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The Coffee County Capital Outlay Committee voted to terminate a longstanding lease agreement that grants about a 10-foot swath of land at the Coffee County Health Department Tullahoma Clinic to the site’s neighbor for a fence.

The committee made the decision during its Oct. 19 meeting.

The agreement goes back to 2009, and gives the owners the right to keep a portion of their fence on the county’s land for a cost of $1 per year.

The language of the agreement calls for a 60-day notice in the event that either part wants to terminate the agreement.

The county plans to sell the property in two to three years once the proposed joint health department building is completed at the Joint Industrial Park, located off of Highway 55. 

Committee members thought it prudent to terminate the contract prior to selling the property at auction.

“I think we should opt out of it and resolve (the situation),” Commissioner Tim Brown said. “We may not use the other side of the fence, but (we should) at least get out of that mess.”

The property, owned by Christy Wilkinson, lies adjacent to the county facility along Cedar Lane.  

The timeline beyond the 60-day notice for the removal of the fence was not finalized at the meeting. 

According to County Attorney Ed North, the full county commission did not need vote on the matter.   

A Tennessee Department of Transportation road project is set to take a major portion of the facility’s current parking lot in the front of the clinic. 

The commission authorized county maintenance director Rick Soucy to secure bids for a project to expand the parking at back area of the property.

The committee opted for a plan that would cost about $40,000-$50,000. It will include shoring up a portion of the lot with railroad ties and riprap, plus ripping up the curbing and graveling the area to provide parking. That area could then be tar and chipped.   

Soucy said that this was the most cost-effective way to add the necessary parking for the short term that the county will use the facility.