Garbage resolution fails, 16-6
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Prater was seeking to modify a 2000 resolution which prohibited industry, businesses and private garbage haulers from using the convenience centers.
?In Warren County and the state of Tennessee, statistics show 40 percent of the gross revenue in the state of Tennessee and Warren County comes from small businesses,? Prater said. ?Those statistics also include employment. Small businesses are responsible for 40 percent of the employment in this county. We pay taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes, that we put back into the county, but we cannot use the convenience centers for our household-type garbage. And I would like, for all the small businesses? sakes in this county, to change that tonight if I can.?
County Executive Kenneth Rogers questioned the wording of Prater?s resolution.
?This just says business,? Rogers said. ?It doesn?t say anything about small.?
?I?m saying small business,? Prater said. ?This is supposed to be for small businesses, household-type garbage only.?
Prater pointed out the county had previously accepted garbage from businesses, but Health and Welfare Committee chairman Wayne Pryor said there was more to the issue.
?What we need to do is look at the whole problem,? Pryor said. ?I?m not against small business. I?m not against businesses. But it would be, as far as I?m concerned, utterly chaotic to accept small businesses into our convenience centers. That?s one reason we eliminated them, is we don?t have the capacity to handle this to start with. If you went into this every convenience center, and we have 13, would have to be expanded. We?d have to get new equipment, we?d have to get new employees, new trucks. I could go on and on about being against changing this.?
Pryor called up county sanitation director Steve Hillis to explain some of the issues with such a move.
?We?ve been down this road before,? Hillis said, ?and it has caused problems.?
Hillis said there were state regulations concerning taking commercial waste.
?You?ve got to put in a transfer station,? Hillis said. ?You have to pay a fee of $1,000 to get into it, plus an annual fee of $2,000. Not only that, you could say the private haulers were small businesses, so they would come back on us.?
A few commissioners, however, were supportive of Prater?s move. David Grissom hypothesized a situation where a small businessman came into the county, furnished his own land and building and didn?t ask for tax breaks or financing, and only asked that the county take his garbage.
?What would we do then,? Grissom asked. ?Would we turn that business down??
Though the resolution failed, 16-6, Prater says he plans to change the wording of the document to more specifically define what a small business represents in this context and reintroduce the measure in the August meeting.
?I?m also going to get some costs,? Prater said, ?I?m going to see what it?s costing now, and what it was costing when we took small business garbage, and I guarantee you it?s not going to be any more expensive back then than it is now.?
How county commissioners voted
County Pay Business
commissioner raise garbage
Terry Bell No No
Carl Bouldin Absent
Teddy Boyd No No
Sally Brock Yes No
Donnie Caldwell No No
Bryan Denton No No
David Grissom Yes Yes
David Hill Absent
Carl Hulett No Yes
Ken Martin No No
Michael Martin No No
Roy Pierce No No
Gary Prater Yes Yes
Wayne Pryor No No
George Smartt Yes Yes
Bessie Smithson No No
Danice Taylor Yes Yes
Les Trotman No No
Bobby Turner No No
David Vandagriff No No
Hershell Wells Yes Yes
Herb Wright No No
Bill Yancy No No
Bill Zechman No No
Both measures failed, 16-6