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The Hawkins County Commission voted 9-4 with one abstaining to purchase the former Civis Bank building in Church Hill for a satellite Hawkins County office space Monday.

The purchase totals $550,000 and will be purchased using American Rescue Plan Act funds. The building, which has a total tax appraisal of $1.61 million, will be used as a satellite office for the County Clerk, Sheriff’s Office, Juvenile Court and County Trustee when renovations are completed. The offices have been in the City-County Building in Church Hill, also known as Church Hill City Hall since 1975. The county has split costs of building maintenance with Church Hill, but the present building is not handicap accessible. With modifications, the new building will be more accessible and offer more parking.

Voting for the purchase were Commissioners Danny Alvis, Nancy Barker, Chad Britton, Glenda Davis, John Gibson, Tom Kern, Robbie Palmer, Jason Roach and Charles Thacker. Commissioners Jeff Barrett, Josh Gilliam, Joey Maddox and Syble Vaughan-Trent voted against. Commissioner Larry Clonce abstained.

A property inspection was conducted by Bentley and Associates Dec. 28.

In regards to property values in the area, County Mayor Mark DeWitte said that the property where the nearby Fast Care Urgent Care is located is .9 acres and was sold for $250,000.

Gilliam said that the current City-County Building Location is at risk for Americans with Disabilities Act violations.

“I’m going to vote against this because I’m afraid that we’re going to spend a lot more than we intend to,” he said. “That does not mean I think we should stay in the building we’re in and not seek other options.”

Elana Stanley, a supporter of the Hawkins County Humane Society, cautioned the commission not to rush in to purchase the building.

“I don’t understand the rush of ‘let’s do this, do this, do this’,” she said. “If you buy this bank for $555,000, there’s back taxes due on the building, the roof is going to have to be done, and the heating unit (will have to be repaired). I’ve read the whole report. This building is going to be an astronomical amount, close to a million, in my opinion. I feel we need to slow down and find a better option for the people.”

Stanley talked about needed repairs to the Humane Society building in Surgoinsville that need to be performed.

“Only three people (on the budget committee) voted to help the Humane Society,” she said. “They’ve begged and begged for years. This is not a yearly thing for them. The tile is coming up from the floor. You know that they don’t have any room. The building was a mechanic’s shop.

“When I called some of the commissioners, some said, ‘We need to take care of our people rather than take care of animals.’ How are you taking care of the people? Putting a roof on that has a five-year warranty? There’s got to be a stopping point and actually helping people who need it,” she said.

Community member Ketron Bailey said that he talked to real estate brokers Carolynn Elder, Blue Ridge Properties of Kingsport and R&R Realty in Knoxville. According to Bailey, all three took a look at the property and all said that the property wouldn’t sell.

“Walgreen’s (who has property in front of the Food Lion Shopping Center), can’t get rid of their property,” Bailey said. “The reason the (urgent care property) sold where it was is because it’s in the shopping center.”

In the case of another purchase of property, the county bought the former Kmart location in Rogersville for a justice center, courtrooms and jail.

“We would have been better off building a justice center,” Bailey said. “As we know in 19 years or so, it’s been a money pit.”

Bailey made the case for renting property like Hamblen, Knox and Sullivan counties.

“If it’s good enough for those counties, why are we taking $9,800 out of the tax revenue every year that Civis Bank pays taxes on it? If it just costs us $9,000 a year to operate that, we’re costing the taxpayers $18,900 to operate it a year,” he said.

Barrett proposed the former BB&T bank building in Mount Carmel located 3.3 miles east of Church Hill that has been on the market for at least four years.

“This property has 1,474 more square feet than the Civis Bank property,” Barrett said. “Just the building is appraised at $293,600 less than the Civis property. The Civis building was built in 1957, the BB&T property in 1976.”

Barrett said that the Civis property has 23 parking spaces while the BB&T property has 34 spaces.

Commissioner Tom Kern was opposed to the Mount Carmel location due to the town’s need of tax revenue.

“We went through this four years ago,” Kern said. “It was recommended that the building was a wreck. Have you been inside that building yourself? Mount Carmel does not need another handicap from somebody that can’t pay taxes.”

Kern said that Mount Carmel has the federal government (Holston Army Ammunition Plant) on one side of the road, a frontage road, a row of commercial buildings to bring in taxes and the railroad. Kern said that he feels that the county needs to keep its “hands off” the BB&T building.

According to County Clerk Nancy Davis, 43% of the clerk’s business is handled through the satellite office.

In other business, Sheriff Ronnie Lawson that the police officer post certified training hours this past year totaled 5,046.75 hours. An additional 1,004 hours brought the total hours to 6,050.75 hours as a department. Each officer had an average of 94.54 hours of training.

“When I took office in 2010, I promised to have a highly-trained, most experienced department in East Tennessee,” Lawson said. “I’ve held on to that. I’m proud of these men and women for all they do with their training. In addition to the training, we also did an active shooter training for the school system which consisted of 30 to 60 people per class.”

Lawson said that the office is down eight school resource officers, requiring deputies to man the schools.

“It’s going to cost a lot of overtime, but I don’t want to leave these schools unmanned,” Lawson said. “It’s a burden not only on my office, but on the community. As the Director (of Schools Matt Hixson) knows, we’re working hand-in-hand with him and we’ll make it as safe as we possibly can.”

Long-time Hawkins County Attorney James Phillips, III was reelected to his post unanimously for a new four-year term expiring in 2027.

“I want to thank the commission for their support,” Philips said. “I look forward to continuing our good working relationship as we strive for the betterment of Hawkins County.”

A resolution to cover $11,030,015 in revenue losses in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic through the American Rescue Plan Act passed unanimously. A previous resolution covering up to $10 million in losses was rescinded in order to cover this amount.

Hawkins County Finance Director Eric Buchanan offered an explanation.

“Under the original assumption, $10 million was going to be the cleanest to make sure we had as much for the lost revenue as possible,” Buchanan said. “As we did that, we still calculated behind the scenes what the calendar year lost revenue was. In the third year of data, we have fully exceeded this amount of money. Switching back to the calendar year approach allowed the county to recognize all the funding as lost revenue.”

The dates of all county commission meetings for this year were also set. Dates are Feb. 27, March 27, April 24, May 22, June 26, July 24, Aug. 28, Sept. 25, Oct. 23, Nov. 27 and Dec. 18. The December meeting is a week earlier since the fourth Monday falls on Christmas Day. All meetings are at 6 p.m.