By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Nurse Administrator Jana McGlone, from the Carter County Health Department addressed the Grayson City Council at their regular meeting last Tuesday, April 14. McGlone was there to request that certain city streets be blocked during an upcoming Health Department sponsored event.
“We are getting ready to do a health resource fair,” McGlone told the council.
This will be the second year McGlone has put on the fair, she said.
“We had a very good turnout last year,” McGlone said. “We have almost 40 vendors coming this year.”
For the 2026 health and resource fair, McGlone requested a special events permit from the city to shut down a portion of Robert and Mary Avenue. The reason for the request was to make space for more vendors, she told the council. The portion she wished to be blocked off for the fair was relatively small, from US 60 to essentially the end of the Health Department parking lot, and would not block access to an existing business, All That Blooms, because McGlone said that business would still have access from US 60.
Speaking on the topic of the fair itself, McGlone said the health resource fair was a passion for her.
“I have been with the health department for 26 years,” she told the council. “And whenever I go to meetings, I always hear people offering resources that I have never heard of. And if I don’t know about it being a 26-year veteran, then our community members don’t know about it either. So, I invite different healthcare agencies and community services to come in and set up as vendors to offer information. That way our community members can be aware of what resources are available to them.”
The health resource fair is a luau themed event, called Hula into Health and will be held on June 11 from 10 am until 2 pm at the Carter County Health Department. As McGlone said, there will be healthcare and resource vendors present as well as the KDMC Mobile Mammography unit. The event will also include BBQ, prizes, games, free t-shirts while supplies last, and sports physicals provided by Primary Plus. Given the hours, McGlone requested the road be shut down from 9 am until 3 pm to facilitate set up and take down for event vendors.
In other business, the City of Grayson received its yearly audit from certified public accountants Kelly, Galloway, Smith, and Goolsby. The yearly audit was for the year 2025 and addresses issues such as statement of net position, statement of activities, revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances. The audit is public information and can be viewed upon request, but overall, the City of Grayson was considered to be in good financial health. In the independent auditor’s report section of the audit, the auditor provided a “clean” opinion. No significant difficulties or other issues were reported in the audit.
In the city department reports section of the meeting, Emergency Management Director Roger Dunfee said that there was a concern about availability of shelters when needed.
“We’ve been concerned about having to open a shelter and having one available to us,” Dunfee told the council. “Luckily, we have been able to use the First Church of Christ oftentimes in the past. But the First Church does not have a generator. So, if there is a power outage in the city we are left without a good place to be able to shelter people.”
“We thought about the Senior Citizen’s Center, which also does not have a backup generator,” Dunfee said. “But there is a grant that is available that I would like to apply for.”
Dunfee said he spoke with Precision Electric, who gave him a quote for approximately $48,000 to install a generator at the Senior Citizen’s Center.
“A grant through FEMA which is now available could give us 90 percent of that,” Dunfee said.
Tourism Commission member Shadow Skaggs presented a Sports Park summary of recent activities at the park to the council.
“I have a Park summary for April and May,” Skaggs told the council. “The Little League parade just happened with over 1,500 people attending. There’s 51 little league games scheduled over the next five weeks. There are baseball practices three nights per week, and the Smithfield Annual Easter Egg Hunt just happened on April 11.”
“They are having soccer practices three nights a week as well,” Skaggs continued. “Eight soccer matches are already scheduled. There are two remaining KCU softball games and their season is done. KCU is still practicing every day according to their schedule. We have four softball tournaments in April and May, three baseball tournaments, and nine or ten school field trips, one of which will have over 86 kids scheduled. It’s my understanding that all of Prichard is scheduled,” Skaggs told the council. “The Nursing Home Staff Rivalry softball game is scheduled, and we have several shelters rented.”
The city council also had the first reading of an amendment to an ordinance that regulates how alcohol is sold in the City of Grayson.
“This is what we discussed when it was brought up at the last city council meeting,” City Attorney Jason Greer told the council.
Greer conducted the first reading of the amended ordinance; whish basically allows for the sale of distilled spirits only at tobacco lounges so long as the primary purpose of that business is the sale and consumption of cigars and not alcohol alone.
In other business the council conducted the first reading concerning the renewal of the agreement with Grayson Sanitation for the collection of solid waste within the city limits. The council also voted and passed the reduction of the speed limit on College Street and Landsdowne to 25 miles per hour to address concerns of excessive speed on those roads. The city council also voted to pass a resolution to accept the franchise agreement with Spectrum, allowing that company to do business within the city limits as stated within the agreement.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
