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At Monday’s Hawkins County Commission meeting, a member of the Church Hill Rescue Squad took exception with his squad not being given adequate funding for repairs to its equipment and facility.

Tim Coup of the CHRS said he felt that his organization does not have the support in funding from the county commission, except for a select few.

“It is my understanding that the remaining “Baby Doe” funds have been dispersed and are dwindling very slowly,” he said.

Coup wanted the remaining $350,000 of Baby Doe opioid settlement money that was given to the Hawkins County Rescue Squad, the squad that services western Hawkins County, to be split up between both CHRS and HCRS.

“Church Hill Rescue Squad lost its front line rescue apparatus more than two and a half years ago while responding to a call,” he said. “Our entire agency has worked tirelessly to get this back into service and was placed back into service on April 4. The only way we have to ensure the citizens and visitors of Hawkins County are protected while traveling through this county was to finance this new chassis and remount the box that was on the previous apparatus.”

CHRS has only two fully-equipped rescue trucks at the moment, Coup said. The truck that had been serving as the primary truck while the other vehicle was being remounted is undergoing some work with some additional equipment being purchased to be placed back into service.

Coup said when the approached the county asking for assistance, he was told that the county was not in the “remounting business” by a commissioner who is no longer on the legislative body.

“Keep in mind that this county has remounted two ambulances for a private entity not owned by this county,” Coup said. “This is all needed. As a citizen of this county, I appreciate the county doing that to ensure that Hawkins County EMS, the sole provider of EMS in this county, is able to provide professional service to the citizens and visitors.

“It takes a team of all emergency services in this county to come together to run the calls that we run on a daily basis,” he said.

CHRS needs a replacement generator costing $50,000 due to it being an emergency shelter. Also the heating and cooling system needs replacement.

“Not only do we have backup generator issues, we have three other critical infrastructure issues, being an HVAC system, our parking lot in the back of the building and our front line rescue truck,” Coup said. “Due to these continuing issues, our electric bill has raised $400 to $600 more a month due to the HVAC malfunction in summer and winter.”

Coup went on to explain about CHRS’ coverage area.

“CHRS covers 11.5 miles (or 29.5%) of U.S. Highway 11W,” he said. “The Hawkins County Rescue Squad covers the remaining 28.2 miles of U.S. 11W. CHRS covers 28 miles (or 43.75%) of river in this county, HCRS covers 12.2 miles (and) the lake totals 36 miles of waterway.”

Coup also finished his remarks by saying that CHRS covers the two largest population bases in Hawkins County, the towns of Church Hill and Mount Carmel.

“This should not be a contest or competition of who has the largest coverage area, the latest and greatest equipment,” he said. “What it should be is each agency taking pride in what they have, all agencies taking pride in other agencies in this county and the county commission and Hawkins County as a whole, taking pride in your emergency services.”

Coup said that these rescue squads provide a service at an extremely small fraction of the cost and 98% of the volunteers do it for free.

“Our agency is tired of being overlooked and not being thought of when in need,” Coup said.

In response, Commissioner Joshua Gilliam said that he didn’t think they had any other funding to pull from for CHRS’ request when presented to the budget committee.

“We didn’t take action on it then,” Gilliam said. “I want both rescue squads’ needs to be met. I think both ends of the county need to be taken care of. I kind of echo what Commissioner (Robbie) Palmer said in that this was already presented to the budget committee a week ago.”

An amendment to exclude the $350,000 donation to HCRS and send that part back to committee failed with five commissioners voting for and seven commissioners voting against. The original resolution passed on a 10-2 vote with commissioners John Gibson and Chad Britton voting no. Commissioners Jeff Barrett and Joey Maddox were absent.

Workers at the Hawkins County Health Department will receive a pay raise through a $36,608 State of Tennessee Local Health Services Grant funding for salary and benefit increases. These employees received the 9% pay raise for fiscal year 2022-23.

The Health Department’s Rogersville office will also get $265,000 in new CARES Act funding to be utilized for renovations, construction and installation of an awning, drug room and generator.

The commission approved a resolution for County Mayor Mark DeWitte to apply for a Community Development Block Grant not to exceed $630,000 for improvements at the Hawkins County Highway Department to bring the facility into compliance with the storm water permanent implementation plan for the MS4 permit.

A resolution for contribution of $20,000 to the Veterans Center of East Tennessee for substance abuse abatement programming and materials was pulled by Commissioner Jason Roach.

Chairman Pro-Tem Nancy Barker presided over the meeting due to the absence of DeWitte due to hospitalization. DeWitte joined the meeting briefly via live feed.

A flower arrangement and a photo of County Attorney James O. Phillips, III was placed where he would be seated during meetings. Phillips died last week after a brief illness. He served as county attorney for 36 years, the longest serving in county history. He was 78 years old.