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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com       

Ginger Holdren was elected chairperson of the Carter County Commission on Monday.

“First of all, I want to say ‘Thank You’ for the vote of confidence,” Holdren said. “It is a tremendous honor to serve on this commission in no better place than Carter County, Tennessee.

“I have been here all 55 years. I want to say that I have absolutely no personal agenda whatsoever. I am a public servant and I want to hear all of your advice and opinions and I want to serve you and this county and that is the only thing on my mind. I will be fair to everybody. I do want us to work together as we already have on several projects with the city. I know when they succeed we all succeed and that is the path that I want us to be on and stay on.”

Holdren was nominated by Commissioner Brad Johnson while sitting chairman, Travis Hill, was re-nominated by Commissioner Charlie VonCannon. Holdren was elected in a 13-7 vote.

Mark Blevins and Hill were nominated for vice-chairman, and Hill was elected 13-7 after two rounds of voting.

All the commissioners agreed to leave the standing committees the same as they were. Commissioners Austin Jaynes, Brad Johnson, Mark Tester, and Holdren were voted to join the Financial Management Committee.

Mike Miller was selected unanimously to take the vacant seat left open when Mike Hill stepped away in District 2.

“I was born and raised in Carter County and have been blessed to have worked for Carter County schools which this will be my 42nd year. I have got to work with several good people in here,” said Miller. “It’s like Brandon (Pastor Brandon Young) said, ‘it’s time for everyone to step up.’ Our greatest resource no matter how much I love the Tweetsie Trail – it’s not the Tweetsie Trail, and it’s not or river or woods – it’s our young people.

“We have tremendous young people in this county. I thought when I got the call about this vacancy that there are things that could be done better and I am proud to be able to fill in that spot and do everything I can to help Carter County.”

Chad Odum was selected by the commissioners by a 14-6 vote over Ronald Reed to fill the spot of constable in District 1 until the next election.

In other business:
– $465,000 was approved for the appropriate line items on the Animal Shelter budget.
– A motion made by Commissioner Aaron Frazier to reserve up to $25,000 for a concert to be hosted by Surf Betsy in June 2022 from the unassigned fund balance. Rules had to be suspended for the motion to be made.
-$36,000 was approved to set up an ice rink from Nov. 27 to Jan. 16, 2022. The money will come from the general unassigned fund balance.
-$100,000 was approved for the completion of the Chemistry Lab at the Northeast State campus for use by the CTE Centralization project for Carter County schools.
-$1,080 was approved for the EMS to replace uniforms.
-$632,732 was approved for the purchase of four Mack trucks for the Highway Department.
-Up to $65,000 was approved to be used for an external audit of the Finance Department.
-Approval for Carter County Schools to give $100,000 toward the CTE Chemistry Lab project which was a contingency on the Commission doing so.
-Approved $4,050 in donations to the Animal Shelter.
-Approved $331.65 in a non-monetary donation to the Animal Shelter in July.
-Approved $543.35 in a non-monetary donation to the Animal Shelter in August.

The Carter County Commission will meet again at 6 p.m. Oct. 18.