Oak Ridge City Council: from daycare to roads
Oak Ridge City Council member Ellen Smith talks to fellow member Chuck Hope at a meeting. (photo:Ben Pounds )
The council unanimously approved a measure at its Monday, Aug. 14, meeting to rezone a building at 1009 Commerce Park Drive to allow it to support a daycare for children of Oak Ridge National Laboratory employees. Currently it’s zoned as industrial. The rezoning will have to pass City Council a second time.
“I applaud the innovative step towards meeting the needs of today’s workforce,” council member Derrick Hammond said.
The council authorized a contract to accept state funds from the Tennessee Department of Transportation totaling $171,621 to work on state highways. It includes $159,428 for roadway and pavement maintenance, $6,750 for median mowing and $5,443 for litter removal.
This funding applies to Oak Ridge Turnpike, Illinois Avenue and Edgemoor Road from July 1 through June 30 next year.
Another set of state funds the council approved would allow the city to give police officers bonuses up to $10,000 depending on the officers’ certification nd experience.
The city is still waiting on the state to approve that funding, however. Officers and city officials have been discussing over the past year the issues with payment for employees. Another $1.69 million state grant approved by the council at the meeting will allow the Police Department to purchase radios and related equipment.
The council tabled a measure regarding tax incentives for a proposed new hotel at 131 Tuskegee Drive until September, due to concerns that the city Budget and Finance Committee had not looked at the measure. All council members except Jim Dodson and Charles Hensley voted to table it.
The council approved new contracts for up to $35,000 per vendor per fiscal year for the next three fiscal years to continue with Hoopla and Overdrive as providers of internet resources like magazines, ebooks, audiobooks, movies and magazines for the Oak Ridge Public Library.
The city plans to repave a piece of Lafayette Drive before the end of this year, and a piece of South Illinois Avenue where it interacts with Lafayette next year.
Council members approved $41,770 for a new radar detection system for that area at its July meeting. Also in July, the council approved $1.13 million for street resurfacing throughout the city.
It approved $1.25 million in federal funds to install a replacement water line in the West Outer Drive area.
“Replacing this circa-1947 waterline is important because of multiple failures,” a city memo stated.
Other funds from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation in the amount of $3.19 million will also replace old water lines.
The council also approved $955,000 over the next two fiscal years for updates to the city’s electric grid.