By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–By a 9-6 vote, the Henry County Commission has again voted against implementing a wheel tax to finance the needed projects for repairs and/or new construction to replace aging county buildings. For now, anyway.
County Mayor Randy Geiger said from discussions he has had with commissioners, he believes they feel the wheel tax is “most viable. But when to we put it on? That seems to be the consensus.”
Meanwhile, county officials continue to sound the alarm about safety issues in existence at the county annex and the need to find new quarters for the employees there. Commissioner David Flowers said county officials have told him that employees in the building are getting sick and that the county should expect lawsuits. Along with other commissioners, Flowers has voted against implementing the wheel tax until a plan is developed that outlines how the money would be used.
County officials have been looking at options to solve the building problems: build new and/or renovate and build onto the Tennessee Rehabilitation Center building on Tyson Ave.
Geiger distributed a working plan which outlines when construction could begin and which offices could move where.
Commissioner Gatlin Primrose said, “The bare minimum. The cheapest, would be $3.2M to renovate the TRC building, so we would need to get started with the wheel tax now to start collecting money for the project.” Commissioner Jay Travis strongly agreed that the county should start collecting on the wheel tax as soon as possible.
The wheel tax would replace the wheel tax that already has been collected by the county for the past several years. Voting no on Monday night’s vote were: Dell Carter, Flowers, Rev. Kenneth Humphreys, Monte Starks, Ralph Wiles and Paul Neal.
The wheel tax vote is the second time the commission has voted on the issue, although it has been discussed at length more than twice.
Photo: Commissioners consider the wheel tax issue again at Monday’s meeting. Shannon McFarlin photo.