Dwana Garrison (643-9402)            2011
    Mike Norris (632-0978)                   2009
    Jeff Browder                                     2009

Town Board Meeting

It was too good to last, and it didn't.  The peace and comity (relatively speaking, of course) of recent Adamsville town board meetings had completely evaporated by the end of the April meeting, the low-lights of which were probably Commissioner Mike Norris's dismissal of Tommy Morris as "just an honorary mayor" and Morris's own ordering of Town Manager Terry Thrasher to clear out his office by the next day.  Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

* * *

The April meeting of the Adamsville city commission began innocently enough, with the unanimous approval of the minutes of the March meeting (on a motion by Frank Lacey, seconded by Jeff Browder), of the financial report (on a motion by Lacey, seconded by Mike Norris), and of the other reports (on a motion by Lacey, seconded by Browder).

The first item of old business related to the now quite familiar property on Hwy 64 West.  Town Manager Terry Thrasher reported that the town had received three appraisals on the property.  "One appraised it between ten and twelve thousand, one appraised it at seventeen thousand, and one appraised it at twenty thousand."  Only one of the appraisals ($17,000) was in writing, and that appraiser "said that property was questionable because of the lack of sewer availability."

After considerable discussion about options for providing sewer services for the property and about how to go about putting the property up for sale, Lacey eventually made a motion that the town put the property up for sale for $17,000, "as is."  Dwana Garrison asked if the town would have to pay a realtor's commission out of the $17,000, or "are we just going to put a sign up there that says 'For Sale by the City of Adamsville?"

"You don't have to list it," Norris observed.  "You can put a sign out there and send a letter to all the realtors and say, 'This property is for sale, you're more than welcome to show it.  This is what we want, net.  If you want something out of it, put that on top of it.'  Or tell the realtor to let the buyer pay his commission.  It's done all the time.  But I'd say that you ought to get something in writing, somewhere, about the sewage thing.  Because they're going to ask you that."

Lacey pointed out that "17,000 will be a deal for the land," and anyone putting a "viable business" on that property could best use the money saved to put in a sewer system appropriate to that business, rather than have the town put in a system that might not be suitable for the ultimate purchaser. 

Browder agreed. "We can put it up for sale and get someone in there, and then we can cross that bridge when we get to it."

After some further discussion, Browder seconded Lacey's motion to offer the property for sale at $17,000 "as is," and the motion carried unanimously.

* * *

The next item of old business, "Contractor Agreement," was dealt with swiftly, with town attorney Ken Seaton telling the commission that he will have the matter taken care of the next day.

"Fireworks," the Mayor Tommy Morris then intoned.

Thrasher informed the commissioners that he had received a package of information from the Tennessee Municipal League (TML), the thrust of which was that the best course for the town to take would be to contract out the fireworks displays at various functions, as the town did the previous year.  Garrison volunteered the information that the town had obtained a five million dollar insurance policy, and attorney Seaton said that he was satisfied with the fireworks arrangements.

* * *

Next up was a rehash of the dog situation in Adamsville.  Thrasher advised that the town would not be picking up any dogs, but would instead be citing dog owners in to court.  Norris said that all the town needed to do is enforce the already existing ordinance.  Mayor Morris was not so hopeful, saying that the problem had been around since he first came into public office and would go on forever.

Commissioner Browder then explained why he had brought the issue up in the first place, saying that he was concerned about dogs that didn't belong to anybody—"wild dogs—that's the animals that I was concerned with when all this was brought up.  I wasn't concerned with anybody's animal that they even halfway claim or halfway take care of.  It's those animals that run, three or four at a whack all over town, and if you don't see them, you're not looking."  He pointed out that the town might actually face some legal liability if someone was injured by a dog as a result of the town not enforcing an existing ordinance.

Further discussion ensued, then Lacey said, "This is what I'd like to do now.  I'd like to make a motion that we require all dogs in Adamsville to be registered, and have a tag, and if you see a dog that is not registered and he doesn't have a tag, then that dog is subject to being picked up and sent out, whatever."

"I think we've already got that," Mayor Morris observed.  Thrasher agreed, saying, "We've got that in the books and it was run in the paper.  What you're making a motion is, if we see a dog like the two up there, we pick them up and carry them to Corinth."

Norris observed that "we've got to use a little common sense," and Browder pointed out that what was contemplated was a "complaints only" policy.  That is, that the only dogs that would be picked up were those about which specific complaints had been made to town authorities.

Lacey's motion, seconded by Norris, passed unanimously.

* * *

The next quarter hour or so was spent discussing the town's long-range plans.

"We're talking about long-range updates on water, gas and sewer," Thrasher explained.  "The Adamsville water department, without replacing a lot of in-ground lines, like that on Shiloh Road, down Main Street, places like that, there's somewhere around three hundred, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of work needs doing—"

Thrasher then looked at utility director Paul Wallace Plunk, who responded, "I've got that up through 2015."

"Paul has looked at it all out to 2015," Thrasher continued.  "In the next six or seven years we need to spend about three hundred and fifty thousand on the water department, and that's not replacing old lines, like the one through Main Street, or any of these others.  But he's getting some more figures together, so I just wanted y'all to know they're working on this.  They haven't finished it yet."

Plunk observed that "It's very hard to get some of these figures, because you call these people and you ask them to give you a price on, like a new lift station, 'Okay, I'll get back with you.'  Well, you wait and you wait and they don't get back with you, and you call them again.  And it just takes time to put all these figures together."

"And of course," Browder added, "it would be one price in 2010, and another in 2015."

"Well," Thrasher said, "what they do, too, is they know that you're not ready to buy this, so they don't get in a big hurry."

"Well, I would think we are ready to buy this," Lacey

"I would, too," Norris agreed.

Lacey continued.  "Maybe we need to hire an engineering firm to come in here and assess it and get us, you know, what they think it is, because in my opinion this is a pending disaster."

"Well, you remember what was said at the meeting?" Norris said, referring to the long-range planning meeting the commissioners had had with MTAS's Ronnie Neill.  "You know, we can't make any kind of long range plans until the utilities are brought up to date."

"Amen," Garrison chimed in.

"You don't have what you need in several places," Norris continued.  "And Neill agreed with that.  And so, until we get that done, there's no use of doing much else.  And the faster that we can do it— I'm like Frank.  I mean, we are, we do need to be ready to do that.  Because Toyota is coming."

"Well," Thrasher said, "that gives us a start, at least."

After some further discussion about the need to upgrade systems so that Adamsville can advance, Norris said, "What we talked about in the long range planning meeting too, was that, in addition to beginning to get prepared for whatever might happen industry-wise, is that you're going to have people coming in that are going to want places to live.  You've got to have the proper utilities for them.  The industry, that's one of the first questions they're going to ask you.  Not only for their plants, but, you know, what kind of facilities have you got for the people that's going to need to move here."

"So, if we're needing to do this," Garrison said, "looks like to me, then, that we need to do it."

Lacey asks whether the board should make some decisions before hiring an engineering firm, or should hire an engineering firm before making any decisions.

"You need to hire an engineering firm first," Plunk said.

"When he gets through with this," Thrasher said, referring to Plunk's preliminary proposal, "—and he's done a yeoman's job on it—we can't spend the money until … the people with the state of Tennessee that's over our, keep us toeing the line on the water, has to have an engineer's approval before we can do any of this.  We cannot go out here and buy a lift station and put it in without their coming and checking it and making sure we're doing it the way they want it done.  So, yeah, we need to hire an engineer at some point."

"I feel like we're at that point," Lacey repeated.  "Water and sewer.  I would like to see us do it.  I mean, find somebody that can come in here and, you know, if they can find a grant, fine.  If they can't find a grant, by golly we need to suck up and get this done."

"So, that's what I was just saying a while ago," Garrison said.  "We've got thing we need to do.  We've got to do it, do we not?"

After some further discussion Lacey said, "I want to make a motion that we hire an engineering firm to do the preliminary work, with the understanding that if we, that we pay them for the preliminary work, and if we use their planning we'll pay them for their long-range work, so there'll be no confusion there, to look into our water and sewer needs, right now, in the City of Adamsville."

Norris seconded the motion, after which Lacey asked Plunk, "Is that the right motion to make, Paul?  Does that cover what we need to get done?"

Plunk said that it did, and then added, "It would be good if you have the same firm that does water, waste water too, instead of hiring one for water and one for waste water."

"And," Browder said, "I guess we're taking into consideration all the stuff that's already, wheels are already spinning on, too."

Thrasher observed, "You got Delta Regional Grant, CBDG grant, that's what, there's not going to be another grant come down the pike, until we get through with the ones we've already got.  There's no grant money available to do any of this."

Mayor Morris observed, "I hope y'all are not going to be surprised when you get an estimate on, this is what this upgrade will be.  It's going to be fifteen, eighteen million dollars."

The motion then passed on a unanimous roll call vote.

* * *

The next twenty minutes were spent in an inconclusive discussion of the town's website.

"Did all of you read this, right here?" Norris asked, holding up a proposal he had circulated to the board members.  "We need to revamp our website.  Is everybody in agreement with that?"

"What's wrong with it?" asked Mayor Morris.

"Well," Norris replied, "it's just very much out of date.  I've had two people to tell me that.  Professionals.  This [waving the proposal he still held] is a firm that I have, that I found when we went to the seminar last year.  The name of the company is MMA Creative, and they, this is their business, is to create websites that work.  And they do a lot of work with small cities.  Some of their past work— They've been in business since 1990, something like that."

"1991," Garrison supplied, reading from the proposal before her.

Norris continued.  "Examples of their work: Tennessee Meth Prevention Program, this is one of their most significant accomplishments, which was the result of their efforts to develop the first meth prevention campaign, in 2003, for the Upper Cumberland Region.  This was an award-winning program that they have.  Another one was the Cumberland Business Journal.  I'll let you, you should all read this, I guess.  They did some work for the governor here in the state of Tennessee in his last campaign.  Frank, you might want to take a look at that.  And also, My Hometown Web Module, this is a particularly good situation, here.  It's, briefly, it's an actual video that runs on your website, and there are different actual individuals in your community that are interviewed online, in video, and they're stating why they like living in your community.  Hardin County is doing that on their website.  And so, the reason that I'm wanted to bring this up is because of what I learned last year, and it's, I'm sure you're all more and more aware of it.  You have to be.  One of the statements that's been brought up to me, here of recent, is that close to eighty percent, eighty percent of everyone that plans vacations does it on the internet.  They're looking for places to go, and that's what they look at, is the website of the different communities where they plan to travel.  Industry, that's one of the major, initial steps that they take in trying to determine where they might locate an industry.  This is through the websites with counties, or communities, and that sort of thing.  So, you know, we need to be prepared for that, and we're just not.  So, the proposal that this particular company has, and I would, I mean, it's not going to be cheap, but it's not going to be just astronomical.  They have a four-step program that, to where they, their personal interview here, with our people here, to determine what needs to be in that website.  The design of it, they take care of the design of it.  Then there's the development, or the implementation of the programming and support the objectives such as discovery and design, and then the deployment of the website.  And this, according to them and their estimate, will take some seventy hours to do this stuff.  And their estimate is $6,300.  So, I would urge us to do this."

"What do we pay now?" Morris asked.

"We don't pay anything now," Norris said.

"Then why do we want to change?" Morris asked.

"Well," Norris replied, "we don't have a good one right now."

"What?" the mayor asked.

"We don't have a very user-friendly one right now," Lacey responded.

"You can't find anything, now," Norris amplified, "on what we have now."

"Well," Lacey continued, "if you explore internet websites, to do things, you want something that jumps out at you, a banner on there, advertisements, upcoming events, things like that, places to eat.  And ours does none of that.  Ours basically has his [Thrasher's] big face on it, and that's about it.  [Crosstalk]  And it needs to invite you, not just to this town, but our area.  But it also needs to have demographics on there, and stuff, what kind of labor force we have, how many people live here, you know, what kind of tax base we have.  Things like that."

Garrison 5253: "Well, we'd have to feed them that information, wouldn't we?"

After further discussion of the present website and how it isn't really being maintained, Garrison said, "I agree that we need to update ours, and I agree we need a new one, but, you know, I know, because I have a website, and it probably tells more about the city and stuff than the city does itself.  But you're got to have a good creator, that's creating that website, and you know that we feed them the information.  I just think, I just think we could get it done for less, and still get a good website, is what I'm saying.   And one thing I want to add is, we just have this one price.  Why not spend this month in getting, see if we can get two or three other companies to give us a price on it.  Because this is nowhere near what we've had to pay.  In five years."

"More, or less?" Lacey asked.

"This is more," Garrison replied.  "And we get ours updated.  We pay as we kind of go, as far as updating, depending on how much we need to tell, like during festival time and first of the year time, and then it slows down towards the middle of the year, toward the late of the year, we start updating stuff—"

"Who does yours?" Norris asked.

Garrison explained that her website was maintained by Independent Appeal reporter Russell Ingle, who then explained that plans were in the works for the McNairy County Chamber of Commerce to provide assistance to municipalities in the county in setting up and maintaining their websites, which could be done at considerably less than the $6,300 cost of the proposal Norris had submitted.

"We already donate to the Chamber," Mayor Morris observed.  "Would we not already be on there automatically?"

After some crosstalk, Ingle said, "There's still things to be discussed and worked out.  All I know is that will happen.  It won't be anything as far as cost like that."

"So," Garrison said, trying to sum up, "you're saying the possibility, my understanding, Mayor, is that through the Chamber, the Chamber is going to offer to help the city, it won't be near as costly as what this cost here will be.  But they'll be able to do it.  Now since we're a member of the Chamber, it won't be totally free, but it won't be this price here, either.  That's what he's saying."

Thrasher then interjected another consideration.  "Let me throw an interesting bit of information that came out last week.  House Bill 2717/Senate Bill 2734 is on the agenda for this legislation, requires each municipality and county to post its charter of incorporation on the website by January, on a website, or its website, by two thousand and nine— the first of the year.  And if they don't do it, you've got the, 'any county that does not will be required to post it on the Secretary of State's web.'  Which means you could get by with a little reference to Adamsville, but you've got to post it on their website or have your own.  It's going to be mandatory that you have one by January 1.  Now that don't mean it has to be good.  It just means you've got to have one."

"Well," Mayor Morris said, "what do y'all want to do about this website?  We've discussed it quite a bit.  Do you want to wait—"

"Well," Browder spoke up, "I think we need to wait and find out what happens with the Chamber, what's going on, and shop around.  Like I say, I would hope that you could build one more humdinger of a website for $6,300."

"You get what you pay for," Norris said.

"Well," Lacey responded, "you've got to understand what your website should be able to do, to be able to—"

"I understand what the website should be able to do," Norris interjected.

Lacey continued. "You've got to have somebody that can change it, and update off of, when we make policy changes, ordinance changes, they need to go on there, and event stuff, and you can have, I mean, you can actually sell ads on it, I mean, if you wanted to."

Adamsville resident Dan Brown, who was in the audience, then spoke up.  "Let me ask a question, if I could.  I've been on the Adamsville site, and I don't know what I was trying to find out, but I couldn't find out.  And it's not worth a toot, as far as I'm concerned.  But, who is going to put the data, all of the data, back history of Adamsville, and things like that people want to know.  Somebody has that, but, I mean, you may know about getting access to it, and—"

"Well," Norris replied, "that's what a good, a good designer will make it user friendly.  Our website is not user friendly."

"No," Brown agreed, "it's not."

Norris continued. "And a good website designer will make them user friendly, where they're very easy to use.  It will also link you to other regional websites, like Tennessee Tourism.  I mean, you can get in there and you can go all the state by linkage.  We need to be linked to Hardin County.  We may be.  I don't think we are, but we need to be linked there, we need to be linked to Corinth.  We need to be linked to Hardeman County.  We need to be linked to Madison County.  You know, all of the regional areas around here that would bring us in as a family, as a regional family.  We don't have that right now, and we've got to begin to do that."

Discussion then continued about getting other bids and about the various costs involved in creating and maintaining a website, during which Norris continues to advocate for his firm.

Finally, Lacey said "I would like to make a motion that we leave this to be looked at some local talent, and revisit this … next month.  And if we don't have any local talent that can give us what we want, then we consider this one right here."

After a bit more discussion the matter was dropped with no action being taken on either Norris's proposal or Lacey's motion.

* * *

The next ten minutes were spent in an inconclusive discussion of what should be the town's involvement in and expenditure toward the installation of "Utilities in Subdivisions," which ended with no vote and no decision, then Mayor Morris moved on to the next agenda item, "Summer Help—School Kids," discussion on which ranged far afield and led to an acrimonious exchange between Mayor Morris and Commissioner Norris.

"Just for informational purposes," Thrasher began, "last year we tried this.  We did not have to contract out any mowing, because we had a couple of kids that would work a little bit.  And that's because we posted an ad on the bulletin board at Adamsville Junior-Senior High School.  I have not check to see how many people we've got, but we will get three or four more like we got last year, and we'll keep everything mowed and trimmed with them and not have to contract it out.  It's cheaper in the long run."

Garrison gave Thrasher some grief about the cemetery not being mowed, and then she changed the subject: "Talking about summer help, Mayor?  It's not school kids, but May, coming up, and June's probably the biggest month at the festival, and May, June and July at the museum.  There's a man that's been there, and he helps, has been giving his, basically worked for free for three years, we need him, we need some extra hours, we need some extra manpower.  And I talked to Terry about it, and Terry just said that I would need to bring it up and talk to everybody here about it, and see.  Fred's willing to do it.  He's even willing to do it for minimum wage.  He already works there, anyway.  He's been giving his, but we need him, we need to be able to pay him some, because I think we're taking advantage of him, and Frank and Mr. Norris and Mr. Browder, I brought that up to y'all that day when we were there at the house and we had that MTAS guy there.  We've got a lot of extra preservation work that we're starting on already right now, and on computer work that's got to be done by a certain time, and that we're filing for grants, and we're needing an extra hand.  He would be able, we could get him for less money than we could anybody else, and it's not every day that he would have to be there, but—"

"Well," Morris said, "I understand he's married to that girl that works there.  That's the reason he's there, ain't it?

Norris then asked about funding. "Well, Dwana, you've got, when it comes to the museum, you've got a $58,000 budget, and you've only, you're almost all the way through the year, you've only used forty-seven thousand of that, and that means you've got $11,000 to use."

"Okay," Garrison replied, "but I have to bring this up, Mike, because they won't do it on their own, he won't let it be done, because she's afraid that the mayor won't like it, or that Terry won't like it and the mayor won't like it, so they told me I had to bring it up here, Mayor, so that's why I'm doing it."

Morris replied, "I think it ought to be, anybody you hire it's got to be brought before me.  That's an everyday deal.  It's got to be brought before me.  According to the charter."

"Why do we have supervisors, then?—" Norris began.

"Why do you have top bosses at jobs?" Morris interjected.

"—They're supposed to be able to do the job," Norris added.

"Why do you have top bosses at jobs?" Morris countered.  "I'm supposed to be the top boss—"

"You're not a top boss," Norris interjected, dismissively.

"Well," Morris replied, "I'm supposed to be."

"You're an honorary mayor," Norris said.

Lacey brought the discussion back to the issue at hand.  "I would make, and I understand what you said about decoration day, it'll be taken care of, and that that's the most important day—unless your child's up there.  And these people need to have somebody they can talk to and say, 'Hey, please.'  Because I don't want to hear about a mother, or having to get somebody [unintelligible] weeds around her child's grave.  I mean, those are the things that tear your heart out.  That's our cemetery, and you see it going down 64."

"It's just an embarrassment to the community," Norris said.  "I'll just be honest with you."

Lacey continued.  "And I, you know, maybe we need to look at out-sourcing it.  I mean, if we don't have the staff to do it, and it's probably cheaper if we out-source it."

"No, Frank," Thrasher disagreed.  "It's cheaper to do it with the summer help.  A whole lot cheaper.  Because when you bid the cemetery, the last two years we bid the yard mowing for the city of Adamsville, no body will bid on the cemetery.  They don't like it, they don't want it.  It scares them to death.  What we try to do is, it looks as ready as it ever does.  We haven't started yet, but I don't think we neglect the cemetery that much—"

"You do, too," Norris disagreed.  "There was leaves, and all along the road there, all winter long, branches and everything else, Terry.  I drive by it every day.  It looks like crap.  An there's stuff laying all over the cemetery.  It just looks like hell."

"Well," Thrasher responded, "you're going to spend a whole lot more money than we've been doing."

"Well," Norris observed, "you ain't got but $1,500 in here for the whole year."

"No, that's—" Thrasher began.

"What is that for?" Norris asked.
 "That's to—what was it we put that in there for?" Thrasher asked Debbie Moffett, of the parks and recreation department.

Moffett replied, "That was to make a sign to show if anybody went to the cemetery, they wouldn't have to come to city hall to find where their loved ones of family members—"

"But that comes under buildings and grounds. That's not part of that," Thrasher said.  "But I'm saying, if we mow that every ten days and do that, we're going to have to have a whole lot of summer help."

"Maybe we need spring help," Lacey remarked.  "Because, I mean, I understand this spring we had a lot of rain, the sun came out, and everything grew up.  I understand that.  And you can't, I mean, that's wonderful.  But, still, maybe we need to hire somebody."

Moffett raised an additional consideration regarding part-time employees. "When you hire a part-time employee at the city, if you hire them and employ them more than ninety days, you've got to make them an offer to make it full time.  But what we're asking right here now maybe is to have a seasonal employee, maybe either April through June, or May through July, and that be it.  That ninety days, he would get paid.  Even the summer-time helpers they do a ninety-day situation there, whereas when their ninety days are up you need to let them go."

Morris brought the discussion back to Garrison's request. "Well, what I was concerned with, Debbie and Dwana, is that would be four out of one family working."

"That's the reason I wouldn't approach it," Moffett said.

"Right," Garrison said.  "That's why she wouldn't approach it, and I used to feel that same way, too, until I found out what all he's been doing and how long he's been doing it free already, and he's the cheapest help that we could get this summer through the seasonal, you know.  We could hire him for minimum wage where we couldn't somebody else."

"And that family does a good job," added Town Recorder Jimmie Ann Burks.

"And they work hard in there," Garrison continued.

Mayor Morris replied, "I understand that, but it's just—"

"And he donates his time, Tommy," Garrison interrupted.  "Three years of donated time, I think that shows a little bit of respect, too.  I used to didn't think that I would want that to happen, but."

After still further discussion Lacey said that if the manager of the museum "can deal with it, I don't have a problem with it.  If it's in the budget."

"For the season," Garrison said.  "And that's what we're asking.  And that's what we're asking, Mayor, too.

"Well," Morris finally said, "I'll go along with it, but I'm against it."

* * *

Mayor Morris then moved to what proved to be the most contentious issue of the night: "Checks signed at City Hall," he read from the agenda.

"Talking with MTAS," Thrasher began, "Mr. Neill found out that we took a lot of checks out of this building and carried them down for you to sign, and his suggestion was that we didn't do that.  The checks ought to stay inside the city hall."

"Why?" Morris asked.

"And at the last meeting that we had," Thrasher continued, "it was either a planning meeting here or the planning meeting at Pickwick, this group of people okayed that, and said start doing it.  So the last time, it just so happened that you [Morris] came by here every time we needed checks signed until this past pay period.  And I said something about come by and sign the checks, and you said 'carry them down and put them in my pickup seat.'  And I said I'm not supposed to do that, you said 'Do it anyway,' and I did.  And we got payroll signed."

"I've done it ever since I've been here," Morris said.  "You've brought them ever since I've been here."

"I know it," Thrasher acknowledged.  "But I didn't know that MTAS frowned on that."

"I think where we miss the boat on this," Lacey interjected, "is, aren't checks done the same time every week?"

"Payroll is," Thrasher confirmed.

Lacey 0324: "I don't see a problem with knowing that at 8:00 o'clock on Friday morning, Tommy, we will have payroll ready for you to come by and sign, or Frank, for that matter, if he's out of town….  That's not a problem.  If I came by at eight and they were not ready, then I would obviously ask that you bring them to me….   Now, if you set a specific time up to have checks here to be signed, I don't think anyone would have a problem with coming by here and signing them.  I think it's very dangerous to take any kind of loose material outside the building, because of accidents—"

"People stealing," Garrison suggested.

"You've got to think about identity theft, too," Browder added.

"I'm going to tell you something," Garrison said, her voice rising.  "If we're laying checks, checks need to be signed, and whether it's the Mayor's truck, Paul Wallace's truck, your truck, or my truck, that don't need to be happening.  Now that's ridiculous.  That's ridiculous, like I said, identity theft and everything that goes on today, that needs to be stopped right now and right here.  If y'all are not going to, surely y'all are going to back me up on that."

"I don't think it needs to be done—" Browder began, before being cut off by Mayor Morris.

"Well," Morris said, "I'm going to tell you what, if I'm going to sign them up here, I want my office back, right over there [points to Thrasher's office], and I want them laying on that desk."

"Wait a minute—" Garrison started, but Morris ignored her.

"That's my office," he said.  "It was the mayor's office.  I let him use it—"

"Whoa," Thrasher said.  "Wait a minute.  You had the office down there—"

"No," Morris interrupted, "that wasn't my office out there.  Y'all put me in there.  I want that one back.  It's been the mayor's office.  It was built for the mayor's office, and I want you out of there tomorrow."

"Frank?" Garrison said, as though Lacey was the mayor's keeper, "Can you not do anything?"

"What am I supposed to do?" Lacey asked.

After a generally unintelligible exchange between Garrison and Lacey, during which Garrison said "but you said that you would handle this," Thrasher reentered the conversation, saying to Mayor Morris, "I talked to you about it, and you said, 'I don't need it.  Let him have it.'"

"I didn't need it," Morris replied.

At last, town attorney Seaton lost patience and said, "Have a motion and move on to something else."

Garrison then said, "I make a motion that we all, that checks have to be signed here at city hall.  Y'all will have to have them at a certain time, and it has to be that the mayor knows when that time is set, and the vice-mayor, so if one, if the mayor can't be here, then the vice-mayor take care of it.  We don't, we need to be in motion, we don't take checks outside this building and lay them in somebody's truck, just for them to be signed or looked at later or to be stolen.  I mean, that right there puts a great liability on the city, leaving a bunch of checks unsigned, they can get there and forge whatever, and—"

"Amen," Norris said.  "Is that a motion?"  He then seconded it.

In the discussion that followed Lacey observed, "I think you have to be very careful when you say don't take checks out of the building, because obviously—"

"Unsigned," Garrison interrupted.

"Signed or unsigned," Lacey continued.  "And I agree completely.  Any normal business would have checks available at a certain time to be signed.  That's common.  That's not a problem.  And I don't think any normal business would take checks all over the town to get them signed.  However, I, this is what I would encourage the city to look very seriously, look into direct deposit.  Electronic fund check deposit can save you, number one, it can save you all this problem that we're talking about, because the money's automatically put into an account, wherever you want it to be put.  Everything, it doesn't cost the city any, matter of fact, it would save the city money.  So, you know, in dealing with this, even, at some point in time that's going to be, that could be the very next step we look at.  But checks definitely should be scheduled and you should know when they are going to be ready.  And so, now, as far as what office is going to be where or whatever, that's not, I mean, I'm not involved."

"I'm not involved in that office—" Garrison began.

"All right," Thrasher interrupted, "I'm going to move out of that office for this man to come up here twice a week and sign checks for an hour or—"

"I tell you," Morris interrupted, "I may just move in up here, you don't know.  It's my office."

"Your office is down there," Thrasher said, pointing down the hall.

"No it ain't," Morris asserted.

"It was," Thrasher replied.

"Well," Morris responded, "you put me down there."

"No, I didn't put you down there—" Thrasher began, before his words were drowned out by crosstalk.

"Let's get on with this meeting tonight," Morris finally said, "and then maybe we can work out something, but, all right.  Checks to be signed.  I'll sign the checks up here at the office, but they'd better be here at a certain time. But you know [pointing at Thrasher] you brought me them checks nearly at dinnertime on Friday for me to sign.  If they're not going to be here nearly at dinnertime for me to sign, so I will not come up here nearly at dinnertime and sign them."

"We will set up a time schedule and they will be there," Thrasher said.

"I try to work with y'all every way in the world, and I don't raise no Cain—" Morris said, and when the vote was finally taken on Garrison's motion Mayor Morris cast the lone "no" vote.

* * *

"Pilot lights," Mayor Morris said, reading from the agenda.

"We've got a directive from our insurance carrier, TML," Thrasher said, "that we need to stop lighting pilot lights.  That's going to go down hard, because we put an ad in the paper about October 1, and have two or three boys out here that light pilot lights.  But they say our liability is just as bad for lighting pilot lights as it is if you worked on the appliance itself.  So, I'm just saying that we've got to put this in our think tank and be ready to advertise, because that's been going on for years and years and years in Adamsville."

"If you can't do it," Norris observed, "you can't do it."

After some discussion, town attorney Seaton said that he would look into it.

"Next," Mayor Morris said, "Planning Commission Recommendations.  Terry."

Thrasher said "We've got two things that the planning commission recommended to the city commission, and that's the amendment to address apartments in the B-1 district.  If you will remember, it is not legal to live in an apartment in the B-2 district, which goes from the Methodist Church to Jimmy Max Pettigrew's drugstore.  And they are making a recommendation, planning is, that the city commission adopt this, that you can live in an apartment anywhere in the B-1 area, which would be up and down 64 Highway."

"Bring us something in writing," Norris suggested, "and then we can talk about it."

"All right, let's do that," Thrasher agreed.  "We've got this change in the sign ordinance, but we might, we can just let this go until next month so that we can get this typed up.  We're likely to get into a long discussion."

"Yeah," Mayor Morris said, "we've been here a long time."

"We've got three more things we need to talk about," Norris said.

"I know," Thrasher responded.  "Yeah, I've got one that probably will, talking about your charter.  I've got some dates from Ronnie Neill."

"When was this put on the agenda?" Mayor Morris asked.

"I didn't get them until—" Thrasher began.

Norris interrupted. "Well, I thought we were supposed to have met before last week—"

"Thursday," Thrasher added, helpfully.

"You know," Norris continued, "we didn't get together, and so I made some recommendations and it's stuff that's really important.  Go ahead, Terry."

"I've just got some dates for Ronnie Neill to come down—" Thrasher began, only to be interrupted by the mayor, speaking to Norris.

"No," Morris said, referring to Norris's having told Thrasher to go ahead.  "I control this.  From now on, let's try to not add a lot of stuff to the agenda, if it's not on here."

"Well," Norris responded, "if you'd have been here Friday, or Thursday, then you'd have known that, Mayor."

"Well, wasn't nobody else here Friday, was there?" the mayor asked.  In fact, Norris was the only commissioner to show up for the Thursday working session.

"I was," Norris responded.  "He [Thrasher] was, too."

"I'm not coming to extra meetings like that," Morris declared.

"Well," Norris responded, "you don't really have any say-so."

"Yes, I do," Morris replied.

"No you don't," Norris responded, with equal petulance.

Morris then turned to Seaton and asked, "What controls have I got over this meeting?"

"Tommy," Seaton replied wearily, "I don't know.  Just let Terry go ahead and say what he wants to say."

"Well, if it's going to take an hour I don't want," Morris responded.

"Well, maybe it won't," Seaton said, "if we'll be quiet and let him—"

"Go ahead," Morris said to Thrasher, abruptly.

There then followed a tedious discussion about when the commission should meet with Ronnie Neill to discuss changes to the charter, which concluded five minutes later with a unanimous vote (on a motion by Lacey, seconded by Norris) to hold the meeting at 6:30 on Thursday, April 24.

* * *

Sarah Norris then presented estimates and recommendation for flowers at welcome signs and along Main Street and around the library, which produced contentious discussion, but no vote.

Lacey then made a motion that a committee, consisting of the mayor, the town manager, one commissioner, and Jimmie Ann Burks, be appointed to interview and select a replacement for Town Recorder Burks, who will be retiring on September 1.  Garrison volunteered to serve on the selection committee, and Lacey's motion, seconded by Norris, passed unanimously.

Lacey also made "a motion that we request a meeting with the industrial development board at their earliest convenience to discuss signage and upkeep at the Adamsville Industrial Park."  Norris seconded the motion, and the meeting was set for 6:30 p.m., before the regular May board meeting.

Garrison then suggested that the time for the working sessions be changed from 5:00 p.m. to noon on the Thursday before the regular monthly meetings, and the change was agreed to without a vote.

The meeting finally ended with the announcement of some good news by Mike Norris. "We did get the last temporary easement signature that we needed today, so we can now proceed.  We've got to come back to every one of them now to get a permanent thing signed, so we can record it, that has to do with the easement.  And once we get that done, then we can send this to TDOT to get approval, and then begin the bids."

And on that note, the marathon two-hour April meeting of the Adamsville town board was finally adjourned, on a motion by Lacey, seconded by Norris.

Town Board Meeting

For a while it looked as though the March meeting of the Adamsville Town Board would have to be rescheduled for want of a quorum.  Dwana Garrison was ill and could not attend, Frank Lacey was out of town at the funeral of a relative, and Jeff Browder was late getting back into town from a trip, leaving only Mayor Tommy Morris and Commissioner Mike Norris at the table until Jeff Browder arrived at about 7:10 p.m.

After Browder's arrival, though, matters proceeded briskly, with Norris and Browder, as the only commissioners present, either making or seconding every motion for the evening.  The minutes were unanimously approved (on a motion by Norris, seconded by Browder), as was the financial report (on a motion by Norris, seconded by Browder), and the remaining reports were collectively approved by a unanimous vote (again, on a motion by Norris, seconded by Browder). 

Mayor Morris then turned to the first item of Old Business: Dogs. 

City Manager Terry Thrasher said that he had paid a visit to the Corinth animal Shelter.  "They will handle our dogs for $35 per dog, and the manager will order us the equipment we need.  It will cost about three hundred, maybe three-fifty.  If we're going to do this, I think we need to run ads in the Independent Appeal for at least two weeks, explaining our dog policy, which you've got a copy in your package of, and inform the public that we will respond to complaints only.  Not just a dog in the yard.  If they've been bitten, or a dog has tinkled on their flower bed, or killed their cat, or something.  When we get a complaint, an officer, either a police officer or the codes officer, will go to the owner and explain the procedure.  On the second complaint the owner will be ticketed, come to city court, pay the fine plus court costs.  The third complaint will be cause for the dog to be picked up.  And try to pick the dog up early enough in the day that it can be carried to the Corinth shelter between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.  Once the dog has been turned over to the Corinth shelter, they will set the price for it to be reclaimed by the owner.  So, now, that's where we are.  They will handle them.  That is the price.  It will cost us three or four hundred dollars for equipment, then we run ads is the paper." 

Browder made a motion to approve Thrasher's proposal, which Norris seconded.  In the discussion that followed, City Attorney Ken Seaton expressed some concerns. "I don't know about loading somebody's dog up and taking it to Corinth without them having a hearing.  I've got reservations about it," he said.  "I'm not saying that I'm against this being passed.  I'm just saying it carries with it a little bit of risk, and potential trouble on down the line." 

After further discussion, Seaton restated his concern. "I'm not saying that I'm against this.  I'm just saying that, well, you know what the Constitution says about taking someone's property.  Somebody could make some kind of far-out argument that that's what this is."

Norris expressed the opinion that once the policy was implemented the problem with stray dogs would be quickly solved, and dog owners would keep a closer eye on their pets. 

"I guess that's probably true," Seaton said.  "The point is, just be careful about this 

Norris brought up another consideration.  "Well, what concerns me is that if you don't do this and one of these strays contracts rabies and then bites somebody, if we haven't done anything about it—" 

Seaton continued to caution against "catching" dogs and transporting them to Corinth, suggesting that fining people, repeatedly, if necessary, would be the better policy. 

Mayor Morris voiced a concern that people from outside the town would regard the new policy as a convenient way of disposing with unwanted pets, simply by dumping them in Adamsville. 

After more discussion, Norris said, "Well, this is better than what we're doing now, which is nothing.  I think we ought to try it." 

Thrasher pointed out that the new policy did not envision city employees going out and actively looking for dogs to seize.  "If the dog doesn't have somebody complaining about it, we're not going to fool with it." 

Given the concerns raised, Thrasher modified his proposal. "Something you guys ought to, you might consider, amend your motion and pass this part of it.  Running the ad, fining them, and just don't put the going to Corinth on here yet.  And give us a month and see what happens, and then—" 

"I think that would be the better idea," Mayor Morris said. 

Browder agreed.  "I amend the motion," he said.  "We'll save off on Corinth." 

The motion was seconded by Norris, but before a vote could be taken Police Chief Bill McCall spoke up.  "Well, being as you're on the subject of dogs, Terry, it's a good time right now to get it up and bring it out, you have in your ordinance, you cannot have any pit bulls in this city."  The ordinance makes reference to the American Kennel Club's designation of what defines a pit bull, which raises identification problems.  McCall said the pit bull/not pit bull problem had come up twice in the previous two weeks. 

Mayor Morris was not optimistic. "This dog situation has been going on ever since the first time I got on the city commission in 1976, and we haven't solved it, and I don't look for us to solve it tonight.  If you really solved it, you'd have to get you a dog lot, veterinarian, and every thing else." 

"Well," Browder said, "I think there for a pretty good little while, as bad a situation as it was, Mr. Rudy kind of handled this situation, and now that he's gone, you know, when you've got people coming to four or five or six meetings a year complaining about, you know—  I know the problems bad, and you know it may be unsolvable, but I think we've got to do something." 

"Well," Norris agreed, "you have to do something to attempt to control it." 

"All right," Thrasher summed up, "we're going to run the ad, and fine them, and you guys are going to take it under advisement, he's [Seaton] going to research it, we're going to work on it." 

Thrasher next informed the board that two businesses had expressed interest in renting space in the Garan Building, "and one would suit us fine, but the other is a fiberglass company [which manufactures water slides]."  After discussing for several minutes the problems the community has experienced with previous fiberglass operations, Norris said, "I believe I'd rather look at that other tenant, myself," and Browder agreed. 

The City Web Site was next on the agenda, and Thrasher said that he expected to receive a CD from Steve Brown, who created and maintains Selmer's web site, later in the week demonstrating what he could do to upgrade the Adamsville web site. 

"Well," Norris said, "while you're on this subject, I have another company in Nashville that I've talked to.  I found them last year at the tourism conference, and they, that's all they do, is design and maintain websites for small companies, small cities.  They specialize in small cities, small towns.  They've done some work for Hardin County."  Norris said he was trying to get them to come down and give the town a proposal on what they would charge "to update ours, or to completely redesign it.  So anyway, I'd like for us to compare both of them." 

"Well, I think we ought to," Thrasher agreed.  "I don't think we ought to just jump on because Steve Brown did one for Selmer.  We may not like it, but I say let's get the disk, let me burn some copies and what not.  You [Norris] can look at it, and you [Browder] can look at it, and I don't know who all else, but we can pull it up here at city hall for the ones that want to look at it here.  And at least see what—" 

"It's a really important situation," Norris stressed, "because what we were told last year, and it's been confirmed by a lot of other people, well in the meetings that I went to last week, by the economic development people, the website is, that's the first thing that a lot of people, tourist, you know, that might visit your town, or companies that are looking to relocate, are looking for that, and they are looking for the information on there that can help them decide." 

After some further discussion Mayor Morris, who had earlier confessed his lack of knowledge about such matters, closed the subject. "Well, we all agree to do it, so let's do it and go on." 

Thrasher then informed the board that he had received a call that afternoon from an appraiser regarding the Hwy 64 property.  "He thinks the property out on 64 West is worth between ten and twelve thousand dollars."  Everyone was in agreement that the city should get a second appraisal done. 

The board also agreed to reduce the number of members on the Planning Commission from eight to seven.  Arguing for the reduction, Thrasher said this would facilitate the work of the commission, since it would reduce the number needed to constitute a quorum from five to four, and he explained that this would not require removing any sitting member, since one seat was currently vacant.  The motion, made by Norris and seconded by Browder, passed unanimously. 

Also unanimous was the vote on a motion by Browder, seconded by Norris, to approve the following resolution regarding the Safe Routes to School program: 

"Resolution authorizing the filing of a 2008 Safe Routes to School grant.  Whereas the Mayor and Aldermen of Adamsville, Tennessee, have committed themselves to improve the safety and physical well-being of the citizens that they represent, and, whereas said public officials have determined that safe access to Adamsville Elementary School for student pedestrians and bikers is the most pressing need that can be addressed with grant assistance from the Safe Routes to School program, and whereas Adamsville wishes to make application to make Phase I sidewalk, crosswalk and other improvements around the school in the amount of $185,000, which will be a request of $185,000 from the Safe Routes to School program, now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mayor of Adamsville is authorized to make and sign the application for Safe Routs to School funds and enter into any and all necessary agreements and assurances to consummate the application.  Read, adopted, and approved in open public meeting this seventeenth day of March, 2008." 

The last item on the regular agenda read "Reword Contractor Agreement."   Thrasher explained that "a few months ago you guys passed a memorandum of understanding that would be entered into by the city, and a grant writer, and an engineering company, to make sure that the engineering company and the grant writers understood that if we applied for a grant, and they did the paperwork and the footwork, and we did not get the grant, that they do not get any money.  And some of the engineering companies and the grant writers seem to think we need to amend this memorandum to where they can feel assured that if they do the work and we get the grant, that they will get the job and we won't give it to another company." 

After some discussion about what changes, if any, needed to be made, Mayor Morris asked Town Attorney Ken Seaton what the town needed to do. "We just need to start over," Seaton replied. 

Norris said, "I make a motion that we give that form to our attorney and have him rewrite it to where if we get the grant then the engineering firm is guaranteed the job."  Browder seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. 

Though it was not on the agenda, the board then spent some time discussing safety concerns and the fireworks display at the up-coming Buford Pusser festival. 

Mayor Morris observed that "some people says it's a no-no, it's a bad, you know, to have fireworks.  I was hoping Dwana would be here.  It's a great liability.  I imagine you [Seaton] could tell us that." 

After some discussion of potential problems, Morris said,  "What I brought it up for, I don't want to get the town in a liability of setting somebody's place on fire and all.  Because I like fireworks just as well as that four-year-old kid up here does.  But I'm just wanting to look after the town, and make sure that we're not going to get into no big lawsuit if we have the fireworks down here at the park.  If there's somewhere else we could have them things, great.  I'll be 100% for it.  But I'm just wondering if we wanted to have it." 

There was some discussion of past fireworks displays, and utilities director Paul Wallace Plunk pointed out that there was "a lot of high-power explosives" last time. "I was part of it last year, but I can tell you, it was, it could have been a dangerous situation.  Because, it's just like the accident over at Selmer, you move all the people back, and then they'll start inching forward.  We had the same thing down here.  We had to get them so far away, and then once you turn your back, here they come.  So it's just a continuous fight to keep them pushed back." 

Browder said, "I think before we do away with it, we ought to at least look into the possibility of relocating where they're shot." 

The others were in agreement. "I'm not in favor of doing away with it," Norris said, and Mayor Morris added, "Well, we all have in mind what I was talking about, so, I'm not for doing away with it, I think it just needs to be moved somewhere."  Plunk agreed, saying, "Well, this year, if there is fireworks, we will look at different location for it." 

Thrasher suggested that, since the fireworks display could be seen for miles, problems of finding a safe place from which to launch fireworks, and a safe place for them to land, could be solved by moving the launch site down to the sewer pond. "If you go to the west bank of the old sewer pond and shoot them this a way, they're going to land in one of them two ponds." 

The meeting was adjourned on a motion by Browder, seconded by Norris.