John Coffelt, Editor

Coffee County Planning Commission Chairman Steve Cunningham said during the July 22 meeting that he was informed during recent training that the way the county has been handling public comments is procedurally incorrect.

County Planning Consultant Amanda Harris of RCS Consulting, retained by the mayor’s office, who also shared support in the May Coffee County Commission meeting for the A-1 Agricultural 5-acre lot sizes, provided training last Friday for the Coffee County Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals.

“One of the things that we were told and has been happening in County Commission meetings and some of the other commission meetings is people have a two minute time limit and they say ‘Who will give me their minutes?’ Well, we were told that’s not proper,” Cunningham said.

“So from now own, if your time limit is up, your time limit is up,” Cunningham said.

“If you plan on speaking, know what you’re going to say and be clear and concise,” he said.  

Recently at the BZA meeting Chairman Sammy Anderson struggled to reign in the neighbor of a person requesting a special exception on an access road. The woman refused to yield the floor and spoke for more than 25 minutes.

County Mayor Dennis Hunt, who was not at the 8-hour training sessions, said that he postponed last week’s BZA meeting due to the large number of new members. That meeting’s agenda had six requests for variances for 5-acre minimum lots.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.