Norris approves ‘vision’ study Applications sought for council vacancy
Members of the board — who are all appointed by the City Council — presented their proposal for a second time during Monday night’s council meeting.
But the council voted down, 1-3, a motion by Councilman Chuck Nicholson to seek bids from consulting firms for the vision document.
Nicholson said that if the council passed his motion, then he would also ask that the city’s 2027 fiscal-year budget be amended to cover the cost of the study, up to $25,000.
But Mayor Chris Mitchell instead proposed asking MTAS, with which the city already has a standing contract, to development the document. That ostensibly would cost the city much less than $25,000 – and perhaps nothing at all – the mayor said.
After the council defeated Nicholson’s proposal, Mitchell made a motion to give the community vision project to MTAS, and, surprisingly, Nicholson seconded the motion, and the council voted unanimously in favor of it.
The council did reserve the right to revive the possibility of using a private, outside consultant if the MTAS-produced document is deemed to be insufficient.
“I’m supportive of looking at what MTAS can do,” Councilman Travis Honeycutt said during the discussion of the proposal.
The mayor and others on the council and in the audience at Monday’s meeting said an important element in creating the vision document would be to proactively engage members of the community to express their ideas for continued development of Norris, a town that was created by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 to house engineers and workers building the nearby Norris Dam.
Also on Monday night, the council voted to seek applications now through June 22 from anyone who wants to be appointed to fill out the unexpired term of Councilwoman Loretta Painter, who resigned in May.
The council will consider those applicants and appoint a new council member during its next regular meeting, July 13.
That person would serve through November. The regular biennial council election will be held on Nov. 3, and the new council will take office in December, beginning with the regular council meeting Dec. 14.
In other business Monday, the council:
n Approved on second and final reading the city budget for fiscal year 2027, which begins this coming July 1.
The new budget holds the city’s property tax rate and utility rates at their current levels, and gives city employees a 3% cost-of-living raise, City Manager Bailey Whited said.
n Heard from Whited that a contract will be let to spend $12,000 for a new roof over the Police Department portion of the city’s Public Safety Building downtown.
Whited said the money for the project is already in the budget for 2026 and 2027.
