Students from Northeast State Community College met with commissioners during their Tuesday evening meeting to talk about the potential closing of the college’s Elizabethton campus.

When the students heard about the potential problems the campus was facing, including dropping enrollment figures, the students wrote letters to Commissioner Mike Hill to see if the county could do anything to rectify the situation.

“I know that the mayor has talked to Bethany Flora, the president of Northeast, and we are going to start some roundtable discussions with them,” Robert Acuff said.

He said the potential campus closing could impact some high schools’ dual enrollment programs.

“We have to push this,” Mike Hill said.

Acuff said state representatives, including Timothy Hill, Rusty Crowe and John Holsclaw, have also been made aware of what is going on.

A representative from the Perfection Group came to Building and Grounds, offering their services to both renovate and improve existing systems such as HVAC and electrical.

It was the company’s proposal to provide a free inspection of county buildings that prompted the initial debate.

“Are we looking for this?” Hill said. “This was them coming to sell us something. It was not us looking for them.”

Mayor Rusty Barnett said the group contacted him several times wanting to speak to the committee.

Brad Johnson said if the group performs the free evaluation, they will have an advantage when it comes time to bid out for such a project.

New chairman of the committee Austin Jaynes motioned to perform an RFP for companies to perform said evaluations, which passed unanimously.

With Carter County Tomorrow dissolving in December, discussions continued about the staff who will fall under county responsibility.

“They are very valuable employees,” Barnett said.

The committee determined working under the mayor’s budget would not be much different from how they work now.

“I do not think we are changing their work environment,” Isaiah Grindstaff said.

The discussion will continue during next month’s meeting.

Johnson said, through all the discussions and votes on the new recycling center location, no one has performed a title search on the proposed property.

He said it may be a state requirement for them to perform such a search before the county can spend money on it.

The Landfill Committee is still in the contract phase of the process.

Acuff said the property will most likely not close until mid December.

The committee voted unanimously to request county attorney Josh Hardin to perform a title search on the property.