CC Notes – February 20th, 2018
All County Commissioners were present for the February monthly meeting of the full Commission except David Gibson and Roy Turner. Before we began with the night’s business, the Crab Orchard Lady Tigers and the Pleasant Hill Hornets were recognized for winning the county elementary basketball tournament. Congratulations to both teams!
Resolutions
The first resolution in support of legislation establishing Medicaid/TennCare rates as the maximum chargeable amount for medical services provided to inmates in county jails and state prisons. County government is responsible for funding the medical expenses of county inmates, and the State is responsible for funding the medical expenses of state prisoners. This resolution requests the State of Tennessee to enact legislation to cap these expenses to the rates that Medicaid/TennCare will reimburse. The resolution passed unanimously.
Next, a resolution was presented to require the County Board of Equalization Members and the county Board Hearing Officers to complete annual continuing education. This four hour annual training requirement was mandated by the State of Tennessee, and is only required as long as the Comptroller of the Treasury provides it free of charge. The resolution passed 16-0.
Melanie Sherrill and Debbie Douglas were unanimously appointed to the Cumberland County Library Board for first terms of three years to begin July 1, 2018. Kaye Randolph was reappointed to the Falling Water River Regional Library Board for a second three year term in a 16-0 vote.
Several routine budget amendments were approved for the school system as well. $4,884.31 in additional federal funds were received for ACT preparation. Private citizens and Wal-Mart donated $1,750 to the school Shoe Fund, and $124,221 in grants was received for Information Technology, Advanced Manufacturing and Health Services CTE programs. $839 was moved to cover an overage in the longevity pay line item for the Cafeteria Fund. Private funds in the amount of $2,200 for the Play 60 Program, which helps provide a healthy breakfast for all students each morning. The school system also received $10,221 in additional funds from the Departments of Agriculture and Education for the Cafeteria Fund. All of these changes were approved unanimously.
The Highway Department requested to sell surplus property to the City of Crab Orchard. Two vehicles, a 2003 Chevrolet Pickup and a 1990 Chevrolet Pickup are surplus and will be sold for $1,400, which is Fair Market Value. The resolution was approved 16-0.
The final resolution of the evening was to appoint Nathan Brock to the Cumberland County E-911 Emergency Communications District Board of Directors for the remainder of an unexpired four year term. The appointment was approved unanimously.
Financial Report
EMS collections came in at $349,622, which is above budget by $24,622. Collections are still behind budget by $104,302 but the last two months have helped to improve that number. Local Option Sales Tax for the Board of Education also initially showed improvement with $751,619 collected. That is $24,078, or 3.31%, above the budgeted amount. This represents sales from November of 2017 that we just received from the State. Unfortunately, we were given the early numbers for December 2017, and they were not good. Sales tax receipts came in at $821,000 against a projected $927,000 – over $100,000 below budget. Year to date we are down approximately $175,000 to budget, but we are going to check to see if there was an issue with the reported number. Property tax collections are at 62.3% compared to 61.1% at this time last year. The Hotel/Motel Tax revenue is $463,175, or 57.2% of the total budget. That compares favorably to the 53.9% collected at this point last year. Prisoner Boarding collections are $325,221 against a budget of $525,000, or 61.9%. We are spending an average of $1.93 per gallon on diesel fuel, and $1.73 on gas. $2 per gallon was budgeted so all is well with the average price compared to budget. Fuel usage is also in line with budgeted projections.
Thank you for allowing me to serve the 4th District and Cumberland County. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at any time.
I want to say congratulations to all our high school basketball teams. All four teams won their district tournaments! We have had some great basketball in Cumberland County this year.
Finally, if you are interested, you can subscribe to my County Mayor newsletter by clicking here: http://eepurl.com/c_Zx-L.
Sincerely
Allen Foster
Board of Commissioners
4th District Representative
http://allenfoster.net
allenfoster.com 