Job center relocation causes stir among leaders
JASPER, Tenn. — The relocation of several organizations and functions, including the Marion County Commission’s own monthly meetings, caused a confusing flurry of discussion, accusations, and even some motions without accompanying votes during the board’s August meeting.
Commissioner Matt Blansett said the board’s building use committee had a “lengthy” discussion recently about where to house the American Job Center, the Veterans Services Office and a proposed child advocacy center.
The committee voted unanimously to recommend moving the job center and the child advocacy center into the current Marion County Commission building along U.S. Highway 41, and 3-2 to move the Veterans Services Office to the Snipes Building on the downtown Marion county Commissioner Mack Reeves
square in Jasper.
Commissioner Mack Reeves said he opposed moving veterans services and was upset the county demands property taxes from building owners whose stores might sit empty while giving other organizations, particularly the American Jobs Center, space to operate rent free.
After researching the issue, he said the county could charge the American Job Center rent, and that group should have state and federal funding to pay it.
Reeves said Marion was just “giving away real estate.”
“I understand that this American Job Center needs to be located where it can be seen, but I also understand that just about every business you go in in this county has a sign up — ‘Help Wanted,’” he said. “If you’re looking for a job, you can find a job. It may not pay what you think you’re worth, but you can get paid. When I was growing up, if you wanted to make more money, you worked more hours.”
Reeves said he also was “irritated” that the decision to move each group seemed to be already made before the board voted on the matter.
“We’re 15 members here,” he said. “We decide what’s going on here. It’s not one person. It’s not four people. It’s not three people. It’s not five people. It is the majority of this commission.”
County Mayor David Jackson said no one ever claimed the move was “a cut-and-dry deal.”
John Carson, the service officer in charge of Marion’s veterans services office, said he had examined the Snipes Building in anticipation of a potential move and thinks the entranceway is too narrow to accommodate some of the veterans.
“I’d like for you to think about the veterans,” Carson told the board. “I don’t care where you put me. Just think about these veterans and how they access a building.”
Commissioner Tommy Thompson said the office shouldn’t be placed “in that mess over there in the square,” and that the county needed to own that property “about like we need a hole in the head” anyway.
The board unanimously voted to reject the building use committee’s recommendation. The resulting discussion about what to do next devolved into confusion, board members talking over others and motions with seconds that never got votes.
In the middle of that, the board did vote 13-2 to move the county commission’s monthly meetings and the Veterans Services Office to the Lawson Building along Ridley Drive in Jasper.
Commissioner Don Atkins said the board needs to be “better informed as to what kind of expenses” each option would bring if the American Job Center is placed in the Marion County Commission Building or elsewhere.
The board voted unanimously to defer the matter of the American Job Center and the child advocacy center location back to the board’s building use committee.
That committee will share its new recommendation at the board’s next meeting on Sept. 24.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.