ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) — On Thursday, three motions failed to pass during a called meeting of the Carter County Commission to appropriate funds and facilitate expenses related to the Hurricane Helene disaster response, recovery, and reimbursement efforts.

Those motions involved check requests for Crawford & Company for almost $7,000, YA Engineering Services for around $5,000, and Unified Building Sciences for around $8,000.

For the last five months, the mayor and finance director had the sole authority to make such purchases. This is allowed under an emergency declaration.

Each company rendered engineering services on the Major Henderson Folsom House after it was damaged during Helene.

“They were here to test the integrity, structural integrity, electrical integrity,” Robert Acuff, Carter County commissioner, said. “So unless it’s a one-stop shop, what Commissioner Johnson said tonight, there’ll be a number of engineers with specialties involved.”

Commissioners who voted against these motions wanted more detailed information about the work that was done.

After the motions initially failed, during comments, Commissioner Angie Odom asked to make a motion to request that the companies provide the finance director with more information about the scope of their work. The motion also involved revisiting the motions for a vote at the next full commission meeting. This motion passed.

“If we don’t pay our bills with a company that we have supposedly contracted with, then they can seek legal alternatives,” Acuff said. “And when that occurs, they can also sue for damages as well as make the county pay for any legal fees, our own included. And they could apply penalties.”

Also at the meeting, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency’s (TEMA) Hazard Mitigation Officer Shannon Ball discussed the Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program.

Another motion that originally failed involved paying landfill fees for the estimated 200 tons of debris from five homes near Jenkins Hollow Road for $11,500. Another motion was made to pay these fees using the county’s unassigned fund balance, and this one passed.

The three motions to pay Crawford & Company, YA Engineering Services and Unified Building Sciences will go up for another vote on March 17.