Commission Welcomes New Member, Discusses High School Project

 
By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
Paris, Tenn.—Henry County Commissioners welcomed a new member tonight—James Copeland, who will be the new representative for the 4^th District to replace James Travis, who moved outside the 4^th District.
Copeland, the former director of the Henry County Department of Human Services, was elected unanimously by the commission after his name was placed in nomination by County Mayor Brent Greer.
Copeland thanked everyone and said, “I want to put my best foot forward and give back to the community.” He was sworn in by County Clerk Donna Craig.
Copeland becomes a member at a very auspicious time, with two major issues before the commission at tonight’s meeting: how to fund the $9.1 M general obligation high school bonds needed for the proposed Henry County High School project and consideration of a three-year capital outlay for roughly the same amount from the Henry County Medical Center.
Greer noted it is rare to have two major obligation requests come before the county in the same calendar year. “This is one of the most difficult situations I’ve dealt with since we had the jail project—have two projects like this at the same time.”
Following lengthy discussion, commissioners took a straw vote, with everyone unanimously requesting that Greer and his staff draw up a resolution for them to consider which would utilize a wheel tax to fund the school project. The other options were property tax or a combination of wheel and property taxes.
Greer noted that the school board came to the county first and has requested that the commissioners move quickly on its request. “They are ready to move forward,” Greer said. He also noted that their request has been ‘downsized’ from the original request to $9.1M.
He also noted that the hospital’s request will not require taxpayer funds. “But even though they are not asking for tax payer support, they have to come before this body,” Greer said.
Greer also noted that installation of artificial turf is not included in the high school proposal, but that there is an effort by a private group that is planning to raise money for artificial turf on the football field.
In discussion on that point, School Board Chairman Doug Braden noted, “What the private citizens are doing is totally separate from this. If someone wants to raise money and give it to us, we’d be hard pressed to say no.”
However, two other board members, Rod Frey and Tom Beasley, indicated not everyone may be for the artificial turf proposal.
Frey noted that the high school project “affects every student in the school, but the field project would only affect 150 students. If the private group raised money for it, they would still have a lot of steps to go through.” The high school project “affects all the students and staff and includes security and safety measures for everyone, not just a certain group.”
Beasley said, “Not everyone on the school board is o.k. with accepting the money if it was raised (by the private group). It would obligate future school boards to maintain it”, which he said would be extremely expensive.
In response to a question from the commissioners as to whether the school board would be willing to match funds raised by a private group for the artificial turf, County Schools Director Dr. Brian Norton said, “I’m not sure that is a recommendation I would make”.
Norton said the school board has been working on a suitable proposal for some three years. “We’ve toned it down to our absolute needs and we want to move forward as quickly as possible,” he said. With one of the key areas included in the proposal being a remodeling of the entrance to the school to make it more centralized and secure, Norton said, “We feel we shouldn’t wait any longer especially in the areas of security and safety.”
Braden said, “We think it is a reasonable proposal that meets the needs and brings pride to the community.”
Greer said he brought up the artificial turf situation “because we need more transparency. The more the community knows, the better. We didn’t want people hearing about the private group raising funds and thinking that the artificial turf was included in this proposal.”
Greer will bring a resolution to the county commission at its next meeting, set for an earlier time, at 4 p.m. September 18, in case there is more lengthy discussion.
 
Photo: New member James Copeland, second from right, listens with Commissioners Monte Starks, Paul Neal, Kenneth Humphreys and Connie McSwain at tonight’s meeting. (McFarlin photo)