HOLLOW ROCK, Tenn. — The Hollow Rock Board of Mayor and Aldermen held an informal workshop session on Thursday, March 5 to work through several pressing matters that the town is facing. The discussion covered a vacancy in public works, employee accountability, financial reporting, a dispute over a grant deadline, and plans for a new security camera system.
Need for Another Public Works Employee.
Much of the discussion centered on whether to keep current public works employee Austin Ernsberger in his existing role and hire someone below him or to hire someone above him with more experience.
Mayor Ronnie Webb outlined concerns about the city’s history of insufficient vetting when hiring and questioned whether Ernsberger has the technical skills, particularly the ability to perform basic maintenance on town equipment.
Alderman Andy Baker, who also serves as maintenance supervisor for the Town of Bruceton, delivered his argument based on over 30 years of experience in the profession.
“One man cannot do this job safely by himself,” Baker told the Mayor. “You might get lucky and go a long time and nothing ever happens, but you saw what happened to us the other day. With every precaution possible.”
Baker described a recent close call in which four of his coworkers were struck by a semi on Broad St. in Bruceton. He said a mutual aid arrangement with Hollow Rock and other towns was the only reason the situation did not turn into a crisis.
“All I did was pick up the phone. There they were,” he said.
Baker was adament about the town’s need for a second trained, licensed water operator.
“We definitely need to move forward with trying to get education in somebody that’s going to stay with us. The closer you get a man here, the better off y’all are,” he said.
Baker explained that the town’s contracted licensed operator, Randy Crossett, would not be available forever, and said the town needs to begin building toward that transition now. Baker said Ernsberger has expressed willingness to pursue his water license.
“If he’s willing to go take his water license, that is a plus for this town,” Baker said. “I ain’t got no feelings in this. I’m just gonna tell you like I see it. I’ve seen them come in and say they’ll do it. Did they do it? No. But you gotta try somebody.”
Mayor Webb acknowledged Baker’s points and said a more skilled hire could offset costs through in-house equipment maintenance, pointing to a recent backhoe repair bill he suggested could have been avoided with a more knowledgeable worker on staff.
The board agreed to individually review job applications, make reference calls, and narrow the field to two or three finalists for interviews at the next meeting.
Recorder Defends Record, Disputes Late Payment Claims
A tense exchange unfolded between Mayor Webb and Town Recorder RaSha Higdon over the city’s utility payment history. Webb said he was frustrated learning about financial problems secondhand and cited a pattern of late penalties paid the prior year.
Higdon came into the position, she noted, inheriting financial records left in disarray by a previous recorder, which is a fact she said the board had acknowledged when she was hired, but one that rarely seemed to factor into criticism directed her way.
“We paid penalties last year for being late,” Webb said. “It’s not fair for me to have to go find out that we’ve been late paying bills, and then you don’t tell me anything.”
Higdon pushed back. She said the city’s email had been hacked, causing an electronic bill to go undelivered, and disputed the suggestion that late payments were a routine occurrence.
“We are not behind on utilities,” Higdon said. “I don’t know where that came from.”
Higdon said she had grown tired of past problems being laid at her feet in public, with little acknowledgment of what had already been corrected.
She then turned the conversation toward her workload. Higdon said she accepted a pay cut to come work for the town, handles payroll, grant administration, billing, and records requests largely on her own.
Despite the frustration, Higdon was clear about why she was still there.
“I’m doing it for the town,” she said. “I don’t do what makes me happy.”
She invited the full board to spend a week in City Hall to see what the job actually entails.
“I would love for this entire board to come sit for a week — just a week — just to see what all happens,” she said. “Answer the phone, answer the email. For two weeks I’ve dealt with grant issues, and I’m very upset about that.”
Webb said he wants the lines of communication to open up and asked Higdon to flag problems as they arise rather than absorbing them quietly.
Alderman Vivian Grooms added that bank reconciliations have not been completed since September, creating a gap that must be closed before the board can begin budget work.
“How are we going to do a budget if we don’t know what we’ve spent this year?” Grooms said. “How do we know how much to plan for electric bills if we don’t know what we’ve paid?”
Grant Dispute
The board rehashed a near-miss involving a police cruiser striping grant deadline. Higdon said she had been chasing the issue for months, sending emails to a contractor who was not responding and could not be reached. She said she was still dealing with the fallout of work that was not hers to manage.
“I have emails on that,” she said. “Six months ago I told y’all this was happening, and I still had to deal with these grants.”
She said police chief Tim Reeves told them he could work on the grant via email from home.
“He hasn’t done a single email. Not one,” Higdon said.
Board members agreed that Reeves bore primary responsibility for meeting the project deadline but acknowledged Higdon had to step in and carry it across the finish line. The deadline was ultimately met, they said, through the combined effort of everyone but Reeves working together under the wire.
Social Media, Office Access, and Cameras
Mayor Webb asked board members to stop sharing sensitive city information on social media. He explained that some recent Facebook posts had contributed to the circumstances that led to the workshop being called.
“We need to come up with something — put something in place — so we don’t put information out there like that,” Webb said.
Higdon also addressed a concern about Aldermen and others going into the office around sensitive documents. She explained that they cannot look at anything that had not been properly redacted first.
The city may also solicit bids for a new security camera system. Ernsberger mentioned researching cameras that store footage off-site to a tamper-proof cloud system, which means that recordings cannot be deleted or altered locally.
Mayor Webb encouraged the board to also look at commercial systems that could send real-time alerts to board members’ smartphones, potentially at lower long-term cost than a contract monitoring service.
Hollow Rock’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 17 at 5 p.m.