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The Claiborne County Commission unanimously approved the first reading of a resolution to remove the $25 Wheel Tax going to debt service for the construction of the Claiborne County Justice Center during Monday’s meeting.

Commissioner Mitchell Cosby made the motion to remove the wheel tax.

“This was put in place many years ago and my understanding is that we’ll have enough collected at the end of December to pay this debt off,” he said. “So it gives me great pleasure to make a motion to remove this wheel tax.”

A two-thirds majority of the commissioners have to agree to remove the wheel tax in two consecutive regular meetings. Monday’s first reading passed 20-0 (Commissioner Eric Jones was not present).

If the second reading receives a two-thirds majority at the November meeting, the $25 wheel tax for the repayment of the jail bond will be terminated on December 31, 2024.

The commissioners also considered a resolution to remove the $25 Wheel Tax that goes to the Claiborne County Highway Department. That resolution failed by a vote of seven for and 13 against. Commissioners Whitt Shuford, Haley Barker, Nathan Epperson, Gary Poore, Tim Shrout, Zach Mullins and Steve Brogan supported the measure.

Epperson made the motion, saying “we have the opportunity tonight to remove both wheel taxes from the county.”

“I’ve talked to people from around the county multiple times and they do not like this wheel tax,” he said. “60 percent of this goes to tar and chip and tar and chip is not everybody’s favorite. I think it’s time we remove this $25 wheel tax.”

Commissioner Dennis Cook asked Road Superintendent Ronnie Pittman to explain how his department uses the funding.

Pittman said the tax generates about $703,000 each year. $200,000 goes for equipment and the rest is split 60-40 between tar and chip repairs (about $300,000) and asphalt resurfacing (about $200,000).

“What it’s doing right now is about 12 to 15 miles a year, We do about 20 miles per year with the rest of it coming out of asphalt, that’s all of my budget,” Pittmann said. “If you all send anything away from my budget you’re reducing anything that we’re able to do. Right now we’re able to produce about 20 miles of road annually to get the county back up and running the way it’s supposed to be.”

County Mayor Joe Brooks asked Pittman if the county was only getting five miles of roads paid for by the gas tax.

“We got a $3 million grant from the state for asphalt, which was a one-time influx that came in and we got 30 miles down with that. But on average, every single year it has been running the same except for last year when Bill Lee gave us the $3 million,” Pittman said.

He went on to defend the work his department has been doing with the county’s roads.

“Other than the fact that we’ve got some log trucks that are breaking some ot them down, these roads are doing really good and we need to keep moving forward,” Pittman said. “If you take this away then we won’t have nothing to work with. . . The original resolution was never once the note was paid off to remove it. I told the commission that as the road superintendent I would let them know when we were ready to remove this. We’re at 54-percent right now in hard top overlay and if you all want to continue on, once we get these caught up and your surface is good, then we’ll going on the 300 miles of gravel and be glad to do it. But to remove it right now is the wrong thing.”

Epperson said there were a lot of people in the community who don’t think they’re getting their fair share of their wheel tax because they don’t live on a primary road or a secondary road.

Pittman said the county had to take care of the primary and secondary roads first by law.

“I hear the same thing, but this county didn’t get in this shape overnight,” he said. “The roads have got to come up if you want to continue to make Claiborne County thrive. You ain’t going to satisfy everybody — somebody is going to be first and somebody is going to be last and it’s going to take time and it’s going to take money to do it.”

Epperson said he wasn’t complaining about the street department and said they did a “bang-up job” during the storm.

“I’m not downing the Road Department. I’m just saying that the citizens are tired of paying the $25 wheel tax,” he said. “We’re just trying to help in this hard economy.”

Before the vote was taken the commissioners also discussed changing the wording of the tax resolution so that more of the funds went to asphalt. It was determined the only way to do that was to remove the tax and then pass a new resolution with the updated language. Removing the tax ultimately failed with the 7-13 vote.

The commission also voted on Monday to remove the four commissioners who serve on the Financial Management Committee and then elected commissioners Mike Campbell, Mitchell Cosby, David Mundy and Zach Mullins to that committee.

Cosby also added a resolution to thank the farmers for donating hay and supplies, and the many businesses and churches and individuals who donated to help victims of flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. Tim Shrout added that a moment of silence be observed in honor of those who lost their lives in the flooding.

In other business, the court:

— approved a resolution transferring four repeaters from the county to Claiborne E911.

— approved resolutions authorizing ARPA funds for District EIght water projects, the ARPA Interagency Agreement and a subaward agreement with Clearfork Utility District.

— approved resolutions amending the Highway Department’s budget to allow the purchase of a new truck for removing brush and to reflect a $68,000 increase in state road aid funding.

— approved a resolution for a new capital outlay note for a truck for the landfill.

— approved a resolution requesting proposals for a salary study for county employees.

— approved a resolution to pay back $168,000 of the FY 2024 SRO grant. A $900,000 grant was awarded but the total cost of the SRO salaries was $168,000 less than that and went unspent.

— approved a resolution to enter into the state’s cooperative purchasing program.

— approved budget amendments for the Property Assessor, District Attorney General, Claiborne Family Justice Center, General Sessions Court and three for the Board of Education.