Last night’s Cumberland County Commission meeting would see several residents attending the session to speak their concerns regarding a resolution passed in November.

In November of last year, the Cumberland County Commission met in a regular meeting to discuss and approve several agenda items, one of which was resolution 11-2024-4.

In this resolution, the Health and Safety Standards Board and the Environmental Committee determined that regulations over health and safety standards of residential and non-residential properties would be best handled by County employees.

The resolution passed back then with a 15 – 3 vote with commissioners Lowe, Potter, and Sieber voting against it.

However, some of the wording in the resolution proved to be a point of contention with several citizens.

One attendee, Tyler Sisco, said the resolution was a ‘fine line between our property rights being taken away’.

“We can’t let our fields grow for wildlife because our neighbors ain’t gonna like it. Can’t have a barn because the neighbor ain’t gonna like it or it’s in bad shape. They’re gonna send a county codes enforcer out to inspect my barn, and I don’t believe nothing’s going to pass inside that thing. It says that I’m protected under TCA 5-1-122 as long as I’m agriculture. I ain’t got no cows, I ain’t got no farm. I don’t want somebody telling me what to do on my place, it ain’t right. And I think the rest of the county feels the same way that I do.”

His feelings on the resolution would be echoed by two other attendees.

And 7th district commissioner Jerry Cooper voiced his concerns to his fellow commissioners.

“Since our last meeting on November 18th 2024, during which we adopted regulations governing the health and safety standards Board concerning residential and non-residential properties, I have received an overwhelming number of concerns for my constituents and other Cumberland County residents. These concerns warrant our attention and, in my opinion, necessitate a reevaluation of this resolution.

I respectfully recommend that resolution 11-2024-4 be returned to the health and safety standards Board for further review. I believe revisiting and refining certain sections will better serve the needs of our constituents and ensure clarity and fairness for Cumberland County residents.”

He would go on to specify amendments such as removing sentence 11 that includes the phrase “this term includes the accumulation of three or more junk motor vehicles, as defined below, on the property.”

His proposal also included removing an entire paragraph that defined what entailed junk motor vehicles to be.

The resolution will be discussed in today’s Health and Safety Standards Board Meeting.