Change is coming to the Knox County Board.
After leading the board for 8 years, Chairman Greg Bacon is stepping down from the position. He made the announcement at the end of the November meeting. Bacon said he wants to spend more time with family and his job.
He said a growing workload with the county was also a factor.
“This is a $40 million corporation, with 400 employees. And you’re the CEO, but you work another job. So you’re a part-time CEO of the corporation. It’s a lot do to,” Bacon said.
Bacon felt the board should consider a full-time chairman or administrator.
He will remain on the county board and serve out his current term, which ends in 2016.
Bacon does not know if he will run for another term.
Bacon felt one of his biggest accomplishments as chairman was making board meetings more efficient. He said this was done by opening lines of communication.
“I try to keep everybody informed. And like I said, my cell phone, they all call me. I call them. Say ‘Hey, this is coming up, what do you think about this? Let’s work through this before we get out and vote on it.’ Let’s not have a big whoop-do-doo during the meeting, because we can work these things out,” Bacon said.
The board will decide on a new chairman at their reorganization meeting on December 1.
Also during the November meeting, the county board approved the county's budget for the next year.
The budget is around $52.6 million dollars, which is around $3 million less than the previous year’s budget.
Treasurer Robin Davis reported the budget contained a few pleasant surprises. Davis said the county’s equalized assessed valuation is up, as well as property tax revenue. She said that will help taxpayers.
“The overall effect is that it helped the budget revenue. But it also, as far as the taxpayers go, it reduced the property taxes, at least being asked from Knox County, by five percent from the previous year,” Davis said.
