TELLICO PLAINS-The town of Tellico Plains' is making history with a charter overhaul.

In their second workshop, the Mayor and Board of Alderman met together on Thursday to continue updating the document. Consistency was an issue in the outdated charter, with a variety of terms referring to different things. Some words just didn't apply anymore, such as referring to a calaboose, the school house, or the justice of peace.

"A lot of it was just cleaning up the language in there," said Mayor Patrick Hawkins.

In addition to making the charter more modern, the board is also including a change to their election schedule and the members of the town council in the updated charter.

In Dec. 2011, then aldermen Harkey Yates died unexpectedly and the board made the decision to not choose someone to fill Yates' shoes on the board out of respect for their late alderman. After nearly a year of operating with a five-member board (not counting the mayor, who only votes in the case of a tie-breaker), the council decided they would like to operate that way permanently.

"I believe it'd be good to cut it back to five," said Alderman Robert Hamilton.

Unlike many municipalities, Tellico Plain's city recorder has always had a vote on the council, making it easier for the town to be a five-member board.

See full story in the Sunday, Nov. 18, edition of The Advocate & Democrat.