However brief the meeting, the Claiborne commission did complete its task last week of addressing all agenda items in regular session.
Charles Curtiss, executive director of the County Commission Association, spoke briefly about his position. Curtiss said the committee on which he sits spends time early each year evaluating new legislation that will positively or negatively impact local governments.
“We can’t deal with every single bill, but the ones that are really critical, we decide whether we will be for or against,” said Curtiss.
Two years ago, some 3,864 bits of legislation were passed. This year, the state adopted some 3,751 pieces, he said.
One new bill addresses the problem counties face when land confiscated for delinquent property taxes are not sold.
Curtiss said he knew of one county in particular that was “stuck” with property housing several buildings with asbestos. Rather than pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring the buildings up to code, Curtiss said the property owner simply stopped paying his taxes.
The county wound up having to shell out some $500,000 to clean up the buildings, because no one wanted to buy the property, he said.
Under the new law, counties may “send back” a “non-beneficial” property simply by going before the court to have the issue overturned, he said.
It appears TN CHIP (Tennessee Child Identification Program) is doing its job in locating abducted and exploited children from across the country.
The free program allows parents to create an identification packet with various pieces of information including a comprehensive questionnaire, hair and DNA samples, medical information and emergency contacts.
The program also provides individual voice recognition software, said Bill Ausmus, representative for the TN CHIP program.
According to TN CHIP literature, the program is 100 percent safe. No personal information is retained by those assisting parents in the creation of the information packets.
There are absolutely no microchips involved or the use of any other invasive procedures.
It takes about 15 minutes, according to the literature, to collect the necessary information and samples.
Ausmus thanked the county commission for its assistance in getting the program up and running locally.
For more information, log onto: www.tnchip.org.
In other action, the board unanimously approved the appointment of Mike Barrett to the Claiborne County Beer board. Barrett replaces the late Gilbert Seal.
Reach Jan Runions at 423-254-5588 or on Twitter @scribeCP.
