The Rhea County Commission meeting room was filled to the max Tuesday night in light of the recent release of the report from the State Comptroller's Office on Sheriff Mike Neal. But of all the people present, only two, Jeff Tinkham and Mike Nixon, brought up the matter during the public comment period of the agenda.
When opening the public comment period, County Commission Chairman Jim Reed said, “Public comments are three minutes apiece concerning an item on the agenda. We have a couple items tonight that are not on the agenda. We are going to allow those to be heard anyway. Sometimes there is cause for that to happen and tonight will be that night.”
Mr. Tinkham, a former employee of not only Sheriff Neal’s, but former Sheriff Leon Sneed, said. “What’s going on right now is a disgrace to the people. Why are you (the commission) not standing up and putting a stop to these criminals that are running the roads. And I’m not talking about the people who get locked up, but the ones that lock them up. They are criminals. Everybody here knows it, and nothing is being done. I worked down there, and I did a darn good job. Then a criminal came in and took it over and he’s running this county ragged. And no one is doing a thing about it. Not one. I’m ashamed of you all (the commission)
Mr. Nixon started by reading excerpts from the Comptroller’s Office report. He said, “Some people in this room took an oath to the Constitution. The Commission members were elected to make decisions and betterment of their constituents. The facts that I speak can be verified by the comptroller’s report.” He also questioned why the Sheriff’s Department does work for the Animal Shelter of Rhea County. He also said that Sheriff Neal doesn’t hold personnel accountable. He concluded that the facts show that Sheriff Neal and the Commission "have failed” their duty.
Chairman Reed then went on with the regular business of the Commission. Under old business, Commissioner Leo Stephens brought up a motion to terminate the contract with Our Fathers House. Chairman Reed then asked for a second to the motion, to which there was not one made. The motion died for lack of a second.
County Executive Jim Vincent brought up a report he had the state of Tennessee do showing the impact of tourism to the county.
Mr. Vincent said the report is for 2023. The state only does the report after the end of the fiscal budget year. The report showed that visitors to Rhea County generated $326 in tax savings per household through state and local tax collections. They footnoted that the statewide average is $1,161 per household.
“We're not getting the growth that we should be getting,” said Mr. Vincent. He said the amounts were pretty much level for 2021–2023. He said Rhea County ranks 40th in the state in revenues from tourism and comes in third in the 12-county region that Rhea is classified in. “It’s not weak, but it’s not really strong,” he said.
The report showed that 30 percent of the money that comes into the county is spent on food and beverage with 24 percent on lodging. Transportation expenses such as gas and vehicle maintenance garners the next biggest chunk at 29 percent. The direct visitor spending are those dollars that the visitor exchanges with businesses in the five categories the state classified. The state says that visitor spending injects real money into the local economy and generates taxes for local and state government budgets.
“When you create revenue in your community it creates jobs in the county in the various industries such as restaurants and hotels,” said Mr. Vincent. He said that these reports "will not only show how we are doing but can point in a direction that we need to go in."
He added, “Tourism creates the hotel/motel tax and last year we received $460,000. And those dollars are spent for quality-of-life things here in the county. These numbers are pretty stout. When you talk about building a community building or convention center, we’re going to have to do something like that to create additional attractions and bring more people in.”