(a) Notwithstanding § 58-8-111(b), a governmental utility system that is a responding party is eligible for reimbursement and entitled to one hundred percent (100%) reimbursement of eligible costs after the state of emergency is declared.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 58-8-115

  • Aid: means the same as assistance, except that aid is provided in an occurrence during any period of time when a state of emergency has not been declared. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
  • Assistance: means the provision of personnel, equipment, facilities, services, supplies, and other resources to assist in firefighting, law enforcement, the provision of public works services, the provision of emergency medical care, the provision of civil defense services, or any other emergency assistance one governmental entity is able to provide to another in response to a request for assistance in a municipal, county, state, or federal state of emergency. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
  • Emergency: means an occurrence or threat of an occurrence, whether natural or man-made, that results in or may result in substantial injury or harm to the population or substantial damage to or loss of property and which results in a declaration of a state of emergency by a municipal mayor, a county mayor or executive, the governor, or the president. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
  • Governmental entity: means any political subdivision of the state, including, but not limited to, any incorporated city or town, metropolitan government, county, utility district, school district, nonprofit volunteer fire department receiving public funds and recognized under title 68, chapter 102, part 3, rescue squad, human resource agency, public building authority, airport authority, and development district, or any instrumentality of government created by one (1) or more of these named governmental entities or the general assembly, or any entity otherwise recognized by state law as a local governmental entity. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
  • Responding party: means a governmental entity that has received and responded to a request to provide mutual aid or assistance to another governmental entity under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) For purposes of a governmental utility system that is a responding party, “then-prevailing wages, including benefits and overtime” in § 58-8-111(c) means the present wage structure, including benefits and overtime, of the governmental utility system that is a responding party.
(c) For purposes of this section, “governmental utility system” means a governmental entity that provides electric, gas, sewer, water, wastewater, telephone, cable or other like service, or any combination of these services, and is limited to these operations of the governmental entity and does not extend to other operations or functions of the governmental entity.
(d) Notwithstanding § 58-8-111, governmental utility systems and nongovernmental utilities that enter into mutual assistance agreements for the purposes of providing aid or assistance to one another are eligible for reimbursement of all out-of-pocket costs incurred by the responding party.