The Greene County Commission's Budget Committee heard Thursday from County Road Superintendent David Weems, who is seeking an $865,000 increase in the Highway Department's budget.

Weems said the increase is needed mostly because of large increases in the cost of asphalt, steel, concrete and fuel.

Weems also said he plans to leave 10 funded but vacant positions in the department unfilled, so that he can use the money in other ways, mostly for asphalt.

No action was taken at Thursday's meeting, which also covered budget requests for the Election Commission, Greene County/Greeneville Emergency Medical Services, the Emergency Management Agency, and the county's medical examiner.

The committee is working its way through operational budgets for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

County Mayor Alan Broyles, who chairs the committee, said most of the operational budgets will have been reviewed and discussed by the end of the next meeting, scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 7, in the conference room of the courthouse office annex.

Once operational funds requested by department heads have been reviewed, Broyles said, the committee will begin to address pay rates for county employees.

The budget document the committee is working with includes raises calculated using the countywide pay scale, but the committee set raises aside at the start of the process, it indicated, because so many questions need to be answered first.

Budget Director David Lawing told the committee Thursday that current state budget problems may directly impact the county's revenues, if state shared funds are withheld next year as they were in 2003-04.

Lawing said the state government's budget problems may delay the county's budget-making process this year.

Another delaying factor, he said, is Greene County being in the fifth year of a five-year reappraisal cycle that will result in a new certified tax rate being set later this month.

Weems said that if the state budget problem becomes severe enough, the state could withhold major sources of revenue the county receives from the Halls Income Tax on investments and from the Tennessee Valley Authority in lieu of property taxes, the annual grant the state provides to help with the cost of reappraisals, the alcohol sales tax, gasoline taxes, various salary supplements, and other smaller funds that the state administers.

Weems reviewed the budgets he oversees with the committee, going over the same ground he had covered with several committee members in the most recent meeting of the Road Committee.

Commissioner Hilton Seay, who is on both committees, noted that the budget asks for increases in most materials, and a $25,000 increase in highway equipment.

Seay noted that the proposed budget also includes the following increases: $600,000 for asphalt, $15,000 for concrete, $75,000 for crushed stone, $15,000 for metal pipe, $80,000 for diesel, $50,000 for gasoline, $5,000 for lubricants, $500 for electricity, $200 for natural gas, and $100 for water and sewer.

Weems told the committee that if he were asking for what he really needs, the increase would be twice what he has proposed.

He said the county Highway Department tries to operate on a schedule designed to resurface every paved county road every 20 years.

Greene County has about 600 miles of "hot-mix asphalt" roads, Weems said, which means that, to stay on a good maintenance schedule, about 30 miles of those roads need to be resurfaced every year.

At current prices, applying a two-inch coat of asphalt to a road costs $53,337 per mile, he said. Multiplying that amount by 30 produces a figure of almost $1.7 million for asphalt alone, Weems told the committee.

The budget, as it stands now, allocates $925,000 for asphalt, a product strongly affected by the historically high price of oil.

Mayor Broyles pointed out that, even if the commission provides the additional funds, "This is just keeping the status quo," and will only provide enough money for the Highway Department to do about the same amount of work done this year.

"That's how much asphalt has gone up," Broyles said.

Commissioner Cox asked how large the Highway Department's fund balance is expected to be at the start of the fiscal year on July 1.

Budget Director Lawing said the balance is currently $519,671, but the beginning balance will not be known until the books for the current year have been closed, probably by early September.

Mayor Broyles told the committee that the county government is seeking the return of almost $400,000 in reserves that have been held by the state for the county's share of replacing the bridge over the Nolichucky River on West Allens Bridge Road.

The county began working with federal officials on that project in 1999, and it is still pending. Weems said he was contacted by federal and state officials last year and told that the project was going ahead, but then he was recontacted and told that the project would remain pending.

Some engineering and right-of-way acquisition has been done and paid for on the project, the committee was told.

Last month, the commission moved $300,000 from the Highway Department's fund balance into the asphalt account, and $20,000 into the gasoline account. Weems said that money will be used for patching roads almost entirely.

Weems pointed out that Greene County also has about 600 miles of "chip seal" or cold-mix asphalt. Chip seal asphalt is designed to be used on roads that do not carry a lot of traffic, especially roads that do not carry heavy trucks.

Weems said about 50 percent of the county's chip seal roads are "starting to unravel." Chip seal can be applied over roads that still have a good base, but when the base breaks down, more work is required.

Last year the county Highway Department purchased a machine called a "Zipper" that grinds up damaged chip-seal road material and redeposits it as a base for new chip-seal. Weems said that machine has worked well and saved a lot of money.

In response to questions, Weems said he long time ago asked employees to try to conserve fuel and materials as much as they can, and doesn't see how very much additional conservation is possible. For example, he said employees have been asked to turn off the engines of trucks and heavy equipment when they are not actually in use, instead of letting them idle.

County Administrator of Elections Jo Roberts presented an Election Commission budget that increases the line item for temporary personnel by about $7,000.

Roberts noted that the upcoming budget year includes a county general election and a presidential election when temporary workers will be needed for early voting and on election day. She said 900 people voted early in the busiest day of early voting for the 2004 presidential election, and she expects high numbers again.

Commissioner John Cox asked Roberts what the county should expect if a bill now before the legislature requires paper records for elections, as well as electronic records now being produced.

Roberts said if an optical scan of paper ballots is ultimately required, costs will increase greatly. She noted, however, that bills now before the legislature would, if enacted, not go unto effect until 2010.

Roberts said the election commission budget is always higher in years that have countywide elections, but will go down again a year from now.

One major increase was for the services provided by Election Systems and Software (ES&S), which makes the 81 electronic touch screem voting machines the county now uses. The ES&S contract was increased by $7,500 for next year.

The committee asked Roberts a number of questions about voting machine security.

County EMS Director Robert Sayne presented that department's budget. Sayne said one person who is now part-time will become full-time under his proposed budget. That person works to collect past due bills, and has been very successful, and saved the county money, Sayne said.

Sayne said he left the part-time budget the same, because Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and paramedics sometimes are paid out of that line item when they work extra shifts.

The EMS overtime line item was the subject of discussion, because it is already large, at $640,210 as amended this year, and the new budget increases it to $704,547. Budget Director Lawing said the overtime line item will run about $100,000 short this year, and an adjustment will be requested at next week's meeting.

Sayne said Greene County's EMS operates a class A ambulance service, and one of the requirements is that 95 percent of ambulance calls have a paramedic on board. Sayne said paramedics have a great deal more training than EMTs, and "to maintain Class A, we use overtime or part-time pay to keep paramedics on the trucks."

Sayne said a significant number of experienced paramedics are taking additional training to become registered nurses, with a resulting increase in pay.

"If these guys weren't getting the overtime they get, they'd leave me," Sayne said.

The committee briefly reviewed the budget for Medical Examiner Ray Crum.

Crum's budget was virtually the same as last year, despite increases in the cost of autopsies. Crum said he cut the line items for equipment and supplies and left the gasoline line item the same, despite price hikes.