City Council - Regular Meeting

Three minutes. I will call the Kville City Council meeting for Thursday, February 19th to order. May I have a roll call, please? Councilman Baji here. Councilman Walker, Mayor Weaten, here. Vice Mayor Eldridge, here. Councilman Gilbert here. Four present. Thank you. At this time, I would like to ask those that wish to do so to stand for the invocation given tonight by Pastor Andy Brewster of Jefferson Avenue Church Christ followed by the pledge of allegiance, excuse me.

Good evening. Let's pray. God, thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity we have to be here together today, dear God. Lord, thank you for these servants who are serving uh this town and this city. Pray that you will be with them and bless them and their relationships, dear Lord, their families uh and their businesses and all the things that they have going on. Lord, thank you for their willingness to to serve and and what can certainly be a situation in a position that's not always uh very thankful. Lord, just pray that you'll be with them, use them for your glory, be with the things that are under consideration tonight, help the conversation to be both civil and productive. And Lord, we pray that you'll bless our town as we strive to serve you and follow you. Thank you for your son Jesus. We pray these things in his name. Amen.

Amen. to the flag and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you pastor. Item three consider approval of agenda as presented. Are there any changes? Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion made by Vice Mayor Elders. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Baji. Any discussion from the council? Okay. Vote on that.

All votes correct or yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 5A. Consider approval of minutes of council meeting held on February 5th, 2026. Is there a motion? Motion made by Councilman Bach. Is there a second? Second. Second by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the council? Vote on that. All votes correct or yes. Motion carries.

Thank you for the consent agenda. 6 A, consider approval to purchase Microsoft Windows Server 2025 licenses. 6B, consider approval to purchase traffic controllers and monitors. And 6 C, consider awarding bids for semiannual paving, asphalt mix, milling. Uh, is there a motion on the consent agenda? So move. Motion made by Councilman Baji, seconded by Councilman Gilbert. Uh any discussion from the council vote?

All votes correct or yes. Motion carries. Thank you. 7A can hold a public hearing on the annual progress report of the plans of services for the following annexation areas. Oldbridge Road, Falling Water River Area, Buck Mountain Road, Dry Valley Road area, East Highway 70, Interstate 40 area, West Cookville, Interstate 40 area, Shagrad Road, Shagra Road area, Rebecca Place, Bunker Hill Road Area, Bunker Hill Road, Love Lady Road Area, Freehill Road, North Washington Avenue Area, South Willow Avenue, Bennett Road extension area, Old Stewart Road area, Mackie Road area, Putnham County Fairgrounds Area, and Nelson North Drive annexation area. Mr. Ward.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, so this is the eagerly anticipated annual progress report on annexation areas as required by Tennessee code annotated. This report covers 12 areas annexed into the city between 2000 and 2018. I'm going to try to be provide a a briefer report to council tonight. So across all areas, the city is providing municipal services in accordance with the adopted plans of services including police and fire protection, water service, solid waste collection, street maintenance, planning and zoning, inspections, electrical and electric and natural gas service, and recreation. The primary remaining service in most areas continues to be sanitary sewer, which is being extended in phases based on funding, feasibility, and adopted policies. I'm going to briefly summarize the areas and and the progress we've made in and uh in completing these plans. So in the Oakidge road falling water uh river area sewer improvements were completed in 2015 in 2015 that served 111 parcels with additional extensions in 2018. Approximately 63 parcels remain without sewer service in this area. for the Buck Mountain Road, uh the Buck Mountain Dry Valley area. In 2023, sewer was extended to 26 parcels in the annexation area. For East Highway 70 and north and I40 area, two phases of sewer projects have served approximately 165 parcels. Additional sewer service was provid provided in 2022 and 2025, and 17 more parcels along South Dry Valley Road are scheduled for sewer service in early 2026. the West Cookville I40 area. Um, all water customers are now served by the city. Sewer expansions have continued. 40 parcels near the interstate have been provided service. And in 2025, 42 parcels along Park West Drive and Mine Lake Creek Road were provided sewer

service. A waterline uh replacement uh design work to improve fire protection has been completed and portions of this project were constructed in 2025 for the Shagra Road area. A 2024 sewer project provided service to 22 parcels. Five parcels remain without sewer in that annexation area. Rebecca Place Bunker Hill Road area sewer extensions have continued incrementally with additional parcels served in 2024 and 2025. The remaining parcels are under contract for low pressure sewer installation this calendar year. So they'll be completed in 2026. The Bunker Hill Bunker Hill Love Lady Area uh sewer service was extended to 20 parcels in 2023 and 81 parcels in 2025. The remaining parcels are scheduled for completion in 2026. And those two uh annexation areas, we had a 20-year timeline to provide sewer service. Freehill Road, North Washington, uh sewer improvements are planned in accordance with the 25-year service timeline for that annexation area. For South Willow Avenue, sewer expansion will continue consistent with the city's policy for unserved areas. The Bennett Road extension area, uh, major sewer infrastructure was completed beginning in 2016 with additional extensions in 2018, 2022, and 2023, including service to the future site of the Putham County Fairgrounds. For the old Stewart Road area, sewer improvements related to the I40 interchange and a 2022 extension have reduced the remaining unserved parcels to three in that annexation area. Uh for the Mackie farm area, low pressure sewer service to all parcels was completed in 2025. Uh street light installation is still pending and is being coordinated uh by the uh Cougville by Cougville Energy with the upper Cland electric membership cooperative. Um, so in summary, all required municipal services are being provided in these annex areas and sewer service continues to expand through phase

construction projects. I'm happy to answer any questions from council, but that concludes my report. Good job. Do I have a Well done. How about that? What's the shortest? Ah, shortest ever. Um, do I have a motion on 7A? So move and a motion from Councilman Gilbert. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Vice Mayor Eldridge. Uh, this is a public hearing. So, is there anyone who would like to speak on this agenda item? Okay. Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing portion. Any discussion from the council? I think our directors and John deserve a you know, a compliment of how much they have gotten done. Thank you, Mr. Barry Turner. That's that's his his purview. So, great job. Thank you.

Has done a great job. Yeah. Getting a lot done. Any other comments? All right. Seeing none, we will go ahead and vote.

All votes correct or yes. Motion carries. Thank you. 7B. Consider resolution R260204 abandoning the 20 2018 T dot multimmoal access grant for sidewalks along State Route 135 North Pillow Avenue and West 12th Street. Mr. Ward.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. In 2018, uh, the council authorized the submission of an application to the Tennessee Department of Transportation for funding through the multimmoal access grant program to construct sidewalks along State Route 135, North Willow Avenue from West Jerry Witson Road to West West 12th Street and West 12th Street east to approximately Virginia Avenue. Uh, that project was uh then extended to reach uh North Dixie Avenue. This was a phase project with phase one to complete the southern portion of this project and an additional FA future phase would have completed the northern portion. With this project, the city agreed to provide a 5% local match and assume future maintenance responsibilities if awarded the grant. Uh we were subsequent subsequently awarded the grant. However, circumstances have arisen that make it necessary and in the city's best interest to abandon participation in the TOT multimmoal access grant program for this project. Uh we discussed this at Monday's Monday's work session. Um some planned potential planned improvements to West 12th Street if uh uh put us in a spot where we think it's best to abandon. So this resolution would formally withdraw the city from participation in the T dot multimotal access grant for this sidewalk project. Authorize the mayor to notify T dot and complete any administrative steps necessary to close out or terminate the project. And uh I'm happy to answer any questions from the council on this, but recommend your approval.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Move. Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Is there a second? Second. Second from Councilman Baji. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from council.

Mayor, if I could, I'd like to say a couple things. So, I I don't want the public to get the impression that we've abandoned the idea of putting sidewalks in here. We know that it's extremely needed, especially with the amount of students that are there. John alluded to, we're we're exploring a potential streetscape project along West 12th with the university in conjunction with the university that would include um enhanced pedestrian crosses for students and sidewalks. So, u we just didn't want to go ahead with this project and then two or three years from now go dig up everything that was done through this. So, it's it was been a waste of taxpayer dollars to proceed with this. We'll go back to T do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do DOT in the future if we if we end up coming to some agreement with the university and the council wants to complete a project on 12th we'll sure explore every option we have for getting funding to help pay for it

can any other discussion okay got a motion in a second so we'll go ahead and vote on that

all votes correct or yes motion carries thank you 7 C consider on first reading ordinance 026203 amending the municipal code of the city of Cookville, Tennessee, title 8, chapter 5 to exempt the Putham County Convention Center and Fairgrounds and in indoors at the Lesley Town Center from the requirements for a special events alcoholic beverage permit. Mr. Mills,

mayor and council members, title eight of our municipal code is the alcoholic beverages section of the code. Chapter 5 is the consumption of alcoholic beverages on public properties and public streets. Section 8501 deals with the special event alcoholic beverage permit requirements. And the amendment would be to specify that a special event alcohol beverage permit is not required for events at the Putham County Convention Center and Fairgrounds and indoors at the Lesley Town Center. These two locations are two of the three locations that currently addressed in our ordinance which when at where on public properties you can have a special event u involving alcoholic beverages. The other location is the parking lot contiguous to the Leslie Town Center. Um, so section 8503 of the of the municipal code would also be changed to move the two locations, the indoors at Lesley Town Center and the Putnham County Convention Center and Fairgrounds into uh the section of the code that where a permit is not required and the only public location which you could that a permit would be required would be the um parking lot around the Lesley Town Center. I would recommend your approval of ordinance 2623.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion? So move. Motion made by Vice Mayor Elders. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilman Gilbert. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from council. Okay. All vote. All votes correct or yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. 7D. Hold a public hearing and consider on first reading ordinance 02600202. Amending the fiscal year 2026 budget for the city of Kville, Tennessee. Good evening, mayor and council. This ordinance amends the fiscal year 26 budget for the general fund. The revenues increase $416,000 and expenditures increase $537,660 with a net decrease of fund balance to $121,660. In the treeboard fund, the revenues are increasing $3,000 and expenditures are increasing $6,000. This is to account for the tape grant that was approved for a larger amount than we had originally budgeted. It has a 50% match required which decreases fund balance $3,000 in this fund. In the quality of life fund, we're requesting to amend the budget increasing revenues $11,330 and increasing expenditures $52,315 for a net decrease of fund balance to $40,985. In the general improvement bond fund, we are proposing to amend the budget, increasing expenditures and decreasing fund balance by $330,600. In the transportation fund, as you know, we have recently uh approved some new project. You guys have recently approved some new projects for Henley Drive and the engineering for Interstate Drive, Jefferson Avenue turn lane. The total increase to expenditures and decrease to fund balance in the transportation fund is $648,500. The last fund is um there were some items that weren't included in the employee insurance fund totals in the original budget. The net change to fund balance is $0, but it's just increasing health insurance premiums from department and increasing vision insurance premiums of $73,200. I'm happy to answer any questions but

recommend your approval. Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldidge. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilman Baji. This is also a public hearing. So, is there anyone who'd like to speak on this agenda item? Seeing none, uh, any comments from the council? All right. I'll vote.

All votes correct or yes, motion carries. Thank you. Uh 7E consider reject consider rejecting bid for semiannual mineral aggregate and authorizing rebid for these items. Mr. Mills who cannot replace Miss Lrod but try. Don't you dare.

Miss Lrod has an excused absence. She's a public hearing on the widening of Willow. So she's representing us there. And anyway, I'll present this for her. So, the public works department received bids last week for our semianual rock bid for a six-month contract running from March to September. Vulcan Materials was the sole bidder as you can see on the screen. The public works department request approval to reject the bid due to receiving only one bid. We'd like to see some competitive bidding and also due to the fact that this bid would result in a 12 to 15% across the board increase in what we currently pay for mineral aggregate item. So we'd like to try again. Um they therefore ask your authorization to rebid the mineral mineral aggregate services and I recommend approval to reject the bid and authorization to rebid.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, second by Councilman Baji. Any discussion from the council? Any discussion for the public? Sorry. Anyone want to talk about mineral activives? No. Okay. Uh rocks. Ross rock. Sorry. Yes. All right. Uh got a motion in a second. So we will go ahead and vote on that. All votes correct or yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. 7F. consider authorizing the city manager to execute change order number two for the water treatment plant generator construction project. Mr. Turner U, mayor and members of the council, this change order adds some SCADA monitoring and uh remote annunciator panel, wiring it in and a security light and removing some poles and electric wires down there to be abandoned. Uh these are things that we're adding to the project. Some of them we should have had in there to start with and some of them we we're adding. We're uh taking out some other items that was in there that we had some allowances in there. So total add of this is $22,434 and recommend your approval.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldidge, seconded by Councilman Gilbert. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from council. Okay. All vote. All votes correct four yes motion carries. Thank you. 7G. Consider authorizing the city manager to execute amendment number one for engineering service agreement for design and construction management of standby power at the equipable water plant. Uh Mr. Turner.

Uh this contract amendment um is to administer the project that uh we just approved the change order on. So they they need additional time. So the inspector and the engineer that's doing the construction administration will have a little more expense on this. We're moving some items around in this contract total ad $16,000. And I want to point out that on both of these projects that it's covered through the grant. So our portion is 5% of that. So recommend your approval. Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion made by Councilman Baji. Is there a second? Second.

Second by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from council. Okay, we'll go ahead and vote on that one.

All votes correct or yes, motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the agenda portion of the meeting. Is there anyone who would like to speak to the city council on any non-aggenda items? Uh, I will go ahead and recognize real fast. I see boy scout troop back here. Thank y'all. Yes. What troop are y'all with? Troop 20. Wait, what?

20. Okay. Well, thank y'all for being here. Y'all came to a decent one. It wasn't too long. We appreciate y'all being here. Thank you very much. Um, anybody who would like to speak to council? No. Okay. We do have one more item that we do need to receive our city's financial report for 712025 through 1231 2022. It's not wonder what you have three minutes. Oh, it's a lot of numbers. I'd like to present just so they could leave now if they wanted to. What? Good stuff. Yes. Yeah.

I'm reading every line just 19 pages. I just wanted to present. And I know usually in February we like to let you guys know um how six months financials are going. And I just wanted to bring to light a few items. You have again in your entire packet all funds and how we're doing. Um first I just wanted to highlight the general fund. Um it's largest revenue stream. These are the revenues for the general fund. The the largest revenue stream is local taxes. Currently it's at 48% of budget which is typical for this period due to the timing of tax payments. Tax payments for property tax are not due until February 28th. Overall, we're at 50% of budget as anticipated for revenues for this fund. This slide breaks out the largest revenue streams for the general fund, sales tax, and property tax. We budgeted 20,291,300 and have collected 10,760,450, which is right at 53% and on target for the year. Property tax collections are at 42.8% just under the same time last year. Taxes are due at the end of this month and we have budgeted 12,846,000. The aggregate at December 31st is 12,812,199. For the general general fund operating expenditures, some departments are over 50% mostly due to some retirement payouts which are included in the budget amendments presented earlier. Everybody else seems to be operating under 50% as expected. The general fund capital expenditures overall are at 35% of budget. We do anticipate having the fire truck this year. Overall, the general fund is at 48% of budget. The next topic is the sanitation fund. Operating revenues are at 51% of budget. Total revenues at 52.77%

and operating expenditures at 45% of budget. Next, I have the general obligation debt service fund. We use this to pay off our debt payments. State sales tax revenues is the highest stream of revenue in this fund and is at 52.5% of budget. Bond principal payments, as you can see, are zero. We have interest due in December and interest and principal due in June. This slide shows the debt outstanding. We issued 10,525,000 in bonds this year. In the general improvement bond fund, where we pay for major projects that we use the bond funds for, revenues are at 56% of budget. We had anticipated borrowing 20 million this fiscal year. We've spent 30% of the budget as of December 31st. Hoping most of these projects will will hoping most of these projects in prog progress will be final this year. as the fire stations, West Stevens, CPAC renovations. We'd really like to have those complete this fiscal year. Last, we have the utilities, water departments operating revenues are at 54% of budget and 50% for operating expense. And the energy department, the electric division operating revenues are at 52% of budget and expenses at 53 and 50%. The gas division operating revenues are at 31% of operating revenues and 39% operating expenses. Their low numbers and percentages are due to the seasonal driven gas with the cold weather season just started in December. So those will pick up. All funds are as expected. I'm h happy to answer any questions, but I recommend your acceptance of my report.

Thank you. We do need to vote on this. So is there a motion to accept the city's financial report? Absolutely. Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldidge. Is there a second? Second. Second from Councilman Baji. Uh, any discussion from the public on this from council? Great job. Everything's looking good. Thank you. That wasn't bad at all. All right. 19 pages. What? It was not 19 pages. Thank you. Yes. Uh, we'll go ahead and vote on that then.

All votes correct or yes, motion carries. Thank you. That concludes concludes our meeting. Any uh any discussion from council? Anything y'all need to say? All right, meeting is adjourned.