June 19, 2025
By: Dwayne Page
Alexandria has another new Alderman. Debbie Fisher was appointed by the Alexandria Town Council during Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting. She was then sworn into office by City Recorder Jessica Howard.
Fisher succeeds former Alderman Jeff Ford who resigned that position to accept the mayor appointment last week.
Aldermen David Cripps and Sherry Tubbs voted for Fisher while Aldermen Bobby Simpson and Luke Prichard passed. Mayor Ford cast the tie breaking vote in favor of Fisher.
Fisher said she is honored to be selected to serve the Town of Alexandria.
“I live on West Main Street and have since the fall of 2015. I spent 28 years with the Wilson County government in the finance department and 12 of those years I was the assistant finance director and the rest of my time there I was the insurance manager and risk manager for the whole county. I worked with all the county departments. My background is with county government, but I am hoping my county background can help here. I’m hoping to be helpful,” said Fisher.
The monthly regular city meeting was held a week earlier than normal due to the fair coming up next week.
In other business, the aldermen for budgetary reasons voted to eliminate two city hall positions held by financial officer Rhonda Conatser and part time water clerk Amber Ahlgard but to pay them through July.
“One of the things we are struggling with is our budget,” said Alderman Sherry Tubbs.” There was a lot of hiring and promises of more money that we could not afford. We hired a new lady Amber Ahlgard two months ago, but her position is one we will have to do away with right now. We will also need to let Rhonda go.
She has tried and done a great job but was not given the tools meant for the job. We do need a CMFO (certified municipal finance officer) but we will have to hire one already trained. I’m told MTAS (Municipal Technical Advisory Service) will advertise for us to find a CMFO,” said Alderman Tubbs.
The aldermen adopted a continuing budget resolution to keep city government operating past July 1 until a new budget is adopted.
When asked during public comments, Mayor Ford announced that the city is perhaps moving closer to hiring a city attorney. “We interviewed an attorney today (Tuesday). They are discussing it, and we are discussing it”, said Mayor Ford.
Earlier this month, the Aldermen adopted an ordinance to authorize the city to collect a $5.00 fee for both written and electronic citations prepared by a law enforcement officer, according to TCA § 55-10-207. However, once a city adopts such a fee, the ability to collect it must sunset five years from the ordinance’s adoption.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, the aldermen approved a police department request to spend $5,478 for the purchase and installation of the needed printers and equipment for city police patrol cars to support the e-citation system.
The $5.00 fee received must be apportioned as follows:
(1) $1.00 of such fee will be retained by the city court clerk; and
(2) $4.00 of such fee will be transmitted on a monthly basis by the city court clerk to the law enforcement agency that prepared the traffic citation that resulted in a plea of guilty, or nolo contendere, or a guilty judgment.
The law enforcement portion shall be accounted for in a special revenue fund of said law enforcement agency and may be used only for the following purposes:
(1) Electronic citation system and program related expenditures; and
(2) Related expenditures by the local law enforcement agency for technology, equipment, repairs, replacement and training to maintain electronic citation programs.
However, the clerk’s portion shall be used for computer hardware purchases, usual and necessary computer related expenses, or replacement, and may not revert to the general fund at the end of a budget year if unexpended.
During public comments, one city resident asked if funds were able to “stop doing band aids when it comes to roads in this town (street repairs)”
“Roads are very pricey, and we don’t know where we are on the budget,” said Mayor Ford. “The town has been operating basically off of the bank account balances since last August. We are putting our budget back together so we will be looking at that (roads). Just listening to the public, the people of this town as far as I view, they treasure trash pick-up, and they don’t like potholes. There may be a few other things that you guys are big on but that’s what makes it on Facebook, social media, and the public square. That is certainly things that we as a board will look at,” said Mayor Ford.
The alderman set Saturday, October 4 as the date for Ole Timers Day at the request of a business owner so plans can be made now. The event will start at 9 a.m.
In the future, Mayor Ford said he would like to get reports from the business community, seniors, and maybe even the fair board to keep the city in the loop on what they are doing. He said it’s an open invite but not required.