this job, is the stars started lining up, and a friend of mine that is now working down in Tupelo, he's with TVA.  They sort of threatened him if he came us here and helped us, but we may sneak him in some night when nobody's watching.  And also, I will say for those that don't know, Jana Hellums that did such a good job for us is now going to be the person working for the state of Tennessee that will be bringing us prospects.  So that's another, I hope, another plus for us."

* * *

The next two agenda items were disposed of briskly.  The second reading of an ordinance amending the number of members of the Municipal-Regional Planning Commission from five to seven passed unanimously and without discussion on a motion by John Smith, seconded by John Finlayson, and the first reading of an Ordinance to amend Title 9, Chapter 9 of the Selmer Municipal Code regulating yard sales in the Town of Selmer likewise passed unanimously and without discussion (on a motion by Finlayson, seconded by Lloyd Tennyson), after Mayor Robinson briefly related its provisions: "What this ordinance does, eliminates the $5 fee, it eliminates the hours of operation, it requires signage to be taken down only after the sale, you can still put it up two days earlier, and you can also call in for a permit, as opposed to showing up in person." 

The mayor's next proposal did not fare as well. "As y'all remember," he began, "last month we sought approval to seek bids for the city hall renovation, and we did.  We only got one bid, and that bid was for $17,825 from Jimmy Hawkins.  Primarily, what it covers is removing, certainly, all the paneling here and replacing it with raised paneling, including behind and under the windows there, all the way around, the dais here.  Of course, they attach it to the block wall.  And what we found out, there's a six-inch drop from this corner [in the back of the room] to that corner [at the front of the room], so it will, they'll have to work that in to make it look proper.  This area up here [where the board members sit] will be completely redone.  This area here.  This does not include painting.  There will be sheetrock above the wainscoating, including back here on the back.  It will dress the area up pretty good.  I have got money in the budget for this, and, certainly, it completes what we started last year and the year before in renovating city hall.  It's forty years old, and it's time, it needs just a little lipstick and paint, so I would request that you approve this." 

"I make a motion we table this," Paul Simpson said, abruptly. 

Finlayson said, after a pause, "I think we should also include the flooring, too.  Everything together, all in one bid and get enough that we can pick the best one.  I think that's going to be the best thing to do." 

Simpson's motion to table the proposal was seconded simultaneously by John Smith and Lloyd Tennyson and passed without further discussion by a unanimous roll call vote. 

"Okay," Robinson said, "the next item, and we discussed this last night in the board meeting, not board meeting, the working session.  We have an animal control ordinance that requires us to adopt a fee schedule, and there's a resolution in front of you that basically pertains to the fees, based with the Corinth/Alcorn County Humane Society.  It amends Title 10, Chapter 10 of the Selmer Municipal Code, Section 10-107 and Section 10-207, and all this does is just approve a fee schedule.  It has nothing to do with the operation of the ordinance and how we do, how we enforce that with, certainly, Paul, I think you had made a motion last night, a recommendation that we get with the chief and kind of work that through.  This just establishes the fees that have to be done.  So I would ask for that to be approved.  I need a motion on that." 

"I again make a motion that that be tabled," Simpson said, "because as I, as we discussed last night, I think we need to sit down with Chief Burks, who gets most of the complaints, and come up with a comprehensive ordinance so we'll know exactly what we have." 

"Well," Robinson pointed out, "we have an ordinance, Paul, on the books as we speak.  As a matter of fact, it's Title 10, under Animal Control, and it's quite extensive.  It's in your Municipal Code now.  What this resolution simply does, it simply says, it fulfils the requirement that, 'in accordance with a schedule approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen,' is all it says.  It has nothing to do with the operations.  It just, it's a fee schedule with the Corinth Humane Society.  And it won't effect you speaking with Neal or anyone else regarding our ordinance.  But the ordinance is already on the books." 

Simpson was undeterred. "I again make the motion we table the amendment." 

"Second," John Smith said, predictably, and then, leaning in toward the mayor, beside whom he sits at these meetings, he added this stunning non sequitur: "And the reason why I second it is if you go back to that ordinance it says every dog in the city will be leashed or caged." 

"You're exactly right," Robinson said, refraining from adding that what he was right about was irrelevant to the question of setting fees for people who don't keep their pets penned or leashed.  "So you're going to change the ordinance, is that what you guys want to do?" 

"I seconded to table," Smith responded, petulantly. 

Edward Smith then said, "I think that it would be good if we maybe hold on to this until next month and let the chief meet with us at the working session, and I'd like to know how big a problem it is.  I'm not saying we don't need to do it, but I think it would be good if we get to where we know what we're actually doing, how much is involved, how many complaints we're having, and exactly what we're going to do.  If a neighbor's dog barks, we're going to go pick it up?  Or what are we going to do?  You know, even if it's in a pen, it may bark." 

"And I don't disagree with that," Robinson said, before adding that "This resolution does not address any of that.  It simply addresses the fee schedule with the Corinth Humane Society.  That's all it does." 

"I think there's a few little things we need to talk about before we actually do it, Edward Smith persisted.  "And I'm thinking we probably need to do it, but I think we really need to talk about it and make sure we know exactly what we're covering." 

When put to a vote, the motion to table passed unanimously.

* * * 

Robinson pushed on.  "Okay, the next item is an approval for Chief Dillingham to pursue a Homeland Security Grant to replace, basically, to buy a fire engine to replace engine number four.  David, why don't you kind of fill us in here a little bit." 

"Okay, the next item is an approval for Chief Dillingham to pursue a Homeland Security Grant to replace, basically, to buy a fire engine to replace engine number four.  David, why don't you kind of fill us in here a little bit."  

"Thank you," Dillingham began, "and good evening Mayor and members of the board.  Basically, other than just reading the memorandum that I gave you, this year they've opened up the Assistance in Firefighting Grants again for all departments throughout the country.  And they started, it opens up on the third of March and will close on April the fourth.  And when this program first started back in 2001, they said if you've got a fire truck that's not thirty years old, don't even apply for a truck.  Well, a few years ago they said, well, if you've got a fire truck that's not over twenty years old, don't apply for it.  Now, they've got it all the way down to something like thirteen years.  So we're in the running for one of our front-line pumpers to replace.  And the reason why we need to totally replace this truck, if we are lucky to get the grant—this isn't a guarantee that we're going to get a grant—if we're lucky to get this grant we need to completely do away and sell this truck, because the federal registry, what I understand from the seminars that I've attended for grant writing, is that if you put in your grant writing, in your proposal, that you're planning on retaining the truck, you've got a very low ability for getting this thing through the system.  If you say you're going to get rid of this truck, then you get almost maximum points in that area of what the truck needs to be used for.  And the engine I'm requesting to do is engine four.  It's twenty-three years old.  I've got a little statistics for you that I did up.  Even with the replacement of the engine that we did just a couple of months ago, it's cost the city to run yearly, without counting routine maintenance like oil change and stuff, about $4,500 a year for the twenty-three years that we've had it.  If we're lucky and get this new fire truck, which could cost up to $250,000, it's only going to cost us $750 a year for the next twenty years." 

"What's that at?" Robinson asked.  "Five percent?" 

"Five percent, yes, sir.  All I'm asking for the board tonight is your approval to let me go ahead and pursue this.  And if we get this then I will be coming back to the board and asking you to fund our five percent." 

"Any questions for David?" Robinson said to the board. 

"I had a question, but you've answered it," John Smith said.  "The only question that we talked about yesterday was, and you answered it by, if you're going to get rid of it you're more likely to get the grant.  We were just wondering, since we did just spend $12,000 on it, maybe was there a possibility to keep it.  But I understand that—"