ELIZABETHTON â With less than two months left until the new fiscal year begins, the various departments of the Carter County government are making final transfers of funds in this yearâs budget. Besides the normal adjustments made at the end of the year, departments are also making adjustments for the unprecedented impacts on the budget brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Budget Committee of the Carter County Commission heard several requests for budget adjustments during its monthly meeting on Monday night. Several of the adjustment requests came from the Carter County Sheriffâs Department, which saw several impacts in its jail operations as a result of the pandemic.
ELIZABETHTON â For the fourth consecutive year, the Carter County government has received an employee safety grant from from Tennessee Risk Management Trust. This year, the award was for $2,626 as part of this yearâs competitive grant process. The Trust was founded in 1987 to provide insurance and liability services to public entities.Â
âThis is the fourth year we have given these grants and Carter County has received one every year we have done it,â said Jason Baggett, a loss control specialist with the Trust. âWe are proud to work with Carter county to improve employee safety.â
When the Trust first launched its employee safety grant program, the organization awarded $60,000 in grants to member organizations Each year the program has grown, and Baggett said tis yearâs grant allocations totaled around $260,000.
ROAN MOUNTAIN â A quick response from volunteer firefighters and state and local forestry personnel brought a forest fire off Tiger Creek Road to a stop after about 30 acres were burned on Wednesday and Thursday.
Carter County Emergency Management Director Billy Harrell said he spoke with James Heaton, forestry technician with the Tennessee Division of Forestry, around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. âHe said the fire was out and most of them were pulling out,â Harrell said.
Firefighters from the Roan Mountain Volunteer Fire Department and the Hampton-Valley Forge Volunteer Fire Department and crew members from the Cherokee National Forest battled the blaze with the state division of forestry.
ELIZABETHTON â All city and county roads remain open in Elizabethton and Carter County following a snow storm that hit the region on Tuesday.
Both Superintendent Roger Colbuagh of the Carter County Highway Department and Director Danny Hilbert of the Elizabethton Department of Streets and Sanitation said they had few machine breakdowns and both said they will be ordering salt for the first time in two years after last winter turned out to be a mild one in which salt was rarely needed.
In fact,
Hilbert said he has already received some shipments of salt from Knoxvilleto start his replenishment of his stores. Colbaugh said he still has a large bin of salt, but his department mixes salt with small stones, called chat, and he will have to mix up new stockpiles of that as well as order more salt.
ELIZABETHTON â Austin Jaynes took over the chairmanship of the Budget Committee of the Carter County Commission at the start of the committeeâs monthly meeting on Monday. It was the latest personnel change on the county commission since the death of Mayor Rusty Barnett in September.
These changes have including County Commission Chairwoman Patty Woodby taking the mayorâs position for the remaining two years of Barnettâs term
The latest change came Monday when Travis Hill said he would step down as chair of the Budget Committee because he had replaced Woodby as chairman of the County Commission.
With Hill stepping down as chair, vice chair Austin Jaynes became the new chairman of the Budget Committee. Ross Garland was then elected by acclamation to be the vice chair. Garland had previously served as chairman of the committee.