[0:03] All right, we're calling the Courthouse
and Property Committee meeting to order.
[0:08] Um, if y'all would, bow your heads.
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for
[0:14] allowing us to be public servants of
this great county.
[0:17] Um, just be with us as we go through
these reports and um, we continue to do
[0:22] the business of the county. Uh, let us
keep you in light of every decision that
[0:27] we make and the constituents of this
county. In Jesus' name, amen.
[0:32] All right. Uh, we do have everybody
present except for uh, Commissioner
[0:35] Thomas. Uh, we do have a quorum and um,
first order of business is the approval
[0:41] of the July 21st, 2026 minutes.
>> Second.
[0:46] » Got a motion and a second. Any changes
or alterations? All in favor?
[0:49] » Aye.
>> All right. Public comments, anybody?
[0:54] All right, not seeing any. Continue
moving on. Our first reports are codes
[0:57] report.
[1:01] » Good afternoon.
Uh,
[1:04] I know you guys got my report a little
late this month. Wanted to just review
[1:07] real quick. We are on a path to be
issuing more
[1:11] permits uh, month over month as compared
to last year.
[1:15] Uh, this July we issued 22 new house
permits compared to last July of 16.
[1:21] And
of course that increases our
[1:24] department's revenue when we do it do
those increases. Um, inspections are I
[1:29] included that this time, the inspections
performed. As you can see, month over
[1:33] month compared to the prior year, we
have definitely increased the number of
[1:36] inspections. So, the demand is
definitely there. Our department is
[1:41] hiring. Um,
just working on finding the time to
[1:44] interview those applications I'm
getting. It's very very hard for us to
[1:48] find a fully qualified person.
Any questions?
[1:54] » Any questions? Thank you.
I would like to say thank you for the
[1:57] last 3 years that I've been chairman and
four as I've been on the committee. I
[2:01] always appreciate your reports and I
know you've been here almost every time
[2:05] and I just appreciate you being here and
and giving the reports and keeping the
[2:08] county and up to date with kind of where
where growth growth is coming and all
[2:13] those and so I just appreciate you and
and the work that you're doing. So,
[2:16] thank you.
>> Thank you for all your work.
[2:18] » Thank you.
[2:23] Next item is planning and zoning. I
didn't see a report in here. So, we'll
[2:28] just kind of move over that one.
Fourth is the IT reports. You got that
[2:32] in front of you as well as by email.
[2:37] Does anybody have any questions for
Josh?
[2:41] » No. Well, I did want to mention
something. First of all, I see that
[2:45] there's a few of you that are leaving
and and you're finishing up your terms.
[2:49] I haven't spoken on to any of you about
it, but just want to say thank you for
[2:52] stepping out here and uh supporting our
community.
[2:56] As a lifelong member of the Bedford
County with a lot with a big family
[3:01] roots here, I just want to say thank you
for for trying to push things forward
[3:04] and improve our community. I have
children growing up in the school
[3:08] system.
It's really important for people to step
[3:11] up and uh
and stick their neck out there and it's
[3:15] a difficult task to run for public
office and I just want to say I admire
[3:18] you and I appreciate you to do that. Um
specifically I would like to address uh
[3:25] Commissioner Hooker and uh Commissioner
Maddox.
[3:28] Uh when you guys came on board, I
remember you telling me we had a a
[3:33] disastrous email system. Um
which, you know, it it served its
[3:37] purpose for what we were trying to do.
Uh over, you know, we've always tried to
[3:41] uh
to to make sure that we provide a
[3:44] service um and with the with the budget
in mind. And uh the cost is is a an
[3:50] important factor, but
in looking in in analyzing what we had,
[3:55] uh we went ahead and requested that we
were able to try to make some forward
[3:59] movement on that. It's taken us a few
years because we had to rebuild some of
[4:03] our infrastructure to be able to
leverage some of the new technologies
[4:07] that most of your enterprise is doing.
And while we might be a little bit
[4:11] behind the the private sector, as we
probably should be in some areas because
[4:16] of the cost factor, um I would say that
we're making
[4:20] great strides in pushing forward a more
modern the Microsoft M365 system across
[4:26] the board. That will enable us to do
single sign-on, active synchronization
[4:31] technology with calendars and email
across multiple devices. So,
[4:36] uh I I recognize the need uh and and I
appreciate you guys bringing it to my
[4:40] attention. Uh we were able to get the
funding. I I commend the commission for
[4:45] uh for being able to to give us the the
funding to push this forward for the for
[4:49] the county government. I think it'll
help with productivity. And um I think
[4:54] it's a really good move for us uh going
forward. So, I just wanted to
[4:58] acknowledge that and tell you that we uh
have purchased those licenses for the
[5:03] entire organization. Uh we're in the
process right now of migrating all the
[5:08] domains over to a a new Microsoft
domain. Uh and that will allow us to
[5:13] synchronize those uh users with more
better security controls and more
[5:18] accessibility. So, as we talk about
accessibility of information and uh as
[5:24] we talk about transparency and things of
that nature, I have to consider
[5:28] cybersecurity that piece as well because
from the audit end, that's important,
[5:32] too. But, all these things are are were
made possible by you guys uh jumping
[5:38] forward into this initiative. And I just
want to say thanks for giving us a
[5:42] chance to do that because we're we're
moving forward with that. I just want to
[5:45] say as you're walking out, uh
Commissioner Hooker, uh that we're we're
[5:50] we're we're we're deploying that. So.
>> Well, and I do want to take a moment to
[5:55] just
always enjoyed our conversations. You've
[5:58] always been open with me and we've
always, you know,
[6:01] I've always had a lot of respect for
you. I've known you for a long time. I
[6:04] mean, probably 25 years now and
again, I do appreciate you and your
[6:09] team. You have a hard job. It's a big
county. You only have a handful of
[6:13] employees and you do a great job of
making sure everything's, you know,
[6:16] seamless. So, I do appreciate that and
making sure all those meetings.
[6:19] Commissioner Maddox.
[6:24] » Uh first of all, I want to say I know my
name was was mentioned, but
[6:29] you have done an amazing job over the
past several years. I know you and I
[6:34] have had a lot of conversations and
you've been you've been
[6:38] also very professional
each time and your team is one of the
[6:41] hardest working teams
in this county. Not to take anything
[6:45] away from anybody else, but y'all are at
every meeting. You you try your best to
[6:50] make sure everything is is broadcast
out. You know, there's some counties
[6:54] that don't do that. And
but I just wanted to commend you and
[6:58] say, you know, job well done and many
thanks to you.
[7:02] We we have had some some some email
conversations about
[7:08] the functionality of a lot of those
platforms, but it's good to see that
[7:12] we're we're going to move forward, but
I commend you for the work that you and
[7:15] your team are doing and I sincerely mean
it. Thank you for that.
[7:17] » Thank you. Appreciate it.
You have any questions about my report?
[7:23] » All right. Thank you, Josh.
>> Thank you. All right. Appreciate it.
[7:26] » All right. Moving on to the fire
department.
[7:30] » Uh I have nothing to add to
my report, Mr. Chairman. I will tell you
[7:35] that the front page those numbers are
accurate.
[7:37] We just changed softwares and it went
live July 1st. So, we were kind of in
[7:42] transition and trying to figure out
where all of our numbers were and we
[7:45] spent a couple of days digging for this
and we're still digging. Uh we think in
[7:51] the long run it's going to be better for
us.
[7:54] We we cut our
cost down probably around 6, 7,000
[7:59] dollars and
I know that don't sound like a lot, but
[8:01] it is to me. That's a set of turnout
gear for me, so
[8:05] uh we do think that we're moving in the
right direction and and save a little
[8:10] money there, but it's taking us a little
while to get all that data transferred
[8:15] over. Make sure the state and federal
government gets their numbers like
[8:19] they're looking for and we concentrated
on that more than getting our numbers
[8:23] for a report, but I know that front
sheet is correct.
[8:27] And and we audit that, so we keep a
spreadsheet with all of our calls on it
[8:31] and then we go back and compare it to
the software.
[8:35] And so we're working through that and
hopefully we'll get a better report.
[8:40] Now, I'm not
unless y'all
[8:43] request it, I I won't put it in color.
That cost me more, but
[8:48] if you want it in color, I think I email
it to you in color, so but whatever.
[8:52] But I I I just wanted to let you know
that
[8:55] we are working through that transition
on our software.
[8:59] » Anybody got any questions for Mark?
>> We hadn't discussed it in a couple
[9:01] months, any possibility of our our land,
anything come about that?
[9:06] » tell you this and and we've had to keep
this down because one piece of property
[9:10] we had a contract, I think Drew came and
looked at it and I talked to Diane and
[9:14] several of y'all I've talked to.
We got down to the contract and then
[9:19] somebody offered more money for it, so
we lost that piece. We are under
[9:22] contract right now
and it looks good and it did cost us a
[9:27] little bit more money than I had
gotten through budget, but
[9:32] the money
I saved on buying a fire truck and then
[9:36] through other capital projects I saved
we're going to funnel that and so it was
[9:40] no new money basically.
Uh the land that we're looking at, it's
[9:46] ready to build on. It already has the
utilities on it. It already has the
[9:50] storm retention pond, detention pond,
whatever you want to call it. It's all
[9:55] It already has all of that. It was going
to be developed and the developer backed
[10:01] out and
they told us based on our drawings that
[10:06] we have for our building that we would
like
[10:10] that we would need a minimum of 2 acres.
This is 3 and 1/2.
[10:14] Uh
and so hopefully
[10:18] this will work out and we won't
have to
[10:22] somebody come in and buy it out from
under us. But
[10:26] in saying that, that's this is the only
step that we've got and we've worked on
[10:30] this for about 3 years. I thought well,
even
[10:34] 4 years. Yeah. I mean, we've been
working on this and I can't tell you how
[10:37] many ant bites, chiggers I've gone home
with
[10:41] and some of them I didn't even know what
kind of bites they were, but we have
[10:44] walked a lot of property and
this one seems to be
[10:49] good. It's in the zone where we're at.
It's in a place where
[10:54] our future plans, we've already bought a
piece of property on Union Hill decent
[10:57] road several years ago and we're looking
how we're going to finance that through
[11:02] the volunteer system, but that will
eventually our plans that will be a
[11:07] manned station. So we'll have one on
this side and one on this side. So we're
[11:11] working our way in instead of being in
the middle working our way out. So we
[11:16] think
everything will go good. I have all the
[11:20] documentation right there of all the
properties we've looked at, all the
[11:23] communications,
the dollar figures.
[11:26] Uh once we
we seal the deal
[11:30] I'll
happily share every bit of that with you
[11:33] all. Uh Uh
I'm no attorney and so
[11:38] uh you know
we kept everything above board and we
[11:42] just couldn't make it public because
like say the first property we tried to
[11:46] close a deal on somebody
come in there with a whole lot more
[11:49] money and
snatched it right out from under us and
[11:53] and this property we're looking at it's
already passed all environmental
[11:56] studies.
So, they go to digging and
[12:00] there's nothing there for anybody to
find.
[12:02] So, and the other properties we were
looking at and and I will tell you this
[12:07] there was two
three other properties we signed a
[12:11] contract with.
And then after I got uh
[12:16] Jeff Sweeney to look at those properties
and then I went out and got a
[12:20] independent contractor outside of him to
look at to see what it would cost to
[12:25] develop those lands and they both come
back within about a hundred thousand
[12:29] dollars of each other and that was
anywhere from eight hundred thousand to
[12:33] a million dollars just to remove the top
soil and get it where you could be on
[12:38] it, build on it. And one of them there's
a moratorium on the water and sewer so
[12:43] they wouldn't even allow us to use that
piece property. So, unless we wanted to
[12:48] build that infrastructure and
that's just more money. So,
[12:52] but that's where we're at on it and I
hope I've answered your questions and I
[12:56] and I apologize for keeping you in the
dark on all of it. I I think I've talked
[13:00] to you individually about where we're at
but
[13:05] I'm telling you land in Bear Fork County
I talked to a guy last night who has
[13:10] piece property
kind of over toward Marshall County and
[13:15] he's been offered an astronomical dollar
amount. He's going to sell it and walk
[13:19] away. He said I can't afford not to.
So, it's it's just unreal.
[13:27] » Anybody got any other questions for
Mark?
[13:30] Mark, I do want to just I'm trying to
address everybody as I come through cuz
[13:33] y'all have done so much for me over the
last 4 years and out of this room I've
[13:37] probably known you the longest between
you and Brian Bruce and Brian Cantrell.
[13:41] You helped me get my start in public
safety and you know and so I really
[13:45] appreciate, you know, what you've done
for me over the years and I've
[13:49] appreciated your guidance as I came onto
the commission. I know we've had a lot
[13:53] of conversations and and I always admire
your ability to in the middle of the
[13:58] crazy to be able to kind of to talk
through it and and be a calm in the
[14:02] storm and so I do appreciate all that
you've done. I appreciate your
[14:05] friendship and your leadership as over
the fire department and
[14:10] you know and our personal relationships.
I I really appreciate you.
[14:14] » Well, I I appreciate you too and and and
I I go back a long way cuz Drew taught
[14:18] our first responder class. And I think
Brian Bruce
[14:22] you know
and so and and they they put on a class
[14:27] 10 days and they the state I think told
you it couldn't be done. And we did it
[14:32] in I think it was 2 weeks, wasn't it?
And we had a
[14:36] I think out of that group of 20 or so
that was in there, we only had one that
[14:40] didn't go get his license and I was one
of those that waited 2 years right to
[14:44] the very end but I still passed my test.
I couldn't believe it, you know. So they
[14:47] did something right and I appreciate
that cuz they did put in a lot of hard
[14:51] work. They didn't get paid for it.
They were teaching us 10 hours a day.
[14:57] Bam bam bam, you know, just one subject
after another. They did a great job and
[15:01] and we can see the fruits of that labor
now as to the lives that have been saved
[15:07] in Burke County just by training these
people to be first responders and
[15:12] and it's even advancing a little bit
more so
[15:15] I remember Drew we was kind of mean to
him when he first come on but he's he
[15:19] still pushed through and uh did did well
on training us and and you've got that
[15:24] talent and we appreciate it.
>> That was fun class, wasn't it, Brian?
[15:29] » It was.
>> It was long, but
[15:31] Yeah, well, it was it was probably the
first in the state that taught it all in
[15:36] a straight time period. Um at the time
Donna Tidwell was the state director and
[15:41] she told us in absolutely no way, form,
or fashion should we do it because
[15:45] there's no way they'll pass.
And uh it was me, Brian, and Joey Story
[15:50] that taught the class. It was over at
the fire hall. And uh I will tell you
[15:54] that was
probably one of my favorite classes I've
[15:57] ever taught cuz everybody cared.
Everybody knew that what we had to do,
[16:01] which was we had a short time to get a
first responder program started. And
[16:05] everybody in there was committed. We
actually had a couple members
[16:09] uh from the community that were high
school one was a high school student and
[16:12] she's now a a paramedic.
Or is she an EMT? EMT. And um there was
[16:18] a lot come out of that class. So, I
thank you for bringing that up.
[16:22] All right, E911 report. You have any
closed?
[16:31] » And
I I on the building uh
[16:35] building is complete. It's functional.
They got their furniture delivered
[16:40] Tuesday. It was two truck loads of the
and when I say furniture, it's the
[16:45] dispatch consoles.
Uh it's specially made. So, and they
[16:50] were in the process they said it would
take them a couple of days to get all
[16:53] that put together. I know Josh has been
out there and done some
[16:59] rearranging of cables and stuff, but uh
hopefully we're waiting on AT&T now to
[17:05] move the 911 lines out there and then
the rest of it will go in
[17:12] to hooking up and and then doing a test
phase on it and making sure it's ready
[17:16] to go, but
I hate to say a deadline cuz I mean, if
[17:21] I said October,
it could be October next year. I just
[17:24] don't know.
If you've ever dealt with AT&T and and
[17:28] we deal with them a lot on car wrecks
when the poles get torn down, they're
[17:31] not on no time frame. And they'll get to
you when they get to you. And then
[17:35] they'll call us a year later, "Do you
have a report on who hit that pole?" You
[17:39] know. So, that's kind of what we do.
But, yeah, they are moving forward, but
[17:44] it's been a slow process.
>> All right. Thank you. Media GIS.
[17:52] » Don't have a [clears throat] whole lot
to add to to the report unless there's
[17:55] any questions. It was a busy month. It's
going to be really busy at the end of
[17:59] this month. I've been thinking about it.
I'm going to be busy
[18:03] changing out names on the website.
You know, cuz you can't I can't do it
[18:08] really till right around the day of, you
know.
[18:12] But, uh we'll be we'll be swapping
things out. There's one one There's a
[18:16] picture on the front page that we'll
have to
[18:19] put a ticket in with the provider to to
get that changed cuz that's part of the
[18:23] design.
Anyway, we'll we'll try try our best to
[18:27] to try and
keep up with that, but I
[18:30] Other than that, nothing really to add
to the report.
[18:34] » Any questions?
John, thank you for all that you do for
[18:38] our county and keeping everybody
informed. So, thank you so much.
[18:45] All right. County Buildings Project, you
have that enclosed.
[18:50] Yes, sir.
[18:54] Yeah, they'll make you go up there.
>> Uh
[18:58] we have started using your new morgue.
It is now It's I appreciate you guys
[19:04] because the other one was not
functional. It is now in function. We're
[19:07] waiting on
uh the rack system. So, we're still kind
[19:11] of in a little modified stage with it,
but uh
[19:13] we're something happened with the
bidding process of that. So we're
[19:16] waiting on the lift and the rack system
to come in so they can be fully
[19:21] functional, but we are out of that old
building now and we do have a
[19:25] functioning county morgue that we that
we are in dire need of. So
[19:30] I know we started back this process 17
18 months ago here and I appreciate you
[19:35] guys getting that, you know, on the
agenda cuz we had to have that. I mean,
[19:39] and I want to reiterate that's not an
EMS morgue, that's your morgue, but
[19:42] we're we it is functioning now and we
have a place that in the event that we
[19:47] need to take a citizen in to identify
one of their loved ones, we have a place
[19:52] that we can do that where we did not.
So with that with that, I do have one
[19:57] question and I don't know if you guys
are prepared to answer this, but just
[20:00] because I'm we'll be coming onto the
commission,
[20:03] um have you guys started any process of
getting rid of these other buildings
[20:07] like the old workhouse and
the judicial
[20:13] uh
juvenile judicial
[20:14] » Yeah, I'll I'll tell you it came up a
couple months ago, but because it's so
[20:18] close to the election, we felt like that
the new commission needed to weigh in on
[20:22] some of that and the other thing is is,
you know, it has to go through the
[20:26] appraisal process and all that to be
able to start talking about those, but
[20:29] we do have probably three or four
buildings that need to have some
[20:32] consideration for that.
I know that, you know, there's been some
[20:36] conversation about, you know, animal
control needing space and things like
[20:40] that. So again, I think as the new
commission comes on, that's probably
[20:43] something that they need to to bring up
and be able to kind of weigh in on
[20:47] because again, as someone that's
outgoing, I wouldn't feel comfortable
[20:51] with trying to make that decision for
them.
[20:52] » sure exactly when they're going to move
the juvenile detention. I know it's
[20:56] close. They were in the finals with it
cuz we toured it the other day just for
[20:59] public safety purposes to make sure we
knew how to get in and get somebody if
[21:02] they needed this, but
with the uh
[21:07] surplus building stuff. That's
that should be ready. So, I just kind of
[21:10] figured out where we're at on on getting
rid of that because
[21:14] if you've been if you've not been in it,
you should go down there.
[21:17] » I I'm sure it's much different than when
I went in it last.
[21:20] Yeah, but thank you for that and
>> Keith, put it on your list.
[21:24] » All right. So, I'll take a motion to
approve the reports.
[21:29] » Second.
>> Got a motion and a second. Any
[21:32] Anything? All right, all in favor?
>> Aye.
[21:35] » All right. Any other reports that you're
aware of? Any old business?
[21:39] Any new business? Any announcements?
>> I'm going to take this opportunity.
[21:46] You've known Drew since what? 20 I I I
knew him when he was Yes, thank you, at
[21:52] the boy's wedding.
I've known him since he was a kid
[21:55] and he's been an inspiration. And Drew,
you know I love you. You're my brother.
[21:59] And and I'm going to miss you.
And I know bigger and brighter things
[22:03] are ahead. And thank you for everything
you do, everything you've done, the
[22:07] guidance that you've given everyone. And
you know I love you and appreciate you.
[22:12] » Well, I should get to say something,
too. I did not know you, Drew, until you
[22:16] came on, but I think we've developed a
friendship and I've really enjoyed
[22:19] serving with you these past 4 years. And
we've got Troy down there on the end
[22:23] that I did kind of know when he came on,
but I've also really enjoyed serving
[22:27] with you. I've learned a lot from both
of you and I appreciate all that both of
[22:30] you brought to the table.
[22:34] » Yeah, and I'm going to just finish this
up with Diane. Thank you. I've learned a
[22:38] lot from you. You know how to read a
budget better than anybody I've ever met
[22:42] and I've learned so much from you, so I
appreciate that. Keith, you've always
[22:46] been a friend and thank you. And I've
I've enjoyed you ever since you come on
[22:51] the commission. I take pride that I got
to make the motion to to make you as a
[22:55] commissioner and I'll bring you on. And
so, never regretted the moment I did
[22:59] that. And Troy, you've been a great
friend, uh
[23:02] fellow coach, and
just a great person. And thank you for
[23:06] everything you've done. Great
friendship. So,
[23:09] uh anything else?
>> Adjourn.
[23:11] » Motion to adjourn.