Newsletter

Friday Recap for September 13th, 2024

Bill Petty

13 Sep 2024 — 7 min read

Hey folks,

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the cool weather. It's been a really busy week for me, but I am enjoying getting out to the good people of District 10. I'm learning a lot and I certainly appreciate what everyone has to say.

Last week I announced the passing of Gayle Ward and that her memorial is this Monday. A Celebration of Life for Gail will take place on Monday, Sept. 16, at 5:30 p.m. at Kelmscott Farm, 5151 Waddell Hollow Rd, Franklin, TN. The service will be led by Father Michael McGehee. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to OneGenAway Hunger Relief or the C.S. Lewis Foundation.

Also, I mentioned the new website for voter information that you all should check out called Williamson County Citizens. It is a great source of information about our elections, when they occur and who is running for what office.

Blessings… and keep the faith.

Bill

Williamson County Commission

The full commission met on Monday for a 5+ hour marathon session agenda and documents video.

They had to consider and vote on 54 resolutions, 43 of which were 24-0 and 3 were 23-1. Of the others, several were deferred and two were withdrawn. Here are the actual votes and you can follow along if you click on the documents to see what each resolution is:

Resolution	Yes	No	Abstain/Absent
9-24-2	23	0	1 Mason
9-24-3 – 9-24-1	24	0
9-24-22	23	0	1 Brown
	24	0
9-24-35, 9-24-36 withdrawn
9-24-37	24	0
9-24-38 This was for $75,000 to study the possibility of using the Verizon building for the JJJ project.	10 Jones, Lawrence, M. Smith, Sturgeon, Hayes, Stresser, O'Neil, Torres, Richards, Beathard	14 Herbert, Mason, Webb, Morton, Guffee, Aiello, Clifford, Hester, Graves, Sanford, Tunnicliffe, Williams, Brown, S. Smith
9-24-39 This was to publish the announcement of the intent to issue bonds for $25,600,000 in the Williamson Herald	18 Jones, Herbert, Mason, Lawrence, M. Smith, Webb, Morton, Guffee, Hester, Stresser, Sanford, O'Neil, Tunnicliffe, Torres, Williams, Brown, Beathard, S. Smith	4 Sturgeon, Aiello, Clifford, Richards	2 Hayes, Graves
9-24-40 deferred to Nov 12 This was for the $40,000,000 bond issue.	13 Jones, Lawrence, M. Smith, Sturgeon, Morton, Aiello, Hayes, Graves, Stresser, Sanford, O'Neil, Torres, Richards	11 Herbert, Mason, Webb, Guffee, Clifford, Hester, Tunnicliffe, Williams, Brown, Beathard, S. Smith
9-24-41 deferred to Nov 12 This was the $23,220,000 bond issue.	13 Jones, Lawrence, M. Smith, Sturgeon, Morton, Aiello, Hayes, Graves, Stresser, Sanford, O'Neil, Torres, Richards	11 Herbert, Mason, Webb, Guffee, Clifford, Hester, Tunnicliffe, Williams, Brown, Beathard, S. Smith
9-24-42 This was for the $280,000,000 bond issue for the jail and juvenile detention center.	16 Jones, Herbert, Mason, Lawrence, Webb, Morton, Guffee, Aiello, Hester, Sanford, O'Neil, Tunnicliffe, Williams, Brown, Beathard, S. Smith	7 M. Smith, Sturgeon, Clifford, Hayes, Stresser, Torres, Richards	1 Graves
9-24-1 deferred to Oct	17 Jones, Herbert, Mason, Lawrence, M. Smith, Sturgeon, Morton, Aiello, Clifford, Hayes, Graves, Stresser, O’Neil, Torres, Williams, Richards, Beathard, S. Smith	5 Herbert, Guffee, Hester, Tunnicliffe, Brown	Sanford, Webb absent
9-24-43	23	0	Aiello absent
9-24-44 – 9-24-52	24	0
9-24-53	18 Jones, Herbert, Mason, Webb, Sturgeon, Morton, Guffee, Clifford, Hester, Stresser, Sanford, O'Neil, Tunnicliffe, Williams, Richards, Brown, Beathard, S. Smith	6 Lawrence, M. Smith, Aiello, Hayes, Graves, Torres
9-24-54 deferred to Oct Thtis is in regards to the current 5G tower close to Bethesda Elementary School	15 Mason, Lawrence, M. Smith, Sturgeon, Morton, Clifford, Hayes, Graves, Stresser, Sanford, O'Neil, Torres, Williams, Richards, S. Smith	9 Jones, Herbert, Webb, Guffee, Aiello, Hester, Tunnicliffe, Brown, Beathard

Mary Smith has provided an excellent summary of the most important votes here.

Some video highlights that you might want to view are:

Zannie Martin, director of the Juvenile center: 1:09 to 1:54:43.
Sheriff Jeff Hughes and Judge Guffee 3:56 to 4:27.

Actually, the whole meeting is instructive, but the 5 ½ hour length is definitely daunting.

The Planning Commission met on Thursday Agenda/packet video I didn’t have time to watch this, but it is always interesting.

There are two meetings next week here.

Williamson County Election Commission

From today’s meeting of the Williamson County Election Commission (WCEC):

Election Administrator Chad Gray reported that 500+ Williamson Countians had signed up to the “textmygov” app to receive push notifications about elections and other Williamson County news.
The ballot for qualified local candidates for the November 5th election (City of Fairview, Nolensville, Thompson’s Station and the District 10 County Commission election) were approved by the Commission.
The list of early voting and election day poll officials was approved.
The date, time and locations for early voting were approved (see below for specifics)
Thursday, September 26th at 3 p.m. will be the time the WCEC will conduct a Post-Election Performance Audit for the August 1, 2024 election. It will be held at the election office.
- It should be open to citizens to watch. We’re double checking this.
The absentee, early voting and election day ballot boxes were locked.
New voter registration forms that had been filed since June 6, 2024 were reviewed by the WCEC for approval,
- DO NOT FORGET THAT THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE NOVEMBER 5TH ELECTION IS MONDAY, OCTOBER 7TH.
- Early voting runs from Wednesday, October 16, 2024 through Thursday, October 31, 2024.
- Election day is Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
Several items which were generally discussed but nothing was acted upon:
- The Absentee Counting Board may be expanded because of anticipated more absentee ballots.
- THE COMMISSION SAID THEY ARE LOOKING FOR MORE REPUBLICAN POLL WORKERS TO BALANCE OUT R’s AND D’s. SO, IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN BEING A POLL WORKER – EVEN IF YOU’VE CONTACTED THEM BEFORE – YOU NEED TO CONTACT ASAP:
  - Jonathan Duda, Chairman, WCEC, jonathan.duda@charter.net 615-557-8400
- They’re looking to update the visitor policy for polls.
- The WCEC met with a number of security agencies earlier this month to ensure they are prepared for any possible disruptive scenario such as protests, bomb threats, etc. during early voting and election day.
  - Duda reported the county is ready with the necessary plans.
- The civility of political signs was discussed – not much you can do about this if you believe in free speech.

Here is a list of early voting locations and times for the November 5th election:

First, Columbia State Community College will NOT repeat as an early voting location because of conflicts with the school’s calendar.
Early voting
Franklin area locations
- Williamson County Election Commission office
  8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays
  8:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays (October 17 and October 24)
- Franklin Recreation Complex
  8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays
  9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays (October 17 and 24)
Brentwood location
- Brentwood Library
  8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays
  9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays (October 17 and 24)
Fairview location
- Fairview Recreation Center
  8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays
  9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays (October 17 and 24)
Nolensville location
- Nolensville Recreation Center
  8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays
  9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays (October 17 and 24)
Spring Hill/Thompson’s Station location
- Longview Recreation Center
  8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays
  9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays (October 17 and 24)
College Grove/Triune location
- College Grove Community Center
  8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays
  9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays (October 17 and 24)

Williamson County School Board

The school board work session was Thursday the 12th. Agenda Video.

This was the first meeting for the new board members: Margie Johnson, Tonja Hibma, Claire Reeves, Tony Bostic Melisa Wyatt. Dennis Driggers was sworn in ahead of the other five last month to fill out Eliot Mitchell’s term.

There was discussion about discipline and zero tolerance at the beginning. Superintendent Golden reported that the school population is down 0.7% this year and has been flat for the last three years. He attributes the flat enrollment to the cost of living in Williamson County. He also mentioned that schools in Nolensville, Page, Thompson Station and Fairview are seeing increases in enrollment but most of the other schools are seeing decreasing student enrollment. What this means is that we have uneven distribution of students and the challenge is to figure out the best way to handle that. Zoning, building new schools and providing busing are three options mentioned by the superintendent.

A big chunk of time was spent explaining the science book selection process. At 1:04 to 1:30.

Rachel Farmer who is the district's CFO gave a report on the district’s financials towards the end of the video.

Next Monday there are two meetings:

First is the District Family Life Curriculum meeting at 5:00 pm at the WCS Professional Development Center located at 1761 West Main Street in Franklin. All Williamson County residents are welcome. Go here for details. The actual Tennessee Code is Code 49-6-1304 and it is very explicit.

Second is the School Board meeting at 6:30 Pm in the County building auditorium at 1320 W. Main St. Agenda Video (you will have to click on the video at 6:30 pm or later).

Board of Mayor and Aldermen

There were nine meetings this week and you can click on any of them here (scroll up or down to see any meeting). I wish I had the time to review them all. Next week looks like this here (scroll up or down).

If not me, who?

If not now, when?

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1)