From WRIL -
During the audience portion of this week's Middlesboro City Council meeting on Tuesday July 16th, citizen Patsy Sullivan Pierce brought up the subject of the city pool and whether or not a mentoring grant could be used to open the pool. Councilwoman Judy Grandey clarified that the grant in question could only be used for specific items and the pool was not a part of it.
Ms. Pierce then went on to accuse Mayor Nelson of refusing a supposed $50,000 grant to be used on the pool from Middlesboro ARH. Pierce said: "it was a rumor, and I went and talked to the man myself, and don't call me a liar on that." Mayor Nelson asked: "so who was supposed to give us a grant?" Ms. Pierce claims: "the hospital talked to you (Nelson) and they wanted to use the Middlesboro pool as a physical rehab and then citizens, you know, the kids of our community use the pool the other time and you declined a $50,000 grant."
Mayor Nelson asked again: "Mike Slusher?" and Ms. Pierce repeated: "you know who it was, I talked to the man myself because that way I could not be standing right here and be called a liar, and I don't live on rumors, I live on facts. That's not fair to the kids." With that, Pierce left the room. A short time later in his closing statements Mayor Nelson quickly addressed the council and audience on the repairs made to the pool and stated there was no grant.
After talking with CEO Mike Slusher Mayor Nelson states: "At our last council meeting an individual accused me of refusing to accept a grant of 50 thousand dollars from Middlesboro Appalachian regional hospital for our pool. Of course this was untrue. Mr. Michael Slusher, who is the CEO of the hospital also heard this and has provided a letter of documentation that there was never an offer. I debated on whether to even mention this but I felt it was more important to clear up an untrue allegation like this."
As a side note Ms. Pierce has thrown her hat in the ring to run in the November General Election for the seat currently occupied by Councilman Bo Green. Green was appointed to the seat when then Councilman Kevin Barnett took the job as Street Department Supervisor.
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