The Class III Landfill proposal by Southeast Industrial Construction, LLC Owner Kenny Noah at the North American Enka/BASF facility in Lowland was passed Thursday afternoon by the Hamblen County Commission, but not before an airing of grievances from both sides.

Before the measure was taken up, Greg Jernigan of Jernigan Environmental Services addressed commissioners on the landfill. Jernigan is a consultant to Noah.

“Signage to the landfill has been up for almost three months total, including terms of the public notice,” Jernigan said. “Before we erected the sign on the location, we worked with the Tennessee Division of Environment and Conservation. We asked very specifically for the placement of the sign. They provided the language that (went) on the sign. All we did was copy the language that was there in their example that they sent us.

“We feel that we complied in that front,” Jernigan said.

The signage originally said that the commission would consider the landfill at the Enka location at the April 23 county commission meeting. However, the commission postponed that vote to Thurs- day.

Jernigan said that he and Noah were originally told that the commission would vote on April 23.

“When you guys reset the voting date, we changed the sign,” Jernigan said. “The sign is still erected on State Route 160. It’s not been taken down; all the information is there.”

When the motion came to the floor there was plenty of conversation in concern.

NeSmith recalled a request a few years ago from Pat McGuffin regarding a landfill. NeSmith said the signage on that landfill was wrong, so the landfill was delayed a month before the commission could consider it.

“On this Jackson Law (allowing landfills), we need to make sure on this thing, we don’t want to get caught with our britches down on it,” NeSmith said. “We’ve asked for a ruling on this.”

Chairman Bobby Haun said that the legislative body could ask for an opinion from County Attorney Chris Capps. Capps said that his office did get an opinion from the Community Technical and Advisory Service of the University of Tennessee.

“(They) are a bunch of lawyers, not just one,” Capps said. “They work with this type of thing routinely. If this body wants me to give an opinion, I’ll give them an opinion. CTAS’ opinion is that the landfill would pass muster.”

Commissioner Thomas Doty said that he had heard a lot of reasoning that the new landfill would hurt the county’s revenue stream.

“Folks, we went into business with the Solid Waste Board on this Class III landfill,” Doty said. “It’s like going into any other business, we are dependent on revenue streams coming in to make our payment. If we try to block someone else from coming in just for that reason, we’re trying to create a monopoly. We can’t do this.

“To me, if it doesn’t break the law, it definitely affects immorality. We tell a man, ‘Yes, come in and do business in our community. But, when you do, you have to pay the fee at the landfill we want you to use.’ It would be just the same if a retailer came to us and say ‘We want to borrow against your credit rating,’” Doty said. “Morristown- Hamblen Hospital came to us (in 1999) asking to use our credit rating to borrow money. They did for some updates. Did that mean we could tell the other hospital at that time (Lakeway Regional, since closed) that they could not do updates?

“This is just basic business,” Doty said. “I really, really hope that this body looks at it as that. If they have other reasons, that is a whole different ballgame.”

The Class III Landfill owned by Noah at Enka was passed on an 11-1 vote. Voting yes were Commissioners Debbie A’Hearn, Jamie Carden, Doty, Stan Harville, Peggy Howell, Commission Chairman Bobby Haun, Rodney Long, NeSmith, Mike Reed, Mike Richardson and Kyle Walker. Commissioner Edna Greene cast the lone no vote.

Commissioners Tim Horner and Joe Huntsman were absent.

Superintendent of Schools Arnold Bunch, Jr. came before the board to inform that the system’s FY 27 budget is now set. He thanked the commission for allowing him to brief the system budget on Saturday morning before it had been finalized Tuesday afternoon in a special called Board of Education meeting.

“We have submitted it for your consideration,” Bunch said.

Richardson was appointed to the Morristown-Hamblen Library Board. The vote was 10-1-1 with NeSmith voting no and Richardson abstaining.