By TOM YANCEY

Staff Writer

The Greene County Commission voted unanimously Monday to rezone property owned by William and Mary Ann Wayland from A-1 general agriculture zoning to B-2 general business uses.

The rezoned Wayland property is located along Baileyton Road near Crumley Road. The Waylands want to operate an auto-repair and storage facility, according to the report from the County Planning staff.

Name Is Workhouse/Annex

The commission also approved a resolution to officially name the county's workhouse. County Sheriff Steve Burns told the budget committeee that, when the facility was built in 2002 it was not formally named, though it has always been referred to as the Greene County Workhouse.

Without discussion, the resolution was approved to make the official name the Greene County Workhouse/Annex.

Proclamations

Two other proclamations were presented at Monday's meeting, one honoring Baileyton United Methodist Church and encouraging citizens to join in the effort to rebuild the church building, which was destroyed by fire in November 2007.

Another recognized the work of the Appalachian Regional Coalition of Homeless Shelters.

Civil War Signs

Dr. Robert Orr, who teaches history at Walters State Community College, spoke to the commission, saying he had been asked by the Civil War Trails Commission to ask the county commission to consider posting signs at some notable local sites.

"If we don't do it, it won't be done," Orr told the commission. Orr, who is a specialist in the Civil War period, especially Andrew Johnson, said that East Tennessee's importance has not been well recognized among scholars or the public in the past, "but it's coming."

Orr said he has been able, through oral history and research, to identify some of the sites where Civil War "bridge burners" were hanged, as well as a Confederate cemetery that until recently he did not know about.

"Signs will help the tourism industry," Orr said.

School Issues

Jack West, who is chairman of the Greene County Democratic Party, spoke about schools, though he noted that he was speaking as only a citizen and father.

West said his daughter is a student at Glenwood Elementary School, where "some of the restrooms don't have hot water," he said, and a son who is a freshman at West Greene High School. "I need not go into the mess down there," he said.

West said he is not aware of any cost studies about additional expenses the county might incur related to possible replacement of the Greene County Detention Center as a way to maintain state certification.

West said all discussions about a new detention center have been based on the availability of large numbers of state and federal inmates, but if that availability later changes, the county's citizens could be forced, through a property tax hike, "to pay for a white elephant building."

West said the decision to "spend money for jails, not schools ... sends a message to the educational system" that it is not important.

He said citizens should be able to vote on whether the next priority of the county is a jail or a school, and urged the commission to consider the county's children an asset.

West said he is collecting signatures on a resolution to that effect.

It was noted that some members of the commission who are also county employees read a statement declaring that they had a conflict of interest on the matter about to be voted on, but some commission members did not.

Electronic Voting

For only the second time, the commission was using a new electronic voting system, with votes displayed on a projection screen.

Asked if lack of the statement could cause votes not to be valid, County Attorney Roger Woolsey said the votes were valid, and cited the section 12-4-101 (c) of state law.

This section reads: "(c) (1) Any member of a local governing body of a county or a municipality who is also an employee of such county or municipality and whose employment predates the member's initial election or appointment to the governing body of the county or municipality may vote on matters in which the member has a conflict of interest if the member informs the governing body immediately prior to the vote as follows:

"'Because I am an employee of (name of governmental unit), I have a conflict of interest in the proposal about to be voted. However, I declare that my argument and my vote answer only to my conscience and to my obligation to my constituents and the citizens this body represents.' The vote of any such member having a conflict of interest who does not so inform the governing body of such conflict shall be void if challenged in a timely manner. As used in this subdivision (c)(1), "timely manner" means during the same meeting at which the vote was cast and prior to the transaction of any further business by the body."