CARROLLTON — The Carroll County Tax Assessors/Collector’s Office was under fire Tuesday after a taxpayer complained to county supervisors about recent “unacceptable treatment” she received while doing business there.
Melinda Alderman told the board that she visited the Tax Assessor/Collector’s Office on Aug. 10. She said she then stepped next door to pay her sanitation bill and overheard Tax Assessor/Collector Wilton Neal and a clerk say some unkind words about her and make offensive remarks about her family, which were audible through the thin wall.
Alderman said she returned to the office and confronted the staff, but the matter was unresolved, leading her to approach the supervisors.
Neal told the board that he was sorry the situation had occurred, and he had apologized to Alderman. “I regret the things that were said,” he said.
Neal said the clerk needed “an opportunity to defend herself” and left to go to his office. When he returned to the meeting, he said the employee chose not to come before the board.
Board of Supervisors President Rickie Corley told Neal that mistreatment of taxpayers was not acceptable.
“It is not always what is said but how it is said,” Corley said. “Things need to improve. I don’t think that is how anyone in the county should be treated.”
Neal said he handled the matter with his staff internally.
Also at the board meeting, Sheriff Clint Walker asked the board to look into a county ordinance to get temporary commercial signs under control.
“They are at every intersection,” Walker said.
County Attorney Kevin Horan said he would research ordinances from other counties and report back to the board.
Supervisors will hold a public hering on the county budget at 9 a.m. Monday in Carrollton.
In other county business:
•The board accepted a bid of $272,094.58 from N.C. Carson of Carthage to install a new box culvert on County Road 47, south of Highway 430. The project will split Beats 4 and 5.
•The board accepted a bid of $488,328.30 from Mac McNeer of Greenwood to install multiple box culverts on County Road 157, west of Highway 17 by Coila Creek, and County Road 45, south of Highway 430. Both roads are in Beat 4.
•The board approved adding rip rap to the east side of Greasy Creek on County Road 69 in Beat 2, to be paid for with federal funds.
•The board approved the purchase of a John Deere 6120E Cab tractor with a loader and a John Deere HX15 flex-wing cutter in the amount of $84,791.25. Seventy-five percent of the cost of this equipment was paid by funds from a USDA Rural Development Grant, with the rest coming out of the Beat 1 budget.
•The board informed Neal that the county will now charge hunting camps for six months of garbage fees. Neal asked supervisors to give him information about the hunting camps in their beats so property owners can be tagged to get the garbage bills.
•The board approved $2,000 in advertising related to the Carrollton Pilgrimage.
Correspondent Martha Cain contributed to this report.
