The 5th constable district now has a new public official guarding the streets following Tuesday's swearing-in of Phillip Belisario Sr. during a meeting of the Greene County Commission.

Belisario promised his dedication to the position and briefly touched on Project Silver, a program he is developing to aid the Sheriff's Department in searching for those with Alzheimer's disease and other health conditions.

Two other candidates applied for the position, but one lived outside the district while the other chose to withdraw his application, Mayor Alan Broyles said.

The new constable, of 104 Skyview Dr., will serve the precincts of Tusculum View, Eastview, Highland Roby, Greeneville Middle and High School and the Greene County Courthouse.

He is replacing Constable David Foshie until the Aug. 2 elections. Foshie resigned due to moving outside of the 5th district.

The commissioners unanimously approved Belisario by a voice vote. Commissioner Hilton Seay was absent.

Matters pertaining to the Greene County Highway Department were also hot on Tuesday's agenda for the morning meeting at the Greene County Courthouse.

The commissioners heard updates on the department's new heating system and the ouster suit against the road commissioners, as well as spending time debating two financial resolutions for the department submitted by Road Superintendent David Weems.

The resolutions included a request to transfer $30,456 from the Highway Department's unassigned funds to pay for extra overtime and the associated increases in benefits.

Weems said the overtime was largely the result of the county's post-tornado cleanup efforts, including cleaning out debris from the creeks for the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (NRCA), which sets a deadline for the work to be complete.

In compensation for cleaning out the creeks, NRCA paid $260,740 toward the costs of labor, fuel and the use of the county equipment.

In the second resolution, Weems requested to budget these funds into the department's Highway Equipment line item to purchase new dump trucks.

Commissioner Ted Hensley was the lone dissenter on the resolutions.

"I know it seems like I pick on you every time, but sorry," Hensley told Weems.

The commissioner argued that Weems should budget the reimbursement back into the line items from which they were withdrawn -- i.e., into the Overtime Pay and Fuel line items instead of for equipment.

Hensley indicated that if the money did not need to go back into the labor line items, Weems must have budgeted a surplus beyond what was really required.

Commissioner Nathan Holt, however, pointed out that the department's workers would have been working on other projects if not cleaning up the creeks, so the labor would have been the same either way, outside the extra needed in overtime pay.

Commissioner Tim White praised Weems for cleaning up the creek beds and earning the extra revenue.

"I think it's all right," he said. "We can't tell an officeholder what to do with his budget."

Weems explained that, even if he used the reimbursement to cover the extra overtime cost, he still would have been coming before the commission to request that much from his unassigned balance for the dump trucks.

"For him to operate efficiently, he's got to have some good equipment," Commissioner Robert Bird said.

Hensley voted against both resolutions, while 18 commissioners voted to approve the resolutions.

Both Commissioners Seay and Rennie Hopson were absent at this point in the meeting.

In hearing updates, Architect Dave Wright told commissioners the new heating systems at the Highway and Solid Waste Departments are still not in proper working order despite having been installed for several weeks.

"We're just not getting the quality of heat out of the unit," he said.

The County Commission approved a low bid from Parton's Electric -Heating and air Conditioning, of Greeneville, for the new systems in November.

Wright told the commissioners that he would request that the contractor install a brand name unit to determine if there would be a significant improvement.

None of the tests he has had run on the current equipment has been able to pinpoint a specific problem with the current units, but they continue to operate at about half the necessary temperature, he said.

The commissioners urged Wright to work with County Attorney Roger Woolsey to set a deadline for the contractor to correct the problem.

Quillen also updated the commissioners on the ouster lawsuit against Road Commissioners Charles Hopson and Billy Darnell that the Highway Committee approved in August.

At the time, the committee indicated that the road commissioners had not fulfilled the duties associated with the paid position.

No suit has been filed as of the present.

County Attorney Woolsey said he believes that District Attorney Berkley Bell could be better equipped to handle the suit than he.

"I have left three messages with the D.A.'s office, and my calls have not been returned," Quillen said.

In other business, the Commission unanimously approved:

* for the Greene County School System to move $62,000 from the system's undesignated fund balance to the Capital Projects line item for site and sewer work for the proposed Chuckey-Doak High School fieldhouse project;

* the school system's mid-year budget adjustments, which were based largely on changes to state and federal grants;

* a $7,900 expenditure request from the county's General Fund balance by Register of Deeds Joy Rader to allow Business Information Systems (BIS), of Piney Flats, to scan some of the older deeds that are in bad repair, and create digitized copies of them;

* authorization for the Greene County Health Department to budget $29,314 in increased revenues from a Bureau of Health Services grant prompted by changes in staffing;

* authorization for Greene County Animal control to budget $600 for travel and $705 for maintenance and building repairs following the receipt of a $1,305 voucher;

* authorization for the Sheriff's Department to budget $1,500 donated by Free Will Baptist Family Ministries to law enforcement equipment, and $100 donated by the Greeneville Women's Club to drug enforcement supplies and materials;

* a Fast Track Infrastructure Development Program (FIDP) grant for $923,000 to make water infrastructure improvements that will assist with the placement of US Nitrogen in Greene County;

* an FIDP grant for $425,000 to make water infrastructure improvements that will assist with the expansion of RPC Manufactoring; and,

* a Community Development Block Grant (CKBG) for $421,200 to extend water to low-income homeowners living in the Glen Hills Utility District.

According to Broyles, none of these three grants obligates the county for funding.

US Nitrogen will pay $825,000 in matching funds toward the first grant and $75,000 for the second, according to the resolutions.

For the CKBG grant, the resolution stated that Glen Hills Utility District will provide a $46,800 match.