The Greene County Budget and Finance Committee continues work toward a balanced budget for fiscal year 2025-2026. Meeting at the Annex this morning, the committee heard from Greene County 9-1-1 Director Jerry Bird. 9-1-1 is requesting $849,000, an increase from $700,000 for the current budget year. Bird is hoping to add two additional dispatchers, which would give the department six per shift. No action was taken on the request, as the 9-1-1 board has yet to vote on their 2025-2026 budget. That should take place during their meeting on Thursday.
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Updating committee members on 9-1-1 calls during the weekend storms and power outages, Bird said over the 24 hour period from midnight Friday until 11:59 pm Saturday, 9-1-1 took 754 calls for service and dispatchers worked over 2400 radio transmissions.
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In other action today dealing with General Fund allocations.
On new requests for funding, the Committee did the following:
APPROVED – Greeneville/Greene County Food Bank (requested $20,000 but will be allocated $10,000
DENIED – Appalachian RC&D Council (requested $7,500)
DENIED – ALPS Adult Day Services (requested $5,000)
DENIED – Gifts For Kids (requested $5000)
DENIED – Pawsitively Posh Pet Rescue (requested $5000)
On General Fund Requests of additional funding:
Second Harvest Food Bank (requested $30,000 – budgeted $28,000 same as current year)
Rural Resources (requested $2,500 – budgeted $2,000 same as current year)
For those with no increase requested, the budgeted amount remains the same as the current year:
Greeneville/Greene County Library $138,000
Forestry Division $1,500
Greeneville Rescue Squad $15,000
DHS Rehab Center $16,650
Roby Fitzgerald Adult Center $30,000
UETHDA Retired Senior Program $5,000
Frontier Health $15,000
First Tennessee Human Resource $11,760
Child Advocacy Center $1,200
Greene County Imagination Library $3,000
Greene County Association VFD (Wheel Tax) $325,000
Greene County Agribusiness $5,000
In addition to 9-1-1, the The committee took no action on:
Keep Greene Beautiful-Tourism-Economic Development (all to be discussed next week)
Greene County Anti-Drug Coalition (pending funding through separate resolution)
Lynn Broyles with the Greene County Anti-Drug Coalition contacted Radio Greeneville News this morning to clarify the report on the budget and finance meeting.
Broyles explained “We asked for $10,000 from the general fund to help expand our general prevention efforts—things like education and outreach for youth across the county.
Separately, we requested $110,000 from the county’s opioid abatement funds. That money can only be used for opioid-specific prevention, harm reduction, and recovery support. It’s legally restricted and can’t be used for broader prevention needs—so that’s why we submitted it as a separate request.“
Decisions made by the committee are not final until presented to the full County Commission.
The Budget and Finance Committee will meet again next Thursday, May 29th at 8:30 am at the Annex.
