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Wlaf1450By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- At Monday’s County Commission meeting, commissioners approved the establishment of a three-member sanitation board which sanitation director David Adkins, an exiting county commissioner, will report to.
TOP PHOTO: Multiple county sanitation department employees were present at Monday’s meeting in support of the establishment of a solid waste board.
Exiting County Mayor Jack Lynch once again recommended the establishment of the board, which was also on the recommendation of the county sanitation committee.
Multiple sanitation workers were in the audience on Monday night to support the decision of the establishment of the board.
Lynch said he did not “mean this to take away in any way from the new board.”
“When I came into office, we had a terrible situation at the sanitation department with 2,500 tons of garbage on the ground and we were asked to take oversight of that. I have the before and after picture of that situation. I said the whole time, the mayor should not be the garbage man, and the commission should not be trying to run the department, it should be the manager and a committee should not necessarily run it either,” Lynch said. He said any oversight should be done by a board and that it was time to create a solid waste board and get this off the mayor, so he doesn’t have to fool with it,” Lynch said. He added that at the time the sanitation department was taken over four years ago, there was “not a single truck running and that every piece of equipment was wore out.”
Lynch read a lenghly resolution to establish a solid waste board in accordance Tennessee Code Annotated 5-19-103.
“In accordance with this statute, the county mayor will appoint three members to a three-year term, one is up each year, so it is a staggered term, to oversee the sanitation department,” Lynch said, adding that he believed this “should keep politics out of the sanitation department and keep the sanitation department on its mission to serve the people of Campbell County.”
“Today, we have every convenience center paved, we have Well Springs expanded, we have a new loading site at the building in Towe String, we have expanded roof and sprinkling systems, we have new trucks, new trailers, new loaders, new skid steers, new compactors and we have done this with no tax increase,” Lynch said.
He told the sitting commission that it was “their decision and that it was his opinion that a sanitation board was the way to go.”
Commissioner Dewayne Baird said it was “bad politics” and that he was “appalled” that the commission was even considering it and “that it was in no way fair to the new commission coming in.”
“I don’t disagree, I think David did a great job out there, but the timing is unacceptable; and we are making decisions we don’t need to be making,” Baird said. He also said he was not in disagreement with the need for a solid waste board, but he opposed the timing of voting on it right before the new commission was seated.
Exiting commissioner and sanitation Director David Adkins spoke briefly, saying that establishing a solid waste board had been discussed on several occasions “throughout the four years.”
Adkins asked the audience how many of them were attending the meeting on behalf of the sanitation board being established and over two-thirds of the crowd raised their hands.
“In November of 2022, I was thrust into a job that I didn’t want. I declined taking the job on several occasions, but as luck would have it, I was the commissioner that got voted in with the least amount of votes last term and the way this commissioner works and the new ones sitting her tonight will figure this out in about three weeks, but the last guy on the totem pole gets stuck with the committees no-one wants. There wasn’t anyone that wanted anything to do with the sanitation department with the condition it was in, me being from the first district that fell to me. Reluctantly I accepted the interim position, went out there and went to work and, like the mayor said, there was 50,000 pounds of garbage on the ground that was unaccounted for and there wasn’t one piece of county equipment that worked. Not nothing, we were having to use a third party to move the garbage from here to the landfill and it cost the taxpayers an extra $400,000 on top of the sanitation budget just to have that third party come in from the mismanagement of the prior administration. We went to work and started fixing things,” Adkins said. He said all of the employees that were at the meeting went to work with him and that it wasn’t just him that made it happen.
“It was my vision and my management, but it was these guys here that put the work in and I think that is why they are here tonight. They are here tonight because they are tired of the instability. Since 1991 the Solid Waste Act was put in the State of Tennessee, this department has suffered instability. The employees have suffered and most of all, the citizens of Campbell County have suffered. Now fast forward to where we are at now, that department is in good shape,” Adkins said. He also pointed out that he has operated that department within his budget at zero increase to the taxpayers.
“We have saved the taxpayers because we have new equipment, we have good equipment, everything about that place is better. These guys are sitting back here because they don’t want any kind of changes. Whether you like me or not, you can hate me if you want to, but you can’t deny we have done good at that department. There is no sense when you get that far down the road to go back and change it now, this county deserves stability that’s why we brought it up plain and simple,” Adkins said.
Baird reiterated that he supported Adkins and that he supported the solid waste board, but it was the timing that he didn’t support.
“It’s just a difference of opinion; the citizens deserve stability. The new commissioners I don’t understand the issue of taking something that is doing well and changing it, no one should be upset about that unless you had ill intent in the first place,” Adkins said.
The Resolution passed to create a three-member sanitation board on a three year rotating term. Dewayne Baird cast the only dissenting vote.
The three members appointed by county mayor Lynch was Mary Michelle Goins for a one-year term, Dewayne Gibson for a two-year term and Crystal Creekmore for a three-year term.
Several sanitation department members clapped when the resolution passed.
The salary for board is established at zero, however, travel expenses shall be paid in accordance to the county’s travel policies. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-08/18/2026-6AM)