City of Lexington meets to discuss recent changes, proposals in meeting
LEXINGTON, Tenn. — Lexington’s mayor and aldermen met to finalize some decisions during Monday night’s meeting.
Regional airport ownership & upcoming term limit proposal
“The board passed a resolution tonight on the regional airport. Basically there was an agreement in place for years where the City of Parsons, Decatur County, City of Lexington, and Henderson County were all in that,” said Lexington Mayor Jeff Griggs.
Along with Lexington, Parsons and Decatur County had to vote on the resolution making Henderson County the sole owner of the Beech River Regional Airport Authority.
“The resolution tonight was to kind of clean everything up and let them get their board appointed and stuff like that,” said Mayor Griggs.
However, with this decision, residents will still be paying for the airport.
“People that live in the city of Lexington pay county taxes. So, the residents still are going to help support the county. It’s just the city is not going to be paying a portion into that,” said Mayor Griggs.
Alderman Fred Ellis proposed that the utility department representatives sit down to discuss ways that residents could save money if all utility departments could be combined. However, this motion was not seconded.
On April 7, during a special session, the board will discuss the proposed charter change in relation to term limits for the mayor and aldermen of Lexington.
Potential raises for employees
Another item was voted on Monday night regarding potential raises for employees.
“The utilities got a raise over the salary survey that was done last year. It was brought up tonight about giving a type of bonus, that failed tonight,” said Mayor Griggs.
There still is a possibility for those who did not receive a raise.
“When we start our budget process the board will look at raises and things like that for the board,” said Mayor Griggs.
Their budget meetings begin July 1.
Lexington Electric System update
After receiving a $27.5 million grant from the state of Tennessee, Lexington Electric System has increased with 4,000 plus customers. Brad Jones with Lexington Electric System shares more.
“We’re about one to two months away from having mainline construction completed. And then an additional three to four months of mainline blasting. Then after that, the construction itself is completed we’ll just be completing drops,” said Jones.
This will provide business and homes of Lexington and Decatur County, most of Henderson County, and part of Hardin County near Saltillo with broadband network.
For more Henderson County news, click here.
