GREEN VALLEY JOBS SAVEDJune 05, 2010 (Greeneville Sun) The Tennessee House of Representatives passed the state budget for fiscal year 2010-11 at 3 p.m. Friday, with funds included to preserve 228 jobs at the Greene Valley Develomental Center (GVDC) for another year, local legislators said. The budget is expected to be signed by Gov. Phil Bredesen within days. When Gov. Bredesen presented his budget early in the spring, it proposed eliminating 228 positions at GVDC, 210 of which were filled, with 18 being vacant Yokley said he had spent more time on preserving jobs at Greene Valley than any other issue that came up this year. "I´m the happiest I´ve been in a long time," State Representative Eddie Yokley (D-Greeneville) told the Sun on Friday afternoon following the House vote. "I knew that Greene Valley had performed so well" in taking care of intellectually-disabled citizens, "that I wanted to do anything and everything I could. "The employees out there (at GVDC) have dedicated their lives, and we owed it to them to do all that we could to at least save their jobs for a year," Yokley said. He added, "I´m bragging on the team -- Steve Southerland, David Hawk and myself, but also the Tennessee State Employees Association, the newspapers and the radio stations that kept the issue active and in front of the public all spring." Yokley had told the Sun in an interview for an article on May 20, "I´ve said I won´t vote for any budget that doesn´t have some money for Greene Valley in it."
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