County Commissioner Fred J. Wilcoxon has resigned his position with the school system’s maintenance department. Director of Schools James Jones said Wilcoxon told him he did not want his legal problems to reflect on the school system.

Wilcoxon was recently charged with theft following a complain by Harold Sutton, who said he gave Wilcoxon $5,500 to close a land deal that never happened. Jones said he told Wilcoxon he did not think it necessary for him to resign.

Jones said there was no truth to allegations Wilcoxon was using a school system propane tank for his personal use. He said he had been approached by people who said Wilcoxon had purchased four tanks, two for south Polk and two for the maintenance garage, but one of them was at his home.

Jones said Wilcoxon, like other maintenance people, take things home to work on, in this case a lawn mower. He asked Wilcoxon about the tank and was told there was one at Wilcoxon’s home, that he needed it for welding equipment to work on the lawn mower. Jones said he told Wilcoxon that the tank needed to be returned to the school.

That afternoon, Jones said, Wilcoxon resigned. “It was a mutual thing,” he said, adding the former employee was getting a lot of bad publicity.

Jones said it would not be outrageous for an employee to have a propane tank at his home to use for school-related work. “it would have been outrageous if he was heating his home with it, but I didn’t find that to be the case.”

He said Tommy Frazier had gone to Wilcoxon’s home to verify. Sheriff Bill Davis contacted Jones after he heard the allegations and Det. Dennis Waters also talked to Jones, who told them the tank had not been used for personal use as far as he could determine. He said Burgess Hardware said the tank had not been refilled. “It doesn’t add up that he was heating his home. There’s no reason not to believe him,” Jones said. Det. Waters said Monday he was still investigating the allegations.