County clerk location questioned

Oct. 20—Commissioners are wondering if the best place for the Cumberland County Clerk's Office is its temporary location in a former bank building south of town.

"I've had several people in my district say they wish it would stay over there," Joe Sherrill, 6th District commissioner, said during the county's budget committee meeting Oct. 4. "I'm just passing that along. I get the calls and the texts."

The county bought the building to serve as a new home for the county archives and records preservation site, with a construction project underway for a storage vault. It became home to the clerk's office after a structural engineer found significant water damage to two of three trusses supporting the roof at the Cumberland County Courthouse and deemed the area used by the clerk's office unsafe.

During the Oct. 17 meeting of the commission, Dewey Walker, 1st District commissioner, moved to halt all construction at the site immediately.

"In the last few weeks, I've done a lot of research and a lot of study of things that I didn't know," Walker said during the new business portion of the commission's monthly meeting. "Because of the uncertainty — and there is uncertainty, believe you me, and no, I have not broke the Sunshine law — because of the uncertainty of the future location of the archives building and the clerk's office and on behalf of phone calls received, I would like to make a motion that construction would cease."

Tom Isham, 2nd District commissioner, supported the motion.

The Sunshine law is Tennessee's Open Meetings Law which calls for public business to be conducted in the public view. Deliberations among members of a public board, like the county commission, are to be conducted in public meetings.

Cumberland County Mayor Allen Foster said the motion was not part of the agenda, approved just a few minutes earlier with no additions.

"The parliamentarian can correct me, but that would have needed to come in when we approved the agenda. To change the agenda would be a two-thirds' majority," Foster said, ruling the motion out of order.

Wendell Wilson, 6th District commissioner, noted the commission's building and grounds committee is scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at the courthouse, and the issue of the clerk's office and the location of the archives could be discussed then.

Foster added, "I would highly suggest they go through the committee first."

The clerk's office was forced to close Sept. 27. It occupies the original 1905 portion of the facility along with the commission's meeting chambers.

O&W Construction is working to shore up the roof. The second floor is made from concrete, and that could help get a support structure in place more quickly. Once the roof has been stabilized, more detailed investigation of the roof structure can take place.

The county purchased the former bank building in August 2021 for $1.125 million.

While much of the facility could be repurposed for the archives use, it needed a secure storage room built where the bank's drive-thru had been.

It was the second archives project the county pursued after a proposed renovation of the E. First St. archives facility came in $280,000 over the $1.6 million budget in the summer of 2021, when construction prices soared.

A vote to cover the increased costs failed with 9 votes in favor and 8 opposed. Commission votes require at least 10 votes to pass.

The county funded the purchase from its debt service fund balance. However, the cost was to be repaid over time using a portion of the county's record preservation fee. At that time, the fees generated about $85,000 a year.

Rebecca Stone, 3rd District commissioner, asked that the building and grounds committee discuss the legal implications of repurposing the former bank building at this time, and how that would impact the archives project.

The building and grounds committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. Monday in the small meeting room of the Cumberland County Courthouse.

The agenda includes update on the courthouse structural repairs and the Homestead Tower.

The environmental committee will meet in the same location immediately following the building and grounds committee. Their agenda includes a discussion of building codes.

Heather Mullinix is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She covers schools and education in Cumberland County. She may be reached at hmullinix@crossville-chronicle.com.