ELIZABETHTON — The Elizabethton City Council approved several changes in the eligibility requirements for hiring new police officers and firefighters, discussed funding problems with the Elizabethton Golf Course and changes in recycling.
Danny Hilbert, the city's street and sanitation manager, told the council that Carter County Landfill manager Benny Lyons has informed him that the county will no longer be providing service to the former recycling centers in the city. Hilbert said the county will now operate its recycling center at 411 Cherokee Park Road from Monday through Friday and on Saturday morning. The county recycling center accepts cardboard, mixed paper, newspaper, used motor oil, metal, and tin cans.
Hilbert said the bins taking cardboard that have been placed at numerous locations in the city are also operated by the county in agreement with the property owner on which the bin is located. The county will continue to service those bins.
Hilbert said that the former partnership with the county to operate recycling centers at such places as East Mill Street had been unsatisfactory, with people using the recycling bins as places to dump household garbage and other materials. “It turned into a mess,†Hilbert said.
“The bottom line is, the city is not in the recycling business,†Mayor Pro Tem Bill Carter said.
The council made several changes to the eligibility requirements for firefighters and police officers. For firefighters, the council voted to reduce the minimum age for hiring new firefighters from 21 years old to 18. The council acted on the recommendation of Fire Chief Barry Carrier, who wrote in a memorandum that “with recent changes in the dynamics of hiring personnel, I am requesting to lower the age limit for new-hire firefighters to be 18. We are currently competing for new hires in our region with fire departments that have already made this change. I have verbally surveyed most of the surrounding paid departments and have received no negative feedback regarding the lower new hire age requirement.â€
Also approved were some changes to the eligibility requirements for police officers, based on a change made last year in state law. Public Chapter 847 changes state law to allow for the hiring of people who are not citizens of the United States, but who are permanent legal U.S. residents to be certified as a police officer, as long as the new officer obtains his or her United States citizenship within 6 years of employment as a police officer. The change approved by the council replaces the old requirement that applicants who were born outside the U.S. had to submit verification of citizenship during the hiring process.
Changes in state law also affected the residency requirements for Elizabethton firefighters and police officers. Recently the Tennessee General Assembly amended state law to prohibit municipalities from placing a maximum limit on the residences of first responders. Municipalities may place a time restriction on how fast an employee can respond to a call. The council approved the changes to bring the city into compliance with state law. The council also approved a change for other personnel positions that had a geographic restriction on how far away their residence can be and substituted a response time requirement.
The council had a lengthy discussion on the management of the golf course, and the need to increase operational expenditures by $221,985. There were several problems discussed, including bad weather this year and a very rainy summer last year that decreased revenue and increased maintenance costs. There were many fallen trees and 80 stumps removed. Problems with the irrigation system were also discussed.
The motion to increase the operational expenditure with funds from the unassigned fund balance were approved by a 5-2 vote, with Carter and Councilman Richard Barker voting against the motion, which must be passed on second reading following a public hearing in February.
