The regular monthly meeting of the White County Board of Commissioners was held Nov. 16 and had two members of the full court attending virtually.
After a combination of factors had caused the committee meetings to be postponed the week before when not enough members would be present to have a quorum, the full court meeting was in question. However, with eight of the 14 members appearing in person at the courthouse, which was enough to comprise a quorum, and two more attending virtually via teleconferencing technology, the meeting proceeded as scheduled.
After a prayer led by Brett Rich and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Northfield Elementary School fifth grader Anna McCulley, the board approved all items on their agenda without much discussion.
One item that did generate some clarification for board members was Resolution No 66-11-2020 Property in Lieu of Taxes for Altium Healthcare, Inc. Commissioner Roger Mason asked the county finance director, Chad Marcum, to explain the resolution so the board could be sure they fully understood the terms of the agreement.
“What we do for several industries in the county is offer them the ability to make, typically, a reduced payment on their personal or real property taxes,” Marcum told the commissioners. “The state law allows the county to be able to do that for up to 20 years per individual business.”
Marcum went on to explain that Altium, previously under the name Tri State Industries, has been participating in the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) program previously, and the current resolution was simply an extension.
“It is actually just on their personal property taxes; it is not on their real property taxes,” he added. “There are several industries in the county that do that. We do this to entice them to expand their businesses here.”
County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson added to Marcum’s explanation by telling commissioners the renewal comes because the county wants to ensure the industries are meeting certain criteria, including a minimum number of employees, and therefore only approves businesses for five-year terms.
All eight members present as well as the two virtual attendees voted in favor of approving the resolution. Lee Broyles, T.K. Austin, Cain Rogers, and Bobby McCulley were absent from the meeting.
The only other topic of discussion came when the board prepared to vote to approve applications for notaries.
Chairman Stanley Neal pointed out that one applicant, Arnold E. Allen, did not reside or own a business in White County.
“According to TCA Annotated Code 8-16-101A, notaries are elected by the county legislative body in the county in which they reside or have their principal place of business,” Neal read to the board. “I would entertain a motion to exclude this [application] from the packet of notaries.”
The motion was made and seconded, with the board voting unanimously to approve the other nine notary applications.
In other business, the board approved the following resolutions:
One of the trucks was a 2001 GMC fire truck that was totaled in a wreck in 2019, and the board agreed to donate the vehicle to Cassville Volunteer Fire Department. The other truck was a 1979 Chevy Fire Truck, which the board agreed to donate to Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department
The next scheduled meeting of the White County Board of Commissioners is 6 p.m., Dec. 21, 2020.
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