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The McMinn County Commission has set their list of priorities for the upcoming year.

Each February, the commissioners gather together for a strategic summit, where they receive information from various people in the community and lay out what they see as the most important projects for the year.

On Friday, they held that meeting at the McMinn Higher Education Center and determined not just what policy focuses they wanted to have, but what they wanted to see the county’s tax money spent on.

The meeting was facilitated by Southeast Tennessee Development District (SETDD)’s Beth Jones, Chad Reese and Garrett Haynes.

Throughout the meeting, the commissioners made suggestions on what they wanted to consider for their priorities and then, at the end of the session, Jones gave them numbered stickers to place beside their preferred priorities. The higher the number each received, the more the commission wants to focus on that during the upcoming calendar year.

Each summit, the commissioners commit to a trio of “super priorities” that include accruing no new debt, developing a five-year capital budget and not raising taxes. This year, two of those three finished as their top priorities, while a third was further down the list.

Being debt free topped the list with 56 total points and 15 votes for it. No new taxes came in second with 38 total points and 10 votes in favor of it. The third typical “super priority,” a five-year capital budget, came in second to last with nine points and four votes in favor.

The third priority for the commission was developing a land use policy, which came in with 25 points and seven votes. A resolution encouraging Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to develop a a land use change for Calhoun lake development came in fourth with 10 points and five votes.

The fifth policy priority voted on by the commission was creation of a local opioid abatement council and developing policies for the use of opioid settlement money. That one received five points and four votes.

The commission also considered what they wanted to focus spending tax money on this year and came up with a list for it, with voting held the same way.

The top funding priority for the commission was continuing the school improvement plan, with 44 points and 10 votes. Second was employee pay raises, with 33 points and eight votes.

Industrial land acquisition was the third priority, with 20 points and six votes, while site preparation at the Mt. Verd Industrial Park came in fourth with 15 points and six votes.

In fifth was finishing Bicentennial Park, with 11 points and four votes, and commercial driver’s license (CDL) training came in sixth with nine points and six votes.

Coming in seventh was focusing on getting water along Highway 163 with seven points and two people, while coming up with a Highway 30 crossing for Eureka Trail came in eighth with six points and three votes.

The final funding priority on the list was reviving Keep McMinn Beautiful with six points and two votes.

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