[0:09] Gentlemen, if you'll gather around,
[0:11] we'll begin. And ladies,
[0:23] first of all, I would like to welcome
[0:25] all of y'all to the October
[0:30] Public Works and Planning Commission
[0:32] meeting. This is our first meeting for
[0:34] the new commission. I welcome all the
[0:37] new commissioners to this meeting. Uh I
[0:41] welcome our mayor Randy Allen to the
[0:43] meeting. It's very different for at
[0:45] least the last four years to have him
[0:47] sitting at the bench in a public works
[0:49] meeting, but he's more than welcome to
[0:51] be here.
[0:53] Rachel, if you would call the role.
[0:58] Commissioner Clark
[0:59] >> here.
[1:00] >> Commissioner Dodie
[1:01] >> here.
[1:02] >> Commissioner Kush
[1:03] >> present.
[1:04] >> Commissioner McGawan
[1:05] >> here.
[1:06] >> Commissioner P
[1:07] >> here.
[1:07] >> Commissioner Watts
[1:08] >> here.
[1:09] >> Chairman Piery
[1:10] >> here.
[1:10] >> We have a quorum.
[1:13] >> Before we get started, I would like to
[1:15] introduce myself. My name is Steve
[1:18] Piery. I'm the chair of this uh planning
[1:21] uh public works and planning commission.
[1:24] I'd like for Mike Kush to stand up. He's
[1:26] our vice chair.
[1:29] So, everybody will know who everybody
[1:31] is.
[1:32] We have four new commissioners here.
[1:36] We'll start with the lady on the right.
[1:38] I'd like you to stand up, introduce
[1:40] yourself, tell us who you are.
[1:42] >> Hello. I'm Commissioner Kathy Watts. I
[1:45] represent District 16.
[1:47] >> Welcome.
[1:48] >> Thank you.
[1:49] >> Next,
[1:51] I'm Brendan Dowy and I represent
[1:53] District 13.
[1:56] Next,
[1:59] Commissioner Laura Clark representing
[2:01] District 21.
[2:03] And next,
[2:04] >> Shawn McGowan, District 15.
[2:07] >> Now, they know who all of you are, and
[2:09] they know who to call when they have a
[2:11] complaint. But we have Mr. P in the
[2:13] back, too. I missed him sitting on the
[2:15] back row. He's one of our elder, like
[2:18] Mr. Kush and myself, you know. Uh
[2:23] [laughter] we're we're old players here.
[2:28] [laughter]
[2:30] » That's tomorrow night.
[2:35] » And Rachel tells me we have no public
[2:37] comments.
[2:39] So we will move on to planning and
[2:42] engineering
[2:44] director Doug Damasi.
[2:47] I'm going to ask something dear. Y'all
[2:48] gonna get tired of me. Anyway, I'm going
[2:51] to ask something different of all the
[2:53] department heads. When you come up to
[2:56] the whale, tell us who you are and give
[2:59] us just a twominut splurge on what your
[3:02] office does.
[3:07] » Oh, you want him to hear you? Okay. Be
[3:09] >> nice. [laughter]
[3:10] >> Thank you.
[3:12] Mr. Chairman, and good
[3:14] evening, everyone. Hope everybody's
[3:15] doing well tonight. I'm Doug Damasi. I
[3:17] am the planning director for Rutherford
[3:18] County. I've been with the county now
[3:20] for a little over 20 years. I've been
[3:23] planning director for a little over 19.
[3:25] Our office, uh, planning and
[3:27] engineering, we're a joint department.
[3:28] Mike Hughes is the county engineer. We
[3:30] work pretty closely together. Uh, we
[3:33] handle a lot of the zoning and
[3:35] development issues that come to the
[3:37] county. We also do a lot of plat and
[3:38] plan review. New subdivisions, new site
[3:40] plans for new uh, commercial or
[3:42] non-residential buildings. Those come
[3:44] through our office. We also do things
[3:47] like uh reviewing of construction
[3:49] drawings for new subdivisions after a
[3:51] preliminary plan is approved. Then the
[3:53] next step is construction drawing as
[3:55] that comes through us. We also handle
[3:56] any kind of long range planning uh you
[3:59] know ordinance changes, things like that
[4:01] to the zoning ordinance and or the
[4:02] subdivision regulations. Uh something
[4:04] that we do that a lot of people don't
[4:06] realize in our office is we handle the
[4:08] addressing for the unincorporated areas
[4:10] of Rutherford County. So all the numbers
[4:12] that you see especially at least in the
[4:14] unincorporated areas uh those at some
[4:16] point in the past have been assigned by
[4:18] our office. So each municipality handles
[4:21] their own we don't handle the addressing
[4:23] or planning responsibilities or
[4:25] engineering responsibilities for the
[4:26] municipalities. They have their own
[4:28] staffs that handle those kind of things.
[4:30] So that's just a quick blurb about what
[4:32] our office does. Does anybody have any
[4:34] questions or anything?
[4:37] If not I will jump into our report. Uh
[4:41] since we have several new commissioners
[4:42] and uh Mayor Allen as well, uh I will
[4:45] just kind of give a brief overview of
[4:46] what we typically report when we handle
[4:49] these. Uh the first thing we do is look
[4:51] at our available lot inventory. You'll
[4:54] see there's a couple of folders on
[4:55] there. That's not typical of what you'll
[4:57] see on your SharePoints. You'll see that
[4:59] there's a line there or a file there for
[5:01] August, but also a file there for
[5:03] September. That's just because public
[5:05] works didn't meet last month. So I had
[5:07] two months worth. Uh I probably just I'm
[5:11] just going to really give you an update
[5:12] over on September since that's the most
[5:14] recent one. Uh but you'll see in the
[5:16] available lot inventory. It's there's
[5:19] two separate parts of this report. Uh
[5:21] the first part of the report are
[5:23] available lots. Those are lots that are
[5:24] on the ground currently that could be
[5:26] issued building permits tomorrow if
[5:28] somebody were to come in. You'll see
[5:30] that that total available lot inventory
[5:32] right now is at 954. You'll find that on
[5:35] page six of nine pages. Uh the rest of
[5:39] that report is subdivision plats that
[5:41] have not been recorded. They're in some
[5:43] part of the approval process,
[5:44] preliminary. There's a final plat that's
[5:46] been approved and it just hasn't been
[5:48] recorded yet. So as one goes up, the
[5:50] other one typically goes down. I usually
[5:52] just report on the lot inventory. You
[5:55] can see that with 954 that's down from
[5:58] this time last year, which was at 995.
[6:01] Lately, this number has been fluctuating
[6:03] quite a bit. um it's been going down and
[6:07] you'll see that there is a file on your
[6:09] iPads as well in that same folder with
[6:12] September. There's a chart. I like to
[6:14] put that chart in quarterly just kind of
[6:16] gives you an idea of what the trend line
[6:18] looks like. We started tracking this
[6:20] back in 2004 at the time uh Mayor Ernest
[6:23] Burgess and I sat down. Uh this would
[6:25] have been after he was elected somewhere
[6:27] in 2006 2007 time frame and asked about
[6:30] hey how could we start tracking this? We
[6:32] came up with a, for lack of a better
[6:34] word, an arbitrary date of 2004, January
[6:36] 1st. We started at that point. We had to
[6:38] start somewhere. So, we started it there
[6:41] and we've been tracking it monthly
[6:43] since. So, that just gives you just a
[6:45] quick overview of that, what the trend
[6:47] line looks like. You'll see that really
[6:48] for the most part this year, the trend
[6:50] line's been going down. There is a
[6:52] little bit of a blip in the summer where
[6:53] it kind of went up a little bit. We just
[6:54] haven't seen as many of our larger
[6:56] subdivisions subdivision sections be
[6:58] recorded. And building permit activity,
[7:01] which director Bell will speak about
[7:02] here a little later, just has been
[7:04] lighter this year than what we've
[7:05] anticipated or expected from years past.
[7:09] So, that just gives you a quick overview
[7:10] of the available lot inventory. So,
[7:12] that's something we pass along just for
[7:14] your information every meeting. Uh, if
[7:16] there's no questions on that, I will
[7:19] jump into the other part of our report
[7:20] and that is our resoning report. Sir,
[7:24] >> if Mr. Chair, if I may,
[7:26] >> Doug, would you explain for the group,
[7:29] the new group, [snorts]
[7:30] >> uh, again, what the definition
[7:33] um of a of a nonrecorded plat is, the 5,898 lots?
[7:39] >> Yes, sir.
[7:40] >> Would you explain the difference between
[7:42] the two?
[7:43] >> Yes, sir. The first part of that report,
[7:46] the 954
[7:48] lots, those plats have been reviewed,
[7:51] those plats have been approved, those
[7:52] plats have been recorded, and somebody
[7:55] could come in and take out a building
[7:56] permit. The rest of that report from
[7:58] pages seven throughout the end of the
[8:00] report, those are plats and plans in
[8:03] various stages of development. For
[8:05] instance, there may be a preliminary
[8:07] plan that was approved but under
[8:09] construction right now, but no plats
[8:11] have been recorded for new lots. It
[8:14] could be just remaining lots like on
[8:15] that first page like Brewer Point's a
[8:17] good example. Um that preliminary plan
[8:20] was approved back in 2021. There are
[8:23] still 68 lots that are out that have not
[8:26] been recorded in that subdivision. So,
[8:28] they're still working through uh plats
[8:31] that they have been recorded
[8:33] in that one. But that's pretty much it.
[8:34] That wasn't a very big subdivision, but
[8:36] that just gives you an idea. So these
[8:39] part of the report is just saying, okay,
[8:41] these are plats that have been record
[8:42] I'm sorry, have been approved by the
[8:43] planning commission, but have not been
[8:45] recorded for any building permit
[8:46] activity yet. So you can see as as
[8:49] Commissioner Kush was talking about, you
[8:51] got close to five uh 6,000 lots that are
[8:55] still in some stage of of the approval
[8:58] process, but not recorded yet. And I
[9:00] will reiterate that this is just for the
[9:02] unincorporated area. This does not count
[9:05] anything inside Murphy'sboro, Smyrna,
[9:07] Lever, or Eagleville.
[9:08] >> So, just a quick question. Is there a
[9:10] statute of limitations on
[9:13] when a subdivision plat can be recorded?
[9:16] Because some some I see like 20 years
[9:18] old.
[9:19] >> Yeah. And some of them are uh there are
[9:21] vesting laws with the state of Tennessee
[9:23] and TCA. Uh typically once you see a
[9:26] preliminary plans approved and you have
[9:29] um plats that are recorded off of that
[9:31] from our standpoint that I pretty much
[9:32] locks it in. Some of these have been
[9:34] like you said existence for some time.
[9:37] There may be some that these are
[9:38] existing sections that uh like Davenport
[9:41] seation is a good example. There was
[9:43] older portions of that. Then there were
[9:45] some newer portions of that one. So
[9:47] that's why some of those seem as old as
[9:49] they are. But to answer your question,
[9:51] yes, there are there's vesting issues.
[9:54] So you just we have to everyone's kind
[9:57] of done on a case- by case basis. So
[9:58] it's hard to give a blanket statement on
[10:00] that.
[10:07] Any other questions?
[10:11] » Question please.
[10:12] >> More.
[10:12] >> So when they when [clears throat] they
[10:14] are approved and and they but they are
[10:19] not recorded, what are they approved
[10:21] for? They're approved for the start of
[10:24] the development of the lots. Like for
[10:26] instance, a preliminary plan. After a
[10:27] preliminary plan, which is basically the
[10:29] master plan is approved. The next step
[10:31] is construction drawings. That's not
[10:33] something the planning commission sees,
[10:35] but that's something that our staff
[10:36] review. So the preliminary plan is the
[10:40] master plan for the entire development.
[10:41] The construction plans are for
[10:42] individual sections. So typically what
[10:45] happens is after a preliminary plan
[10:47] approval the next step is they start
[10:49] submitting construction drawings for
[10:50] section one and then sometimes they may
[10:53] submit a couple but generally it's just
[10:55] for the first sections. So it just means
[10:57] that they have the ability to move
[10:59] forward to the next step of the
[11:00] subdivision process
[11:02] >> and and just for clarity for me
[11:04] following Commissioner McGowan's
[11:06] question once they're approved is that
[11:09] indefinite or
[11:10] >> it's not indefinite. Now, like I said,
[11:12] there are vesting requirements.
[11:14] >> Yes.
[11:14] >> So, let's let's just use like today's
[11:16] standards because some of these laws
[11:18] were in effect after some of these
[11:20] subdivisions were approved, these older
[11:22] ones. So, when it comes to vesting, for
[11:24] instance, let's say some of these newer
[11:26] subdivisions, the way the state law
[11:28] reads, they've got three years to start
[11:31] getting some sort of construction
[11:32] drawings approved, start prepping the
[11:35] site for site work. If they do a certain
[11:37] amount of work based on that, then they
[11:40] are vested for an additional two years.
[11:42] Then if they start construction, then
[11:44] they're vested. I think it's another
[11:45] five years after that. It's it it's in
[11:48] the law. It's frankly it's kind of
[11:50] convoluted the way the law is written,
[11:52] but uh that that's something that we we
[11:54] keep up with. Yes, ma'am.
[11:55] >> Thank you.
[12:02] » All right. There's no other questions.
[12:04] We will go ahead and jump into the
[12:06] resoning report. Every month, well
[12:09] almost every month, we typically at the
[12:10] planning commission will consider
[12:12] resoning cases. For resoning cases, the
[12:14] planning commission is just a
[12:16] recommending body. So they will make a
[12:18] recommendation on a zoning change and
[12:20] then that recommendation comes typically
[12:22] the following month to the board of
[12:23] commissioners and we report on that
[12:25] activity at this meeting. So you'll see
[12:28] at September's meeting, this the
[12:30] September 14th meeting, there were two
[12:31] resoning requests and I'll discuss those
[12:33] briefly. Typically at this meeting, we
[12:36] will if there's no meeting in July, we
[12:38] will also have resonings on here from
[12:41] August, but this year there were no
[12:43] August resoning requests. So really, we
[12:46] just have this the two that you see on
[12:47] your agendas for September. So that
[12:50] first one is by Tom Moon for Saddlewood
[12:53] Development. This is along Franklin
[12:55] Road, which is in Commissioner
[12:56] McMurray's district. Two tracks of land.
[12:58] The existing zoning for those tracks is
[13:00] planned unit development, and they're
[13:02] asking to be zoned back to residential
[13:05] medium density. As way of a little bit
[13:07] of background and history on this, the
[13:10] planned development application for
[13:11] these properties were approved back in
[13:13] 2019. There was also an amendment making
[13:17] it an aged targeted community that was
[13:19] approved by the board of commissioners
[13:20] back in April of 2021. The pattern book
[13:23] indicated a total of 124 town home town home units which were going to be
[13:27] built in fourunit buildings and I've
[13:29] included minutes from those meetings
[13:30] with the agenda packets just to give you
[13:32] a little bit of background on that. The
[13:34] planning commission also saw a site plan
[13:36] for town home construction. They did
[13:38] begin construction on access drives
[13:40] within the development but then the
[13:42] development just ceased. They never did
[13:44] complete that. So, at this point, the
[13:46] developer of the property, the owner,
[13:49] uh, is looking to develop this in a
[13:51] different manner. Instead of doing town
[13:52] homes, they would like to resone it back
[13:54] to residential medium density, which is
[13:56] one of our base zonings in the
[13:58] unincorporated area, which stands for
[14:00] residential medium density. So, they're
[14:02] asking to zone it back from plan
[14:03] development to residential medium
[14:05] density. In your agenda packets, you'll
[14:08] see that there is a concept plan. I do
[14:09] want to state, just so everybody
[14:11] understands, approval of a zoning change
[14:15] Well, what they're asking for does not
[14:16] approve the concept plan. Okay, that's
[14:19] just showing what possibly could happen
[14:21] with this. There are probably going to
[14:22] be some changes. If this were to be
[14:24] approved, then they would go through the
[14:25] result or I'm sorry, the subdivision
[14:27] process, kind of what we were talking
[14:28] about just a moment ago, preliminary
[14:30] plan, construction drawings, those kind
[14:31] of things. So, the concept plan is just
[14:33] that. It is not binding, but it does
[14:35] give you an idea of how they would like
[14:37] to progress. This property does have
[14:39] access along Frank Franklin Road. Uh T
[14:42] do DOT approval would be required for
[14:44] any new or improved access points. The
[14:46] applicants are planning to use the
[14:47] existing access point that was granted
[14:49] for the town home development which does
[14:51] include turn lanes which you can see on
[14:53] the concept plan. Uh county schools took
[14:57] a look at this as well. Uh we did relay
[14:59] their concerns to you actually a little
[15:01] fur uh earlier in the report. You can
[15:03] see that there are some comments from
[15:05] the
[15:06] uh schools about what they wanted to to
[15:09] see on that. basically that a lot of
[15:11] their concerns. Oh, I'm sorry. Here, uh,
[15:13] sub streets would need to be 0.2 miles
[15:16] or shorter unless a turnaround is
[15:18] provided. These are things we would look
[15:19] at during the subdivision process should
[15:21] this application be approved. But yeah,
[15:23] that's just a little earlier in the
[15:25] staff report. You also see that we
[15:28] describe the landscaping and buffering.
[15:29] Uh, this would be a residential single
[15:31] family development. Should the zoning be
[15:33] approved, then something move forward.
[15:35] So, that's not anything that would be
[15:37] required at that time. neither would the
[15:38] performance standards apply. Typically,
[15:41] I like to give a recap of what happened
[15:42] at the planning commission meeting and
[15:44] you'll see that in the staff report as
[15:46] well. So, commissioners had questions
[15:48] about the public notice of the meeting,
[15:50] access to the property, traffic issues,
[15:52] including the future widening of
[15:53] Franklin Road. We discussed our
[15:55] notification protocol. We discussed the
[15:57] number of access points. There is one
[15:59] primary access point, but also one for
[16:00] emergency access, which was part of the
[16:02] original uh town home development. and
[16:05] also future plans for Franklin Road at
[16:08] some point. We know that's going to be
[16:09] widened to five lanes. It's not on T
[16:10] DOT's 10-year plan right now. Frank
[16:12] Franklin Road is a state road, so of
[16:14] course they'll be the ones that will be
[16:16] responsible for uh driving that project.
[16:19] Uh there were some comments as well
[16:21] during the public hearing about property
[16:22] boundaries and blasting. Uh following
[16:25] the public hearing, the commission had
[16:26] concerns about having less control over
[16:28] an RM development than a plan
[16:30] development in school capacity. Uh the
[16:32] applicant's representative came forward
[16:34] to address questions as to why the
[16:35] change was being requested. Basically,
[16:37] the market forces as they see them are
[16:39] not favorable for town home
[16:40] construction. And again, I emphasize
[16:42] that this is only for the zoning of the
[16:44] property. This would not approve the
[16:46] concept plan. So, following that
[16:48] discussion, the planning commission
[16:50] recommended approval of the application
[16:52] by a unanimous vote. Uh I will move on
[16:55] to the second, then we'll entertain
[16:56] questions on either case. If you just
[16:58] bear with me a second as I navigate.
[17:01] The second item is for a piece of
[17:03] property on Burnt Knob Road. This is in
[17:05] Commissioner James' district. They are
[17:07] asking for zoning from residential
[17:09] medium density to commercial services.
[17:12] Uh just for the new commissioners,
[17:13] commercial services is kind of what I
[17:15] would call our middle of the road zoning
[17:17] for commercial uses. We've got three
[17:20] commercial zones. We've got commercial
[17:21] neighborhood, commercial service, and
[17:23] commercial general. uh commercial center
[17:25] is sorry commercial service is kind of
[17:27] the center of the road of the three. So
[17:29] it doesn't allow things like auto sales
[17:32] and things like that but it does allow a
[17:34] lot of other retail. So just to give you
[17:35] an idea uh this property has been the
[17:38] subject of two resoning requests since
[17:40] 2018. Uh in 2018 the application was for
[17:43] CS as well. Uh it was in response to a
[17:46] zoning enforcement case. They were
[17:47] operating construction business on the
[17:49] property. That recommend application was
[17:51] recommended for denial by the planning
[17:53] commission and also by the board of
[17:54] commissioners was denied in April of
[17:56] 2018. Couple years later, the
[17:58] application came forward uh an
[18:00] application came forward for office
[18:02] professional which is a lighter zone.
[18:04] Doesn't allow a lot of commercial type
[18:05] uses, retail, those kind of things, but
[18:07] does allow a lot of office uses, but
[18:09] that was also denied as well. The
[18:12] applicant again proposing to ask for
[18:14] commercial service zoning for use as a
[18:16] construction business. Uh the existing
[18:18] house will be converted into an office
[18:20] and there are plans to add a second
[18:22] structure on the property as well. Uh
[18:24] this use is classified as a construction
[18:26] sales and service which is allowed by
[18:28] right in the CS zone. The [snorts]
[18:30] applicant held a neighborhood meeting on
[18:32] August 6th. Staff was present myself. Uh
[18:34] there were questions about activity on
[18:36] the property but from our viewpoint just
[18:38] from what I saw there did not appear to
[18:39] be much opposition to the request. I'd
[18:41] say there's probably about 10 people
[18:42] that were there. Uh you'll see that
[18:44] there is a concept plan in the staff
[18:46] report as well. The access is shown onto
[18:49] Bertnob road in the parking area between
[18:51] the existing house and proposed
[18:52] structure. We have not required a
[18:54] traffic study at this point, but we
[18:56] could in the future if this is approved
[18:58] and they do submit a site plan and we
[18:59] felt that one was warranted. And any
[19:03] uh any development of the site, it
[19:05] should just be approved. It have to have
[19:06] an engineered site plan which would be
[19:08] considered by the planning commission.
[19:10] Uh landscape and screening is also
[19:11] discussed. This would require type two
[19:13] buffers along their property lines
[19:14] adjacent to any residential property
[19:16] lines and performance standards would
[19:19] also apply. Uh prior to the public
[19:21] hearing, the planning commission had
[19:22] questions about the zoning of adjacent
[19:24] properties which staff explained using
[19:26] RGIS the maps that we have up at the
[19:28] meeting. Uh there were no other
[19:29] questions. Nobody spoke during the
[19:31] public hearing. Following the public
[19:32] hearing, the planning commissioner
[19:34] recommended approval of the request by a
[19:36] vote of nine for and one against. I will
[19:39] say that in the staff report, you'll see
[19:41] that uh for staff's recommendation. Uh I
[19:45] know that in the past this has been to
[19:46] the commission a couple of different
[19:47] times. However, there have been some
[19:49] other zoning changes in the area, most
[19:51] notably the expansion of the Rogers
[19:52] Group Corey to the northnortheast.
[19:55] So staff felt a little more comfortable
[19:57] about it now than we did in the past. So
[19:59] with that, I'll be happy to answer any
[20:01] questions that you may have on either of
[20:03] these zoning cases.
[20:10] How many homes are in the the first
[20:13] reszone? The Franklin Road approximately
[20:17] how many homes are they going to try to
[20:18] put there?
[20:18] >> Oh, you mean under their concept plan?
[20:20] Okay, let me I think it's around 90 to
[20:22] 100 somewhere in that range if I
[20:23] remember right now. Again, that's not
[20:26] the approved plan. So, a lot of it will
[20:27] come back to what kind of soil they end
[20:29] up getting and different things, road
[20:31] layouts, those kind of things, but it
[20:33] looked like about 90 to 100
[20:41] Miss Watt.
[20:42] >> Yes. Um, so how large are the lots? Say
[20:47] is that 1.01 and two? Is that one and
[20:50] two acre lots? Is that what that means?
[20:52] >> No, those are the par uh those are lot
[20:54] numbers is what you're seeing. 101 102.
[20:56] So now several of these lots are like
[20:58] step lots, detention ponds, things like
[21:00] that. Actual residential lots. I think
[21:02] it's closer, like I said, somewhere
[21:03] between 90 and 100. The minimum lot size
[21:05] in the RM district is 15,000 square
[21:07] feet, which is about a third of an acre.
[21:10] >> Okay.
[21:20] » Are there any more questions for Mr.
[21:22] Deos?
[21:27] Um, so originally it was um denied by
[21:31] the planning commission because of the
[21:34] blast concerns and things.
[21:36] >> Which case are we talking about? I'm
[21:38] sorry.
[21:38] >> The B
[21:39] >> the second one.
[21:40] >> Yes.
[21:41] >> Okay. No, the second one I think it was
[21:43] originally denied. I just think at the
[21:45] time the planning commission nor the
[21:47] county commission felt it was an
[21:49] appropriate use of the land at the time.
[21:51] But like I said, some of the land use in
[21:52] that area has kind of evolved and
[21:53] changed. So
[22:00] Doug, on the A project,
[22:04] >> does it change the density of the homes
[22:06] by going from a PUB down to residential
[22:09] medium density?
[22:11] >> Well, you're getting they're proposing
[22:13] less houses. So, the density that you
[22:16] would get would be consistent with
[22:18] what's allowed in RM. So, the same
[22:21] amount of acreage is actually going to
[22:22] have less lots. So I guess to answer
[22:24] your question, it would reduce that.
[22:25] Yes, sir.
[22:26] >> Thank you.
[22:29] >> So it would essentially be I guess
[22:32] larger homes to make up for that and
[22:34] more expensive homes.
[22:36] >> You know, without knowing the zoning
[22:38] doesn't dictate the size of the homes,
[22:39] just dictates the lot size. Now, I don't
[22:43] think what you're saying is necessarily
[22:45] inaccurate. Uh but I know that town
[22:48] homes weren't really what the they felt
[22:50] the market could bear. So, with a 15,000
[22:53] foot house or a lot, you could have a
[22:55] bigger uh envelope for a bigger house.
[22:57] Yes.
[22:58] >> Okay. I just know the concern for like
[22:59] more affordable homes and
[23:01] >> um you would think that um apartments or
[23:05] um town homes would be more beneficial.
[23:08] Um
[23:09] >> well, they were looking to do more of
[23:11] like an age targeted type situation or
[23:13] even to some extent age restricted uh
[23:15] >> age. Oh, like a like a
[23:17] >> similar the the development right next
[23:19] door to this uh the Southern Harmony
[23:21] development. It's an age restricted
[23:22] community. You have to be 55 okay or
[23:24] older to to live in that development.
[23:27] They were doing something similar with
[23:28] this. Uh originally this what they're
[23:31] proposing now there would be no age
[23:33] restriction. It would just be you know
[23:34] market whatever dictate.
[23:38] >> And you're just reporting to us. We're
[23:39] not voting yes or no as to whether or
[23:41] not we approve these.
[23:43] >> Oh, for this meeting today? Yeah. We're
[23:45] just presenting what happened. These are
[23:47] going to come to public hearing next
[23:48] week at the county. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
[23:49] You're not You're not
[23:50] >> You're just letting us know what's going
[23:51] on.
[23:52] >> That's correct. Thank you.
[23:53] >> Yes, ma'am.
[23:56] » I'll make a motion to approve.
[24:00] >> All in favor say I.
[24:02] >> I.
[24:03] >> Nay. Motion pass.
[24:06] >> Yes, sir. Uh just I know there's been a
[24:08] lot of uh interest and discussion
[24:10] regarding the upcoming public hearing
[24:13] this coming Monday at the planning
[24:15] commission for the data center
[24:16] moratorum. I just wanted to kind of just
[24:18] make sure everybody was aware of that.
[24:20] Uh I'm sure everybody here probably
[24:21] knows that but at the planning
[24:23] commission on Monday we'll have a public
[24:24] hearing. We've got some other ones too
[24:26] for resonings but but that is going to
[24:28] be coming up on Monday for discussion on
[24:30] that resolution. So just
[24:31] >> what what is the course of action? So
[24:34] say a moratorum gets approved Monday.
[24:37] What are the following steps? Does it go
[24:39] directly to the county commission or
[24:41] does it come here first?
[24:42] >> Well, what will happen? Right. What'll
[24:43] happen is the planning commission will
[24:45] make a recommendation kind of like we do
[24:46] for any kind of a resoning. So after
[24:48] that meeting then yes, it'll come to
[24:50] public works and planning committee here
[24:53] at that be in November and we would then
[24:56] at before that we would advertise it for
[24:58] a public hearing at the board of
[25:00] commissioners November meeting. So
[25:02] that's kind of what the general
[25:04] guideline, general schedule would be for
[25:06] that. Yes, sir. [clears throat]
[25:09] >> Doug, you didn't mention what time
[25:10] Monday.
[25:11] >> Oh, I'm sorry. 6 o'clock in this room.
[25:14] Thank you.
[25:23] » It's a 6 p.m. The the evening meeting 6
[25:26] p.m. The second Yeah, I'm sorry.
[25:28] Planning Commission meets twice a month
[25:29] except for November and December because
[25:31] the holidays, but the second Monday of
[25:33] the month is the evening meeting where
[25:35] we look at resonings and then the fourth
[25:37] Monday of the month, the one we just
[25:38] had, is a 9:00 a.m. morning meeting. So,
[25:40] we're doing plats and plans at that
[25:41] meeting. Yes, ma'am.
[25:46] » Thank you, Doug.
[25:47] >> Great. Thank you. Thank you all.
[25:51] >> The next item on our agenda will be from
[25:54] the highway department superintendent,
[25:56] Mr. Greg Brooks.
[26:04] » Welcome, Mr. Brooks.
[26:05] >> Good evening.
[26:08] >> How is everyone? Uh, I'll start off with
[26:12] saying Doug's always been a hard act to
[26:14] follow. He's very well spoken and always
[26:16] has his stuff together. So, I'll do the
[26:19] best I can to follow up what Doug what
[26:22] Doug says. Okay. So, I am the road
[26:24] superintendent, elected road
[26:25] superintendent. I've been uh I took
[26:27] office in 2012 and this is I'm assuming
[26:29] that you want us all a little overview.
[26:31] >> Yes, sir.
[26:33] >> So, I took office in 2012. Uh I run the
[26:37] highway department. The highway
[26:38] department is responsible for
[26:40] maintaining our county roads. Um we do
[26:44] our own paving
[26:47] uh with the exception of when we uh
[26:49] contract out some state aid work. We do
[26:52] our mowing. We have construction crew.
[26:56] Uh we we do our own trucking for our
[26:58] paving operation. And we also under the
[27:01] umbrella of the highway department, we
[27:03] have the public works department. The
[27:05] public works department was organized
[27:06] back in uh Commissioner P can probably
[27:09] help me with this around 2002 2004 I
[27:12] believe and it was uh put in place to
[27:15] try to alleviate some uh localized
[27:20] flooding concerns, drainage concerns.
[27:24] So, because the highway department by
[27:27] state law can only work on the road and
[27:29] the roadside ditch, the public works
[27:32] department can go off of the uh rightway
[27:36] that exist in the road book and and
[27:39] enter private property with an easement
[27:41] from those property owners. So, that's
[27:43] kind of an overview of of what we do and kind of who does what. I'm here
[27:50] tonight to Well, let me back up a little
[27:54] bit. The any we have a we have a seven
[27:58] member elected roadboard and uh we they
[28:02] meet once a month to uh discuss the
[28:05] finances and concerns of their
[28:07] constituents and and anything highway
[28:10] department/public work department
[28:12] related. We will discuss. Any action
[28:16] taken at that meeting will that that
[28:20] would need to be forwarded on to the
[28:22] full county commission would come here
[28:24] next to the public works planning
[28:26] department for routing for lack of a
[28:29] better for lack of a better definition.
[28:32] It could be that if it's it's if it's a
[28:34] financial thing, it could be uh that the
[28:37] next stop for it after this would be to
[28:41] send it to the budget committee or it
[28:43] could be that it could go from this
[28:46] committee straight to the county
[28:47] commission depending on what it is,
[28:50] whether or not I guess really whether or
[28:52] not we're spending money. Uh so
[28:55] any any action taken at the road board
[29:00] will this will be the next stop for it
[29:02] on its way to the full commission.
[29:04] So tonight what we have for you is some
[29:08] public works uh
[29:12] drainage e temporary drainage easements
[29:15] temporary construction easements. Um I
[29:18] have for you and I think you have them
[29:20] too. Uh couple from September because as
[29:24] you know this this this uh committee did
[29:26] not meet in September. So these were uh
[29:31] taken at the September roadboard meeting
[29:36] and then have some from our last road
[29:40] war meeting yesterday morning which
[29:41] would have been October the October
[29:43] meeting. So typically on something like
[29:46] these drainage echments, we would group
[29:48] them all together and you know I'd
[29:51] present them all and you'd approve them
[29:53] all at one time. But since we have two
[29:54] months, let's do September and then
[29:56] we'll do October.
[29:59] So for September we have u
[30:03] drainage easements on Pawa Springs Road
[30:09] and what these are for is we are doing a
[30:12] project
[30:14] on Paw Springs Road where we're doing a
[30:17] covert relline
[30:20] uh and that is contracted work.
[30:23] We bid that work out, but the uh work
[30:27] will exceed the existing rideway. So, we
[30:30] had to get some temporary construction
[30:32] easements to allow that contractor to
[30:34] come in and do the work. So, that's what happened in September. These
[30:40] are temporary construction easements to
[30:42] facilitate allow for the contractor to
[30:44] come in and make those covert
[30:47] improvements.
[30:53] We'll need a motion to approve his
[30:55] September easements.
[30:58] >> Making a motion to approve.
[31:00] >> Second.
[31:01] >> We have a motion and a second. Do we
[31:03] need to roll call this? There's money
[31:05] involved.
[31:10] » All in favor say I.
[31:13] >> Opposed. Motion passes. Carry on, Mr.
[31:16] Brook.
[31:17] >> Okay. Next we have uh
[31:20] a couple on um
[31:25] what we're going to call this is more of
[31:28] what we do dayto-day is it's a uh trying
[31:31] to alleviate some drainage.
[31:34] Um, typically
[31:37] we we go in and
[31:40] we have to be very careful when we when
[31:42] we start talking about drainage uh
[31:45] problems because we we have to account
[31:47] for the water. We can't just move it
[31:48] downstream. We have to count account for it. So these however are to
[31:55] clean up an existing drainage easement a
[31:58] platted drainage easement that is not
[32:00] part of the public works drainage e
[32:04] easement system. So we're going to go in
[32:06] is is more really it's more vegetation
[32:09] removal uh than it is uh dirt work so to
[32:13] speak. uh they they've become overgrown.
[32:16] The uh they've gotten away from the from
[32:19] the subsequent property owners. I think
[32:21] there about four or five that are
[32:23] involved in this and they're just more
[32:25] than they can do on their own. So, we're
[32:27] going to go in and clean up the debris
[32:32] and overgrowth and get it back to a
[32:35] state where it can be maintained by the
[32:39] uh adjoining property owners moving
[32:42] forward. So, we don't have to have a
[32:44] permanent easement. We can do a
[32:45] temporary easement.
[32:47] >> I'm sorry, sir. Um, which one did you
[32:49] say this was? I was trying to find the
[32:51] PDF.
[32:52] >> I'm sorry.
[32:53] >> This particular easement,
[32:55] >> uh, it's Ventura Court and Reynolds
[32:57] Drive.
[32:58] >> Thank you.
[33:01] And is it in the Fawnwood
[33:06] subdivision, I believe, if I'm not
[33:07] mistaken. Yes.
[33:12] Sorry, I should have clarified.
[33:18] But even though you see several, they all adjoin each other.
[33:30] » We have a motion to approve.
[33:32] >> Second.
[33:33] >> We have a second.
[33:35] Mr. P
[33:38] >> Greg, is there ever occurrence where we
[33:41] have to pay for these temporary
[33:42] easements or any easements?
[33:46] >> Public works has never had has never had
[33:48] to do that. No. The only time that I've
[33:52] ever seen anything like that happen is
[33:53] when we're trying to uh maybe acquire a
[33:56] rideway for road improvements, which is rare. We, you know, as you know, we really don't have
[34:03] the funds available to acquire property.
[34:06] We we a lot of times we can do the work,
[34:07] but acquiring the property is a whole
[34:09] different
[34:11] >> most of these cases people have come to
[34:13] us and have asked for this to be done.
[34:15] >> Absolutely. Yes, sir.
[34:16] >> On board with it,
[34:18] >> Yes, sir.
[34:19] >> Thank you,
[34:20] >> Miss Watts.
[34:23] Um, sir, this is on their property and
[34:26] they've asked us to do it. So, do they
[34:27] pay us anything or we do this out of the
[34:30] goodness of our hearts?
[34:31] >> It it is a service.
[34:32] >> Okay.
[34:33] >> It is a service.
[34:34] >> Thank you, Mr. Clark. Mr. Chair, and to
[34:37] follow up on that question, what what
[34:39] criteria makes you decide yes, we're
[34:43] going to do it when there's a request
[34:44] made as opposed to no, that's really not
[34:47] our
[34:49] job to do. Well, it's always it's always
[34:52] case by case, but in the case of the
[34:54] ones you see in front of you tonight
[34:55] that were that were accepted by the
[34:57] board yesterday morning, the the
[35:00] vegetation has gotten to the point where
[35:02] it's going to start causing flooding and
[35:05] the flooding the flooding will
[35:08] show up as you know what I what I would
[35:11] call nuisance water where it's in
[35:13] somebody's yard and then it will expand
[35:15] from that and then it starts doing you
[35:17] know property damage. So in an effort to
[35:22] cretail that because once that starts
[35:24] happening they're they're absolutely
[35:26] going to expect some you know relief. Uh
[35:29] it it's difficult sometimes to to decide
[35:34] which ones are good candidates and
[35:37] viable and should should receive help
[35:41] from the county because as you know we we can't spend anything we
[35:47] didn't take from someone. That's just
[35:48] the way it is. It's unfortunate truth.
[35:50] So, uh, in most cases,
[35:55] people people are receptive to allow us
[35:58] to come in and do the work and then try
[36:01] to maintain it themselves moving
[36:02] forward. In some cases that they don't.
[36:06] So, you know, at that point, they h they
[36:10] have some personal responsibility,
[36:12] accountability, I feel like. So, a lot
[36:15] of times that would be the deciding
[36:17] factor. Sounds like it's um you move
[36:20] ahead and do the work if the situation
[36:23] might result in a wider public damage or
[36:28] um risk or danger.
[36:31] >> Yes, ma'am. That that is accurate
[36:32] >> beyond just one property owner's
[36:34] property. When you talk about the
[36:37] flooding, that's you never know what
[36:39] that's going to affect. So,
[36:40] >> yes. Yes, ma'am. That that that's very
[36:42] accurate.
[36:42] >> All right. Thank you,
[36:45] Mr. P. When we originally
[36:49] conceived of having a we call it an
[36:51] infancy public works department, the
[36:54] criteria for who would go on there first
[36:56] was life safety. Uh second was property
[37:00] damage. So that's kind of the criteria
[37:03] that it started with. Uh most of the
[37:06] ones especially the life threatening
[37:09] ones we hope have all been taken care
[37:11] of. If not, they're being looked at and
[37:15] uh their board does a good job of
[37:17] vetting these.
[37:19] I know that. And our engineering
[37:22] department,
[37:23] you know, at one time all the
[37:25] commissions were either rural or urban
[37:30] when this started us rural say
[37:33] Commissioner Piery nodding along is he
[37:35] and I worked on this. uh Joe Frank
[37:37] Jernigan, you know, all the royal
[37:39] commissioners
[37:41] u at that time didn't have urban, but we
[37:45] needed some help. You know, if you're
[37:48] city commissioner,
[37:50] all you got to do is pick up the phone
[37:51] if you're in Murphy'sboro and say, "Hey,
[37:53] send public works out here and give me a
[37:55] hand." That takes care of it. Life's
[37:57] easy for a city commissioner sometimes,
[37:59] but now we've got both. We got
[38:02] commissioners that are both rural and
[38:04] urban. And anyway, this was an attempt
[38:07] to
[38:09] get a public works department started
[38:12] where we had extreme uh well danger. We
[38:17] had property loss and there's danger of
[38:20] people drowning from it. But anyway,
[38:23] that's how we started and that's how we
[38:25] actually said, "Hey, this is what we
[38:27] want to do." But that money set aside in
[38:30] the budget for them.
[38:33] It's been a really good program over the
[38:34] years in my opinion that they've done a
[38:36] lot of good. They've helped a lot of pe,
[38:38] you know, they the public works
[38:40] department that have helped a lot of
[38:42] people and you know, when it was
[38:43] implemented, uh it it wouldn't it
[38:47] wouldn't exist if it weren't for
[38:49] commissioners like Commissioner P. I
[38:50] mean, you know, he mentioned Joe Freight
[38:52] Jernigan who's who's passed who was very
[38:55] instrumental in in heading that up and
[38:58] getting it off the ground and buying the
[39:00] equipment and organizing the whole
[39:02] thing. And it's been it's been a good
[39:05] it's a very good asset for the county.
[39:06] It's a very good department for the for
[39:08] the county. There's no question about
[39:09] that. uh we we do what we can with what
[39:12] we have to work with, but unfortunately
[39:14] a lot of times uh you we can't just like
[39:19] I said we have to count for the water.
[39:20] We can't just move it from one property
[39:22] to the next property obviously but it
[39:25] it's uh it's been it's been very
[39:28] beneficial without question and they
[39:31] over the years we we have undertaken
[39:33] some very large very difficult projects and
[39:38] accomplished quite a bit. So, and over
[39:43] the over the years, you know, with the
[39:44] development of, you know, the this is
[39:47] going to sound ridiculous to someone as
[39:50] young as M Mr.
[39:53] [snorts] Dy here, but you know, when we started, we we didn't really
[39:58] have we didn't really have the
[39:59] technology available to us at at the
[40:02] click of a a mouse. You know, we can we
[40:04] can turn on topographical map right now
[40:06] and see what the drainage basin looks
[40:08] like. So, a lot of areas that were built
[40:11] in back in the day that had had the
[40:15] bene, you know, that public works
[40:17] benefited trying to drain some of that
[40:18] property um would not have happened had
[40:21] we had the technology available to us to
[40:23] our engineering department that that's
[40:25] utilized now. So, it's not it's not as
[40:28] bad as it was for sure.
[40:33] » Abby,
[40:34] >> um this is definitely beneficial. Um,
[40:37] and like you said, it would cause us
[40:39] flooding flooding if that vegetation
[40:41] continued um to be there. Um, I just
[40:44] want to know, is there any way that um,
[40:47] you know, maybe the indigenous plant
[40:49] rescue or anything, they could, um, kind
[40:51] of, um, look over that and see if
[40:55] there's any native or endangered species
[40:57] that are there? Because I know they they
[40:59] like to collect those kind of things
[41:00] instead of just tearing it all down
[41:02] without looking. Like, is that something
[41:03] that um, has ever been done or can be
[41:06] done? Well,
[41:07] >> I know it's private property, but just
[41:09] something that we could ask.
[41:11] >> Typically,
[41:13] that that type of problem could show up
[41:18] in a in a stream bed. And most of the
[41:21] areas that we work in are are
[41:26] ditches that were cut into,
[41:29] you know, subdivisions to to drain the
[41:34] property. um to a pond, usually a a
[41:37] detention pond or retention pond. So, a
[41:40] lot of the endangered species don't
[41:42] exist because it's very the the water
[41:45] there is very intermittent.
[41:47] >> Well, native species and like as well in
[41:50] general.
[41:50] >> I'm sorry.
[41:51] >> Like native species as well, not not
[41:53] just endangered. I'm sorry. I should you
[41:55] know, just native species to Tennessee
[41:57] um because there's an issue of those um
[42:02] going away. So I was just asking that
[42:07] >> well I I don't I don't know really how
[42:09] to answer the question other than the
[42:10] fact that you know we we are
[42:14] unfortunately
[42:16] we live in a society where you know
[42:18] humans are going to come first and we we
[42:21] try to be
[42:24] mindful and respectful of our of our
[42:28] plant life and animal life. But when you
[42:32] know when we're following up behind a
[42:34] development that has already put the
[42:37] drainage system in place then we we have
[42:39] to work we're you know having to work in
[42:41] that area.
[42:41] >> I understand. I just thought I'd ask
[42:43] because I mean if we don't have
[42:45] Tennessee native species we won't have
[42:47] um bees and we won't have vegetation at
[42:49] all. So um that's why I asked.
[42:52] >> Yeah. Development development say put us
[42:54] first. It's it's hard sometimes it's
[42:57] hard to coexist with you know the amount
[42:59] of growth we have and the development we
[43:00] have and and
[43:03] yeah there there has to be a balance
[43:05] there. I agree. So, there's no way we
[43:06] can partner if anyone knows. I'm sorry.
[43:08] This is just There's no way we can
[43:10] partner with anyone to uh see if there
[43:13] is a salvageable native species that we
[43:17] could because there there's um
[43:19] indigenous plant rescues that they
[43:20] collect things like that to grow them
[43:23] and um plant them in areas that will
[43:26] benefit the community as a whole. So, um
[43:30] is there no way we can do that at all?
[43:33] We can't even ask the owners.
[43:36] >> Let let me intervene. Mr. Brooks,
[43:39] what you're not understanding
[43:42] is by the time Mr. Brooks gets to a site
[43:46] to open these easements up. The damage
[43:50] has already been done through excavation
[43:53] for development. It's gone.
[43:55] >> So, it's only like broken trees and
[43:57] things like that. There's nothing
[44:00] growing there.
[44:01] >> Is that what you're saying? your your
[44:03] questions I think would probably need to
[44:05] go toward a developer because they get
[44:08] there first. Mr. Brooks just second down
[44:11] the line. The damage has done them been
[44:13] done to what you're concerned about.
[44:16] I will say that that we uh
[44:21] we through through partnering with plan
[44:24] engineering and storm water uh we we are
[44:27] um we would be aware if if there was u a wetland for instance that that has
[44:34] these native plants that are you know
[44:36] indigenous of of a wetland or something
[44:38] like that. So, so we have that tool in
[44:41] our toolbox, so to speak, but partnering
[44:43] with someone outside of there, I I I
[44:45] really don't.
[44:46] >> Well, that's good to know at least.
[44:48] >> Can I Can I just add a couple things?
[44:50] >> Absolutely.
[44:51] >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[44:52] >> Yes,
[44:52] >> Brendon. It was a good question. Uh
[44:56] where
[44:59] Greg Brooks is talking about are our
[45:01] what used to be grass ditches, right? Uh
[45:06] they are not meant to hold water. there.
[45:08] It's a through drainage. So when you get
[45:10] a heavy rain, the water just passes
[45:12] right through
[45:12] >> conveyance.
[45:13] >> Yeah, exactly. Um over time,
[45:18] these were not maintained, not mowed. So
[45:21] you get large weeds, you get
[45:25] >> woody bird. Yeah. Bird droppings create
[45:28] seedlings that
[45:29] >> So you have just nasty brush.
[45:33] >> That's different than the wetlands you
[45:35] just mentioned, right? where they will
[45:37] for the most part hold some kind of a
[45:39] water which then you're talking about
[45:41] your critters and your your plants and
[45:44] that's when typically the storm water
[45:46] group or your your Rutherford County
[45:50] I can never say this right your ar the
[45:52] tree the tree guy or gal arborist or or
[45:56] uh there's a native the the person that
[45:59] studies the native species they'll come
[46:01] in and they'll analyze what's going on
[46:04] because we can't he can't we can't touch
[46:07] a wetlands
[46:08] >> right
[46:09] >> uh not without a state permission
[46:13] >> and then if you do disturb the wetlands
[46:15] you got to create a new one somewhere
[46:17] else you got to replace you got to
[46:19] replace you do a credit right so it was
[46:22] a good question it's just not applicable
[46:24] to the kind of ditches or work that his
[46:27] group is doing
[46:28] >> right imagine if you will a ditch that
[46:31] was cut through a subdivision 30 or 40
[46:33] years ago that was just like
[46:36] Commissioner Kush described, it was it
[46:38] was just a water conveyance. Um, then
[46:42] over time it could it could it be could
[46:45] become overgrown or it could silt in
[46:48] from um debris. Uh, you know, dirt moves
[46:53] around. You you you have the natural
[46:56] order of things. you know, leaves get
[46:59] bound up. And so, a lot of times, all
[47:01] we're doing is just getting it back to
[47:03] the original flow. We're just removing
[47:06] the sediment, if you will. For the most
[47:07] part, that's that's about what we do
[47:09] now, unless we're, you know, creating a
[47:11] whole new a whole new drainage system,
[47:14] which is which is rare currently. I
[47:16] mean, it's just it doesn't really happen
[47:18] much anymore. So, a lot of what we're
[47:20] doing, what we're doing is is silt
[47:22] removal.
[47:24] So,
[47:26] >> Mr. P,
[47:29] >> I just wanted to point out that, of
[47:31] course, you've got a couple of guys here
[47:33] that are on planning, fix to be on
[47:36] planning, and they'll find this out, but
[47:39] we actually do look out for protective
[47:43] animal life and plants in this
[47:46] community. There are maps that are not
[47:49] available to the public for some reasons
[47:52] because we don't want to advertise where
[47:55] some of these endangered animals or
[47:56] plants are, but our staff is very much
[48:00] aware that when development takes place
[48:02] in this county, that is taken into
[48:04] consideration. Uh I would advise you to
[48:07] go over and speak to uh Mr. Deamasi
[48:10] sometime since you've got a concern
[48:13] about this. But anyway, just to let you
[48:15] know, we don't just hill willy-nilly run
[48:19] around planting subdivisions where they
[48:22] shouldn't be planted. At least we
[48:24] attempt not to. Thank you.
[48:28] >> If there's no more questions for Mr.
[48:30] Brooks, we already have a motion and a
[48:32] second. All in favor of his report?
[48:36] >> Nays. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr.
[48:39] Brook.
[48:39] >> I think that's all I have for you. Thank
[48:41] you for your time.
[48:45] Next on our on our agenda is building
[48:48] codes from director Tanya Bale.
[48:53] Welcome, Miss Bale.
[48:56] >> Good evening and welcome to our new
[48:58] commissioners. Congratulations on
[49:00] getting appointed to the cool committee.
[49:03] Um, and unlike Greg and Doug, I am not
[49:07] very smooth and articulate. I tend to
[49:10] talk a little bit too fast with a wee
[49:12] bit of an accent. So, if I get talking
[49:13] too fast, just slow me down. Okay. Um, I
[49:16] have worked with the building coach
[49:18] department for 26 years. I started as a
[49:21] permit tech and made my way through all
[49:24] of the positions in the department to
[49:26] the director's position, which I've been
[49:27] in now for a little bit than 10 years.
[49:30] uh the building codes department
[49:32] does uh we start getting involved in the
[49:36] development process really at the
[49:38] application process just where I I do
[49:40] join Doug and planning and engineering
[49:42] and review um of site plans and stuff
[49:46] like that but just where it applies to
[49:48] building codes and uh any effect that
[49:51] building codes may have on those. Um
[49:54] ultimately once the uh plat plan uh has
[49:57] been approved by the planning commission
[49:59] and recorded those lots are then
[50:02] released by planning and engineering and
[50:04] therefore they're eligible for building
[50:05] permits. Um, so at that point when any
[50:10] project comes out of the ground, whether
[50:12] it be new construction, an addition in a
[50:16] private dwelling, an accessory
[50:17] structure, a garage, a swimming pool, a
[50:20] storage building, uh, addition, anything
[50:23] like that that requires a building
[50:25] permit. And we do the building
[50:27] inspections involved in that
[50:30] construction, both in residential and
[50:34] commercial. Um we we also have uh we
[50:39] also do the plans reviews etc that's
[50:41] involved with all of those um building
[50:43] projects. So we do plans reviews on them
[50:45] before they ever get released or before
[50:47] we issue uh building permits. We collect
[50:51] the school facilities tax and for those
[50:53] of you who are not familiar with the
[50:54] school facilities tax I'll give you a
[50:56] really brief overview of it. Rutherford
[50:59] County used to have a development tax
[51:00] which applied to the building lot and
[51:03] then the building itself. It was paid in
[51:06] two separate payments. The first half
[51:07] was paid by the developer when the lot
[51:09] was recorded. The second half was paid
[51:11] by the builder when they came in to get
[51:13] a building permit. The building the
[51:16] development tax was replaced by the
[51:17] school facilities tax in 2021. At that
[51:21] time it was adopted the count it's the
[51:23] county parts relief act. It's a
[51:25] Tennessee state law and Rutherford
[51:28] County adopted it. Um it was levied at
[51:32] $1 per square foot of new living space
[51:35] in Rutherford County in Rutherford
[51:37] County in the city of Murphy'sboro,
[51:39] Smyrna, Leverne, and Eagle. So we are
[51:42] responsible for collecting the school
[51:44] facilities tax for all jurisdictions
[51:46] within Rutherford County. Uh in 2023
[51:51] um the county powers relief act was
[51:54] rewritten by legislation um in up in the
[51:57] legislature and they increased it from a
[51:59] dollar to $1.50. They also changed
[52:02] restructured the payment when the
[52:04] payment was due and how we collected it
[52:06] etc. So um it they increased it from a
[52:09] dollar a square foot to $1.50 50 a
[52:11] square foot and and included commercial
[52:15] whereas in 2021 it just applied to
[52:17] residential. So in 23 they then included
[52:21] commercial. So we collect that for all
[52:24] of the jurisdictions. And then we have
[52:27] another division that is property
[52:29] maintenance, zoning enforcement and code
[52:32] enforcement. So anything that needs any
[52:35] kind of legal enforcement um we would
[52:38] take care of that. So we receive
[52:41] complaints from constituents from a lot
[52:43] of the times it's commissioners. Your
[52:45] constituents will call you and you can
[52:47] call us and we will establish a we will
[52:50] look into it and if it violates the
[52:52] zoning ordinance or the code or anything
[52:55] else then we will try and um pursue
[52:58] enforcement or abatement on it. Um so
[53:00] you'll you'll see that a lot of this
[53:02] will be in my reports here that I'm
[53:04] going to present to you and um feel free
[53:07] to stop and ask me questions. these
[53:09] reports, we present them like this. And
[53:12] um we've been doing this for the last
[53:13] few years, but there is a lot of
[53:15] information that we've got that may not
[53:17] necessarily be in these reports. So, if
[53:19] there's something in here that or that's
[53:21] not in here that you would like to see
[53:23] or that you would like to hear more
[53:25] about or more of these numbers broken
[53:26] down a little bit more or a little bit
[53:28] better, please do let me know and I'll
[53:30] try and
[53:32] >> Mr. Chair,
[53:34] >> back to the school facilities tax and
[53:36] thank you for talking about that. Um,
[53:39] you told us where it came from, but you
[53:41] did not say where it went. So, how is
[53:44] the school facilities tax used the money that comes from that?
[53:49] >> So, that is a commission we just
[53:51] collected. I'm just the offices office
[53:53] that collects it for you. The spending
[53:55] of it and the um dispersement of it is a
[53:59] county commission. It's way above my my
[54:01] pay grade.
[54:02] >> Okay. I I'll find out later.
[54:04] >> Yes.
[54:05] >> Thanks.
[54:07] All right. So, if nobody has any more
[54:09] questions about any of that, I'm going
[54:10] to move on to my reports. The very first
[54:12] report you've got is the building
[54:14] report. This report lists all of the
[54:17] building permits that were issued for
[54:18] the the previous month, for the month
[54:20] that we're reporting on. Um, you'll see
[54:22] that some of them have a valuation next
[54:24] to them. Some of our most of our
[54:27] building permits prior to our fee
[54:29] increase in 23 were based upon valuation
[54:31] of the project. So we took the valuation
[54:34] of the project and we um as took that
[54:38] value and and took it to a chart and
[54:39] that's how we got our permit fee. That
[54:41] chart is from directly from the code
[54:44] book. Um, in 2023, the county commission
[54:47] changed the way we issued building
[54:50] strictly just building permits, just a
[54:51] for brand new construction, new single
[54:53] family dwellings. And they um the permit
[54:57] fee is now generated at 70 cents per
[55:01] square foot under roof instead of the
[55:03] valuation because the valuation adjusted
[55:06] just changed so much and it was hard to
[55:07] keep up with. So, additions and remodels
[55:11] and all that good stuff is still done by
[55:12] valuation. We still do that by the
[55:14] contract price, by what what the
[55:16] homeowner is paying to get their
[55:18] addition done or their remodel done or
[55:20] something. That's what their permit is
[55:21] based upon. But new construction is at
[55:24] 70 cents a square foot under roof.
[55:26] Period. Glad. So the um the list of all
[55:31] of the separate permits that we issued,
[55:33] there's a number beside them and some of
[55:35] them have evaluation and some of them do
[55:36] not. At the very end of the report,
[55:39] you'll see that there's a grand total of
[55:40] fees collected. Um and that is for this past month is $2717,77.
[55:49] The job cost which would be valuation of
[55:51] the permits that we actually value that
[55:54] take the valuation of. So that is not a
[55:56] true that would not include any new
[55:58] construction that 23,141,000
[56:01] is strictly all of the other permits
[56:04] that we do without new construction and
[56:06] that's just the valuation of them.
[56:09] The grand total of num grand number
[56:12] grand total number of permits issued was
[56:14] 309 for September broken down above in
[56:18] the previous two pages. Um 46 of those
[56:21] were single family dwellings and that
[56:23] appears to be a focus every month.
[56:25] Everybody's always curious as to how
[56:27] many new single family dwellings there
[56:29] was. Um, as Doug mentioned earlier in
[56:32] his report, we have seen, the last time
[56:34] I checked, this was about three weeks
[56:36] ago, and uh, we were down to about 45%
[56:40] over the same time last year on single
[56:43] family dwelling permit issuance.
[56:48] Um, then below that, we have the total
[56:50] number of inspections that were building
[56:52] inspections that were completed, and
[56:54] that was 2284.
[56:56] Um, we have zoning inspections, which I
[56:58] will go over in just a second. And then
[57:00] miles driven is 10,837.
[57:04] And then below that, we do last month um
[57:08] total fees. Last month total number of
[57:10] permits and last month same or excuse
[57:12] me, same month last year total uh fees
[57:15] and same month last year total permits.
[57:17] And that's really just to give you an
[57:18] idea of kind of how things are are
[57:21] moving and flowing.
[57:25] Does anybody have any questions on that
[57:27] report?
[57:30] » How was how are the building permit fees
[57:33] for like things like swimming pools or
[57:34] things that aren't under roof? How are
[57:36] they calcul?
[57:36] >> So, they're based on valuation. They
[57:38] would bring us a copy of their contract
[57:40] um that whatever they're building,
[57:42] whether it's a remodel or the remodels
[57:44] are done by um cost of the contracts.
[57:47] Women pulls are cost of the contract.
[57:49] Additions are done based on square
[57:51] footage because it's new single family.
[57:53] It's new square footage. Um,
[57:57] and I'm glad I would be happy to break
[57:59] all this down for you. I mean, if if
[58:00] there you're curious about any of this
[58:03] stuff and want it explained further,
[58:04] please feel free to drop by my office
[58:06] anytime. Happy to run it all explain it
[58:09] all.
[58:10] >> M. Watts.
[58:11] >> And so this is just in the
[58:13] unincorporated areas of the county. It
[58:15] is
[58:15] >> because the city has their own permit.
[58:17] >> Correct. Okay.
[58:18] >> So the building permits are strictly
[58:20] unincorporated Rutherford County. The
[58:21] school facilities tax that we're going
[58:22] to get into in just a second is
[58:24] countywide. That is all four
[58:26] jurisdictions and unincorporated
[58:28] Rutherford County.
[58:29] >> Thank you.
[58:31] >> All right. So,
[58:32] >> Mr. P, one thing I might mention is her
[58:37] department, same thing with uh planning
[58:40] engineering.
[58:42] when they have fees, we look at those
[58:45] and what we're trying to do is make
[58:48] these offices uh self-sufficient, I
[58:52] guess, is the word. You know, the the
[58:54] money that they take in goes into the
[58:56] general fund, but it reflects on their
[58:58] budget, too. Some offices generate a lot
[59:02] of revenue, you know, some don't, but we
[59:05] upgrade. you were asking specifically
[59:07] about what why this cost whatever but
[59:12] occasionally we will update that. Uh we
[59:14] look at other counties, other
[59:17] municipalities, places, see what the
[59:19] fees are. Sometimes we get u unfunded
[59:23] mandates handed down to the state from
[59:26] the state to us. And uh what we try to
[59:29] do is for instance we had to start
[59:32] putting up silt fences here about 15
[59:34] years ago or maybe but we had to have
[59:36] people go out and inspect it and to pay
[59:39] for that we actually raise the price on
[59:43] getting that permit to help us pay for
[59:45] that.
[59:46] >> Right.
[59:47] >> So that's that's basically you know
[59:49] where these fees how they're generated
[59:52] and sometimes how they're updated.
[59:54] >> Right. So, I can only speak for building
[59:56] codes. In building codes, it's industry
[59:58] standard that the departments typically
[1:00:01] only charge fees enough so that their
[1:00:04] revenue doesn't ex excuse me, their
[1:00:06] budget doesn't exceed their revenue. It
[1:00:08] that's how it's that's how we um
[1:00:11] determine what our fees and stuff are.
[1:00:13] Um this last fee increase, we were able
[1:00:15] to leave all of the additions and um
[1:00:18] swimming pools and all that good stuff.
[1:00:20] We we did not increase those. We just
[1:00:22] increased um building permits and new
[1:00:26] addition commercial additions.
[1:00:30] Um but the commission wanted to leave
[1:00:32] anything that the homeowner cost the
[1:00:34] homeowner any money, they wanted to
[1:00:35] leave it alone. So if the homeowner was
[1:00:37] doing a remodel or a swimming pool or a
[1:00:39] storage building or something, those
[1:00:41] were left alone. We just increase the
[1:00:43] new construction permits.
[1:00:48] So we will move on to
[1:00:51] the school facilities tax report is uh
[1:00:54] done on a fiscal year. It's done from
[1:00:56] July 1 through June 30th um of every
[1:00:59] year. And like I said, we collect school
[1:01:01] facilities tax on the back end of the
[1:01:04] project. So the school facilities tax
[1:01:06] becomes due when the project is
[1:01:10] substantially complete but before the
[1:01:12] certificate of occupancy is issued. So,
[1:01:14] typically we encourage them to come in a
[1:01:16] couple of weeks before they're looking
[1:01:17] for a final CO so that they're not stuck
[1:01:20] at the very end trying to um they don't
[1:01:23] get held up at the end trying to pay
[1:01:25] their school facilities tax because um
[1:01:28] this is in the cities of Smyrna,
[1:01:30] Murphy'sboro, Leverne, and Eagleville
[1:01:33] too. So, um we have we work really well
[1:01:37] with um we haven't had any problems with
[1:01:39] inside the jurisdictions. We work really
[1:01:41] well with the cities of Murphy'sboro,
[1:01:42] Smyrna, and Leverne. Um they send us
[1:01:45] reports on a monthly basis of all the
[1:01:46] cos that they've issued. We cross
[1:01:48] reference them with all of our um SFTs
[1:01:51] to make sure that everything's been
[1:01:52] paid. And um
[1:01:56] that's it. So for the month of
[1:01:58] September, we collected uh 1,119,884
[1:02:04] in school facilities tax.
[1:02:08] Um, the row below that is development
[1:02:11] tax. As Doug mentioned in his report, we
[1:02:13] do have still have some random
[1:02:15] development tax lots that are floating
[1:02:17] out there that have never been built on
[1:02:20] because they were established under the
[1:02:21] development tax law. They are um we we
[1:02:26] just collect the other 750 when they
[1:02:28] come in to get their building permit.
[1:02:29] The school facilities tax does not apply
[1:02:31] to them because we don't double tax
[1:02:32] them. So you'll every now and again
[1:02:35] you'll see the odd development tax law
[1:02:37] be developed, but they're few and far
[1:02:39] between. They're floating around there,
[1:02:40] but yes.
[1:02:43] >> So quick question. We saw before that
[1:02:46] permits and everything is is is down
[1:02:48] compared to last year, but yet the
[1:02:50] school facility tax is so far the
[1:02:52] highest during the year. So do we have
[1:02:55] roughly what what's the lag from the
[1:02:57] time maybe a permit's issued to the time
[1:02:58] we collect the tax? like when are we
[1:03:00] going to see the boomerang offset of
[1:03:02] lower school facilities?
[1:03:04] >> That's a really good question. So, um I
[1:03:07] the average single family dwelling
[1:03:09] depending on the size takes about a
[1:03:11] builder about 6 to 8 months to build.
[1:03:14] Bigger ones obviously and if the
[1:03:16] homeowners building their own house it
[1:03:18] may take longer. Commercial projects are
[1:03:20] also included in this number and they
[1:03:22] take longer. So they take sometimes a
[1:03:24] couple years to build. Um so
[1:03:28] it probably six eight months we did see
[1:03:31] when we had the school facilities tax
[1:03:32] from 21 to 23 we were collecting it half
[1:03:35] of it up front and half of it on the
[1:03:36] back end. However, all of the builders
[1:03:39] chose to pay for it up front just to get
[1:03:40] it out of the way. So when the state
[1:03:43] legislature rewrote that law and decided
[1:03:45] that we couldn't collect it until the
[1:03:47] back end, we did see a lag. You'll be
[1:03:49] able to see in
[1:03:53] uh 24 2425
[1:03:56] if you'll look along the school
[1:03:59] facilities tax you'll see those numbers
[1:04:01] were really low and that's that was that
[1:04:03] period of time where we couldn't collect
[1:04:06] until the end. We'd already collected
[1:04:08] the ones that we'd issued on the front
[1:04:10] end and then the new ones that we issued
[1:04:11] we couldn't collect till the end. So
[1:04:12] there was a six eightmonth period where
[1:04:15] it was low.
[1:04:21] » All right. And if nobody has any more
[1:04:23] questions on on that.
[1:04:25] >> Yes.
[1:04:27] >> We don't do a lot of commercial work in
[1:04:29] the county, but when we do
[1:04:32] their numbers are just lumped in with
[1:04:34] this. They're all lumped in together.
[1:04:35] Right. Okay. And I am happy to and
[1:04:37] that's one of the things I'm happy to
[1:04:40] break this down if you would prefer to
[1:04:42] see this Murphy'sboro
[1:04:44] and broken down every month. I'm happy
[1:04:45] to do that. Um this is lumped together,
[1:04:50] but our system does have it broken down
[1:04:52] so we I can populate a report.
[1:04:56] I just don't want to get into too many
[1:04:58] numbers and too hard to follow, but I'm
[1:05:01] happy to do whatever you want. So just
[1:05:03] let me know. And then uh the zoning
[1:05:06] report, this is the uh zoning
[1:05:09] enforcement. This is zon zoning
[1:05:11] enforcement, code enforcement, property
[1:05:13] maintenance. Um this is and I we've
[1:05:16] tried to break it down to the different
[1:05:17] types of violations that we see. The
[1:05:20] toll weeds and grass, open storage,
[1:05:23] property maintenance, junkyard,
[1:05:24] substandard, noise, vacant and
[1:05:26] dilapidated structures, occupied RVs,
[1:05:29] unapproved businesses, BZA violations,
[1:05:32] illegal burning and dumping. Although
[1:05:34] the fire department pretty much takes
[1:05:36] care of those. We really need to remove
[1:05:37] that one. But um and then reinspe
[1:05:39] reinsspections citations that we've
[1:05:41] issued and some when they end up in
[1:05:43] court.
[1:05:49] So the very first one along the top is
[1:05:52] the initial investigation of that seven
[1:05:54] the 70 new cases that we um established
[1:05:56] in the month of September. The rest of
[1:05:58] them would all be uh inspections and
[1:06:01] reinspections of some sort.
[1:06:10] And if you don't have any questions,
[1:06:12] that concludes my report.
[1:06:14] >> Mr. Chair,
[1:06:15] >> I'd like to go back, please, uh, to your
[1:06:17] you made a statement. We do not want um,
[1:06:20] we don't want our budget to exceed our
[1:06:23] revenues.
[1:06:25] >> So, does that budget include the
[1:06:27] salaries of the people who work in your
[1:06:29] office?
[1:06:29] >> Yes, it does. Yes. So it so fees are
[1:06:33] structured in order to cover the costs
[1:06:37] of operating as well as the salaries and
[1:06:40] benefits of the people who work in your
[1:06:42] office.
[1:06:42] >> Historically industrywide, that's kind
[1:06:45] of how we um
[1:06:49] determine whether it's time to increase
[1:06:51] fees. If that number is too close or
[1:06:53] falling behind, then we then it's time
[1:06:56] to review fees.
[1:06:57] >> Yeah.
[1:06:59] What? Two years ago? Three years ago?
[1:07:00] >> Yes, it was in 23.
[1:07:02] >> Yeah,
[1:07:02] >> we were operating in the red. So that's
[1:07:04] when we
[1:07:05] >> Was it 23 or
[1:07:07] >> fees?
[1:07:08] >> 23 or 24
[1:07:11] for fees when we did fees? 23?
[1:07:16] » 23.
[1:07:18] So that affects the capacity of of um
[1:07:23] that that affects the county's ability
[1:07:25] to give salary raises to employees
[1:07:29] because it's linked to the fees that are
[1:07:33] generated by the work of the county.
[1:07:35] >> Again, that that's not my that's HR.
[1:07:38] That's kind of
[1:07:39] >> just thinking out. Yeah,
[1:07:40] >> just thinking
[1:07:42] >> I I work on my budget. I am given a
[1:07:46] salary. um insuranceances and stuff from
[1:07:48] the finance department
[1:07:50] >> and I
[1:07:51] >> um plug those into my budget along with
[1:07:54] the other needs that I have and that's
[1:07:56] how I get my total budget.
[1:07:58] >> I don't I don't
[1:08:00] >> assign my salary.
[1:08:01] >> That's a good that's a good Sonia
[1:08:02] question, but I don't I don't think I
[1:08:05] could be way wrong. I don't think 100%
[1:08:08] of her salaries are tied to the fees. I
[1:08:13] don't I don't think that
[1:08:14] >> 100% of my salaries are in my budget
[1:08:18] >> or in your budget, right? But I don't Is
[1:08:20] it true that a 100% of your budget is
[1:08:23] tied to the fees, though?
[1:08:26] >> I I'm not I'm not sure if the
[1:08:28] >> So, historic I'm just saying
[1:08:30] industrywide, I mean, the finance
[1:08:32] director and the HR director and
[1:08:33] probably the mayor's office would
[1:08:34] probably be better people to answer this
[1:08:36] for you. Industrywide, it is u the
[1:08:39] building codes department is typically
[1:08:42] do not
[1:08:43] they they're self-sustained. Their fees
[1:08:45] cover their bid their budget. Yes. Their
[1:08:47] revenue covers their budget.
[1:08:49] >> Okay. Thank you.
[1:08:50] >> And so when when they get too close or
[1:08:52] when they get unbalanced, then we know
[1:08:54] it's time to review fees.
[1:08:56] >> And I think fees are reviewed about
[1:08:58] every six or seven years. It's not
[1:09:01] something we do every year.
[1:09:03] >> Do we have any more questions on Miss
[1:09:06] Bill's report as she has given it? If
[1:09:09] not, we will need a motion. Motion to
[1:09:11] approve the report. Mr. Chairman,
[1:09:14] >> we have a motion and a second. Everybody
[1:09:16] in favor say I.
[1:09:18] >> I.
[1:09:19] >> Nays. Motion pass. Thank you, Miss Bell.
[1:09:22] >> Thank you.
[1:09:25] » Next on our agenda will be solid waste
[1:09:29] and convenience center director Matt
[1:09:32] Davis. Welcome, Matt.
[1:09:34] >> Thank you.
[1:09:39] I'll say yes. My name is Matt Davis. Uh
[1:09:41] I've been with the county solid waste
[1:09:43] department for seven years this month.
[1:09:46] Uh I started as a rolloff driver and um
[1:09:49] now I'm solid waste director. Uh it's an
[1:09:52] honor to serve and our department is u a
[1:09:56] lot of great people.
[1:09:58] We're responsible for operating the 14
[1:10:00] convenience centers where residents
[1:10:02] outside the city of Merbsboro but inside
[1:10:04] the county bring their waste. Uh we
[1:10:07] inside that operate recycling programs
[1:10:10] and try to divert material away from the
[1:10:12] landfill where we can. Um we run a fleet
[1:10:15] of about 15 drivers more days than not
[1:10:20] to uh service all of the convenience
[1:10:22] centers and schools in the county.
[1:10:27] We're also responsible for operating the
[1:10:29] transfer station that opened last year.
[1:10:31] Uh we operate the scale house and um
[1:10:36] oversee you everything on site for
[1:10:39] safety and loading um operating the the
[1:10:42] transfer station. Uh we also um are
[1:10:46] responsible for maintaining and uh
[1:10:48] keeping up the two landfills on county
[1:10:51] property that are not used anymore.
[1:10:54] And um
[1:10:56] that's pretty much the the different
[1:10:58] areas that our department covers.
[1:11:01] Um,
[1:11:03] so with that, I I'll go into my report
[1:11:05] if that's okay.
[1:11:07] And I want to start tonight a little
[1:11:08] different. I usually try to mention
[1:11:10] somebody that's uh done something in our
[1:11:12] department. And I'm sad tonight
[1:11:16] um to make you aware that um our
[1:11:19] attendant, Donna Neely, passed away
[1:11:21] September 23rd after a a health battle
[1:11:24] over the summer. She had been with us
[1:11:26] almost seven years. Um, I'll quote her
[1:11:29] obituary when I say that she was known
[1:11:31] for her stubborn spirit, her generous
[1:11:33] heart, her hard work in nature. She
[1:11:35] loved her garden and fishing, watching
[1:11:38] hummingbirds, and raising her bassad
[1:11:39] hounds.
[1:11:41] My heart and mind, the hearts and minds
[1:11:43] of our whole department are with Donna's
[1:11:46] husband, Wendell, and their entire
[1:11:48] family.
[1:11:50] We miss her and we grieve with all of
[1:11:51] them.
[1:11:58] » [snorts]
[1:12:00] » Okay. Um,
[1:12:05] so I like to use my PowerPoint through
[1:12:06] the report. Um, basically this first
[1:12:09] part is what we collect at the old
[1:12:11] county landfill. Um, residents and
[1:12:14] businesses can bring us brush uh for
[1:12:16] which we charge $30 a ton and then we
[1:12:19] manage that after they dump it. Um, in
[1:12:22] August was 115.28 28 tons of brush for
[1:12:25] 3,476
[1:12:27] of revenue. September was 211.9 tons of
[1:12:31] brush for $7,268.
[1:12:36] On the same property, we managed tires
[1:12:38] that are turned in for recycling. In
[1:12:40] August was 1,290 tires, a revenue of
[1:12:44] $2,167.
[1:12:46] September was 1498 tires for a revenue
[1:12:50] of $3,519.
[1:12:55] on our collections. Uh we picked up
[1:12:58] 2379.75
[1:13:00] tons of waste from convenience centers
[1:13:02] in August. September was 2,279.59
[1:13:06] tons.
[1:13:08] At the schools in August, we got 456.24
[1:13:11] tons. September was 528.23
[1:13:14] tons.
[1:13:17] Recycling collected across the county in
[1:13:20] August was 440.16 tons gave us a
[1:13:24] recycling rate of 13.44%.
[1:13:28] September we collected 411.18 tons gave
[1:13:31] us a recycling rate of 12.77%.
[1:13:36] The total that we managed in August was
[1:13:38] 3,276.15
[1:13:40] tons and in September was 3,219 tons.
[1:13:48] In the transfer station, we track our
[1:13:51] customers who pay cash every visit or
[1:13:55] credit or check. And we also track our
[1:13:57] account customers. Uh and then we pull
[1:14:00] out WM's our biggest customer. We track
[1:14:03] how much tonnage that they're bringing.
[1:14:05] Uh in August, you can see that total was
[1:14:07] 9,519.4
[1:14:09] tons. September was 9,91.22
[1:14:13] tons.
[1:14:16] Last month ended the quarter also and so
[1:14:19] we report the origin of waste processed
[1:14:21] through the transfer station. Uh for the
[1:14:23] full quarter, Rutherford County brought
[1:14:25] 87%
[1:14:27] excuse me 87% of that waste came from
[1:14:30] Rutherford County, 12.1% from Wilson
[1:14:33] County, a half a percent from Davidson
[1:14:35] County, and 0.4% from all other counties
[1:14:39] combined.
[1:14:42] Uh we'd like to remind everyone in the
[1:14:44] county that hazardous waste collection
[1:14:46] is this coming Saturday from u 8:00 am
[1:14:49] to noon at the city solid waste facility
[1:14:52] on Florence Road. U there's more
[1:14:55] information on our website at rutherford
[1:14:57] county tnm.gov/solid waste but uh it's
[1:15:01] one of two times per year that you can
[1:15:03] dispose of hazardous waste from your
[1:15:05] home for free.
[1:15:09] Uh couple things that we're following up
[1:15:11] on just from uh previous committee
[1:15:12] meetings. Uh we started our mattress
[1:15:15] recycling August 11th and then um have a
[1:15:18] an update already. I heard today I got a
[1:15:21] final report or a a more current report
[1:15:24] as we're just over,900 mattresses
[1:15:26] collected.
[1:15:28] I'm really proud of the work that we did
[1:15:30] with starting this mattress recycling
[1:15:32] program. uh we took steps before it
[1:15:34] started to train our attendants across
[1:15:37] the department and then to do more
[1:15:39] training with the attendants that are
[1:15:41] actually receiving these on the four
[1:15:42] sites.
[1:15:44] And it's been surprisingly smooth for
[1:15:46] us. Um we haven't had any trouble with
[1:15:50] uh payments or more complaints than
[1:15:52] normal. Um we haven't had any issues at
[1:15:55] all with the trailers and ramps. Our
[1:15:57] vendor has done a great job of um
[1:16:00] monitoring inventory and swapping the
[1:16:01] trailers when we need to. And so I'm I'm
[1:16:04] really proud our department has done a
[1:16:05] good job of starting this mattress
[1:16:07] recycling program is it will save
[1:16:10] 700,000 cubic feet per year of a
[1:16:13] landfill space that is very scarce in
[1:16:15] Tennessee.
[1:16:16] Um, the other thing is something this
[1:16:19] committee has um talked about from time
[1:16:22] to time is security cameras in the uh
[1:16:26] all of our properties, especially the
[1:16:27] convenience centers. And I just want to
[1:16:29] update that we've been working hard with
[1:16:31] OIT to develop a plan.
[1:16:34] Of course, the plans are different for
[1:16:35] every convenience center. Those
[1:16:37] properties are all very different. Uh we
[1:16:40] have a potential vendor that we're
[1:16:42] working with and um we've met with them
[1:16:45] in person. We've gone out to most of the
[1:16:47] convenience centers with them, you know,
[1:16:49] discussing everything from the placement
[1:16:51] to the infrastructure that's available
[1:16:53] there to support the data connection.
[1:16:56] Uh, but I I want to um thank this
[1:16:58] committee for bringing this forward,
[1:17:01] especially Commissioner P. You brought
[1:17:03] it up a few times.
[1:17:05] this really will be an investment that
[1:17:07] makes our community center safer and um
[1:17:11] you know we we need that record of
[1:17:13] what's going on when something does
[1:17:14] happen in the center and so I I
[1:17:16] appreciate that. I expect next month I
[1:17:18] should have a full proposal with pricing
[1:17:20] and u a schedule for deployment of
[1:17:23] those.
[1:17:24] Um
[1:17:27] I have a couple more things for you but
[1:17:29] that concludes my normal monthly report.
[1:17:32] Are there any questions for his normal
[1:17:34] report?
[1:17:36] >> Mr. McGallen,
[1:17:38] >> commissioner uh director. So for
[1:17:41] recycling, when you put the recycling
[1:17:44] numbers up there, that is the recycling
[1:17:46] that runs through the convenience
[1:17:48] centers or is that the total recycling
[1:17:51] throughout the county?
[1:17:52] >> That's the total for the whole county
[1:17:54] for everything we pick up. It would
[1:17:56] include the schools and county offices
[1:17:58] with the convenience centers. But if
[1:18:00] some is there a way within the county if
[1:18:03] someone has a third party especially in
[1:18:06] the cities that pick up their recycling
[1:18:08] because you know I know that the m
[1:18:11] municipal solid waste is tracked by
[1:18:13] origin and destination by Tekk. Is there
[1:18:16] anything similar for recycling?
[1:18:18] >> I know the city of Mersboro tracks
[1:18:20] theirs. Uh we we report it to TK
[1:18:23] annually and we I received that
[1:18:24] information from them
[1:18:26] >> for their one convenience center.
[1:18:28] >> Yep.
[1:18:28] >> Okay. I just know like in my
[1:18:30] neighborhood some people pay to have a
[1:18:33] private third party come in and pick up
[1:18:34] their recycling and and I know we're
[1:18:37] supposed to hit a 25% diversion rate but
[1:18:40] that's really based on the entire
[1:18:42] county's MSW of roughly you know 420,000
[1:18:46] tons a year or so.
[1:18:47] >> Couple things there. Those companies
[1:18:49] should be reported to TAC but I don't
[1:18:51] have hands on that. Um
[1:18:56] and so we you know it should get to TAC
[1:18:59] that way and get into the annual
[1:19:00] progress report there. The other thing
[1:19:02] is that um of course we count our
[1:19:05] recycling rate. It is very important. We
[1:19:08] want it to be higher. Uh but that 25%
[1:19:12] rate from the state would include
[1:19:14] business and industrial also. That's
[1:19:16] what pulls us up above it every year.
[1:19:18] >> Okay. And then with also back to
[1:19:21] recycling, at the end of the school year, we had the
[1:19:26] young gentleman talk about how they're
[1:19:28] doing it. He his project was to have
[1:19:30] recycling at Central
[1:19:32] Magnet has and it was supposed to
[1:19:34] continue there and looking at rolling it
[1:19:35] out at other high schools. Has that
[1:19:38] happened that we know of?
[1:19:40] >> I want to touch on that in a moment. Um,
[1:19:43] we got a grant from Tekk last year that
[1:19:46] we're going to ask the for a budget
[1:19:48] amendment to restore that money. We can
[1:19:51] do that. This will roll out a much more
[1:19:54] robust recycling program to I believe
[1:19:58] that says to the middle schools in the
[1:19:59] county first, but it's coming.
[1:20:01] >> I don't want to ruin the surprise. And
[1:20:03] then with that hazardous waste
[1:20:05] collection, is that also available on
[1:20:07] social media for us to
[1:20:08] >> forward? So that's on
[1:20:10] >> um it's been on the county social media
[1:20:12] and the the solid waste social media for
[1:20:14] a while.
[1:20:15] >> Um and that that of course is sharable
[1:20:17] with anybody.
[1:20:18] >> Okay. Thank you,
[1:20:20] >> Mr. Chair.
[1:20:21] >> Mr. Clara,
[1:20:23] >> um do you promote the hazardous waste
[1:20:27] collection through the MTSU system of
[1:20:30] communication because that that reaches
[1:20:32] another large?
[1:20:33] >> We make sure that they're aware of it
[1:20:35] kind of on an administrative level. Mhm.
[1:20:37] >> Beyond that, I don't know how MTSU
[1:20:40] promotes it.
[1:20:41] >> Um, but they would be welcome.
[1:20:44] >> Individuals connected to MTSU would be
[1:20:46] welcome.
[1:20:48] >> Sure. And um um to the to the
[1:20:52] convenience centers. First, I want to
[1:20:54] say that I've recently
[1:20:57] gone to the Epsom location and the
[1:21:00] Bradyville Pike location and
[1:21:03] I just want to give kudos to the people
[1:21:06] working there. They were under it was
[1:21:09] hot and they were friendly and helpful
[1:21:13] and I told them thank you and I said I'm
[1:21:16] going to tell the solid waste director
[1:21:19] but I just want it to be known in this
[1:21:22] recording that the people in those two
[1:21:25] locations and I'm sure in the others are
[1:21:28] doing really unpleasant work with great
[1:21:31] attitudes and I appreciate that.
[1:21:34] It's been a hot summer and and all of
[1:21:36] our attendants have done a fantastic job
[1:21:38] of of serving the county.
[1:21:40] >> And to clarify, you said earlier that
[1:21:43] this is available for people residents
[1:21:45] of Rutherford County outside of the
[1:21:47] cities. Is that what you said?
[1:21:49] >> Um
[1:21:50] >> because I'd like to know
[1:21:51] >> that's what we collect.
[1:21:52] >> Uhu.
[1:21:53] >> The this household hazardous waste event
[1:21:55] is actually anybody in Tennessee can
[1:21:58] come to it because it's funded by Tekk.
[1:22:00] But for the convenience centers, anyone
[1:22:02] a Rutherford County resident?
[1:22:04] >> Absolutely.
[1:22:05] >> Okay, that's what I wanted to know
[1:22:06] because if so, I I just told you I broke
[1:22:09] the law. [laughter]
[1:22:11] >> No, I just wanted to clarify that it's
[1:22:13] anyone within the county.
[1:22:15] >> So, even if you live in the city of
[1:22:16] Mersboro, you have a bulk item or
[1:22:18] something, you still pay county taxes
[1:22:20] and you're welcome to to use our
[1:22:22] centers.
[1:22:23] >> Okay. All right. Thank you.
[1:22:25] >> You're not a scoff law yet,
[1:22:27] >> Miss Watts.
[1:22:28] >> Thank you. Um, Matt got a couple of
[1:22:30] questions about convenience centers.
[1:22:32] Will Haley Road ever reopen?
[1:22:37] » I would definitely have to follow up
[1:22:38] with you on that. Um,
[1:22:41] the the short answer may say the best
[1:22:44] answer is there's a conversation
[1:22:46] happening with us and the city of
[1:22:48] Mersboro right now
[1:22:50] that could replace Haley Road. and um
[1:22:54] >> because that was one of the places you
[1:22:55] could take electronics and now they're a
[1:22:58] lot further out.
[1:22:59] >> I think we're going to have something to
[1:23:01] present on that next month.
[1:23:02] >> Okay.
[1:23:03] >> And um
[1:23:04] >> do you have an update on the Leverne
[1:23:05] Convenience Center? What's going on with
[1:23:07] that?
[1:23:08] >> I'm aware that a couple of properties
[1:23:10] have been looked at, but uh there's no
[1:23:14] movement on those unless the mayor has
[1:23:17] anything.
[1:23:17] >> Okay.
[1:23:19] >> Thank you,
[1:23:22] >> Mr. P.
[1:23:24] >> Well, I want to back up to the transfer
[1:23:27] stations you had on your chart up there
[1:23:30] uh that we have cash uh people that pay
[1:23:34] cash
[1:23:36] >> and what what are the different payment
[1:23:38] methods that we have and then I want to
[1:23:41] know if any of them are in a rears.
[1:23:44] Um, first question first. Uh, cash cards
[1:23:49] or checks. People that don't have
[1:23:51] accounts that just pay for each load as
[1:23:52] they come and go. Um, honestly, very
[1:23:56] little of its cash. You know, I think we
[1:23:58] get a couple hundred dollars a day in
[1:24:00] cash. The rest is all electronic and a a
[1:24:03] rare check we get. on the accounts.
[1:24:08] I'm aware of one that's in a rears to a
[1:24:11] point where they can't uh use their
[1:24:15] account right now and um
[1:24:20] that normally gets resolved very quickly
[1:24:22] and so I don't know, you know, it's it's
[1:24:24] been a matter of days since that notice
[1:24:26] went out to them. So I would be very
[1:24:28] surprised if it's not cleared up very
[1:24:30] quickly. But um
[1:24:39] » Mr. Dabby, did you say the hazardous
[1:24:41] waste collection was monthly or
[1:24:43] >> No, that we do that twice a year through
[1:24:45] Tekk. Uh there's a date in April and
[1:24:47] then this coming Saturday is the other
[1:24:49] one this year.
[1:24:50] >> Is it like super busy like line
[1:24:52] it?
[1:24:53] >> Um it is busy but you get through it. Um
[1:24:56] they're very good at being efficient
[1:24:58] with the cars.
[1:24:59] >> U we just ask people when they come
[1:25:01] through what county they're coming from
[1:25:03] and how many households of items they're
[1:25:05] bringing from, they pull around to the
[1:25:08] other side of the lot and they're helped
[1:25:09] with their material and and
[1:25:11] I would say it's rare for anybody to
[1:25:13] have to be there more than 5 to 10
[1:25:15] minutes.
[1:25:15] >> Okay. Um, and would you say that the
[1:25:18] recycling rates are increasing,
[1:25:21] decreasing, or kind of constant?
[1:25:24] >> I think they're very slowly increasing.
[1:25:26] It's I'd like [clears throat] to see
[1:25:28] them increase faster. Okay, Matt, will
[1:25:31] the hazardous material be gathered at
[1:25:34] all convenience centers or just a
[1:25:36] particular one?
[1:25:38] >> So, this uh hazardous waste event
[1:25:40] Saturday is only at the Florence Road
[1:25:42] facility.
[1:25:44] >> Okay. That hadn't been mentioned.
[1:25:46] >> Um I know that address is on here. Yeah.
[1:25:49] 4765 Florence Road from 8 o'clock to
[1:25:52] noon Saturday. And um you know, we'll be
[1:25:56] there.
[1:25:57] >> Thank you.
[1:26:01] Um, also is there are there plans to
[1:26:04] expand um the current convenience
[1:26:07] centers to hold um like the ones that
[1:26:10] don't um offer um you to drop off your
[1:26:13] glass and electronics.
[1:26:17] We're always looking at services we can
[1:26:20] add at the different sites that you know
[1:26:23] will serve the residents and also be
[1:26:24] something that um we can manage well. Um
[1:26:30] I'm looking at adding another site for
[1:26:32] electronics right now. And it is
[1:26:34] something we're finding out that when we
[1:26:37] have a commodity
[1:26:39] if we only collect it at a couple of
[1:26:41] centers a lot of people in the county
[1:26:43] are not going to come out of their way
[1:26:44] to to bring it to us.
[1:26:46] And so that's something that we're
[1:26:48] working through now is how do we really
[1:26:49] expand our service on each site and
[1:26:53] we're going to find out that
[1:26:55] we can do more but there are some sites
[1:26:58] that are it's just not going to work the
[1:27:00] same on
[1:27:01] >> I was just wondering um because I know a
[1:27:05] lot of people they might you know go to one site like I went I went to
[1:27:09] drop off my plastic and my cardboard and
[1:27:11] paper and things and then um I had this
[1:27:13] big TV that stopped working and so um
[1:27:15] they're like, "Oh, we don't take
[1:27:16] electronics." So then I had to drive,
[1:27:18] you know, 25 minutes across town, but
[1:27:20] not everyone would do that. So I was
[1:27:22] just wondering because we were talking
[1:27:23] about wanting to increase recycling. Um
[1:27:27] and so I was just wondering that. Um and
[1:27:29] how how many of these um facilities have
[1:27:33] multiple like takes all of the all of
[1:27:37] the
[1:27:38] >> So the
[1:27:40] kind of our super sites I might call
[1:27:42] them is uh the convenience centers at
[1:27:44] Rock Bell and Lyanna and Smyrna. They
[1:27:47] were the ones that were most recently
[1:27:48] renovated and they just have space to do
[1:27:51] more. Um all three of those except
[1:27:54] mattresses for recycling u bulk metal
[1:27:57] and glass. They accept the bulk uh waste
[1:28:00] and um
[1:28:02] electronics.
[1:28:04] And that's something that um
[1:28:06] [clears throat]
[1:28:07] we're leaning a lot on those sites for
[1:28:09] because they have the space to do it
[1:28:11] that some of our other sites just don't.
[1:28:14] >> And the the mattress recycling that
[1:28:17] doesn't give us any revenue, right? No,
[1:28:20] it uh it doesn't cost us anything, but
[1:28:21] it does not bring in any money.
[1:28:23] >> It doesn't cost us anything. So,
[1:28:24] >> well, thank you,
[1:28:28] » Mr. McGallen.
[1:28:30] >> Make a motion to approve.
[1:28:33] >> All in favor say I. Motion pass. Matt,
[1:28:38] what else do you have? uh you'll find in
[1:28:40] your SharePoint uh budget amendment that
[1:28:42] we're asking for where we were awarded a
[1:28:44] TKC recycling grant for the school
[1:28:47] recycling education program last year
[1:28:50] and it just didn't get carried over into
[1:28:52] the new budget. U Michael said we didn't
[1:28:54] know exactly what would carry over so it
[1:28:57] would require this budget amendment to
[1:28:58] put it back in there. Um
[1:29:02] the county part of this is $90,427
[1:29:05] and the state matches that. So, it'll be
[1:29:08] a total fund for this project of
[1:29:10] $180,854.
[1:29:15] » Move to approve.
[1:29:19] » We have a motion in a second.
[1:29:21] >> So, Matt, is this the one call?
[1:29:24] >> No, wait a minute. Go ahead. Discussion.
[1:29:26] >> Is this the one you alluded to that has
[1:29:27] to do with schools?
[1:29:28] >> Yes.
[1:29:29] >> Okay.
[1:29:30] >> So, Matt, I mean, what would the funds
[1:29:32] be used for? So, the bulk of it is going
[1:29:34] to be for containers for the schools,
[1:29:36] whether it's smaller bins in the
[1:29:38] classrooms, the larger bins to collect
[1:29:40] them in, um, and then also signage to go
[1:29:44] with that to explain, you know,
[1:29:46] everything that goes in our recycling.
[1:29:48] >> So, one thing, if I recall, when we
[1:29:49] signed the contract a couple years ago
[1:29:51] with Waste Management,
[1:29:52] >> they had offered up free bins for
[1:29:55] curbside.
[1:29:57] So, I don't know if we want to see if
[1:30:00] the offer still stands, but I don't know
[1:30:01] what size those bins would be and if
[1:30:03] they would.
[1:30:03] >> They have helped us out a little bit on
[1:30:05] some of those. I'll definitely uh
[1:30:06] approach them first before I start
[1:30:08] placing orders.
[1:30:09] >> It was at least the offer a couple years
[1:30:11] ago, but hopefully it still stands. So,
[1:30:16] » Rachel Karo,
[1:30:22] » Commissioner Clark,
[1:30:24] >> yes.
[1:30:24] >> Mr. Doty,
[1:30:26] >> yes. Commissioner Kush,
[1:30:28] >> yes.
[1:30:28] >> Commissioner McGowan,
[1:30:29] >> yes.
[1:30:30] >> Commissioner P,
[1:30:32] >> yes.
[1:30:32] >> Commissioner Watts,
[1:30:33] >> yes.
[1:30:34] >> Chairman Piery,
[1:30:35] >> yes.
[1:30:36] >> Motion passes.
[1:30:38] >> Go ahead, Matt.
[1:30:39] >> All right. My last item tonight is I'm
[1:30:41] asking uh this is also in your
[1:30:43] SharePoint for your authorization to
[1:30:46] apply for a grant from Tde. Uh it is a
[1:30:49] 50/50 match and the minimum is $27,4122.
[1:30:55] The maximum grant award will be 49,999
[1:30:58] and80 cents. Uh it is a 50-50 match with
[1:31:01] the county and um we want to use these
[1:31:05] funds to start a foam recycling program
[1:31:08] where we would collect it in all of our
[1:31:09] centers and this would finance the
[1:31:13] purchase of a foam densifier where we
[1:31:16] would process that foam.
[1:31:19] One of the things that I like about this
[1:31:21] program and we've seen it work in
[1:31:23] another county is that this product that
[1:31:25] comes out of that foam densifier has a
[1:31:27] market. Uh there's a buyer in Lever for
[1:31:30] it and there's other buyers across the
[1:31:32] country where it's a little bit unusual
[1:31:35] when we're approached with some new
[1:31:37] recycling thing that it closes the loop
[1:31:39] and there's actually something to do
[1:31:41] with the product. And so um we want to
[1:31:44] collect it all. We're going to bring it
[1:31:45] to Lyanna and process it there and to
[1:31:48] they call it ingots of this material and
[1:31:51] as we collect enough we'll sell it to
[1:31:53] the supplier that'll pay us the best.
[1:31:57] >> Mr. Data,
[1:31:58] >> is this uh grant application request
[1:32:00] supposed to be blank on here?
[1:32:02] >> Yeah, ours is blank.
[1:32:03] >> Oh, no.
[1:32:05] >> Um, no, it's not.
[1:32:08] >> Can I just do you have a topic I can
[1:32:10] just see really quick? Thank you so
[1:32:11] much. So, so
[1:32:14] go through that one more time. It's
[1:32:16] foam. F O A N.
[1:32:18] >> And is it like like it's not styrofoam?
[1:32:21] >> It is. Styrofoam is a trade name.
[1:32:24] >> It's what you think of as styrofoam.
[1:32:26] >> Okay.
[1:32:26] >> When you get a new TV and it's got foam
[1:32:28] on the corners, it's that stuff.
[1:32:30] >> It can be um
[1:32:32] >> foam
[1:32:33] >> uh like clamshells you get your food in.
[1:32:35] >> Yes.
[1:32:36] >> Those have to be rinsed, but they're
[1:32:38] they can go through this process. But
[1:32:39] it's not foam like you would see in a
[1:32:42] mattress pad or
[1:32:43] >> correct. But we do accept that foam
[1:32:45] already.
[1:32:46] >> Right.
[1:32:47] >> This is this is like the white styrofo
[1:32:49] kind of foam.
[1:32:50] >> When you bend it, it should break. Yes.
[1:32:52] And that's what'll go through this
[1:32:53] process.
[1:32:54] >> Got it. Okay. And you are trying to
[1:32:56] collect that,
[1:32:58] >> right? So people would bring that to a
[1:33:00] convenience center, you collect it, you
[1:33:03] take it to somebody in Lever and they
[1:33:06] process it and sell it. We'll do the
[1:33:09] first step of processing ourselves.
[1:33:11] >> Okay.
[1:33:11] >> Uh that's what half of this money would
[1:33:13] cover is the machine that does that.
[1:33:15] >> Okay.
[1:33:16] >> Um and then we would sell that product
[1:33:18] that comes out of that machine to the
[1:33:20] buyer.
[1:33:24] » If no one else uh needs to see this,
[1:33:26] I'll move to approve
[1:33:28] if no one else has questions as well.
[1:33:29] Sorry.
[1:33:30] >> Second.
[1:33:31] >> Matt, I do have a question. What exactly
[1:33:33] does this machine do? Does it?
[1:33:36] >> So, it's a single machine. It probably
[1:33:39] takes up a footprint similar to this
[1:33:41] podium, a little bit bigger. You feed
[1:33:44] the foam in the top and it gets ground.
[1:33:46] And the lower part of the machine, it
[1:33:48] gets heated and compressed. And so, it's
[1:33:51] taken out 95 to 98% of the volume of the
[1:33:54] original styrofoam that you put in. Um
[1:33:58] the vendor that sells the machine has a
[1:34:00] picture where they filled up a 53 ft
[1:34:02] trailer full of styrofoam.
[1:34:05] They run it through their machine and
[1:34:06] it's three pallets.
[1:34:08] >> Like environmental impactor for the
[1:34:10] operator. Do they have to wear a mask?
[1:34:11] Does if it's
[1:34:13] >> so noxious fumes or again if burning in
[1:34:16] there?
[1:34:17] >> I didn't mean to speak over you. The
[1:34:19] vendor tells me that it's it's been
[1:34:21] tested that it's safe. It does have kind
[1:34:23] of a I was call like a hot plastic
[1:34:25] smell.
[1:34:27] U but it's it's not anything that's
[1:34:29] found to be dangerous to health. Um and
[1:34:31] the shed that I'm asking for to put it
[1:34:32] in will also have two garage doors just
[1:34:35] because it's a very hot machine. I
[1:34:37] didn't think it would be that
[1:34:39] ventilation.
[1:34:39] >> And would this require an additional
[1:34:41] employee or would we just use resources
[1:34:43] already there?
[1:34:44] >> We'll use the staff that we have already
[1:34:46] and then the collection containers. We
[1:34:48] used to use them for other things. We're
[1:34:51] going to paint them for this project and
[1:34:52] we our only cost on those will just be
[1:34:54] the paint.
[1:34:57] Mr. Chair,
[1:34:58] >> Miss Clark,
[1:35:00] >> you said you will sell it to the buyer
[1:35:03] and so how uh
[1:35:07] when we sell it,
[1:35:08] >> how much money will we get?
[1:35:10] >> So, the city of Nashville has this set
[1:35:13] up. They started in the spring.
[1:35:16] >> I think it was very late lately. They
[1:35:18] sold their first load and they got $300
[1:35:21] a ton for the material that they turned
[1:35:23] in. And um
[1:35:27] Yeah, I think they got a ton and a half
[1:35:28] of material. So, it's a little more than
[1:35:30] $4,500
[1:35:31] >> over what period of time.
[1:35:33] >> That was what they gathered from April
[1:35:35] until late last month.
[1:35:38] And I think we'll get more. We kind of
[1:35:40] touched on Mr. Dowy said earlier, we
[1:35:42] talked about gathering different things
[1:35:44] and different sites.
[1:35:46] We're going to do this on all 14 sites
[1:35:48] to start out. So I think it's very
[1:35:50] possible we're going to get more than
[1:35:52] Nashville's getting on their one site
[1:35:53] when we start operating.
[1:35:57] >> So the so the money will purchase if you say we're going to do it at more
[1:36:02] than one site initially or eventually
[1:36:05] >> uh initially starting out.
[1:36:06] >> So a machine per convenience center.
[1:36:09] >> We'll have one machine and then we'll
[1:36:11] manage trucking the boxes to that
[1:36:13] machine on one of our sites.
[1:36:15] >> I see. Yeah. Yeah.
[1:36:16] >> And then once the product out of that is
[1:36:18] ready,
[1:36:19] >> I don't know if we'll deliver it. It'll
[1:36:21] be picked up, but it'll be moved from
[1:36:22] there.
[1:36:23] >> Okay.
[1:36:23] >> Will the machine be located at the
[1:36:25] transfer station area?
[1:36:27] >> I want to put it at Lyanna.
[1:36:29] >> Lyanna.
[1:36:32] Big enough to have extra boxes
[1:36:34] dropped and all that.
[1:36:38] >> Miss Watts. Did you have a question?
[1:36:40] >> Well, I think you answered my question.
[1:36:41] So you'd be collecting foam at all of
[1:36:44] the convenience centers and then they
[1:36:45] truck it to Lyanna where they process it
[1:36:47] and then they would sell it to this
[1:36:49] company.
[1:36:50] >> Yes.
[1:36:50] >> Okay. Thank you.
[1:36:54] » Are there any more questions about the
[1:36:56] request?
[1:36:59] >> I think we already have a motion and a
[1:37:01] second on the road.
[1:37:05] » Commissioner Watts.
[1:37:06] >> Yes.
[1:37:08] >> Commissioner P.
[1:37:09] Yes.
[1:37:11] >> Commissioner McGawan.
[1:37:12] >> Yes.
[1:37:14] >> Commissioner Kush.
[1:37:15] >> Yes.
[1:37:16] >> Commissioner Dodie.
[1:37:17] >> Yes.
[1:37:18] >> Commissioner Clark.
[1:37:19] >> Yes.
[1:37:20] >> Chairman Piery.
[1:37:21] >> Yes.
[1:37:22] >> Motion passes.
[1:37:24] >> Do you have anything else from Matt?
[1:37:25] >> That's it for me tonight.
[1:37:26] >> I I do just have two quick questions for
[1:37:29] me.
[1:37:29] >> Yeah. Go ahead.
[1:37:30] >> Where where do we stand with the signage
[1:37:32] at the facilities? because the first uh
[1:37:35] constituent complaint I got was from a
[1:37:37] gentleman in my my district who sorted
[1:37:40] his recycling, was very diligent in
[1:37:43] getting everything cleaned out. Then he
[1:37:44] went to a convenience center to realize
[1:37:46] at the very last minute he was in the
[1:37:48] wrong line and just had to throw away
[1:37:50] all of his recycling
[1:37:53] and he was told if signs are the issue,
[1:37:56] talk to your county commissioner.
[1:37:58] >> Wow.
[1:37:58] >> So he he sent me you know that was my
[1:38:00] first call. So, I just didn't know how
[1:38:03] we were. I know that was something from
[1:38:04] last year. So, again, I just didn't know
[1:38:06] where we stand with with all those
[1:38:07] signage.
[1:38:08] >> We're working right now to roll out
[1:38:10] signs center by center. And honestly, to
[1:38:12] minimize cost, we're building them
[1:38:14] ourselves. Um, I think we have the new
[1:38:16] ones at five centers that are signs for
[1:38:19] each commodity we collect on the site.
[1:38:22] Um, last year we used our sign budget to
[1:38:25] put up signs at the gates with our rules
[1:38:28] and hours and speed limits. And this
[1:38:30] year we're doing it this direction. You
[1:38:32] know, we're going to keep pushing on it.
[1:38:34] It'll be probably a few months before we
[1:38:36] get them all to all the centers.
[1:38:37] >> I I do think it would be good
[1:38:40] >> to have signs to know which line you're
[1:38:43] in because especially I like I go to
[1:38:44] Lean Road. I know which one.
[1:38:46] >> Absolutely.
[1:38:47] >> Take the middle one. If you go left,
[1:38:48] it's household garbage. To the right,
[1:38:49] it's recycling.
[1:38:50] >> But if sometimes that's the longest
[1:38:52] line. If somebody doesn't know, they're
[1:38:53] going to say, "Wow, this line's a lot
[1:38:54] shorter." And go and again, they're in the household garbage line. I
[1:38:59] have been asked
[1:39:02] somebody that may make a grant for
[1:39:03] something like that, which of course I
[1:39:05] would bring to this committee that could
[1:39:07] accelerate a timeline and and maybe
[1:39:09] provide more collal signs. Um, but if
[1:39:13] that happens, I'll bring it to you.
[1:39:15] And just a second thing, over the last
[1:39:18] week or so, especially my district, I've
[1:39:21] also gotten complaints about the smell
[1:39:22] from the landfill. Now, the landfill has
[1:39:25] their own reporting portal as does the
[1:39:28] city. Do we get any information from
[1:39:30] Middle Point on, hey, here's how many
[1:39:33] complaints we've had? Do we say, you
[1:39:36] know, what's our communication with
[1:39:38] Middle Point when the smell seems to be
[1:39:40] getting bad over a certain period of
[1:39:42] time?
[1:39:43] >> They don't report their data. I don't
[1:39:45] know if they do at all.
[1:39:47] If they did, it would be to Tde. Um, and
[1:39:51] I would definitely encourage people to
[1:39:53] use those portals, especially the one
[1:39:55] for City of Mersboro.
[1:39:57] I think a lot of people have reported it
[1:40:00] once or twice before and where there's
[1:40:02] less complaints now. People assume that
[1:40:04] it's not a problem and it it's something
[1:40:07] that I would report it every time a
[1:40:10] citizen smells it. I I know there's
[1:40:12] reporting fatigue because Middle Point
[1:40:14] says that they'll get back to you.
[1:40:16] They've never once over four years for
[1:40:18] me of reporting. So, I just I didn't
[1:40:20] know if if they were working with you.
[1:40:22] >> I um I have a contact over there I can
[1:40:24] talk to and see what they'lling to share
[1:40:27] with us. Um I I don't know what they're
[1:40:31] actually required to do.
[1:40:32] >> Thank you.
[1:40:37] » Anything else for Mr. Davis?
[1:40:40] Thank you for your report, Mr. Davis.
[1:40:42] >> Thank you.
[1:40:44] That brings us down to other business.
[1:40:46] Does anyone have any other business? Mr.
[1:40:49] McGawan,
[1:40:50] >> I was just curious. I just I didn't see
[1:40:52] where we approved the minutes.
[1:40:54] >> We didn't have any for this governing
[1:40:57] group.
[1:40:58] >> Okay.
[1:40:59] >> So, we
[1:40:59] >> I didn't know about the August meeting.
[1:41:02] >> I think that's already been covered.
[1:41:04] Maybe.
[1:41:06] >> Anything else?
[1:41:09] Yeah,
[1:41:11] we have an invitation
[1:41:16] Monday, October the 19th at 700 p.m. at
[1:41:20] Heritage Center to join the Recycle
[1:41:24] Rutherford group for their meeting. All
[1:41:28] commissioners on this committee are
[1:41:31] invited and encouraged to attend.
[1:41:35] Mr. Allen, do you have anything you'd
[1:41:37] like to add to this great committee?
[1:41:43] » I have one I have a couple of
[1:41:45] recommendations for the new com for the
[1:41:48] new commissioners that this is your
[1:41:50] first night and most likely you've
[1:41:52] probably already done this.
[1:41:56] We can either get you a copy or you can
[1:42:00] uh call Rachel or maybe Nick and get a
[1:42:04] copy of the Jackson law and become very
[1:42:08] familiar with that law, what it is, what
[1:42:10] it does for us. And I would encourage
[1:42:14] you to get a copy of our host agreement
[1:42:17] with Republic Services
[1:42:20] and read it. Uh won't take you long. You
[1:42:24] might want to learn to read it. read it
[1:42:26] both directions, but uh that would be a
[1:42:28] recommendation for somebody that has sat
[1:42:30] on this committee 12 years. If there's
[1:42:33] nothing else, I'll take a motion to
[1:42:36] adjourn.
[1:42:40] » So maybe thank you very much.