City Council - Regular Meeting

thing we'll do is the uh invocation and I'm going to ask Chaplain Ricker to come up and lead us in that and then Tim Ward will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this day and we ask you to give wisdom and knowledge to our city leaders as always, God. And thank you for having your hand on Greenwell and Green County. God, we ask you to bless Miss Kidwell and Mr. board on their new adventures and thank you for their service and continue to help us to do your will and seek your face every day. God, you are the only way to heaven in Jesus name. Amen.

Place the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We need some more seating. There's some here. There's one back here. Yeah, there's there's more seats up here if y'all want to come sit down on the side there, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

As far as the mayor's comments go, we've got a pretty special thing that's going on today. We've got a young man that's been working with the town for 40 years and he's here tonight so we can recognize him for his years and years of service. So Pat Py, can you come up?

Yes, sir. Yeah, I always love doing this and always will. This one's extra special with 44 years with the town. So I I think he could be called Mr. Greenville. William Gardner. We probably have a few folks that might want to come up and say some great things about William and uh but I want to present him at this time with with the plaque for 44 years of service. You want to say something?

Do I want to say something? After 44 years of service, I do a long time a long certainly appreciate everyone being here. My funeral home, funeral home family, uh my work family, police department, everybody, the community, every everyone that supports me. I certainly appreciate y'all. uh started as a young man and never envisioned that I would be here 44 years and be in the position uh that I am today. Uh thanks to Brad Peters, he made a lot of it possible. Uh I was going to Tuscan College to work back in 2008 n Brad looked at me. He said, "You're not going anywhere." So, he made me public works assistant director and here I am. You know, thank you. Thank you. Uh the community, I appreciate you all so very much. This means a lot to me. Uh I don't know how to express my thanks. My work family, everybody has worked with me for the last 44 years. Thank you. And I don't know if this is on or not.

Testing. Okay,

it is. So Tony's been by my side for years. And he and I worked together for for many, many years. And we come in when it was uh 4:00 in the morning, trees were down, we helped the police department, they'd call, we'd come in, cut trees out of the road or whatever we need to do. Thank you, Tony. He was a he was a big part uh help for me and I I very much all the the planning department the everybody has helped me. Nicole Butch, we worked together for a lot uh school system. I know we worked together for many, many, many times. You know, they would call and u if I could help them, I would, you know, I always tried to I always tried to help people. That was my philosophy because you never know when I needed help, you know. And we'd get out there and we we we just done things to help, you know, and that that was what I wanted to do. And I am appreciative of my time in this department. I really am because I've helped so many people and that's evident by the people in this room. A lot of important people. Everybody's important. I appreciate each and every one of you. And thank you very much, Stephen. We didn't know each other. He came to work over at public spano. We became friends. We're still friends today. I appreciate that. Kevin, Josh, Eddie, Danny, I appreciate each and every one of you. And I I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here. So, if uh you need me, you can call me. And uh

I was going to say your phone is always blown up. Yeah. People call you. I'll be here. So, I I'm I'm not leaving town, so I'll still be available. So, with that, I just want to say thank you. And thank you. If I can ever help anyone, I certainly will. Certainly will. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Real. Thank you, Real.

Thank you. Great man. Yes, he is. Great man. You are appreciate it. You're more than welcome. I'd like to say one thing about William real quick. I don't think this town truly realizes what they're losing. This I don't know

this man probably 247 we're going to miss you guys and he deserveves I'm hug.

Is there anybody else that'd like to come up and say anything? Well, I'll make it short and sweet. He's been the best to work for. He's given me many opportunities in my career to grow. Been a boss. He's been a friend. And been a brother. William, I appreciate you. You'll be missed for a few months anyway.

Appreciate what you mean to us. He's been a great leader. Couldn't be more thankful. Thank God for people like him and Brad. We got Scott. We've had good leaders. Appreciate you.

If I can for long. I know everybody refresh and everything, but I've known William for ever since I've been in Green County and doesn't show favoritism. But if you beat something, it doesn't matter what time he's done stuff as Steve was saying. Uh I see right down the road. I pull over. William, I need this. William, can you do this? He'll get it done just like that. No favoritism. If it needs to go in, William will do it. We and his his family over in the hood over there across the railroad track. He's done a wonderful wonderful job. George Flynn and Cultural Alliance since I've been affiliated with that organization. It takes a lot to put on that program and all the signs, garbage cans, whatever you need. William's going to take care. All you got to do is let him know what it is you need and he'll do it. I He drive the trash truck. He's picked up stuff in the cemetery where we cut down brush. If he can't get somebody to do it, William's going to come over there and get it done. So, you don't have to worry about having to request, oh, we don't have anybody to do that today. Well, I can't do that. William can and he will do it and he did it. And thank you, WILLIAM. That's

qualific call somebody else. He did it himself. I've seen him come out on the tracker at 7:00 in the morning going the field behind my house and even up and down Sunset Street. Things that you don't always get for free in life. I said this earnestly path that you left. You've left a legacy for many people. You raised the bar for a lot of people what true management and true leadership is all about. So, William and I got to work the parade for what 22 24 years. So, we became very close. But what stood out to me mostly for William is we were going through the meatballs drive-thru and he not very close and um I was having horrible day and I was just down on life. So I get to the drivethru and I see William smiling that always stood out to me. So then I tried to always get in front of him positive and encouraging Everybody wanted

for everybody and we're going to miss you because you done for the churches as well everybody. And I just want to say thank you. And you will

Thank you. Thank you, William. Yes, sir. You're a good man. I don't know where to go after that. I think we should just eat and be married. Yeah, let's just stop. We're not going to have it. Okay. Um, we were just kidding, Steve.

Are there any visitors from the uh adult leadership group? We normally have some folks visit, so there's not anybody here for that. A couple things wanted to bring up. One is uh we're in the process of getting through our search for our city manager. We have uh gotten eight people that we're going to have come in on J on February 28th for about eight hours to spend time asking questions to the candidates. And we have a list of the people that we'll be talking with. They are Brad Peters, Gary Palmer, Kelly Janice, Butch Patterson, Scott Collins, Gary Carver, Scott Keith, and Andy Broles. So, four of those folks are from our community and then four are from outside of the town or outside of the the area. A lot of them have uh experience in the region. So, we'll get those done and and see where we go on the next step. Pete Augur who is working through with us through the um MTAS will be here at 8 o'clock on the 28th and spend about 30 minutes with us talking about interview or the questions we're going to ask and how we're going to ask them and those kinds of things. So, that'll be here

at 8:00 a.m. and we'll be we should be through around 4:30 or 3:30 p.m. Keeping our fingers crossed.

What else is it?

Okay, got a lot of folks here today. So, we'll go ahead and get started. Public comment. First of all, I've got uh Chris Nicely has asked if he could speak. So, I'm going to ask him to come up right now. Hi, I'm U Chris Nicely. I'm owner of Nicely Done Barberhop at 811 Tuskam Boulevard. And uh I've come before y'all to I guess to get y'all to take into consideration of revising the flag ordinance. If I'm not mistaken, that flag ordinance has been in existence since 1996. I may be wrong about that, but it's been a long time. Anyway, um when I talked to the gentleman at the planning office, I think his name is Bert Bert or whatever, but uh but anyway, he had gave me some reasons why the flag one people were complaining about it. They said it's a I guess a clutter thing or whatever or and it makes a lot of noise. But I'm kind of a geek. I did a little research on these flags and come to come to find out it says a freef flying uh rectangular flag typically only have one side attached to the pole leaving the rest of the fabric free whipped. The whipping source is the primary noise. So it's making a no more noise. our American flag is whipping, making a a louder noise than a feather flag that's flying. And as far as um I think the council really needs to consider that, not just for my business, but other business also because that bring that generates business for people like myself. I I bring my flag out of the morning. Well, I don't do it anymore, but I take it out of the

morning and morning and bring it back in the evening. And um so for a lot of people coming in, we have a lot of new people moving into Greenville. Everybody can agree on that. Uh like they notice businesses like mine because of that flag. Otherwise, they would not even know the other business there or anything. Um but I'd really like you guys to really think about that because I mean we talk about clutter and eyes. There's a lot more than just flags that are clutter and eyes in this town. trust me. Um, but that's about all I have to say about these flags. But like I said, it generates business for us and for All of Town people that doesn't know where a barber shop may be or um where else I see one or bicycle shop bicycle shop may be. So that's one I'm asking you guys today to reconsider revising that ordinance. Um, at least I've done some research. A lot of towns, um, Morristown, Johnson City, thriving, thriving. And guess what? They have flying the feather flags. They're not bothering anybody. Now, I do agree. I hate to see the ones that are tore and just a mess. I hate those. So, I mean, if you do revise the ordinance, um, you know, put that in there. You got to maintain your flag. But really, towns are thriving around us. So since 19 can't go by, what people's feelings in the town of, hey, this looks bad, this looks bad. But like I said, we have bigger eyes in Greenville City than the feather flag. So I thank you for your time. Thank you for allowing me to come and speak with you.

Thank you very much, Chris. Appreciate you coming in. We'll talk and see what we might can do. Thank you. All right. We also have uh David Bailey, I think, but I'm going to wait until we get to the um tennis association discussion or the tennis courts before you come up if that's okay, David. Is there anybody else? Those two. Okay. All right. We'll go to unfinished business. Item 6.1 is consideration to approve the minutes from the regularly scheduled meeting held on February 3rd 20 February 3rd 2026. Those were sent out last Friday. So you've had a chance to review them. Do I hear a motion to approve?

Motion to approve and second. Is there any discussion or questions? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Start with new business. Item 7.1 is consideration to approve a resolution to assume general obligation 2016A remaining debt from the Greenville Municipal Airport Authority. Hello Laura. Hello.

Thank you. Um so um in October um had a conversation with the comproller uh our representative there as well as our auditors. This came up in the audit um as part of the discussion for the airport separating from the town. um that this debt issue that the airport has been paying, at least since I've been here, they've been paying it. Um is a refinance of variable rate debt from 2003 that had a rate as high as 7%. Um and that there's a reason we don't have variable rate debt. We're not permitted to do that anymore, but we refinanced that. And then there was um a litigation a large litigation settlement for the airport that this money was also used for. There are 15 years remaining on the debt. Principal and interest payments range between 1175 and $120,000 a year. This is not airport revenue backed debt. It is backed by our property taxes. So, in the conversation with both of those individuals in October, in fiscal year 2026, the town appropriated $85,000 in an operating transfer to the airport. That debt is 120,000 principal and interest. We were giving the airport that's their largest expenditure um outside of their fuel purchases. So in their operating budget um and so the recommendation was that's we were

giving them 70% of that payment and so that reaches a threshold to where we need to put that debt back on the town's books where it belongs where it's backed by taxpayer debt. um that will has a net effect of a positive $35,000 to the airport. Um the proposal is in the resolution is to for the town to assume that debt and no other operating transfer on an annual basis to the airport authority with the exception of a grant match. Um, I think that's all the information I needed I had listed to give you. Does anybody have any questions or comments about that? The timing of the airport separation as well as the percentage of taxpayer money we were giving the airport to pay the taxpayer debt. Um, it's this is just was the recommendation from both of those individual commentaries. So the state and the and our

our auditor's vote. Yes. So the initial expenditure was a $1.6 million was 1.615 million. Yes. Um 680,000 of that was the litigation settlement. The rest of that was just refinancing construction debt that was on that on those variable rate terms.

Okay. Um, and if you look on page eight in your packet, that's the first page of the repayment schedule. You'll notice the first few years that they paid on this from 2016 until the end of FY24 was interest only because they also had revenue debt for another capital project that was refinanced in 2016 from variable rate. That debt was backed by airport revenues and they have paid that off. they've satisfied that debt. Okay. So, one more time, it's around 120 give or take or a little bit.

How many years? 15 more years. The last payment is in 2041. Yes. September of 2041 is the last debt payment. Okay. So, we have a recommendation. Do I hear a motion to approve?

So, moved. Yes, sir. We have a motion. Is there a second? I want to make sure I'm understanding this. Okay. The airport is not going to ask for a a yearly

No. In conversations with Angela and even Paul over the last actually the last couple years they have realized that this from their viewpoint this is a large expenditure that's related to the airport that is on their books and they've asked the town to take that over before. Um they've been able to continue to pay that debt on their own. The issue we have now is this year's budget, they needed such a large operating transfer, we're giving them taxpayer money to pay taxpayer debt. And so the recommendation is to pull that debt over into the general fund where our ES. Thank you. Do we have a motion? Do we have a second?

Second. Is there any further discussion or comments? All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Laura. Thank you. I guess you get to stay up for another discussion, don't you? Two more. Item 7.2 is consideration to approve a resolution and repayment schedule for a loan provided by the Greenville Energy Authority for the development of Harden Industrial Park and Mount Pleasant Industrial Park. The total due to GA is $625,000 $713.51.

I'm gonna give you a little bit of history and then if you have specific questions, um, Mrs. Mingle and Mr. Wells are here. Um, and I will have to defer to them. This is way before my time. Um but in 1993 for Mount Pleasant Industrial Park and then in 2000 for Harden Industrial Park, GA was permitted to for economic development purposes to loan uh money to get that um to get those parks moving, get them constructed and moving forward. And correct me if I'm wrong. Um, and so, uh, for whatever reason, and they may have more information and insight than I do, um, this is just one of those things that's sat and sat and sat and now we've got tension attention called to it and we need to settle up and take care of it. The agreement states that um the town of Greenville's responsible for paying that debt. Um I've talked to Paige and she's conferred with Mr. Wells. So they've allowed us to pay this back to them over seven-year period. Um and page 14 in your packet that's 89,38764 a year for the next seven years. Um, and there's also a provision, and this is an interest free loan, by the way. There's also a provision in the original contract that I have in the resolution at their request, and I 100% concur. Um, is that if at any time um the industrial park property sales, those proceeds are intended to, um, reduce or eliminate the debt. First questions

then this was start I mean this was done in 93 90 80 I mean when the original was 1993 and the second agreement was for that industrial park you were still in high school weren't you something like that um we weren't too far out of high school then. All right. Okay. Is there any further questions or

there really wasn't a term in there that I saw for anything other than just the property sale. So, it was kind of an open call to our attention. So, actually they did that about five years ago. And I do think in in just kind of reading and researching a little bit with TVA, the new legislation now will not allow um utility revenues to be used for things like this. They were back then, but they're not now. And so TVA had a request in about 20201 to to settle this up as well.

Okay. Does everybody understand what we're looking at? Do I hear a motion to I just want to let it be known that I do sit on the GA board. Okay. Is all I think I can still vote on it though. What do you think? Motion. I'll make a motion. Motion to approve. And a second. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Thanks for your um interest free loan. Yes, we like it for 30 years. Y'all want to load me some for the next 30 years? Probably not.

Item 7.33 is consideration to approve a resolution to adopt an AC automated clearing house fraud policy for the town of Greenville. Okay, this is the last one for me today and then I'll go back and sit down. Um I will get you back.

This one doesn't involve any money. Um so basically what this policy is and I gave you the one in your packet was the example and then um I have been out um of the office um with the flu uh the end of last week and so you should have the revised policy in front of you now. Um that's actually the town of Greenville policy. Um it's basically the same outline and what this is is there's a uh group called NACHA NACHA um that basically is the national association that takes care of these payments and receipts that we get and it's basically a automated clearing house. That's just an automatic it's a direct deposit into our bank account or it's a a d a payment that we push on our end that involves no check. It's all electronic. It's not a wire. It's just literally we go into the bank account and we pay a bill. For example, that's how we play pay our insurance bill to Blue Cross Blue Shield is we just pay them directly. It's that was at their request that's in our contract. On the receipt side, we get all of our grant monies and our state shared revenues directly deposited into our bank account. And so this policy is now required by uh June for all um local government entities, really any entity um that has these transactions in their financial portfolio and their activity. Um, and it outline it lays out steps, definitions and steps and what our response is going to be. Um, should something happen, if something happens, what's the protocol? What does that look like? Um, who do we notify first? Um, what's the process? So, it standardizes

that. Everybody in my office will know this policy will be emailed to everybody of course in in that works in my office that handles all this sort of stuff. We also are going to send a copy to the bank and our auditors will be looking for this in October. Um it's a national requirement to do this and this is basically just our steps as far as notifying the police, it the bank um should we have um a compromise on our bank account or even just an invoice compromise or a questionable deposit. I will say we have a service that we pay for through Andrew Johnson bank called positive pay and every day um through new technology um it will identify something that doesn't look normal. For example, if we write a check our normal vendor is not Kathy Osborne. Occasionally she may get something for a travel reimbursement but that's not a normal vendor. So it's going to flag her just based on the vendor. If we write a check to Summers Taylor for $450,000 and their normal average is 70, it's going to flag that and we have to go in and manually tell the bank to pay those and double check those every day, every single business day that we're open. And so there are three of us in my office that are watching those as well as another person that watches the bank account on a daily basis.

Okay. Uh will you do training with everyone?

Um in my office we've already had training actually. Um we were offered training by um First Tennessee Bank. They had a um sort of a regional session uh back in the fall about this very thing. Um and then we I've had regular meetings with um Andrew Johnson Bank on the positive pay. They check in with me frequently. Is that working? Does it help us to be able to do that? Um, and then of course we'll between myself, Kathy, the new city manager, and the IT team will be kind of reviewing this on an annual basis to make sure if we need to change language, if we need to follow up on anything and our cyber policy is also going to require this as well. But who

our cyber security policy is also going to require this as well? And it's I think it says middle or June that it has to be done, sir. Are we doing it already? I'm doing it already. Yes, sir. Okay, good. So, we just need an approval of this policy. Yes, sir. It's not costing anything. It doesn't cost. No, this is just basically our steps to what we're going to do to prevent um definitions, what to look for. And then what our response actually is. And what is NACHA?

That's the National Association for the Automated Clearing House. just the governing group for lack of a better word that monitors and manages all these um transactions for different entities and across the country. And so they're the ones that are actually requiring this for anybody through through the banking institutions through everybody. Paige, I'm not putting you on the um spot, but do y'all are y'all doing this also? Does the school system also good?

All right. Well, we have a recommendation. Do I hear? Is that your recommendation? It is. We need to pass this policy. Yes, sir. I make a motion. Second. Approve. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Okay. Next is consideration to approve a resolution of the policies and procedures for the 2025 home grant.

So, the town received this grant a couple months ago and this is just the next step in the process. Um, we got this grant probably back in the 2020 time frame. It's a three-year grant. um policies and procedures or standard policies and procedures of how the grant will be administered. Um it's a three-year grant. Um it goes in the description here of who's eligible to apply and First Tennessee Development District um has handled this grant for us in the past and they'll be the ones that oversee this grant contract for us this round as well. And um it normally in the period of March, April, they'll start sending out applications. Uh applications will be made available for those that would like to apply. Um you can reach out to the First Tennessee Development District now and um Renee Man is our our grant contract, but this is just making sure our policies and procedures are followed to THDA standards. Um this grant comes down from the federal government from USDA um and just making sure that it's fair and equitable to our community.

Can can you explain a little bit what that money can be used for?

So individuals um have to use this their residents as their primary residence and there is some in income guidelines um that have to be followed and it's based on a point system. So, it's based on how many people live in your household, um the criteria of um your income, and then also what your needs are. So, some of the home repairs that can be done is if you need a ADA uh walkway to get to your house, if you need some basic plumbing or roofing or windows, um there's different criteria that's listed in there as an eligible activity. Um but hopefully in the next month or so um First Tennessee Development District assured me that they send out a public notice to let people know that applications are available once that notice goes out and she also makes me aware I'm looking at Virginia because uh she helps uh she's my contact. She's the one that helps uh spreads the applications out there in the community. Um, but those applications actually go directly to Renee Man at First Tennessee Development District and then they're the ones that um take it from there. Um, but once those are available, we'll make sure that we post that on our uh town website and our social media and then those applications, not only could you get them from First Tennessee Development District directly or we have those available at town hall um once we get through this step. So this was the next step in the process is just for you all to approve the basic policies and procedures and then of course the next item is to um make sure that you allow First Tennessee Development District to administer administer that grant for us.

So item 7.4 is approval of the policies and procedures and you recommend Yes. We have a recommendation. Do I hear a motion? Motion to approve. Approve. Second. Any further questions? All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. Item 7.5 is consideration to approve an agreement with First Tennessee Development District for administrative services of the 2025 home grant. This just follows this too. Uh there just needed to be two separate approvals. Um this one's just allowing First Tennessee Development District to to administer this grant contract for the town.

Okay. We have a recommendation. And do I hear an approval or a motion to approve? So move. There a second. Second. Any further questions or comments? All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. If you don't aren't a aware of the First Tennessee Development District and all the activities that they have going on for the First Tennessee Development District, it's a great organization and it helps us in so many ways. The disability and add whatever is it what is it now? DDA, add

Triple A. Okay. But there's there are numbers of different oper options that they have to help us. Item 7.6 is consideration to approve tennis court repairs at sports complex on how Hendry Road. Butch.

Hello.

How are you? You all have some things before you, but in the last roughly 30 to 45 days that we've been working on this, there's some new things come to light. Uh we had a meeting between the parks and recck, the tennis association, and the school system representatives as well as baseline sports on really making sure that we were doing the right thing with the the amount amount of monies that we're going to have uh and and what we're trying to get accomplished and worked with Andy Broles. First thing we done was also made sure that did we have a water problem? Was that what was creating the issues or not? We determined that that fortunately was not an issue. Uh we brought baseline in who actually built the courts when they were done and basically what's we have found out is it's a paving issue. Tennis courts roughly are going to last 20 to 25 years before you do the nuclear option. For example, Link Hills has basically did the nuclear option twice in the last 50 years. So after looking at everything and speaking with everybody involved, we want to make sure that we have three courts that are 100% what we need to have. We looked at when we looked at the clay courts and turning them into hard courts at that point in time as when we were discussed Greenville High School was in the double A part which means if they needed to host something there's big school and small school in tennis at one point in time they were in the large division so if they were going to host something they would need eight

courts they now have been reclassified they are in the small division so if they are able to host and correct me if I'm wrong tennis folks But if if they're needing to host now, they only have to have six. They do not have to have eight. Makes a difference. So, what I'm going to recommend is when you look at the paperwork I give you that we go with total reconstruction of the three courts. It's a little bit shy of the the money obligated, which is 75 from the school system, 75 from the county. We had agreed to put in 75. So it's 248657. So we're roughly about a little less than $24,000 difference. But there are some options to maybe cut that. But you know, it's kind of like if you're if you're building a new home or you're renovating a home, do you leave your 1978 bathroom? We don't need to do that. So my recommendation is going to be that we do the option one of the 248 657. We have got to figure out okay where the other remaining 23 657's coming from. We do have a um a commitment or a pledge from the tennis association and I will say there's been a revitalization and rejuvenation in the tennis system. in the tennis association. There's some folks that have came back on board that maybe hadn't been part of the the group for a while. There's a little bit of a renewed energy there. Uh I can't say enough about David Williams and and and Mr. Bailey who've worked diligently the last uh David's work. They've been there since the start. They continue. David's came back on. There's some other folks

coming back on. So with that being said, I think we need to do the 248657. They're making a commitment that they want to resurface uh pledge the 30,160 to do the other three courts which will basically buy us a 5 to sevenyear window. Uh but at some point in time once we do that 5 to 7 year window then those three courts are going to be between 25 to 30 year old. Hopefully they don't create bring up the issues that we have now on the current three. Hopefully that doesn't happen but we don't have a crystal ball uh and and get this done. And so uh at the end of the day if fortunate enough that you know we've uh we want to make sure it maintains and stays a first class facility.

But you said that the uh uh but the 248 of resurfacing when you all did the initial evaluation it was due to a pavement issue. Is there a plan if we go with the 248 and we completely you know new construction is there a plan in place for routine maintenance moving forward? Is there some reason why the is there was there a lack of maintenance that contributed to the pavement cracking? Like is there I just want to know if there's like a plan we like said that's why we brought in baseline and you know we didn't know if we had a water issue

uh because but the more we've delved into it and as I said we we made we did borings and things to make sure it wasn't a water issue. So we we ruled that out and after bringing baseline back in who actually built the courts. He's basically uh they paved them. It's 11 foot section that they paved them and and he just said after you know it's it's like a road after a certain amount of time the pavement is going to where it expands and contracts and back for it's going to start cracking and and the cracks just kept getting bigger and bigger. So that's where the wearing lies that every roughly 20 to 25 years you're going to have to resurface your courts. And we're getting to that point. That's where we're at. And so hopefully the uh with the help of the tennis association and refinish the other three courts. That's going to give us another five to sevenyear window to where we don't have to do a total reconstruction on those three. So to let you know, the three that we're going to reconstruct are closer to what is was the vote. the three that we're going to just resurface is closer to the ball fields obviously for me. So if that helps.

Yes. What about the clay courts?

Long clay courts is uh they will no longer be in existence. We are going to uh keep the fence up. We're not going to uh tear that down to where if there ever is future consideration or need for more courts, uh it's there, but we are going to basically it will be grassed over and we will be keeping it nice and neat and clean to where now if you go down there it's like that doesn't that does not look very good. But

Christine, if you'll go back to the options, please. Um, the option the 248. Yes. Completely having three brand new courts.

Is this enough for our tennis teams, the boys and girls tennis teams to host other schools in? Yes, because and currently they're able to use utilize the other three courts as well. So that will get and and what we're going to do for this spring. Obviously, our timetables ticking as as we've talked about with making sure we secure the county funds before June 30th. The high school tennis team will play there this spring. construction is what we're going to try to line up is get going just as soon as they're completed to where then we know we've got stuff going on and we secure the funds from the other organizations before their end of the year function. Uh and so um at that point in time it will be what it be. However long we got to shut it down to get it done, we will, which we will still have the other three courts that we'll be able to play on while that's going on because the reservicing, as I said, that the ten association is talking about, they've came up with some ways to to look at funding to come up with that uh additional $30,160.

I guess I'm not understanding the other three courts, we can we can play on them now. Yes, they're still Yes. And and two of the three courts is we can play on as well. Two of one of the three is is in is in got a problem. So one of the six is terrible. Not good at all. It's it's and five of the six you can play on but they're not as good all six because there's goodiz cracks in that six. One of that six. Yeah. Okay. And what kind of funding can you share on that?

Well, we I was going to say Butch basically talked about a lot of things I had that I had myself going to say. We set a goal that board has. Can you talk in the mic so folks can hear you on

a goal in the next few months to raise the funding to resurface courts four, five, and six, the three closest to the ball fields. And as Butch said, that's want to give us another five to seven years life of those courts. It may go past that if they don't crack as much again. So, but for certain, five to seven years. We plan to fund raise enough funds to take care of that project ourselves. As far as GCTA, we run on about a $10,000 budget a year. So, it's a small budget. Um, so we basically we've got Bart Kennedy coming back in which that is going to be a great boost to us. Bart doing his clinics and things, teachings. So we'll have some income from BART bringing that in. But our goal is to basically help grow the tennis numbers again. And as Butch just said, we've got some board members that have been on around a long time that have come back on, understand what it used to be, and we feel like we can get it back to where it was uh before. So, that is our goal is to fund raise and bring people in to play tennis.

Do you have some ideas about how you're going to raise that money? We've uh there's there are some USA and Tennessee Association grants that we've uh applied for one of those for sure. There's other grants we'll be applying for. We're going to kind of do a blitz. Uh we're not going to be shy about having our hand out asking the local people to participate that and that'll be a big chunk of where the funds will come from. So we're at a I guess a point to where the county is offering for the land swap 75,000. The school has I think already passed is what I read. Is that correct, Steve?

Yes, sir. 75,000 and we were going in. So we're a little shy. Let's just say 25,000 which basically it and that does that include fencing? It will. It will. Okay. Will like 90 something thousand. I'm sorry. Since we're at like 90 something,000 our contribution. Yes, it'll be. I make a motion to approve it. It's we got to take care of our things. Um, and we time is of the essence and I I make a motion to approve it. Definitely need it for our school system.

We've got to have it for the schools. We've got to have it. We've got willing partners to try to meet the gaps, fill the gaps. So,

have people on the board now came back that was there when it was originally done. And I I will have to say when you look at the original situation regarding the tennis facility. What they done at that point in time, the city only had $50,000 in it as far as actual money when it was built. Obviously, we've maintained it since then, but they did a phenomenal job of helping raise the line share of the money to build that facility, and it is a very, very nice facility. I just think that we need to go ahead and and uh and do these three. That way you all may be here, but a lot of us will be long gone before we have to worry about those three courts again.

Well, we have our debt service. I mean, we're sitting here spending money that and we haven't asked the person that holds the purse strings over here. She's been aware. Okay. She was going to I was waiting my turn. Okay. So, go ahead, Mr. T. Well, no. I I was just saying so far we've taken over the debt service. Of course, that's not new debt service for the airport and now having a debt service of $89,000 to pay GEA back. Can we add this to it?

I was going to ask the question about the funding source for the 75 or the 90. I will tell you um that um you still have bond proceeds that need to be spent and since this is reconstructing from the ground up, it is a capital project and those monies can be used for that. To be clear, that's depot street.

That's yes, that's the that's the 300 we've got a little more than 300,000 um left. Um, and since that project is in limbo, as I understand, you do have an opportunity to use those the bond monies to construct these courts. So, I really would appreciate some guidance on a funding source. Do you want fund balance or do you want to use the debt proceeds? And originally when the option when we were looking at different options before your last meeting um we were talking about repair resurfacing repairs instead of reconstruction. So when Laura and I talked about that you can't use the the bond proceeds for repair but you can for reconstruction. Yes.

So we would have to do this by the end of the year. I mean the end of the fiscal year. Well, it not not necessarily. If you commit those bond proceeds to this part of them, then we have some of that money that's already moving and then the rest of it we can still allocate to the walkway um if that's the intended use for the rest of it. There's 300,000. There's a little more than 300. More than 300 left in the bond. Yes. when you all met with them recently, and I know the GC baseline

baseline, GCTA, city schools, and and you and parks and w um did they give you a timeline? I know the timeline has always been a an issue of um we definitely got to get on our schedule and as Laura alluded to, um obviously if we if we can get things started in into April.

Yeah. As soon as Tennessee uh team is done, then you know it a situation where those monies willing from the other two groups we will definitely have in line. Now to tell you that it will be done completed by June 30th where everybody can wrap it up. That may not be be feasible or doable as far as a timeline goes. At least get it started to where we secure the funds from the two other groups before their end of the year situation happens to where we have the money. One other thing I'd like depending on which way we go. As we can see, we've got a number of things that we um agreed to ad do numbers of years ago and didn't it fell through the cracks. It people left people. But if we're gonna if we're going to make this commitment, we need to make it a commitment that we can all live with because just because

and I agree with you and I'm going to say that and we spoke about this in the meeting. Um, if we're if we resurface the other three closest to lucky in five years from now, all we need to do is resurface those three again. Well, you know, it's a $30,000 cost right now. Well, that needs to be split three ways. City association school system. We know that's coming. Five to seven years. We know that that's coming. And so, and they they talked about that as well as, okay, we, as you alluded to, we need to make sure that we're preparing for that five to seven years down the road. What's the next obstacle that we've got to overcome

without going completely backwards here? Is this something we have to send RFQS or RFPs on to bid this process? Well, and and we're checking on now and we we we don't it's we do not we are permit so um if I understand correctly baseline has a contract with um and at Knoxville Knoxville. That's correct. So we are permitted to piggyback um on those contracts. For example, the county bids out um um Taylor

Summers Taylor every year um and Vulcan and so we're allowed to piggyback on their bids rather than duplicating the efforts. So that is correct. Since they already have a contract with another municipality, we are able to piggyback on that contract and not have to bid that out. Is the striping and stuff like that is that something you do? That'll all be included in this process.

Yeah, because it's got to be exact. Okay. Do I hear a motion to approve this project? still haven't heard how we're paying for it cuz we're up to $100,000 or or do we need to decide that or just decide yes, we're going to fix these courts somehow. That was my understanding. That was what my motion was for. Um that's what the reason I brought that. I think since we don't have a whole lot of direction on the walkway, we know this needs to be done. That would be my recommendation is to use the bond money.

Okay, that still leave us with 250,000 or so to do that walkway. I'll second. Does he need to amend his motion? I will amend my motion to approve the project using bond proceeds money bond proceeds. Um yes from depot from the depot street project. Thank you. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. Thanks gentlemen. Item 7.7 is consideration to approve change in scope of services of the 20 23 CDBG grant Bernard Avenue sidewalk Improvement Project.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. This is a proposal to adjust the scope of services on this Bernard Avenue sidewalk project. Uh, and I can you've got some documentation there, but I'll give you a little re or a little update on that or a little history. Um, you remember this was a community uh development block grant that was awarded in 2023 to the city for sidewalk improvements on Bernard Avenue originally from Tuscan Boulevard all the way to McKe and um on one side of the road and it was determined early in the project in 2024 that a portion of that from East Church Street to McKe was not going to be able to be completed due to there's a hu a large propane storage tank there was uh right near the soccer complex and that complicated using these funds um because that conflicted with some of the funding regulations in this as far as that could be too close to pedestrian improvements. So it was decided at that time to revise the scope already. It's already been re revised once and it was revised to just include from Tuscan Boulevard to East Church Street, but to add improvements around the East View the parks and recck facility there at East View School. So, that was the plan. It's kind of just been sitting on the shelf and not moving forward a lot. And I I was really looking into this thing and I'm trying to figure out a way that we can get this thing moving and moving quickly because it's there's a time limit on this grant of five years from so it has to be completed by 2028. So we've been sitting here three years and we're really not getting anything done. So the the issue was the reason moving forward that the reason I'm want to ask to split I'm asking to split this into two phases. one around the East View Rec Center and

the other the balance of the the line the road down Bernard the section down Bernard if you all everybody's driven through there you know that section where the sidewalk is um I guess I don't know what side of the road that is on the side toward the Y the uh you know most of those sidewalks the street has been ra paved over and paved over to the point where it's raised up almost even with the sidewalk property owners have paved their parking lots even with sidewalks there the sidewalk really just is a strip there doesn't exist as a sidewalk people just drive over it. Well, for that is prohibited in our zoning ordinance. We have to have controlled entry points in and out of a business. So, the plan was to put back the original entry points is what JMT had designed. They're visible there on all those businesses. You can see where the original curb cuts were where they went in and out. Well, I was concerned about that. That how that's going to impact all those business owners. and come to find out that I don't think we've had any communication with any of those business owners that to see if they even want this if it's going to impact their business and their parking severely. So, and in trying to keep this thing moving forward quickly, I come up with this idea and we had asked JMT if we can do this to split it into two phases. Phase one on the town owned and controlled property around East View and the rec center. Phase two the balance of that. So, it would give us the opportunity to have meetings and talk with those property owners and explain to them up and down Bernard what would be the implications if we do this sidewalk improvement to see if it's something they want, but at the same time, we could get the improvements going around East View quickly. Um, so we've we've talked with First Tennessee Development District who's administering this grant. We can do this. It's not an issue. They can amend the the contract. Um JMT has provided back a proposal that's in your documents there of what it would look like to split this into

two phases and uh what so with that said we can do it. There are going to be some additional costs but I tried to find a way to make it feasible because they're going to have to have some additional engineering fees to be able to redesign this part around East View. Uh there were some issues there with that design and it's sort of in a little sketch I showed you. They originally had it designed. Well, I I had just sketched this out. So, what's in yellow would be a the proposed new sidewalks. Uh and parking oversized parking there because we have that's what's parked there now. We have a lot of large trucks, SUVs all up and down that side. The original JMT design I don't think had much direction from the town and what we wanted and they had proposed parallel parking spaces up the right there as you go to East View and only there's only like 12 parking spaces. We redesign it this way. We're get 34 parking spaces. So this was the plan. So it's going to take a little bit of engineering revision. So that was going to take a little more money. But what we did I I thought this is a great opportunity for the town. I sort of proposed a hybrid model. So, one of the things that was a line item in there that there was some excess money that I thought we could redistribute was in the construction inspection. So what we have proposed is that JMT remove that out of there and the town take that over so that JMT will still be in charge of uh the bidding out uh the initial construction meetings, the reviewing the the RF eyes that come in and the town would do the actual construction inspection on that phase of the the sidewalk. So uh I think that's a good opportunity for us. We be a great opportunity on a relatively simple civil engineering project that we can train some people inhouse between hopefully between uh

development services uh the building department, public works to do these kind of inspections because we don't have that expertise right now and it would be really beneficial with some other projects have been going on if we had some people that were able to do those kind of inspections. We've identified some training that was brought to our attention through MTAS coming up soon where we can train some of these individuals and I would myself would take on responsibility of making sure that we get this done. But if we do this and we asked JMT to to propose this this way we asked First Tennessee Development District is this a problem? First Tennessee development said no that this is done often by municipalities that they use in-house personnel to do the inspections. It's not a problem. Um the only the only and and this would allow us to move this thing forward quickly. So we're not actually asking for any more money. There's enough money to move around in the budget to make this happen and we can push this with really aggressive approach. They can have the we if we go this way everything is pretty much done. We can get the construction documents done in about another month. Be ready to bid this thing so we can start construction the day that school's out. So, this could be done this summer and be completed before schools goes back into session in the fall. So, um I'm glad to answer any questions you got, but I mean that essentially we're asking to revise the scope and I don't think we're going to we're not going to have to add any additional funds to it at this point.

How much was the original grant? Do you know the grant amount for the whole thing is like 600 and some thousand. does include 660 630. Yep. 630. So the original engineering contract was $176,000. So this revised part is 126 of that. So that left 50 on the the other section. The other the other section of the uh down Bernard the plans are already done to about 70% completion for construction documents. I just told them to pause until we had a time to talk with the business owners to see if we need to tweak anything so we didn't have to go back and give you any idea how much it would cost to finish that 70% after they take this out.

After they take this out, they think that they can finish it within if we take if I take the construction inspection out and we take that on as a town, they think they can finish it within the original $176,000 contract. Now, I don't know, you're probably going to ask this question, so I did a little re research, but we can't I wanted to see could we use that labor, whatever we're going to use in house to be part of the match, and the answer was that was no, because it was not in the original, right, application for the grant, right?

So, we cannot, but I don't think it's going to be that bad. But I do think in the little bit of research I did, it will be it would be a benefit to the town because I think on the on the next CBDG grant application we have that would it would look really favorable in the town that we added resources to it after the fact it was awarded to it is going to be a you know check mark in our column when we try to apply for another one of these in the future. Did you talk to Butch he's good with the design?

Yes. I think that's going to help us with so that's going to have a sidewalk that's going to improve down Tuscan Boulevard there and a nice sidewalk that's going to go all the way up to East View and improve some crosswalks there and get him we get more basically maybe a little bit more parking than we've got now, but a lot nicer parking right there. And I had add them had them add into this some uh drainage or storm water controls in there because there was none in the original design and it was just I don't know how they were planning on handling the water is just going to pull in that that's the lower section of that parking lot. But we've got all that in this proposal also. That's where the water goes anyway. Yes. There's a big

but they had no plan for That's why I'm I'm not sure that 24 ft there is going to be. It drops off pretty quickly behind those tree that tree line. Yeah, it does. But we went out we did a field visit out there with the two engineers from JMT and took a look at it and took some measurements. I think we're okay. It's it's going to be tight, but I think we're okay. That's all field area right there. It always has been.

Okay. Do I hear a motion to accept this change in scope? I make a motion that we um accept the change in scope as long as it doesn't go over and we do I guess the field reviews on that remaining part of this grant. What's left? Okay. As long as we don't go over our original budget. That's my understand. Let's do that. That sounds better. All right. Second. Motion to second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Bro. You're welcome. Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? To adjourn. Second. All those say hi. I I

Okay, everybody stay and eat. Where's our guest of honor? He's standing outside. He's shaking hands outside.