The Norris City Council on Monday night passed on first reading an ordinance setting a monthly fee of $3 per single-family residence that would be added to utility bills to help fund the city’s new Stormwater Utility Department.
This new department was set up last March to oversee the stormwater collection system, with the goal of helping the city avoid future trouble with state environmental authorities over raw sewage spills from the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
Council members also agreed to negotiate with an engineering company, Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc., of Knoxville, to research and map out the city’s current stormwater collection system as the basis for repairs and upgrades.
On a unanimous vote, the council passed on first reading Ordinance 689, which “establishes a base rate for stormwater user fees, setting the amount of the [single family residential unit].”
The measure would set rates of $3 to $10 monthly for commercial properties.
It still must pass on second reading to be finalized, and there will be a public hearing before the next council meeting to allow public input on the proposed fee.
Last March, with Councilman Chuck Nicholson abstaining, the council passed Ordinance 672, titled, “An Ordinance of the City of Norris, Tennessee, Establishing a Stormwater Utility.”
The intent of the measure was to set fees for residents and businesses that would pay for the operations of the department, which would operate separately from the city’s water works and public works departments.
Norris residents will soon be able to ban door-to-door salespeople from coming on their property by adding their addresses to a “no-solicitors list,” the City Council has decided.
The council on Monday gave final approval to an updated peddlers’ ordinance that will, among other things, allow residents to add their addresses to the no-solicitors list, which will be presented to anyone seeking a city permit for door-to-door sales in the city.
After a public hearing on the issue, the council approved the revised peddlers’ ordinance on second and final reading. It was passed unanimously on first reading during the council’s Dec. 9 meeting.
The revised ordinance goes into effect in 30 days, but setting up the no-peddlers list could be delayed into March, city officials said.
This idea, which was suggested by Assistant City Manager Bailey Whited during November’s regular council meeting, would make it illegal by trespassing for a commercial solicitor to approach the home of anyone whose address is on that list, similar to the way the federal “Do Not Call” list is supposed to work.
This issue arose primarily in response to a pest-control company’s recent door-to-door solicitations in Norris.
While construction is moving slowly on restrooms for Clinton High School’s softball field, demolition work meant to convert Christ Fellowship Church into a site for a new Claxton Elementary School has begun.
Anderson County director of Schools Tim Parrott gave updates on these construction and demolition efforts and others at a work session on Monday Jan. 6.
During the Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Jan. 9, the school board transferred $428,130 for “district construction projects,” which Parrott said included upgrading electronic locks
for doors at Clinton and Anderson County high schools, but also the inside demolitions at the future Claxton Elementary School site.
New Claxton site
The Anderson County Commission voted earlier to buy the former Crossroads Christ Fellowship Church site as a replacement for the current Claxton Elementary School.
The county will use the existing church building for part of the school, but contractors are demolishing areas on the inside to allow for changes.
“We had people from all county agencies in there getting anything they want,” Parrott said regarding taking items from inside the church building. Parrott said the interior demolition will likely cost about $72,000.
Norris residents were given an opportunity Monday evening to give their preferences for updates and additions to the city’s parks and recreation facilities that would be paid for from a $375,000 state Local Parks and Recreation Fund grant, which will be matched by the city for a total project outlay of $750,000.
Hosted by the City Council at 5 p.m., the workshop was part of a requirement of the state grant that the city get public input on what projects should be prioritized.
The city received notice of approval of the grant last August. That came from an application the city submitted in May for park and sports facilities upgrades that the City Council tentatively OK’d in February.
The grant will be received by the city over a three-year period.
As for the city’s matching share, Norris already designates $75,000 a year in its regular budget for parks and recreation improvements, and there is $150,000 in unspent funds in the budget already.
The city will add $75,000 each year for the next three years to come up with the required match.
Anderson County organizations have until Jan. 31 to apply for funds from the various opioid-related lawsuits.
For 2024, the county has a total of $425,159 available to give these organizations.
Big businesses had to pay the state of Tennessee for what Anderson County’s official website called the “extensive damage” and deaths caused by over-prescribing opioid medications.
Organizations that help with the damage caused by the opioid crisis can apply for up to $60,000 per project.
The Opioid Committee, a group of six county commissioners, and the full Anderson County Commission will need to approve those funds.
A link to the application is at andersoncountytn.gov/opioid-settlement-committee/.
City facilities, necessary improvements to be discussed
by G. Chambers Williams III
A Norris City Council workshop will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, to discuss the needs of city facilities, including possible upgrades or additions to the Community Building.
The workshop comes after an assessment by city staff last year of the city’s facilities, including the Community Building, where the city has its offices and the council meeting room; the Public Safety Building, which houses the police and fire departments; the McNeely Building, which houses the Norris Public Library and the Norris Museum; the Lions Pavilion in front of Norris Middle School; and the gazebo, across from the Norris Town Center.
After that assessment, the city made immediate upgrades to replace the leaking roof of the Public Safety Building, and then let a contract to install new siding on the McNeely Building.
Still to be determined are what needs to be done with the Community Building, including the possibility of building an addition or separate building next to it to house the fire and police departments, and coming up with more office and storage space for the city administration.
The City Council will be trying to prioritize what changes need to be made, and decide how to pay for them over the next few years.
Other Norris city meetings this month will include:
More than 25 new customers now have broadband service from Highland Communications in Anderson County.
Funding for the project comes from a grant by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank said that Highland Communications completed 41.68 miles of lines, passing 149 rooftops, which are in the area between Rocky Top and Oliver Springs.
The company connected 25 Anderson County customers as of Tuesday, Jan. 7, and was working on 23 more that week, weather permitting.
Frank said she had received an email from now-connected resident Jimmy Byrge.
She said the Highland Communications lines went through areas like Grave’s Gap, which include Braden Flats Road, Duncan Flats Road, and Brown Flats Lane.
It also includes Beech Grove, including Cameron Hollow Road, Cameron Hollow Lane and Beech Grove Road and a few smaller pockets on Seiber Mountain Road, Vowell Mountain Lane, Thistle Hollow Lane, and Briceville Highway from 2832 to 3095.
The funding, Frank said, came from the Tennessee Emergency Broadband Fund, which in turn uses money from the federal American Rescue Plan.
The county did not give any funds for this broadband project, but did enter into a 40-year lease agreement with Highland Communications for property owned by Anderson County in Rocky Top.
Pictured from left are Scarboro 85 students Alma Stevens, L.C. Gipson and Emma McCaskill. They were in the audience at the Dec. 9 Oak Ridge City Council meeting, during which the council honored them with a resolution. Joining them was the Rev. Margaret Mack, assistant pastor at Oak Valley Baptist Church.
While some people remember Civil Rights history from classrooms and museums, other people still alive lived it.
Oak Ridge resident L.C. Gipson was one of a group of 85 students, now known as the Scarboro 85, for the segregated Black neighborhood from which they came before making Civil Rights history.
The group entered the formerly all-white Oak Ridge High and Robertsville Middle schools Sept. 6, 1955. It was a year after the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education ruling required integration.
Neighboring Clinton desegregated its school system in 1956 with the Clinton 12. Oak Ridge Schools, however, were under the control of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission at the time, making their desegregation different from other public schools. Unlike Clinton, where the desegregation was met with violent mobs and bombings, Oak Ridge avoided such incidents.
Still, the AEC’s decision to begin integrating schools in 1955 led the start of integrated schools for Oak Ridge and the Southeast.
Gipson recently reflected on the history he lived. He said he grew up in Mississippi. He declined to name the town, but he said it did not matter when it came to racism.
Norris achieved a “clean” audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, according to a report the city’s auditor gave to the City Council on Monday night.
Travis Lowe of Pugh CPAs in Knoxville also said that everything required by the state for the required annual audit had been filed on time, and he reported that the city continues to be debt-free.
“It’s a good audit,” he told the council.
The city’s general fund finished the fiscal year with $2.4 million in assets and $139,000 in liabilities, and had a year-end general fund balance of $1.4 million, Lowe said.
During the fiscal year, the city had total expenditures of $2.4 million, with total revenue collections of $1.8 million, he said. The extra expenditures above general fund revenues were for capital projects, he noted.
Still appearing in the city’s audit report, though, is Norris’s ongoing noncompliance with state wastewater treatment regulations.
