CLAY-ROANE PSD BOARD REORGANIZED - Chairman Facing Battery Charges Refuses To Resign

(04/29/2005)
By Jim Cooper, Editor
The Times Record-Roane County Reporter

The chairman of the Clay-Roane Public Service District and the board member she allegedly slapped earlier this month were together again at a meeting Thursday in Clay.

The PSD met in emergency session with Melissa Postelwait presiding. Clay County Commissioners had asked Postelwait to resign and suspended her without pay after witnesses said she slapped Susan Beard, Roane County's only representative on the board, after a PSD meeting April 14.

Beard, who did not retaliate and was not seriously injured, filed battery charges against Postelwait, who was released on $500 bond after her arrest by a state trooper.

Postelwait is fighting the commission's attempt to remove her from office and the matter is expected to be settled in circuit court.

Clay commissioners asked for and received the resignations of their other two board appointees, Glen Sutton and Gary Whalen. A third seat was already vacant.

Dave Grigsby, John Dobbins and Rose Cantrell have since been appointed to join Postelwait and Beard on the board.

The emergency meeting scheduled to reorganize the board took place without incident.

Postelwait apparently became upset during the April 14 meeting when Beard raised a question about finances, including cash advances allegedly made to Postelwait that had not been repaid.

According to her Web site, Postelwait said she had been overpaid $375 in 2003 due to a miscalculation. She said she now owes $250 which will be repaid during a regular PSD meeting May 12 ... Read More www.thetimesrecord.net