CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Montgomery County Commission voted to approve the FY23 budget Monday night after a series of amendments were canceled out by other amendments.

The budget passed 16-4 with “no” votes coming from Commissioners Joe Smith, Lisa Pritchard, Joshua Beal and Garland Johnson. Brandon Butts was absent.

Branch library moves forward

An amendment by Joe Smith seeking to divert funding from the north Clarksville branch library to other projects initially passed, but it was undone by a series of amendments that returned funding to the library project.

Smith argued that since funding for the branch library had been reduced, the project will have to be redesigned anyway, and that money could be used more immediately in other places.

“If we approve the design money this year in this fiscal budget, then by next May or June it will be ready for construction dollars and I’ll wholeheartedly support getting them their construction dollars. I do support a north branch library, and I do think this smaller scale size is way better than the grandiose design than was originally presented,” said Smith. “Let’s use this money to fully support Stokes Field.”

The north Clarksville library branch lost a big portion of its original $16.5 million, being reduced to $9 million. As a result, the fully designed project will have to be redesigned to accommodate the lower price tag.

Under Smith’s amendment, the bulk of library funding would have been diverted to Stokes Field renovations, which also received only partial funding and will also have to be redesigned. Like the library, it was also originally budgeted for $16.5 million. Following his first amendment being undone, Smith made two additional attempts to divert money from the branch library to Stokes Field.

‘We told them this time around we are going to build it’

Mayor Jim Durrett offered comments in support of the library during the proceedings, assuring commissioners he knew which way he would vote in the case of a tie. In fact, one of Smith’s amendments did come to a tie, and Durrett voted it down.

“I don’t know if you’re an advocate of the library or not, but we’ve told them we were going to build a library on the north side of town, and we told them this time around we are going to build it but it ain’t gonna be as big. And now we’re saying all we’re going to do is design it,” Durrett told commissioners. “I promise you, I ain’t scared to vote.”

Both the branch library and Stokes Field renovations remained funded at the proposed lower amounts in the final budget.