By Stan Welch
The Anderson County Council addressed several items of business Tuesday night, ranging from establishing a franchise fee for non-emergent ambulance service to giving first approval to a large scale solar power project.
District Two Councilwoman Gracie Floyd presented Chris Hill, a developer who focuses on creating situations where affordable housing can flourish. He explained his approach to Council and explained that he wasn’t asking for any financial assistance. “I would simply ask that the Council be open to ur efforts and to remember our goal when issues about roads and things arise.”
Public Safety committee chairman Ray Graham informed the council that his committee recommended that the franchise fee for non-emergent care providers be set at five hundred dollars. Other aspects of the ordinance include requirements, standards of operation and other administrative details. The Council gave final approval to the ordinance which is designed to protect full service medical services providers from poachers from outside the county.
The Council also gave first reading approval to a fee in lieu of taxes (FILOT) agreement with a company, currently known as Project Avocado, which will establish a significant solar power production facility on six different tracts. The power generated will be sold to Duke Energy.
Five of those tracts are in the Powdersville area. Anderson County Economic Development Director Burriss Nelson reported to the Council that the tracts of land in question currently generate two hundred sixty dollars in taxes annually. Once the project is established, that figure will go to seventy seven thousand dollars a year.
Chairman Craig Wooten of the Parks and Recreation Committee recommended several projects to be funded, including a hundred thousand dollars for the construction of a baseball field at the Dolly Cooper Park in Powdersville.
