Rocky Top buying land for parking
The old Martin Funeral Home property in downtown Rocky Top will soon become a city-owned parking lot to serve customers of downtown businesses. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
More than a year after the parking lot was proposed by Mayor Kerry Templin, the City Council voted last Thursday evening (Feb. 20) to pay up to $175,000 to complete the purchase of the old Martin Funeral Home building at 225. S. Main St. to create the lot.
It was most recently used for a business called the Tool Shack, but that has been closed for several years.
“We will never see development until we have dedicated parking downtown,” Templin said last March when the council initially approved an offer of up to $125,000 to the owners of the property.
“There is no public parking now; all parking is privately owned,” he said.
On Thursday, City Manager Mike Ellis said the attorneys were ready to close on the sale, and that up to $175,000 might be needed to cover the $125,000 purchase price plus $15,000 in back county taxes, and associated closing costs.
The council approved the amount unanimously to complete the purchase. It includes the building, which the city intends to remove, along with the vacant lot next to it that has been used as a parking lot for the funeral home and a barbecue restaurant next door.
The property had been tied up in probate for several years, but last year became available to be sold.
Templin said part of the property was once the site of a downtown gasoline station, so there are still “at least four old fuel tanks in the ground” that would need to be removed, which is an environmentally necessary operation.
No timetable was given for completing the razing of the building and installation of the parking lot.
Sandy Smith, one of the owners of the new Thrifty Treasures home décor store that borders the old funeral home property on the south side, said last March that she would like to see the city put a small park there, along with a parking lot.
In other business Thursday, the City Council:
• Passed on second and final reading Ordinance 598. updating the city’s personnel manual and policies, including how pay and benefits are calculated.
• Passed on first reading Ordinance 601, to change the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee from seven members to just five, in order to try to get enough members to show up to meetings to constitute a quorum so the board could officially conduct business.
At least four members must be present out of a board of seven to constitute a quorum, while it would take only three to have a quorum with a five-member board, the mayor said.
