Cumberland County Commission Meeting
The October meeting of the Cumberland County Commission was held tonight with all Commissioners in attendance except Jim Blalock. The agenda was amended to add an item related to paving for the new Election Commission offices at Northside and the Obed River Park. The following resolutions were then considered, with the sponsor being in parenthesis.
RESOLUTION 10-2021-1 – AGREEMENT BETWEEN CUMBERLAND COUNTY AND THE BRECKENRIDGE LAKE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC. CONCERNING DELINQUENT TAX LOTS (FOSTER). In April of 2021, the county approved entering an agreement with Fairfield Glade concerning lots owned by the county in the Fairfield Glade area. Tonight, the Commission agreed to enter the same agreement with Breckenridge in an 17-0 vote.
RESOLUTION 10-2021-2 – BUDGET AMENDMENT, BUILDING AND CONTENTS INSURANCE (MALL). The cost of Building and Contents insurance increased above budgeted expectations for the Board of Education (BOE). This resolution decreased expenditures of $27,076 from the workman’s comp and unemployment insurance lines and increased the line to pay the insurance. The resolution was approved unanimously.
RESOLUTION 10-2021-3 – BUDGET AMENDMENT, GENERAL FUND, LIBRARY (SHERRILL). $2,192 in donations have been made to the library by various individuals and organizations. This resolution, approved 17-0, accepted those funds.
RESOLUTION 10-2021-4 – BUDGET AMENDMENT, GENERAL FUND, PROPERTY ASSESSOR (GIBSON). The Property Assessor’s Office is in the final year of the reappraisal cycle and needs to add a temporary part time position. The County Commission approved $11,239 in an unanimous vote to fund the position.
RESOLUTION 10-2021-5 – BUDGET AMENDMENT, GENERAL FUND/SANITATION FUND (MALL). Additional part time help was approved for the Recycling Department during the budget cycle, but it was inadvertently left out of the final budget document. This resolution was approved 17-0 to add the $30,229 to the Recycling Budget.
RESOLUTION 10-2021-6 – BUDGET AMENDMENT, GENERAL FUND, SHERIFF-JAIL (SHERRILL). The Sheriff’s Department has a contract with the State of Tennessee for litter removal. This resolution requested using some of those funds from that contract, $61,777, to purchase two state contract vehicles for prisoner and other transports. It was approved unanimously.
RESOLUTION 10-2021-7 – BUDGET AMENDMENT, GENERAL FUND, EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES (GIBSON). Our Cumberland County EMS Department applied for and received a FEMA Homeland Security grant for power load systems for our ambulances. This will improve patient care and minimize employee injuries from lifting. The grant for $247,600 and the match of $24,760 were approved 17-0.
RESOLUTION 10-2021-8 – PAVING AT NORTHSIDE PROPERTY AND OBED RIVER PARK (Hyder). This resolution was added because quotes for paving came in after the agenda was released. The quotes are time sensitive. The Commission approved paving the Election Commission parking lot, the dock side of the buildings at Northside Lane, and the Obed River Park trailhead for a total of $82,500. The vote was unanimous in favor.
Financial Update
EMS collections for the month were $336,641 which is $3,308 above the monthly budgeted amount of $333,333. Year to date we have collected $1,233,411.
Sales tax collections for the General Purpose School Fund came in at $1,107,995 which is $119,172 above projections. Year to date we have collected $2,274,922 and are $226,359 above budget.
Property tax collections year to date are unavailable but should start coming in and being reported soon.
Cumulative Hotel/Motel taxes are $256,650 which is 31.74% of the budget. The budgeted amount was revised up this year to $808,712. Last year, with the smaller budgeted amount, we had collected $157,636, or 23.59% of budget, at this point.
Cumulative Prisoner Boarding collections are $33,345, or 5.54%, of the $602,396 annual budget. Last year we were at $99,645, or 16.54% of the $602,396 annual budget. Payments for prisoner boarding are somewhat sporadic from the state.
COVID-19 Update
According to the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), in Cumberland County there are 262 active cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases continues to trend down. Hopefully this continues. There have been 215 deaths reported as of the date of this newsletter. Datasets for additional information can be found at https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov/data/downloadable-datasets.html.
In Cumberland County, 46.04 of the population has received at least one does of any COVID-19 vaccine. We have 3.33% that have taken the first dose of Pfizer or Moderna, and 42.70% are fully vaccinated. Additional vaccination data can be found here: https://data.tn.gov/t/Public/views/TennIISCOVID-19VaccineReporting/SUMMARY?:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link&:toolbar=no&:embed=yes.
There is no school data today as were no classes last week.
I do not believe in governmental mandates, but I do believe in vaccines. The data clearly indicates this is a pandemic most dangerous to the unvaccinated. Getting vaccinated is a personal decision and should be made by an individual and their doctor and other trusted advisors. I went through this process months ago and decided it was best for me to get vaccinated. Information for those that wish to get vaccinated is provided below.
State Vaccination Dashboard:
https://data.tn.gov/t/Public/views/TennIISCOVID-19VaccineReporting/SUMMARY?:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link&:toolbar=no&:embed=yes
CMC/Covenant Dashboard
CMC and Covenant released a dashboard with information about current COVID-19 patients. You can see from the graphic that 89% of all COVID-19 ICU patients at CMC are unvaccinated, and 82% of all COVID-19 patients at CMC are unvaccinated. Currently there are 21 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations at CMC. At CMC, the median age of all COVID-19 hospitalizations is 54.
Covenant also released data for the hospital system. Data provided indicates 86% of all COVID-19 ICU patients in a Covenant hospital are unvaccinated, and 79% of all COVID-19 patients in a Covenant hospital are unvaccinated. Currently there are 179 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations in a Covenant facility. The median age of those in the ICU is 58.5 and the median age of all COVID-19 hospitalizations is 65.
More Covenant data can be found at https://www.covenanthealth.com/covid-19-dashboard/.
Cumberland County Health Department Update
COVID-19 Testing Hours Monday – Friday, 9:00 am – 11:00 am
COVID-19 Vaccine Drive Thru Monday – Friday, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Walk-In Vaccine available 8:00 am – 4:30 pm
The Cumberland County Department of Health is now offering booster doses of COVID vaccine.
Thank you for being part of the solution and thank you for the opportunity to serve as your County Mayor. If you are interested in hearing my thoughts and views on news, events, and activities in Cumberland County, please subscribe to my newsletter, and follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Thank you,
Allen Foster
Cumberland County Mayor
http://allenfoster.net
allenfoster.com 