City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll call to order the Bristol, Tennessee City Council meeting March 3rd, 2026. Mary Lee, would you call the role? Yes, sir. Powers here, Akard here. Turner here. Fire here. Sel.

All right. Welcome everyone and thank you for attending. Uh there is an opportunity to speak on city business this evening during the appearance of citizens. Uh signup sheet was been provided as you entered council chambers and those individuals wishing to desire to address council. At this time I'd like to ask our fire chief Mike Carrier to lead us in our invocation and councilwoman Margaret Fire Robin to lead us in our pledge.

Let's pray. Most kind and gracious heavenly father, we come before you tonight and we just thank you, dear God, for the many blessings that you've poured out upon us. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity that we have to come together here and for this council that takes their time to take care of the business of the city. We thank you, Lord, for this great place to live, great place to work, the city of Bristol. We pray, dear God, your blessings on them as they go through this agenda. help them to consider each item that's on it, Lord, and and respond in a way that uh would better the city and move it forward in the direction that you would have it to go. We pray, dear God, for our military, and we just ask, Lord, that with the operations that are going on and the things in uh the Middle East that you would just have your hand of blessing upon them. Pray Lord for safety. We pray Lord for safety for all those that are in harm's way there. Pray dear God, that you would just bless them and watch over them. And we pray these things in the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Face the flag. I pledge algiance 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.

Okay. Do we have any additions this evening? Sorry, we don't. Okay. Are none? We have one proclamation tonight and it's on colorctyl cancer awareness month and councilwoman fire robin will read the proclamation and Miss Christina Moody Lawson cancer survivor and local organizer for get your rear and gear 5k will accept the proclamation.

All right. Um whereas correct cancer CRC is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States among men and women combined. Whereas among adults under 50, CRC is now the number one cause of cancer death in men and women. And whereas CRC is one of the few cancers that can be prevented with timely screening, but one in three eligible Americans are not up to date on screening. And more than 54% of correctal cancers in the US are attributable to potentially um modifi mod modifiable risk factors such as nutrition, physical activity, and excess body weight. And whereas Tennessee ranks 40th in the nation with TRC screening with only 57% of eligible adults receiving one or more of the recommended screening tests in the re recommended time frame. And whereas for individuals with no family history of CRC, the recommended age to start screening is 45 years old. Whereas for individuals with a close family history of CRC, screening should start at age 40 or 10 years before the age when their relative was first diagnosed with CRC. And whereas in 2026, the American Cancer Society estimates there there will be 158 850,000 new cases of CRC in the United States. And whereas by the year 2030, CRC is projected to be the number one cancer killer for young adults. Now therefore, be it resolved that the mayor of the city of Bristol, Tennessee, does hereby proclaim the month of March 2026 as correct all cancer awareness month and

encourages our community to join in efforts to bring attention to this prevalent yet detectable and treatable form of cancer. to emphasize the importance of early detection and to remind everyone to ask their health care providers about screening and other preventative measures to protect themselves and loved ones against correct all and all forms of cancer um this third day of March 2026. Thank you. The council woman stole some of my thunder. So, some of these um statistics that I have to share, she's already shared with you, but it doesn't hurt to hear them again. So, good evening, council members and citizens of Bristol. I stand before you today with profound gratitude for this proclamation and a heart full of purpose about why this why this moment is so deeply important. March is colon cancer awareness month and today Bristol joins communities across the nation in recognizing the importance and of prevention, early detection, and support for those fighting this disease. I am also here as a colon cancer survivor. Without early detection, I may not stand before you today. This personal journey is why I'm so passionate about this work because I know firsthand screening saves lives. It saved mine. For the past several years, our community has hosted the Get Your Rear and Gear 5K, an event that raises

funds to help uninsured and underinsured patients access colonoscopies. What started as a vision to bring care locally has become a reality. Every dollar raised stays right here in Bristol, supporting our neighbors who might otherwise go without the life-saving screenings. Before the partnership with Healing Hands and Gastroenterology and Associates, we were sending patients all the way to Knoxville for care. Today, thanks to those incredible partnerships, we're providing colonoscopies locally. That's not just convenience. That's dignity. That's accessibility. And that's our community taking care of its own. Here's what concerns me. As the council woman mentioned, Tennessee has one of the lowest ranking colarctal care or colarctal cancer screening rates in the United States. According to recent data, as she mentioned, 57% of adults ages 45 to 75 are not up to date on their screenings. That means nearly half of our neighbors are at risk, unscreened, and unaware. Changing that rate is part of my mission, and it starts right here in Bristol. Colarctal cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths in our country for men and women under 50. Yet, it's the one of the most preventable. When caught early through screening, survival rate exceeds 90%. This proclamation is a commitment. A commitment that Bristol recognizes the power of prevention. A commitment that we care about health equality, a commitment that we see those affected by this disease and we stand with them. I encourage every Bristol resident under 45 to speak to their doctor about screening. For those with family history, don't wait. And for those battling colon cancer, know that our community sees you. We support you and we stand with you. You can be a part of this mission. Our Get Your Rearing Gear 5K brings our community together to fund local colonoscopies for those who need it most. Whether you run, walk, volunteer, or donate, every contri contribution saves lives here in Bristol. Learn more and get involved at colon cancercoalition.org under the find an event tab. Thank you to Bristol City Council for recognizing the importance of this month and thank you to Healing Hands and Gastroenterology and Associates for making this work possible. Together, we're proving that a small community can make a big difference. One screening, one life, and one survivor at a time. Thank you.

Thank you. Where if somebody is wanting to follow up with that, do they call healing hands? Yes, they can call Healing Hands and get their It does take a little bit of time because the fund comes through and then they get scheduled with gastroenterology and associates and our fund covers the actual colonoscopy as well as if they find a fund will also cover the pathology for that.

We should thank y'all very much for doing that and um that's a huge service. We know health care is a challenge for a lot of people and our community and across our state and our country. So, um, we as this, um, disease has increased, it's great to be able to, uh, help people get the preventative care that they can. So, that's awesome. So, thank you. Yep. And I guess we could all say, get your rear in gear. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Next, we have a presentation, one presentation in observance of America 250. Mr. Andrew Cross, government and economics teacher at Tennessee High, will provide a short presentation on the significance of the Declaration of Independence.

Thank you all for having me here. Thank you all for having me here tonight. So, I'll be talking a little bit about the Declaration, but also about the background, where we came together as a nation. And we'll be ending with the declaration tonight. So the birth of American government starts very early on with the New England Confederation. This was the first real joining of any colonies in the country. It was to guard against the Native American raids. The Irakcoy. The Irakcoy had already joined together. The five Iricquay nations had made a fist to knock the English colonists back off the continent. and they thought, well, if they can join, then us New England colonies can join our militias together to fight back against that. That there's an important part there, but more importantly below that, the Albany Planet Union. Ben Franklin had a plan to gather the colonies together for common interest, but it never happened. And the joke I make with my kids all the time is why are we taking notes on something that never happened? Because there's an important why there. There was no common threat. Why would a South Carolinian go talk to a Massachusetts person? We're very independent at this point. Very, the colonies are very separated from one another. So, at that point in time, there's no reason to, well, we got to fix these roads. We got Well, there's no threat. We'll deal with that later. We'll deal with that later. So, the Albony Plan Union's important to know moving forward because it never really came together because there was no common threat. And that's going to be what's important leading us forward. Now we can all see what this says. Correct? Let's simplify that a little bit. So we'll see that in this slide. It is the British policies that bring our country together. The increase in taxes early on in 1764 to pay for the

French and Indian War are the first real driving force behind bringing these colonies together. The most important tax of course being the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act drove enough colonies together to call a Stamp Act Congress. And at that time, the Stamp Act Congress included about seven colonies out of 13. So half. We got halfway there. But the important thing they did was voice their concerns to the king. They said, "We don't like this. We don't think you're treating us fair because we're getting taxed for this war." But it was an English war. All I mean, London was part of this war. Other British colonies part. Why are we paying the price on this? Britain said, "Yeah, all right. Well, it was in your territory, so y'all can pay for it." And they increased their taxes. The coercive acts or what we call the what the British called the township duties, but we called them the coercive acts were a step up. They really were coercive. And the biggest point of the coercive acts is more than just newer taxes. is the coercive acts shut down the Boston Harbor. And the important thing to know about that is you're increasing these taxes on these colonists and removing their livelihood at the same time. By shutting down Boston Harbor, you basically remove most of Bostononians jobs and then tell them, "Oh, by the way, you have to pay these taxes, too." That was very important because this leads to the first Continental Congress. This is all colonies but one. Georgia's not included. We're almost there. We've almost made it. The biggest thing to come out of the first Continental Congress was the first time we actually struck back at the British pocketbooks with a boycott of British goods. But I always joke with my kids that British said, "Okay, okay, we'll repeal those." They take one step back, but two steps forward. So they repeal one and put three more in its place, which these stricter and more repressive policies lead to the Second Continental Congress.

It's important because this is the first time all 13 come together. This is our first national government. That's first NNG. This is what I call in my class the wartime government. This is the one that will be on the run throughout the war throughout I mean they leave Philadelphia. They're always trying to hide from the British and they will actually be the government that writes the Declaration of Independence. What's important to know about the Declaration? I don't have the actual words up here because I want to teach my kids when you look at the declaration when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political you get lost in the words very easily as a high school student and I was going to start here with a joke but I didn't start with it because I got nervous but a lot of my references here will be more high schooly but it's to let them know how to read this how do you read this and make sense of it when it was written in the 1700s the preamble is a why they wrote it. So there's two ways to look at this. You can look at this from a academic standpoint. You're writing a persuasive essay. You're going to start with an introduction paragraph. That introduction is why we're writing this. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, bind them to another. We're going to intro this with we need to do something. Then you can look at it. The next part is the explanation of natural rights, which is evidence. In an academic essay, you're going to provide evidence and their evidence is for the colonist. All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Those these are what are evidence. We are all men. We get certain rights. Not just you over in London, not just the parliamentarians. We get the rights to here in the colonies. We have evidence for us. Then of course you have the grievances. That's evidence against the king. And I always like to point out to my kids, that is the longest, most detailed portion. And one of my catchphrases in

class is politics don't change. Of course, you're going to include what is the longest thing you're going to include? Everything that we think's wrong right now. This is what the king's doing. This is what the king's doing. Look what he's done to us. Look what they've done to us. So that's the longest portion. In fact, if you had the declaration, literally probably half the document. The top has a section, bottom has a little section. Almost half the document is all the grievances against the king. We're going to list every single thing he has done to us. And then finally, part four is the true the actual declaration of independence that these colonies right and ought to be free and independent states with the power to levy war, conclude peace, uh conduct trade, all those things. We have this right. Now, that's the academic way to read it. The thing I like to say with my high schoolers is, "I wasn't a good English student. I'm I had some trouble in English. Let's read this like a breakup letter." And the first thing you're going to say is, "Listen, we need to talk." That's what they said first. We need to talk. So the king knows something's up. Something's going to be happening here. Next evidence for the colonist. I tell him, you're going to say, "Listen, I got to be my own man. I got to do what I need to do. I got to be who I am. Then the grievances. Listen, you never let me talk to my friends. You're always calling me. You're always doing this. And then finally, it's over. It's over. And I throw in for my kids like Taylor Swift said, "We are never getting back together ever." So, that being said, there's an activity I'll grade you. I'm just kidding. I'm not going to gra. But that's what I wanted to present about the declaration. not the words per se but how we can read it to understand it today because a lot of kids get lost in the words. So that's what I wanted to present today and I hope to come back and present to you some principles of the constitution as well.

Thank you all very much. Thank you.

All right. Next we have our board of education report and Dr. Amy Scott will be presenting this evening. Thank you to you all tonight for allowing us to be here. I'm standing uh in on behalf of Dr. Tutor. She is out of town with other uh district leaders in Nashville. So, how fun is it to be here when two other teachers are here? You can see now while our students are so excited to be in Mr. Cross's class and certainly want to celebrate Miss Moody Lawson and her commitment involvement in our community. So excited about that. That was a fun treat for me. I want to pause in the beginning here and special thanks to the Bristol Tennessee Police Department for always being a call away, but more than that being a partner for us and a thought partner with us in in in safety issues. Certainly supported us through a walk out that we had at TMS and very very proud and feel very supported by them always. So, thank you to everyone involved. uh sometimes we we require a lot of time and energy and they do that uh and they don't judge us and they're so kind to us and we we appreciate that. Another thing I'd like to point out is March 2nd through 6 National School Breakfast Week. We are committed and have been committed for multiple years now uh that every student eats free breakfast and free lunch and that's a big commitment for our district. We're very proud of that. Going to be celebrating that throughout um this week. Registration is underway for youth soccer. That's a partnership between us and City of Bristol Parks and Recreck Department. That information is on the parks and wreck uh website and we can support in that registration process as well if families need to be connected up. Spring break will be happening from the 16th through the 20th. We will offer programming Tuesday through Thursday both at Fairmont and at TMS. Fairmont for elementary, TMS for middle school and high school. That is inter session for us. We provide transportation,

breakfast, lunch, and a snack. And then I'll point out that we have flexible learning day for students. That's a professional development day for us on March 23rd. Thank you. All right.

Next, we have our appearance of citizens. And I do not believe anyone signed up. Is there anyone that would like to address counsel? Okay. Next, we have one appointment and it's to the 911 communications board and we have one candidate for an unexpired term on the board, David Warren. Would anyone like to speak on Mr. Warren's house perhaps.

Sure. Um I think he also he served on our um equalization board and he's uh just retired from his CPA practice and is um has been active in community and continuing being active in community. All right. Thank you. Vice Mayor P has David Warren. Mayor Turner has David Warren. Councilwoman Fire Robbin has David Warren. And Councilwoman Akert has David Warren. Okay.

All right. Next, we have one resolution this evening. Resolution 26-25 authorizing a contract with utility service company to provide a water tank maintenance and rehabilitation program under the byboard purchase cooperative. Mr. Quickle will present.

Thank you, Mayor Councel. Um this is the uh presentation uh that we met about last week at the work session. Uh there haven't been any any details, any changes uh from what was presented to you all. But just a recap, we've got 10 tanks in our distribution system and entering into this program would allow us to get those um back into uh a state um acceptable um status and uh the the ongoing maintenance would be handled uh by the utility service group. Right. Does anyone have a question for Mr. Quickle?

Do I have a motion to approve resolution 26-25? Motion to approve resolution 2625 with the contract. Is there a second? Second.

Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Uh just I thank um uh Markwickle and folks who worked with this also. It just seems like a very wise way to move forward and to really get us where we need to be faster than we ever could in the way we were dealing with stuff. So greatly appreciate the work that's gone into it. And um for the you who's excited about water tanks? I hope that Mark Quickle is good but yes it's your business so good and actually the presentations we've seen were pretty good presentations um when it's something that some of us might not put at top on our review list. So anyway, so yes, thank you very much and very exciting to get into this and get up to speed and uh know that we've got tanks that are going to last much much much longer. So, thank you. And thank you,

Mary Lee. Yes, sir. Powers. Yes. Akre, yes. Turner, yes. Fire Robbin, yes. All right. Next, we have our consent agenda. All

right. We have the minutes of the February 3rd city council meeting. The minutes of the February 17th city council work session. Minutes of the February 24th city council work session. Approval of resolution 26-26 authorizing the purchase of a 2026 Dodge Ram 4500 with service body through the state contract. Approval of resolution 26-27 authorizing entry into a professional services agreement with Dr. Charles Bakus to serve as our operational medical director. Approval of resolution 26-28 authorizing the purchase of a of an ADA accessible transit van under the state contract. Approval of resolution 26-29 authorizing the purchase of a replacement engine for solid waste unit 406. Approval of resolution 26-30 approving the acceptance of a donation of solar energy system. It's located at the city's demolition landfill. and approval of resolution 26-31 authorizing entry into a commercial lease for office space with city center LLC.

Would any member of council like anything removed from the consent agenda? Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Mary Lee Powers. Yes. Baker. Yes. Turner. Yes. Fire Robin. Yes. Right. Next we have our city manager report.

Thank you. Just a few things um events coming up. Next Monday, March 9th, we have at 5:30 p.m. here at Slater Center, a community information session on um McDow Street here for some transportation concepts that were presented at the last work session. Uh bunny breakfast extravagana put on by our park and wreck um department as well as our police department. That is on March 21st, Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Steel Creek Park. Uh there's an Easter egg hunt. The Easter Bunny will be there as well as breakfast. And then we also have the Royal Tea Party. Again, park and wreck department. That is on Saturday, March 28th from 11 to 1 Center. That's all I have.

Okay. Thank you. Next. Uh city council comments. I'll jump in.

Okay. Um, first of all, I'd like to recognize Amy Mosley who's here tonight along with healing hands. Um, hands serves a great purpose in our community in that uh not only does it provide the medical and dental, but it is now doing wraparound with behavioral science. So, we really appreciate filling that need in the community and you and your husband Joel being here this evening. Secondly, BCM, if you haven't gotten your Bristol Rhythm and Roots tickets, please do. Um, it's a great lineup. It's just it's going to be a great festival. We're all really excited about it. And if you would go to the uh Birthplace of Country Music Museum, you can purchase them there and also see all the other events. Uh, a lot of great things going on at the museum as well as with Songwriters and we just encourage you to do that. I was in in a believe in Bristol uh meeting this morning and there were so many activities put out there. There's a a major activity every month from now until the end of the year. They're already trying to decide when to have the Halloween parade. So, uh lot of good things happening with uh Believe in Bristol. I also had the opportunity to serve on Sullivan Network's partnership, which is just a great uh organization that that does a lot of work not just in Sullivan County, but works collaboratively throughout the region on with economic development. most recently and um our school system representatives are aware of this uh sol network's partnership along with uh the Bristol Tennessee Industrial Development Board along with our utility BTE along with our school system BTCS uh worked with Junior Achievement to do our town project

town.

Biztown. Okay, thank you. I knew I knew there was a town in there. Um, and what's so great about this is that it's mobile. If I understand correctly, they were at Tennessee Middle School. Our grandson was first exposed to this in Nashville uh a few years back and he was so excited to come home because they learned how to fill out a check, use a debit card, uh how to to work in the banking system, how to pay taxes, um and just a lot of other things. And it's I just can't emphasize enough how important partnerships like this are. No one entity can afford to pay for everything nor have the manpower to execute everything. But when we pull together, we see that great things do happen. And um great cooper cooperation all across the board there. And I Clayton is here tonight. Clayton Dale who's our uh CEO of BTEES but April Eids is just a fireball and she does such great things on behalf of our whole community. The last thing I'd like to mention is I also have the privilege of serving on the planning commission and this meeting on March 9th at 5:30 is really important. We've got three options that have been brought to us as to um working with McDow Street to make it more effective and more user friendly. Our planning department is constantly having uh public meetings, public opportunities for input as well as the commission meetings. I would encourage everyone to that possibly can to attend this on Monday. if we don't hear from you, we don't have your input to make uh things happen that you might be most interested in. So, our staff

hasn't slowed down at all. Uh it's just all all hands- on deck. Our planning uh department along with parks and wreck are just doing great things with all of our different amenities. And I would encourage you to just take a look around. And we've got uh a baseball tournament I think this weekend down at White uh White Top. I'm not sure.

I think we do. My grandson's supposed to play in it. So, and I understand that everything is coming together there very nicely. So, I encourage you to get out and enjoy this spring-like weather. Thank you. Um so I'll just add to that great list for um our economic development folks put with others did partners did a job fair um we started doing this I don't know how many years ago six or eight years ago um oh really anyway and I think the first one we had we had like a thousand people and um 50 or more employers or maybe more than that. This one I think I read that there were 80 employers and about 500 people to come through. It was partnered in with the Tri Cities. So he's in Kingsport. Um so really appreciate that and I think that actually was an idea that came from National League of Cities that some of us attended and came back um and thought that was a great idea. So trying to help um people get the jobs that they want that the jobs that they will help them better their lives and helping our employers to fill positions that they've got and sometimes people think that it's all retail jobs are lower paying and I think usually the data is about half of them are um not any kind they're higher paying career type jobs at least half of the jobs being offered. So, um, and might even be better than that. Also, just wanted to note, we're in budget season, which, um, it hardly ever goes out of budget season for our staff. Um, but we have a lot of additional meetings that we're having. And also want to appreciate our staff. They're bringing updates, reports, what

things they're asking for in their budgets, how things have been working, uh, etc. So that's helping us to understand um our different departments and their needs. So appreciate appreciate that. I wanted to uh say thanks to Andrew Cross again for coming for the 250th. Um, we are working together with Solomon County on several things and we'll be bringing those back to announce soon and John Leil back there community relations is working with Kingsport uh and Salt Lake County and Bluff City with a website that's going to go live is live gonna go live soon. Um, that will have shared information on there and an event calendar that everybody can post there. everybody whatever the criteria is for every because a lot of people are going to be doing stuff this year for 250th. So, uh excited to have Andrew come and uh share with us his um um his lesson on the Declaration of Independence. It's very appropriate to have that for at this year birthday. Uh, I also, let's see, I see um Melanie Fleiner back there who's new with our transit organization and also Regina Edwards who's not so new anymore with our Bristol housing. So, and I was just going to note that uh and oh, Jim Butcher back there in the back trying to be incognito maybe a little bit with our school board. Um today uh Regina Edwards and I and also Tyler Gillanwater from community development, we attended a workshop in Johnson City by the Sycamore Institute which is a pretty phenomenal organization for the state of Tennessee

that does a lot of data and a lot of research. Um so that and it provides it for the public, for governing bodies, for anybody who wants it to help make better decisions. So they brought some of the data on housing um and had a panel on challenges and solutions and then a panel also on Helen recovery that some of our northeast Tennessee uh counties are still in the midst of pretty serious recovery efforts even this far into it. Anyway, it was great and also um just want to hope that we will continue talking as council about housing that it's a critical need. And one of the messages today was being creative and trying to look at barriers and how we can help um be creative and help with housing development to help fill the gaps that have been created for a lot of reasons over the past 25 years or more where we've lost not kept up with our housing stock. And when I say we, I'm say we is our whole country, not just us here. Um, and we have some challenges that are more specific to us, but overall in our in our country, in our communities and rural areas, housing is an issue that um we all need to be aware of and be creative in how we can address it. So, I enjoyed spending time with Regina and I thank her for the job she does with our Bristol Housing Authority. So, I think that's it.

Do you have anything? I do not thank you all for coming out and this meeting is a journal.