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The Claiborne County Commission unanimously approved spending $160,000 to repair the boiler system at the Jail and Workhouse during their regular meeting last week.

Commissioner Tim Shrout sponsored the resolution and explained that the water tanks and piping for the boiler system need to be replaced.

“We had allotted $160,000. This was bidded out and to my understanding from the finance director the bid came in a couple of hours late so the process will have to be redone,” he said. “This will go ahead and allocate the funding for the expected cost to replace the boiler room.”

Commissioner Whitt Shuford brought up that it had been discussed last month for a list of all the needs at the Jail to be compiled so the county could apply for a capital outlay and get it all completed as part of one project instead of “piecemealling it out.”

“We look at this as basically an emergency need and a necessity at the jail and I had discussed that with the director,” Shrout said. “We’re still waiting on quotes to come in for the other items so we can go forward with that process for everything else.”

Finance Director Eric Pearson said the budget committee will be meeting this week to finalize the appropriations for the Capital Outlays fund.

“Anything else at the Justice Center other than this particular project might indeed get rolled into the Capital Projects budget for next year and we can do bonding for that,” Pearson said. “The issue on this is if you want to get it done in a timely manner — if you need to replace it before September, unfortunately you’re probably going to have to fund it out of this year’s budget out of the general fund balance.”

He added that the balance in the general fund this year is “in a pretty good condition, historically speaking.”

“Normally you wouldn’t want to take money out of fund balance, but right now I would estimate that we’re probably going to end this fiscal year with an unassigned fund balance in the general fund of at least $4 million,” he said. “That amount is probably about 25% of next year’s budget, which is a pretty good condition for the general fund. It’s been nowhere near that recently.”

The resolution to go ahead with the boiler system repairs was approved 20-0. Commissioner Mike Campbell was not present due to a death in his family.

The Commission also approved three resolutions related to the Claiborne Family Justice Center budget.

The first adds an anticipated $2,000 in grant funding to the organization’s budget.

According to the resolution, the Family Justice Center has applied for and expects to receive funding of $2,000 from the Tennessee Coalition to End Domesticand Sexual Violence to purchase equipment for the benefit of victims of domestic and sexual violence and to repair or upgrade domestic violence shelters.

Plans are to use the funds to replace or provide cell phones to victims who have had their phone taken or broken by their abusers, to ensure victims can communicate with the Family Justice Center and related organizations; to pre-load the cell phones with minutes; and to provide victims with doorbell cameras that include cloud storage, to provide security and also evidence of stalking and violations of orders of protection.

The second reflects a $100 donation to the Family Justice Center budget.

The third adds a line item for a Victim Service Supplement Grant (VSSG), which is replacing the VOCA grant that has been the center’s primary source of funding. Finance Director Eric Pearson explained that the resolution simply allows the Family Justice Center budget to reflect part of its revenue comes from the VOCA grant and part of it from the new VSSG grant. No salaries are being changed at the center due to this resolution.

A budget amendment was also approved for the library. The library will have salary savings from an employee that was on a short-term unpaid leave and is receiving short-term disability insurance payments. That savings of $1408 can now be used for the purchase of library books and materials.

The commission also approved the sale of two pieces of property the county had taken ownership to cover the costs of delinquent taxes, the destruction of surplus computer equipment at the Election Commission and a budget amendment for the Highway Department to reflect a $10,000 saving on insurance costs and an extra expenditure of $7500  for oil changes.