Madison County Commissioners hear reports from different officials

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Madison County Commission meets for its regular monthly meeting Monday evening.

The August Madison County commission meeting started off mostly routine, until reports from two health professionals got the group thinking.

Dr. Jimmy Hoppers with Physicians Quality Care, and Kim Tedford with the Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department, each spoke about the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All of these things about masks, bandanas, cloth, they’re basically spit barriers for you. They help you, but they’re not really doing a whole lot for everybody else,” Dr. Hoppers said.

“This is not the flu. Social distancing is a long proven public health method that goes back years. If you look at the flu outbreak of 1918, you’ll see that people wore masks then,” Tedford said.

“I don’t think either one of them are wrong, everyone’s doing the best they can,” Madison County Commission chairman Gary Deaton said.

Aside from the health reports, commissioners also worked through a few items for the new budget.

“Our revenues are doing fair. They’re not as bad as we thought they would be, but we’d love to see them do better,” Deaton said.

Superintendent of Jackson-Madison County Schools Dr. Marlon King also gave a report.

He discussed the recent switch to distance learning, student safety, and wanting to get students back in school.

Commissioners also made several appointments to different positions.