Rocky Top OKs $187K paving, new roofs
Rocky Top City Manager Mike Ellis, left, watches as the City Council conducts business during its October meeting last Thursday. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The City Council approved contracts for both projects last Thursday evening.
The repaving, at a cost of $187,773, will also include High Street from Fourth to Seventh streets, and part of Pearl Street and Cobb Hollow Road.
The work, to be done by the Rogers Group, mostly will be to smooth over the streets following the city’s recent sewer-rehabilitation project. That involved tearing up pavement to dig out and replace old sewer and some water lines.
Money for the repaving is coming from federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) grants.
Re-roofing of City Hall and the separate fire/police building will cost $120,000, and will be done by Dixie Roofing.
Because of numerous leaks, buckets must be set out in both buildings to catch the water every time it rains.
No one on the council or the city staff could say when the roofs were last replaced on the two buildings – since it has not been done during any of their tenures with the city.
In other business Thursday, the council:
n Rejected a proposed ordinance submitted by ASAP (Alcohol and Substance-Abuse Prevention) of Anderson County that would have outlawed smoking and use of vaping products in “certain age-restricted venues,” which council members said were the only two bars operating within the city limits.
“This is designed specifically to prohibit smoking in bars,” Mayor Kerry Templin said after reading the proposed ordinance out loud. “I personally am against it. I like to smoke when I’m in a bar. … I think this is good intentions, (but) I’ve been a consumer of tobacco products since I was 11 years old.”
There was no motion made to approve the proposed ordinance, so it was declared dead on the floor.
n Approved an agreement with American Municipal Services Corp. to have the company serve as a collection agent for past-due city court fines and costs, and delinquent utility bills.
The company has agreements with several other Tennessee municipalities to provide such collection services.
Under the agreement, the city would receive 100% of the amounts of the bills the company collects, but it allows the company to add a 35% collection fee to each bill to pay for its services.
The agreement has no time limit, but the city can terminate it at will, City Manager Mike Ellis said.
n Voted 4-1 to approve use of Inflation Reduction Act Grant money to pay for an inventory of trees on city property under the state’s Urban and Community Forestry department. This is part of the city’s duties under its Tree City USA designation.
n Passed a resolution to hire the Cannon & Cannon engineering firm to help in purchase of a sludge press for the sewer plant.