Judge Cannon Gives One Year Re-cap At Fiscal Court, Says Officials Working Together Is "Blessing"

Darren Doyle, story and photo
Judge Executive Wil Cannon gave his first “State of the County” address at last night’s fiscal court meeting. He began by noting that 2015 brought in several newly-elected county officials, and that there were several unknowns that faced the county.

County government now has a new judge executive, sheriff, county clerk, county attorney, and two new magistrates, something that could be a potential nightmare to some counties.
 
“We’re all new here, we’ve almost had a complete turnover in county government,” Cannon said. “But what I can tell, going back to my days as sheriff and before, you’ve finally got a government where everyone’s working together for the good of the county, and there are no disputes.”
 
Cannon said there had been conflict going back 20 years with the either the sheriff and judge executive, or the county clerk and magistrates, and more. “I don’t know why there were all those problems and disputes, but all that’s gone now, everybody you see up here is working together for the benefit of the county, and that’s a blessing.”

He summarized the major issues that faced fiscal court over the past year, and while he admitted no one was perfect, he was confident that the outcomes of those issues had shown positive results for the county. He started from the beginning of the year with some of county government’s accomplishments:

• Restructured the little league program by hiring a new program administrator which allowed the very first league board not appointed by fiscal court. The board has been successful and the league has improved.
• Emergency Management Director Pat Prunty was able to secure $30,000 (gross amount) in federal grant money after one of the snowstorms last year.
• Worked with Rocky Hill residents to help with the disassembling of the Atmos Gas Plant in the best interest of the community, now exploring ways to implement industrial zoning.
• Made improvements to county parks with help of A.B. Webb and Greg Hudson
• Adopted Lauren Way (subdivision in Chalybeate) into county road system
• Completed new sidewalk project with city of Brownsville on north side of courthouse. Handicapped parking was improved, and sidewalk can now accommodate wheelchairs and comfortable walking.
• Solved a $195K budget shortfall with implementation of small Health Dept. and Extension Agent taxes, which added $220K to the yearly budget.
• Saw a new salt shed structure under direction of road foreman Ray Page. Although the state required the county to build the structure, county road crews provided most of the labor, and  the county was able to build the entire structure for around $35K, not the projected $65K-$70K first discussed
• Generating revenue for the county’s tourism board and parks and rec programs by implementing a room and rec tax within qualifying commerce in the county.
• Saw the construction of new Veterans Memorial Wall on the courthouse lawn. The wall was filled with engraved bricks so quickly that another wall is currently being constructed. Nearly 100% of funding for the project was provided by private donations.