Commission meeting Monday

By Lesley Jenkins
Star staff
ljenkins@starhq.com

   The January meeting of the Carter County commission will be called to order on Monday at 10 a.m. The agenda is lighter than previous meetings, but no one can tell what will be brought up in the "Other Business" category.
   In the December 2003 meeting, commissioners were faced with many decisions in "other business." With the meeting on the verge of reaching the four hour mark, a motion to adjourn was slipping further away as commissioners passed the God resolution, approved a referendum for an increase in sales tax, and listen to some remarks from the public.
   This month's meeting has scheduled on the agenda a recognition for the Cloudland High School Football program, a report from Haynes Elliot on the Economic Development Commission and a public hearing time for three items related to plots being rezoned and changes to the county's zoning ordinance.
   Commenting on the report from Elliot, County Mayor Dale Fair said, "It is going to be the same kind of song before. Let's just wait and see. I do think he does have one request to buy some of our land. We are close on another plan. I do think he has some other businesses that he is working with but he can't name names."
   "Our employment was 4.8 percent. We are less than the state average. We were second lowest in the area in November. We do have a lot of our work outside of the county. If someone was to go into the Alcoa building you would have a lot of people who would get jobs locally instead of driving to Washington or Sullivan counties. Although we can't compete with Eastman, there would be a lot of people who would reapply to come to here," said Fair.
   The public hearing session will consist of two rezoning requests. The first is the Morton Property off Bill Garland Road. It was approved in the Planning Commission to be re-zoned from A-1b to B-3. This property is to be sold as commercial development and is being considered for annexation into the City of Johnson City.
   The second item up for public comment is the re-zoning of Old Watauga Road to R-1. The last item for public hearing will be directed to the additions, deletions, and amendments made to the zoning resolutions that was approved by the Planning Commission in the December 2003 meeting.
   Fair said public comments will only be allowed in favor or against these three items.