Commissioners Pass Tornado Resolutions

The Putnam County Commissioners approved a resolution Monday night approving of the actions taken in the aftermath of the March 3rd tornado.

County Attorney Jeff Jones said the resolution provides a level of protection to the county going forward.

“Essentially when Mayor (Randy) Porter declared the state of emergency in Putnam County after the storm, it’s really not necessary for the county commissioner to approve anything,” Attorney Jeff Jones said. “What we’re doing right now, we’re trying to get FEMA reimbursement for. And just to make sure that we don’t have any problem with FEMA or have any questions from auditors.”

Commissioners also approved a resolution giving Porter the authority to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the City of Cookeville for the tornado relief fund. Porter and Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton created the fund to help tornado survivors.

“We already have a rough draft of the M-O-U (memorandum), it’s not been presented to the city yet,” Jones said. “We should be doing that here soon. We just want to move quickly on this.”

A committee has begun work to the process for distributing funds. The committee will make the decisions. Porter said the funds would be distributed much like other special funds.

Putnam County Commissioners approved the appointment of Nate Maxwell to the Upper Cumberland Airport Authority. Maxwell who is a pilot, will serve a three-year term to represent the county, expiring March 23.

The county also transferred a 2013 F-450 from Putnam County EMS to the City Of Baxter.