News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Sparta’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a measure to fund an automated metering system after a heated discussion.
The board discussed the measure at length throughout the spring. Alderman Jerry Lowery has been firmly against automated metering since the idea was introduced. Thursday, he read a laundry list of issues, including continuing costs, the potential for peak time billing and what he insisted were possible medical risks the equipment posed to the general public.
Several aldermen disagreed, including Dr. Chad Griffin.
Lowery: “If you heard what I said, apparently you didn’t listen, but I said … ”
Griffin: “Oh I was listening, there was a lot of stuff but I was …”
Lowery: “There’s so much unknown on the medical issue that we don’t even know about yet, that is an issue if you don’t know about them then you haven’t studied.”
Griffin: “I think we’ve looked a lot at how this communication goes because other things use similar communication.”
Mayor Jeff Young refuted Lowery’s points as well.
“By all means we’re not going to be selling anyone’s information of any kind to anyone, in regards to peak time billing, we did discuss that as well, we do not have any plans at this time to do any kind of peak time billing charge, we went over that in the past,” Young said.
Ultimately, the board approved the $693,792 plan on a 5-2 margin. Lowery and Alderman Robert Officer voted against the measure. Officer cited fluctuating costs as his reasons for voting against the plan.
