During Thursday night’s meeting of the Gleason Board of Mayor and Aldermen, members discussed of the city’s budget for fiscal year 2005-2006, which currently includes a 10 cent property tax increase. The board also discussed the appointment of a city codes inspector and new city judge, as well as other important measures.
2005-2006 Budget
The proposed budget for the coming fiscal year discussed by board members includes a 10 cent property tax increase. This will increase Gleason’s property tax rate from $1.30 to $1.40 (per $100 of assessed value).
The budget also has an across-the-board 25 cents per hour pay increase for all city employees.
Mayor Jack Dunning said that the property tax increase will also cover the cost of rising insurance premiums for city workers.
Codes Inspector
Under new business, the board heard from Mrs. Ida Thornton, who currently serves as property code inspector for the City of Paris. Mayor Dunning noted that Mrs. Thornton has indicated her willingness to work for the City of Gleason on a part-time basis, and that he had asked her to address the board.
Mrs. Thornton began by commending the City of Gleason for the local ordinances already in place to take care of property codes violations, involving: junk cars, overgrown lawns, property maintenance, etc. She commented that she does mechanical (heating and cooling systems), plumbing, building, and code enforcement (tall grass, junk cars, etc.) type inspections. And the only type of inspections she doesn’t do are electrical and fire inspections.
She stated that the state of Tennessee is in the process of changing over from the Southern Building Code, to the International Building Code, but that they are basically the same. She said that it took Tennessee nine years to make the change, which brought 31 states under the same code. And this is the code that the state and municipalities will have to abide by.
Thornton said that Gleason already has the authority to do what is necessary to correct these problems, as long as they don’t violate the new state building code. She described the process of correcting problems as first sending out letters to those in violation of city code, and giving them a chance to correct the problem (30 to 60 days at the city’s discretion). If the problem is not taken care of, the city can hire the work done and take out a lean against their property. If the property owner refuses to pay for the work, the city can then either keep the property for city use, or sell the property at auction to recoup their expenses. They can then place the difference, if any, in the General Fund. If the property owners repay the city for the work done, they get to keep their property, but will be fined $150 in court costs for each lean.
She stated that in Paris, the contractor that mows the lawns in such cases, charges the property owner $50 per hour. The contractor keeps $35 per hour and gives the city the remaining $15 per hour.
Examples of problem properties discussed included: dilapidated buildings that are unsightly and unsafe, overgrown yards, junk cars in the yard (not drivable, unlicensed, etc.).
Thornton stated that Gleason’s Zoning Board of Appeals could also serve as its Building Code Board, if that was the desire of the board.
Thornton said that the city has quite a bit of control over vacant property as well, and can stipulate whatever requirements it deems appropriated as far as upkeep and appearance, including overgrown grass, debris, trash, etc.
When asked what her inspection fee was, she said that she normally gets $100 per report for new building construction, and $35 for inspecting existing buildings.
The board will study the possibility of hiring Thornton as the city’s code inspector and make a decision at an upcoming meeting.
City Judge Appointment
The board also approved the appointment of Attorney Susan Collins as City Judge. Mayor Dunning stated that the city’s former judge, LeAnn Moore resigned because she would need to go back to school. He said that Collins currently serves as city judge at Greenfield, and will hold court in Gleason once a month for a fee of $125 per hour. Dunning said that she has filled in before when LeAnn couldn’t be there and the officers thought she did an excellent job, saying that she was fair, but didn’t let offenders get away with anything.
H.I.S Property
Mayor Dunning stated that the taxes on the H.I.S. property have been paid by the new owner, Rufus McPeat, and asked the board to forgive the mowing fees, since they were levied against the former owner and cannot legally be collected anyway. The board agreed and approved the waiver as a housekeeping measure.
Local Option Sales Tax
As for the issue of the local option sales tax agreement, the board voted to take the portion of the local sales tax previously being paid on the County Jail and use this to help pay the city’s annual portion of the Joint Economic Development Program budget. The only other option would have been to take it out of the city’s General Fund, which would likely have necessitated an additional tax increase.
Department Reports
In the police report, it was stated that during the month of May, there were several state warrants issued, including: one aggravated assault, one domestic assault, one simple assault, on possession of a schedule IV drug, one possession of schedule VI, one possession of drug paraphernalia, three underage drinking, three public intoxications, one window tint violation, seven disorderly conduct, one contributing to a minor, one criminal trespassing, one vandalism, one speeding, one financial responsibility, and two registration violations. As for juvenile petitions, there was one disorderly conduct. On city citations, there were eight speeding, four financial responsibility, one seat-belt violation, and two water and sewer ordinance violations. There was a total of 29 state warrants, 15 city citations. Fine money collected for May was $3,403.79. The Gleason P.D. worked four accidents and had 29 other calls for service.
Addressing the Public Works Department, Mayor Dunning stated that the city “had a state water and sewer inspection this week. And he were very complimentary about how well everything was kept – the lagoon, the well and tanks and how well they’re doing on all of their reports. We’ve been working on Richie Street this week. We’ve got the culvert down the main side opened up, and in order to get the water off Richie Street, we’re going to cut the road and put the culvert across the street.” He stated that this should take care of most of the problem with rainwater along the street.
In the Fire Department report, chief Jerry Connell said, “We (responded) to a tractor and car accident out on Hwy. 22; we had mutual aide to McKenzie where they’d called us for a house fire over there; we had a monthly meeting and a controlled burn that night for practice.” Chief Connell also mentioned the Gleason Fire Department’s annual Chicken Barbecue Cookout fund-raiser, which will be held from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 18 at the Gleason Fire Department. The plate dinner will include half of a barbecued chicken, baked beans and slaw. Money raised by the event will go toward the purchase of new equipment.
In the Parks & Recreation report, Mayor Dunning stated that there have been good crowds at the park. He said that the concession stand has been completed and is doing well, selling a variety of concessions at the games. He stated that the fence for the fourth ball field will be delivered Friday, and they’ll start installing it. Additionally, the power company will come at the first of the week to begin installing the lights. “We’ve got to get everything done – bills paid and checks dated by the 30th of June in order to get our reimbursement (from the state park grant),” Dunning said. This is the date for the deadline on park improvements under the state grant. It was also mentioned that the prices on the new scoreboards have not come in yet, but the city is looking at a remote control scoreboard, instead of a cable-operated system.

A female driver was seriously injured in a single-vehicle accident last week on Highway 54, between Greenfield and Dresden.
According to a report filed by Trooper Mike Ford of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, at approximately 1:50 p.m. Wednesday, Charita M. Cannon, 38, of Greenfield was driving a 1990 Dodge Daytona along Highway 54, when she lost control of her vehicle, causing it to leave the roadway and overturn..
It took emergency workers from Weakley County EMS, Weakley County Rescue, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Weakley County Sheriff’s Department about 20 minutes to extricate two people from the wreckage.

(Read the rest of this story in this week's print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)