The Greeneville Board of Mayor and Aldermen spent most of Friday in a budget workshop, the first public workshop of its type in anyone's memory.

After reviewing the overall budget, and capital projects, the city board heard from several department heads.

Fire Chief Mark Foulks said his department's budget had no increases over the 2007 budget, "but we have issues already with increased fuel costs."

The departmental budget has no new positions, and as presented on Friday, had no funding for auxiliary firefighters, which would end a longstanding tradition.

Foulks said he had been operating on the assumption that the Insurance Services Office (ISO) which rates fire protection and is the major determiner of fire insurance rates, was giving the city credit for paging auxiliary firefighters.

He said he had recently learned, however, that the ISO does not give credit unless auxiliary firefighters are "paged on the first call." Foulks said 98 percent of fires can be handled by the full-time firefighters who are on duty, and auxiliary firefighters are not paged until they are needed.

Paging the auxiliaries on the first call would mean they are paid for every fire, regardless of need, which Foulks said would, in his opinion, be a waste of money.

Foulks said he understands that auxiliary firefighters have worked well in Greeneville for many years, but believes that time has passed.

Town Recorder Jim Warner, Aldermen Ginny Kidwell, Sarah Webster and others said they were concerned that eliminating auxiliaries would reduce the pool of available new firefighters.

Warner said some communities in the state have all-auxiliary departments. Foulks noted, however, that very few auxiliaries have been hired as full-time firefighters since civil service exams have been used in hiring here.

The fire chief also said that auxiliary firefighters are not sent to the 13-week training that full-time firefighters receive.

The department currently has 12 auxiliary firefighters, the chief told the mayor.

The board appeared surprised to learn that the fire department is charged for the water it uses when it tests hydrants. Susong said the Water Commission charged the Fire Department $24,800 for water last year.

Greeneville has 942 hydrants, the chief said.

The chief said the department is in the process of working out adjustments to contracts for fighting fires outside Greeneville, and will present them to the board in the next few months, which will increase revenues.

Glenda Blazer, director of the Roby Fitzgerald Adult Center, said her budget had increases in the budget for operating motor vehicles and for employee benefits.

Last year, she said, the department served 588 "customers" over age 60.

She said about 75 are served each day, depending on the activities scheduled. The cost for joining the center is $5 per year.

Blazer said she is trying to limit the number of trips that Roby Center vehicles make, because of high fuel prices, and has put recreational trips "on hold" for the time being.

Alderman W.T. Daniels asked how many of the seniors served are from Greeneville. Blazer said last year, of the customers over age 60 who were served, 309 were from Greeneville and 366 from Greene County outside the city.

Mayor King noted that it costs "a third of a million dollars" to operate the center, yet the county government contributes only $20,000.

Daniels said the Roby Center will become increasingly important as the population ages, and not only the county but Baileyton, Mosheim and Tusculum need to help support it. At some point, he said, a new facility will be needed.

Currently, Warner said, Baileyton, Mosheim and Tusculum "contribute zero" to the Roby Center, yet their residents use it.

"That point needs to be made," he said.

Butch Patterson, director of the Parks & Recreation Department, presented his list of requested capital improvements. But after listening, Mayor King said, "We have to find ways where you can help us save some money."

She noted that one reduction in the Parks & Recreation budget was for utilities, which was considerably lower than what was spent last year.

Patterson said the Parks & Recreation budget includes all the utilities for the Andrew Johnson Building and the building used by the Boys & Girls Club, as well as all of the maintenance costs for those buildings.

He said the Andrew Johnson Building also houses the credit union, the Nathanael Greene Museum, Main St. Greeneville, the Greene County Emergency Management Agency, the Fraternal Order of Police weight room, and a storage area for the Public Works Department.

He said the Parks & Recreation board is in the process of getting a square-footage breakdown on the building, and trying to work out a fair way of sharing the cost of utilities.

In response to a question from Webster, Patterson said Parks & Recreation uses the gym in that building year-round for dancing, and from October to January for basketball, but the gym is not air conditioned, while the rest of the building is.

Warner noted that the city receives no rent from any of the agencies that use the building.

The utility cost for the Andrew Johnson Building is $24,291, he said, and about $13,000 for the Boys & Girls Club. He said he has not calculated the cost of maintenance, including mowing, and said that the Boys & Girls Club's building needs a new roof.

Webster, who is a member of the Parks & Recreation board, said the board is not asking Patterson to seek new money, but does want the community to 'have a good understanding of what he does for others."

Patterson said the Parks & Recreation Department has two vacant positions. He noted that his department also does $11,500 worth of work each year that is directly related to school activities.
"We're doing a lot that's not directly related to parks and recreation," he said.

Webster said even Parks & Recreation board members did not realize how much was being done until recently.

Patterson said if all the work not directly related to parks and recreation were to be taken away from his department, with the exception of the Boys & Girls Club, "maybe I don't need those two full-time people," but he added, "This has always been handled this way."

Patterson said the Parks & Recreation Department now has 17 acres of additional maintenance responsibility at Tusculum View, and at the new tennis complex.

He said the department is cutting out a telephone at the Andrew Johnson Building, and closing the Hardin Park pool on Aug. 3, to save money. The EastView pool opened a month after the Hardin Park pool this summer for the same reason, he said.

Greeneville Police Chief Terry Cannon said his department currently has 43 officers, but is "four men short" because of positions unfilled after retirements, and has two officers who are "out sick" but are expected to return.

Because of fuel cost rises, Cannon said he has told officers on the graveyard shift that, to conserve fuel, they have his blessing if they go to a convenience store, park in a prominent place, go inside, and talk.

He said that this practice has resulted in officers making arrests in three burglaries while they were in progress.

Cannon said revenues from tickets are down somewhat because the department is short-handed, but new software that will help officers write and print tickets on laptops will help when the new is operating.

The police chief said the budget has money needed to upgrade an information technology specialist to full-time, which he said he considers a necessity.

Cannon also said the price of ammunition has doubled since the Iraq conflict began. He said it costs $500 just to purchase enough ammunition to qualify an officer on an AR15 assault rifle.

Cannon said the department "cannot afford to do without" its 18 auxiliary officers, and needs more of them.

Director of Schools Ailshie said the only new position in the system is a for teacher at EastView Elementary School. He said the city school system has cut 10 positions this year.

The biggest capital project, he said, is at Tusculum View, where the corner of the gym is settling and will cost $40,000 or more to fix.

He said efforts are under way to rewire Greeenville High school so that more lights can be turned off at night, and he is also working to get a local technician certified to work on the HVAC system there.

Building Inspector Jim Snyder told the board he had cut capital improvements and had no new positions, as he was instructed to do.

He said some travel is essential to maintain certifications.

Warner noted that Snyder had left his projected revenue from building permits at $90,000, the same as last year, and asked if that would be "safe."
Snyder said no, because the number of permit requests has fallen, even though fees were increased.

He said only six permits have been applied for in July, "and we should have had 15 or 20 by now."

He noted a major increase in the number of permits for renovations and additions, which he said cost more to administer than do permits for new construction.

Dennis "Zip" Wright, manager of the City/County Transfer Station and demolition landfill, said he had revised his budget "nine or 10 times" before presenting it.

Warner noted that the budget still contained a much larger amount for fuel in the "operational equipment" line item than appeared justified.

Wright said he based the figure for fuel on the average consumption for the last eight years, times the average number of loads per year, 2,325. He said he assumed that trucks hauling garbage 112 miles round trip to the BFI landfill in Hawkins County would get 4.5 miles per gallon. Those calculations produce a figure of $231,446, but the line item was $353,000.

Warner also noted that the tonnage has been decreasing in the last year.

The city's recorder said he is hopeful that some moderation of fuel costs will occur this year, as some experts are saying.

He proposed decreasing the city's appropriation to the landfill by $50,000. Several noted that the county will no doubt decrease its appropriation by the same amount.

Wright said he did not know whether the Solid Waste Department could absorb the resulting $100,000 reduction.

Mayor King told Wright she could understand that Wright was "being overly cautious because of the way fuel jumped this year."

Wright pointed out that in previous years, the Solid Waste Department's budget has included money for improvements, but his year he included "none."

Wright said the only other source of funds that the Solid Waste Department has, other than funds he city and county governments, is that of tipping fees, which were just increased this past year, and went into effect July 1.

Danelle Sells, the city's payroll and benefits clerk, asked if the Solid Waste Department's interest income is expected to "stay static" at $225,000.

Warner and Wright agreed that will depend on whether the reserve that generates it has to be used. Warner noted, however, that interest rates are rising. "I think interest rates will go up," Warner said.

Mayor King agreed. "I don't think we'll have to raise tipping fees," she said.