County Judge Clay McKinney and the Bradley County Quorum Court discussed various issues during the monthly meeting on Monday, March 18. Leeanna Williams updated the court about getting community education classes up and running. She said that during the pandemic, classes had to be stopped. Workshop classes will go from April 2 to May 7, and they will be on Tuesdays. The first series will be a diabetes education class that will run for 5 weeks. Everyone is invited to attend the free classes.
The court then heard from District Court Judge Bruce Anderson. Anderson told the court that after the district court moved from the city hall to the city courthouse, everything is going well. Anderson also expressed the need for a jail. He said the problem with people failing to appear escalated during the pandemic in 2020 and has continued to become worse. Anderson reported that there are two days a month called plea days. These are days when offenders plead guilty or not guilty, and for each plea day, there may be up to 25 offenders who do not attend. This is known as a failure to appear. After an offender fails to appear, Anderson then signs a warrant for their arrest. The total comes to 600 failure-to-appear charges per year.
“It’s not going to get any better until we get a jail,” Anderson said. “Having a jail is a necessity.”
McKinney told the court that the county is missing out on fine money due to the lack of a jail.
The court approved the previous month’s minutes, the treasurer’s report, and the sheriff’s report.
Don Schwebel was nominated to go to the Quorum Court Association meeting in April. A vote was taken, and all were in favor.
McKinney then brought up the county’s revised budget for new business. A motion was made to accept the budget, and all were in favor.
The meeting was then adjourned. The next meeting will be April 15.
