The impasse

over impact fees remains and Tyrone leaders are not saying when the matter

will be discussed again.

Last Thursday,

the Town Council refused to pass a motion in support of the fees to build

a new jail and expand fire services.

Councilman

Paul Letourneau made a motion to approve the fees, but it died due to

lack of a second. The councilman made the motion after a lengthy discussion

of the parts of the impact fee ordinance.

Tyrone's problem

for more than a month has been the lack of a smaller business category

in the fee structure. There are only two categories currently: stores

with more than 50,000 square feet and those with less than 50,000.

The council

argued that a category should be established for businesses under 10,000

square feet.

"We won't

have a building larger than 30,000 square feet," said Letourneau.

But Davenport

explained the current document was a result of many modification requests

from municipalities that the county tried to include.

"I just

don't feel I have justification for another category," he said.

Since retail

stores typically have a higher impact on the jail population than industrial

facilities, Davenport said, adding another category would still cause

the smaller businesses to pay $4,300 for the jail portion of the impact

fee, while large businesses would then pay more than $13,000.

"These

mom-and-pop stores are not going to have the same crime level as the Fayette

Pavilion," said Councilman Ronnie Cannon.

Without Tyrone

approving the impact fees, the county cannot implement the fee as currently

authorized by the County Commission. Commissioners voted to impose the

fees only if all local cities participate.

A bond has

already been passed to pay for the jail, but county officials want the

cost of the jail spread around to some of the new residents who will be

affecting the county's infrastructure.