Tangled Webs lead to Waste Board ‘Letter-Gate’
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Tangled Webs lead to Waste Board ‘Letter-Gate’
By Shane Gilreath
Last week’s meeting of the Winfield Mayor and Aldermen took a usual turn of late, dominated by public discourse around the proposed second landfill. Given that Winfield Mayor Jerry Dodson serves as Chair of the Scott County Solid Waste Board (SCSWB) that failed to meet quorum requirements last Monday and could not formally meet, the issue rose its proverbial head again, with Dodson facing a deluge of questions on both Winfield’s role and that of the Solid Waste Board. While Dodson told SCN that he had no idea that SCSWB would not meet quorum requirements prior to his arrival on Monday, the more contentious issue became one of two letters handed out by Dodson during the meeting, which found their way to social media. A third letter was mentioned at the SCSWB meeting, but did not matriculate until Dodson handed the third letter directly to SCN on Tuesday. Dodson’s name – as chair of the board – appears on all three, but the mayor vehemently denied his involvement in one of those letters, telling SCN that he has no knowledge of the origins of Letter #1.
“The two that refer to ‘no need for landfills’ are the ones that I handed out,” Dodson told SCN over the weekend. “The one referring to Johnny King, I didn’t have anything to do with that letter.”
The letter did not get past Cumberland Clear. The organization’s president, Kathy Obrusanszki, immediately questioned the origins of Letter #1 during the SCSWB meeting, addressing those concerns not to Dodson, but directly to Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers, who, according to Obrusanszki, subtly took responsibility for Letter #1. Obrusanszki addressed the controversy with SCN on Friday, placing the blame for the verbiage of Letter #1, if not the confusion, at the feet of the County Mayor.
“The letter that Mayor (Jerried) Jeffers presented at the Solid Waste Board meeting stands in sharp contrast to the one that Mayor Dodson – Chair of Solid Waste – presented,” Obrusanszki told SCN.
The Cumberland Clear President has long said that Dodson and SCSWB have more power than they’re admitting in facing down the landfill threat. It is a conclusion with which Dodson agrees. “The SCSWB could go a long way to stop it,” Dodson said of the landfill during Tuesday’s Winfield meeting. “If the SCSWB found that we didn’t need this,” added Winfield Attorney Jade Peters.
“Follow the Citizen Coalitions and work with them to do what they’re encouraging you to do,” Winfield Vice Mayor Doug Wilson urged citizens. Winfield had previously named Wilson as their representative on the Scott-McCreary Environmental Coalition (SMEC), whose mission – largely supported across Scott County – became entangled in the letter controversy.
“Mayor Jeffers’ letter shows a sharp contrast to the government coalition’s stand against an additional landfill,” Obrusanszki said. “For example, Mayor Jeffers’ letter is limiting at one year, which means we have to fight every year. Why is he talking about what Tennessee needs? The Solid Waste Board is here to protect us. It feels, to me, like an invitation for more landfills. Most importantly, it says it will honor the law set forth by the 1992 (Johnny King) ruling. The landfill owners are always referring back to that court case to support their cause,” Obrusanszki charged. “Which begs the question, why would Mayor Jeffers say that Scott County promises to abide by that court case?”
The statement – which can be seen in Letter #1 – is an argument that SCN had previously reported in May. When the landfill proposal became public, Scott County Attorney John Beaty publicly told the County Commission that any attempt to reject the landfill would likely constitute a violation of the same 1992 court order.
Obrusanszki, however, had more questions. “Why did (Jeffers) say the ‘newly adopted Jackson Law’ (June 2025), when Beaty revealed that part of Cumberland Clear and the (SMEC) coalition’s lawyers argument is that Jackson Law never expired at the state level? He might be nullifying our argument that it never expired,” Obrusanszki wondered on Friday.
SCN attempted to reach out to County Mayor Jerried Jeffers for comment. As of press time, Mayor Jeffers had not reached out for comment.
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In addition to the SCSWB happenings, a motion from Wilson took $20,000 from the town’s surplus property budget to pay to SMEC. Each government member – Scott County, McCreary County, and the towns of Winfield, Huntsville, and Oneida – has chipped in a portion of the coalition’s legal fees. Mayor Dodson also appointed James Sexton to the position of Winfield Zoning/Building Official. Sexton will be charged with enforcing zoning laws.
Dodson’s recommendation to name Brent Ellis as City Financial Officer was tabled for further discussion. The Winfield Mayor and Aldermen meetings have been officially moved to 6pm on the 2nd Monday of each month.
