The Roane County Commission met in regular session last night at 6:00 p.m. with two members absent as commissioners Hooks and Duff were not in attendance, but a quorum was present with 13 members out of 15 so business was conducted. A sparce crowd was in attendance, a bit different from the last several meetings. However one resident of Roane County the infamous Rocky Joe Houston came in and addressed the commission on what he described as real estate fraud that he and his brother Clifford Leon Houston had been the victims of since they were released from jail, and brought paperwork that he says proves his point.

Rocky Houston told commissioners last night he had paperwork that would prove his case of retail fraud which he thinks that his property was taken unlawfully. He handed out some paperwork to the Chairman of The Commission commissioner Shannon Hester, and asked that the County executive and County attorney look this over and get back with him on a response. Extra law enforcement personnel were at the courthouse last night as they got word that Houston would be coming to attend the meeting, but he did his speech and then left the building and the property without any issues and this could have been the reason that many decided to stay home last night and not attend the meeting.

One key item the County commission approved was not to sue a property owner on Broken Arrow Point Drive in South Roane County for trees on his property allegedly hanging over the roadway. The County commission, during the February meeting, decided to send this issue, whether or not to sue the property owner, back to the road committee for a recommendation. They, in turn, sent it back to the commission to pursue a lawsuit against the landowner. However, during the meeting last night, the measure failed even though there were seven commissioners in favor of forwarding the lawsuit to six against.

According to County Attorney Greg Leffew, they needed eight votes to have a majority vote to pass it, so it failed for a lack of a majority.

County Executive Creswell mentioned in his report that nearly 6,700 county residents are signed up to what is known as Hyper Reach which is a system provided by the Emergency Services Department for Roane county residents to recieve notices when inclement weather or other emergencies may arise.

You can sign up to Hyper Reach by going to the Roane County government web page if interested.

The County commission went into a work session following the regular agenda items discussing the Capital Improvements Plan, namely discussing what to do with the present School Liaison Committee; whether or not to possibly organize a steering committee instead.

After nearly an hour of conversation about the school board’s plan to hire an agency to again study a school renovation plan, the commissioners being at odds over how this should move forward at this time, decided to plan another work session in the future for this discussion.