At their regular meeting on Monday, April 9,  the Greene County Commission approved a request  from the Greene County Board of Education to publish a Notice of Public  Hearing (see page 3 this issue) and to institute  other actions to allow the voters of Greene County to vote on a 3 mill increase  in ad valorem taxes which will be used to finance the construction of a  complete new high school. The hearing will be held on Monday, April 23 at 5 p .m.

In other business, the commission:

*Approved the payment of $1,633.793 in  claims and also approved the financial report presented to them by CFO Paula Bird.

*Approved requesting each commissioner to search  in their communities  to find someone interested in  serving on the Emergency Management Committee. This is a 13 member board and all members are appointed by members  of the Greene County Commission.

*Approved a request by E-911 to add its employees to the rotation of drug screening.

*Discussed a request from the residents on  Two River Road that the county maintain the roads in their subdivision.

This led to a lengthy discussion as to whether or not the county should maintain subdivisions; what  is the clear definition  of a subdivision and whether or not the County  Engineer has the personnel  to do the work.

Commission Chair  Nick Underwood said that the question had been  on the agenda since  2008 and that something needed to be done.

County Attorney Hank Sanders said it came to a  question of who owns the roads – the county or the developer. He was told by Underwood that the developer had  deserted the roads in Two River.

Commissioner Tennyson Smith said that if the county gets into maintaining Two River road, they need to make sure they maintain all the roads in the county.

Underwood finally suggested that the County Engineer and the commissioners come to some agreement and that the matter be discussed at the next meeting before making a final decision.

*Approved a retail liquor license for Lanette Rodgers dba Club Magic.

*Okayed the resurfacing of County Road 20 from County Road 72 to County Road 117.  Commissioner Elzora Fluker abstained on that motion.

*Approved budget amendments for the RSVP and Senior Citizen Nutrition programs. 

During the public comment portion of the meeting, two residents of Branch Heights, Joe Powell and Shirley Winn, reminded the commissioners that Branch Heights roads had been a problem for some time and  asked that something be done by the commission. Another citizen, Jackie Allen, complained that no one maintained and cleaned the Eutaw Activity Center.