Commissioners Tim Boyd and Greg Martin
The County Commission on Wednesday approved spending $50,000 for public restrooms at the rebuilt East Ridge High School stadium.
Commissioner Greg Martin cast the only no vote.
He said the county schools only recently turned over athletic fields and facilities at East Ridge High to the city of East Ridge with the understanding the city had the means to fix them up.
He said, "Just a month later, we are being asked to use county taxpayer money" for the project.
Commissioner Tim Boyd said the funds came from discretionary money designated for District 8. He said, "Some of it has been sitting in the account for two years."
He earlier said he had joined with the school's alumni group in an effort to raise $50,000 each of the $100,000 cost of the restrooms.
When the exchange between Commissioners Martin and Boyd became testy, Chairman Chester Bankston said, "We're not going to have that back and forth."
Commissioner Martin said Commissioner Boyd was "trying to talk down to me."
Commissioner Boyd said afterward that Commissioner Martin is still new to the panel and needs to listen more to pick up on the processes that he said are very different than the school board where he formerly served.