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The Blount County Commission on Thursday tabled a motion by Vice Chairman Steve Samples to endorse Circuit Court Judge W. Dale Young’s recent refusal to consider a request for an order protection from a legal immigrant from Nicaragua.
The woman, Ana Calixto, and other witnesses said the judge told her and her estranged husband that they had no rights in court and instructed them to go back where they came from.

“I want to personally commend his stand,” Samples said, adding that he had heard her legal status was in doubt. “She did not meet the test of law ... My stand is that is a question about illegal immigration. Judge Young stands for what the majority of Blount Countians stand for.”

Commissioner Wendy Pitts Reeves, who talked about working with victims of domestic violence in her job as a counselor, said she understood there are strong feelings about illegal immigration in the county, but that, to her knowledge, Ana Calixto was a legal resident.

“Until I see otherwise, I can’t support this,” Reeves said. “The newspaper said she was a legal resident.”

The County Commission voted 12-9 to table the motion. Commissioners Ron French, David Graham, Brad Harrison, Mark Hasty, Mike Lewis, Joe McCulley, Kenneth Melton, Monika Murrell, Bob Proffitt, Robert Ramsey, Reeves and Mike Walker voted to table. Commissioners David Ballard Jr., Tonya Burchfield, Gary Farmer, Steve Hargis, Scott Helton, John Keeble, Gerald Kirby, Holden Lail and Samples voted no.

“While I support Judge Young’s decision, it’s hard for me to vote on anything when I don’t have all the facts,” French said.

“If she’s not an illegal immigrant, I can’t support this,” Murrell said.

In other business, the County Commission, on a voice vote, approved a zoning amendment to allow convenience stores and gas stations to be permitted as special exceptions in the R-1 zoning district.

Gas stations/convenience stores could only be located along collector-status roads such as Morganton and Montvale roads. The buildings would also be limited to 4,000 square feet. Such requests would not be automatically approved. The Board of Zoning Appeals grants requests for a special exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
Reeves, whose motion to send the matter back the Planning Commission failed, questioned whether the commission should wait until lighting and design guidelines for commercial businesses in rural areas are in place before acting.

“We are making decisions about what our county is going to look like,” she said. “We need to take more care.”

Filling stations and convenience stores had originally been allowed as special exceptions but were removed from the list some years back.