White Co. Commission Rescinds Health And Safety Standards Resolution

The vote to rescind a White County health and safety resolution was met with applause after it passed at the county commission meeting Monday night.

The resolution was enacted a few years ago as a way to help the county have leverage when residents needed help to get their properties cleaned up. Commission Chair Robert McCormick said he voted yes to rescind the resolution because it was not being used.

“Counties like Putnam County, they’re big enough they can do it themselves but we had to have the support from the state and we couldn’t get it so that bill was just sitting there and it wasn’t being used,” McCormick said. “And enough of us decided to just rescind it. And of course, some people had concerns about overreach.”

Commission T. K. Austin was one of two no votes. He said he felt it was a way to make sure White County had some kind of standards for property maintenance as more and more people moved into the county.

“I don’t want somebody coming to my property telling me what I can and can’t do, but if you get someone next to you that has trash blowing onto your property and things like that,” Austin said. “At some point, it’s going to become a problem for everybody at that point.”

Residents in the audience thanked the commission for rescinding the resolution that one resident called “the H.O.A. from hell.”

In other business, White County School Board Chair Bob Young addressed the commission to clear up the board’s policy on public comment. That after two commissioners attended the school board meeting earlier this month as representatives of citizens concerned with the perceived inability to make public comment.

Young went through the school board’s policy on the subject. He said the goal is to have issues addressed at the lowest level possible. Young said if the issue cannot be resolved at any level before the school board, individuals can submit a request to be put on the agenda.

“While putting together an agenda together when there’s a request to appear before the board, we take those matters seriously,” Young said. “However, I inquire about the steps that have been taken prior to the appeal to make sure appearing before the board is a last resort, and not a beginning point.”