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The Grainger County Commission studied a proposal to allow commissioners to take out insurance from the county’s carrier for $288 a month through Humana.

After a heated debate, the proposal received a 7-7-1 vote, meaning the proposal failed.

Commissioner Darrell Stratton questioned Mayor Mike Byrd regarding commissioners having insurance saying some residents grilled Stratton on a similar issue previously.

“We got busted all over the county after we asked for a raise six to eight years ago. I got crucified,” Stratton said. “When we do this, we’re probably going to be liable for the school board and election commission, they’ll want insurance if they don’t have it.”

Byrd said that the county pays $288 a month for the employee only.

“I’m not against nobody having it, but I’m not going to vote to give them any of it,” Stratton said. “That’s just how I feel about it. I’ve had to basically buy it all of my life, I know it’s a cost. It could have been offered 12 to 18 years ago. It’s been discussed before. At that time they said they couldn’t get it.”

Commissioner Wendy Noe clarified that the $288 a month figure was for an employee only.

“We didn’t learn insurance (for commissioners) was even an option until this year’s insurance renewals,” Noe said. “It was understood that it was something that commission wouldn’t even be eligible for. I bet 98% of us wouldn’t take it anyway. Speaking for myself, I’m fortunate enough to have a different insurance plan.”

“It’s going to cost more than what you make a month,” Byrd said.

Looking at a 5-year trend, Noe said that insurance rates trend to increase.

Voting yes were Noe, Commission Chairman Andy Cameron, Tina Davis, Darrell Williams, James Acuff, Jennifer Holt and Anna Blanken.

Darrell Stratton voted no, along with Scott Wynn, Ed McBee, Rodney Overbay, Justin Epperson, Jessee Cline and Mike Holt. Luke Stratton passed.

Grainger County E-911 Director Randy Holt offered an update on two projects. Holt said that installation of a new radio console at 911 dispatch will be completed by the end of the month. A new $40,000 recorder is also set to be purchased to replace an aging unit. It will include software to help E-911 evaluate its dispatchers and the services provided.

“Metro has promised that we would have (the console) installed by the end of the month,” Holt said. “We’ll have new radios. We hope that will improve radio communication a lot because we know we have issues inside the dispatch center that we can’t fix.”

Holt also discussed progress on a new tower to be placed in Blaine.

“Motorola is in the same boat the car manufacturers are,” he said. “They’re awaiting on Chinese shipments. We can’t get new repeaters. They’re on back order and there’s no date when we might get them. We made a plan of action today that when the weather breaks, either in late February or early March, we’re going to climb the tower, put up the antenna, run all the cabling and have it ready to plug and play. If we still do not have repeaters, we’ll go head and take (the) Joppa (tower) down and use its repeaters until these come in.”