Capital Projects Committee - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting to order. My name is Eddie Robertson, Chairman of the City Capital Projects Committee. I see that we have a quorum, so we're legitimate. The first is the agenda. Is there any additions or changes to the agenda? If not, do I have a motion? Second. A motion and second to accept the agenda. Any comments or questions? If not, all in favor say aye. Pass is unanimous. Next are the minutes. The minutes have been provided to you in your packets. They are the meeting of January the 21st, 2026. And do I have a motion? So moved.

Second. I guess I wasn't here, actually.

Second. I'll ask Alderman Garza or Chairman Garza to... Second that.

Okay. So I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. Abstain. And we have abstention from Alderman Sasse. Uh, next our citizen comments. Uh, we don't have any citizen comments tonight, so we're going to jump right into the action items. And for that, Stephen is going to give us an update on some submissions to the GNRC. So, Stephen, the floor is yours.

All right. Thank you. So in this very busy spreadsheet you'll see on the screen here we have on the left side our regional transportation plan projects and that's not a list of every project that was submitted to be included in the RTP. We actually submitted all 36 projects from our transportation capital improvement plan. From there they get ranked and scored and kind of We've taken that Ranking and scoring and come up with a recommendation for projects that we would like to push forward For the tip and so these are the staff recommendations on projects to move forward to the tip The the projects themselves are scaled down from the full limits of what's in the RTP to be a segment within that that full project length so these are the about 11 projects or so that we're recommending to take to GNRC with the TIP. And if you look at the total city obligation that would come out of this with the 80%, 20% city to federal match, our obligation would be just about $17 million. Of course, that's spread over several years. It's not all in one year. but that would be several years.

Well, for the benefit of those watching this meeting, could you just briefly go over each of those projects?

Certainly. So the top project there on the list is the Main Street reconstruction project. The RTP plan for that project is a 3.85-mile segment of roadway. It goes from the west end of Main Street all the way to Walton Ferry Road. The tip project we're proposing is a one-mile segment within that. The estimated cost on that would be approximately $30 million. That project would consist of access management strategies, which would include landscape medians, sidewalks, and undergrounding of utilities along that one-mile segment from approximately Imperial Boulevard to Walton Ferry Road.

Okay, any questions regarding that? Now, make sure I understand, these have been submitted to the GNRC?

They will be submitted. They have not yet been submitted, but they will be, you know, of course, with your blessing, more or less. Sure. Yeah.

Okay, any questions regarding this? Yes.

Yes, Steve, what period of time would that be?

Okay. That project, as far as when we would anticipate construction, I don't know. More or less, would it take two years, three years, four years? The duration of that project, it would probably be several years on that. Because when it says underground utilities, there's your big, you know. Construction on that one, we had estimated somewhere around 2033 beginning.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Put your mic on, please.

I apologize. I should know better than that, but thank you for that to remind me. When are we going to submit this year to the GNRC about this, about all these projects?

The deadline is May 27th.

Okay, the 27th of May. Okay, thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. That's why we're reviewing these projects now. We're on a very tight deadline.

Yeah, it is. That's why I wanted to know when because I knew that they would be meeting fairly soon. So thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Alderman Sasse. Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify. So we're submitting this fiscal year for 2033 to start it? Is that accurate?

There's various phases that occur along the way for the project to be developed.

But for this particular one-mile stretch?

We would be submitting, yes, as a proposed project within the TIP would get submitted this year for future funding.

Okay. So it would be another six years before we even shoveled any dirt on this? Potentially. Okay. Yes. Thanks.

All right.

Any other questions regarding that?

Yeah, I just have one more question, but this is not related to this project, but related to all the projects. When we submit this year for any of these projects and it takes to 2033, those numbers can't be right. Their estimated cost can't be right. Six years from now, everything's going to cost more.

Potentially, yes. And I think as part of the numbers, does GNRC, when they come up with these, they factor in inflation? Yes.

So a lot of those are for horizon years pushed out to 2050.

The next project on the list is the Drake's Creek road widening at Stop 30. This is the project that's currently under design. I will have an update on that project. to follow this list, but part of this current TIP cycle is requesting additional funding for that project to make it whole for construction. So it's within the list of projects that we are submitting based on the current construction estimate.

And this would take it from the improvements that's now being under construction or soon. At Stop 30 Drake's Creek it would go from From that development all the way up to Arrowhead?

This is to make the funding hole for the intersection improvements.

Okay.

Okay.

Say that again. I'm sorry. I don't understand.

Is this the Stop 30 Drake's Creek project? Yes, it is. Correct, it is. And that's already been funded? It has been funded, but we don't have – We've had revised construction estimates along the way and to make it whole for when we do put it out to bid, it's included in this submission of projects for the TIP cycle. Basically they do an amendment to the project to add funding to it. To meet the current estimate.

Okay.

So is this indicating that this is a $12 million overrun?

I don't have the number that was originally allocated for this project in front of me, but not necessarily a $12 million overrun.

So the total project for this tip is $12 million?

For this particular project, it would be $12 million for the Drake's Creek Stop 30 intersection improvements. So construction of the bridge, elevating the roadway out of the floodplain, widening to roughly five lanes through that particular section.

So we wouldn't be submitting this full amount because we've already allocated a certain portion of this then, right?

A portion of it has been set aside, but it's not the entirety of the $12 million. Right, so what are we... So GNRC, how would I explain this? How they reserve the money more or less or shift it based on when we... Keith, you want to come up? Yeah.

Sorry, we're... I'm just confused. I want to make sure I understand it properly.

Yes. Yeah, it is very confusing the way it works. Let me kind of start back from the RTP. So what the RTP is, it's the big thing where we put all of our 36 projects in or submitted them for that we did for our capital improvement plan that BOMA approved, I think, last year. We put all those in there. Every other community, they all put theirs in there. And then the RTP comes out and spits out, hey, we're looking at for the next 25 years, we're looking at we think we're going to have this much money, a certain amount of money. And then from a fiscally constrained standpoint, then we're going to prioritize all the different projects. And so that we're fiscally constrained saying what projects, you know, may be possible. And then it's a stick. It's giving horizon years like, ah, we're anticipating that's going to be 2030, which is really right now. And then 2040 and then 2050. So all these projects are kind of floating out there into future, future years. And that's the, that's the RTP. And then the, the, uh, the tip. the transportation improvement plan that we're talking about tonight that we got to get to them by the 27th. Uh, that is, projects that are listed on the RTP, the Regional Transportation Plan, and they're ones we're pulling off and saying, hey, we're ready to do these projects. But kind of keep in mind, as we're looking at this with the RTP, is that each year is a slot. And each year probably is gonna only have so much money. And so, like on the projects that Stephen's talking about, then these are limited to specific years. And this particular one we're going to be submitting for is only for 26, 27, 28, and 29. Okay? And then 26 actually is what we're going to propose, like this additional money out there on the intersection for Stop 30. plus it's going to be new projects that we're submitting. But that whole RTP process of all the potential projects that we can actually choose from, that process has already been done by the MPO, and so they've already made those decisions, and they put it in their system, and it spits it out. We don't know necessarily how it's exactly calculated. Uh, but then once that's done, which that was just done here in the last couple of weeks, then we've got to, we've got to pick which of those projects do we want to move forward and try to get fund funding for. And I hope that hope that kind of explains what that process is.

Yeah, it definitely helps. I'm just trying to understand the difference, right? So we already had the stop 30 intersection approved, funded. So what's this additional $12 million? Or is this an additional, or is it? going to be, we've already put in, I think it's 6 million, right? Six or 8 million.

I think it's just additional like million.

So is it an additional 4 million or is this an additional $12 million?

4 million. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, it's probably an additional, uh, uh, four could be up to additional $4 million for just, uh, I think, uh, what, uh, chairman Garza had said, you know, Hey, that's going to cost more, you know, in the future. And that's, what's happening on the stop 30 intersection is the cost is more than what we had budgeted or what GNRC had budgeted, you know, for it. So we've got to, we've got to fund that. So it's an open project, just like these projects that Steven's going to talk tonight about that we're going to start, like we're going to start, you know, doing property acquisition or right away or design in these different slots of a year. Many of these projects, we're not going to be done with them by 2029. They may be 2033. And then by that time, You know, we're going to have to get more money from the RT, from the tip process, like we are for this intersection. And this is every community. It's the same thing. You never have exactly the right amount. So then you've got to add to it. And that's, that's, they're not adding $12 million to it.

So do we know of this total of 86.7 million, how much of it has already been approved and allocated? by for look with local match and the federal funds.

Do we know nothing right now has been, so we'll be submitting this to the MPO, the GNRC for this tip process, and then they will be getting back to us. Uh, and then there'll be a proposal that here, all the projects are going to fund across the whole middle Tennessee.

So now I'm confused again, because if we're, if none of it's funded and that means this 12 million is an overrun amount,

because oh no some of that some of that is it's already funded in the tip the top 30 Some of it already is, but it's like short $4 million, so it needs $4 million to actually make it happen. Do you have some input?

We can use the Walton Ferry intersection project. It kind of did the same thing, right? We put it out to bid. Bids came in higher than what was included in the project. We had to go back to the GNRC project. and say, you know, we need additional funding to cover that difference. Right. And I guess I'm just wondering. This is occurring before we actually go out to bid to hopefully make it whole so we don't have to go out or go back after it.

My question then is how much of this are we asking as the additional amount? Because from what you're saying, it's not the full 86, or actually the federal size, 69.3 million. we're not requesting a full 69.3 million, because that's the total federal allotment for those projects.

Yeah, and keep in mind that that is the amount of what we're proposing. We don't know how many of those projects are actually going to get funded. The project that is currently ongoing, which is our Stop 30 project, that should get funded. Some of these other projects that he's going to go through, we don't know if we're going to get funded that amount. That total that you're seeing there of about the $69 million, that's if they awarded us everything. Sure.

Am I making sense, Chairman? Yes. Yeah.

So this is an amendment to try to cover the expected additional cost when the bid goes out. Is that right?

That's correct. And what's confusing about it is we're talking about a brand new tip with new projects, but this one project is going way over in order to make it correct. So we're not having to put up all of that amount. We're just putting up the 20% of it. In order to try to secure that funding, we're trying to get it added in this process. And that's what it is because if we didn't get it added in this process, we would just be going back really through the MPO saying, hey, it's over, we need more, and then they have to amend the TIP and everything. So this is the easiest, quickest way for us to do it.

So it is an additional $12 million then? So we allotted $8 million and it's an additional $12 million?

No, the $12 million is the whole amount. Right. The $12 million is the whole amount for the project.

So why do we need to request that again then if the $8 million has already been approved?

It's the total project amount that gets submitted.

You have to ask for the total project. Yes. The price before they will. Mr. Chairman, I might be out of order here.

Go ahead. Okay. Go ahead.

I think, let me try to see if I can solve this issue. I appreciate it. No, I mean, and I generally mean it because I know it is confusing. I can remember when these projects came before me, not these, but projects similar to this for the city of Hendersonville. And I was like, what? You know, and I had somebody, thank God I had Bobby Frudenthal back then, one of our projects. and that was chairman of the public works department, explained it to me, and I think he had to explain it six times for that. But when you go and you ask for submittal for this, you have to ask for the total project, even though we've already paid for it, some of it, not all of it. but you still have to ask for the total project. Is that not right? Correct. And that's why you're seeing that today. Although we, on that particular project, we've, we've, uh, spent the, you know, or have the money. Right. But we still have to ask for the 12 because that's what we're saying the project is going to be. Although it may be just four more million dollars, uh, for us. So, It's kind of what you have to do as an alderman and representative of the city is you've got to figure out what we've paid. into the projects or what we have not, and then you need to adjust it. Like that one, I knew right offhand that it wasn't going to be $12 million. It was going to be $4 million for the overrun. Does that make sense to you guys, what I just said? Does that make it a little bit better?

Yeah, that helps.

Yeah, so the $4 million is a new projected cost to the project. That's added to the approximately $8 million to make it the $12 million. And of the $4 million, we have to pay 20%.

That would be correct.

Which is $800,000, approximately, $800,000. So we're going to have to budget that as BOMA in capital projects, the additional portion of it.

Yes, but I believe we've already set enough money. I believe in our budget, from what I've seen, we may already have the money set aside based on the $12 million value. Good. From what I can see in our budget, but again, you know. Okay, that's good. Any other questions?

So, Keith, the RTP is the first step in the process, and they have selected, These projects on this page, is that correct? More than this? But these are the ones that we feel are most needed according to our transportation plan.

Or they have the best opportunity for receiving funding. And administratively we're ready. And administratively we're ready, yes.

So the next step is the TIP funding. That's the second step. And once we get the tip, and that's what we're waiting on now, once we get the tip determination, then we can start designs and we can start the process. Is that correct? Yes.

Now, many of them are already starting designs.

Okay. Okay. Is that understandable? It's a two-step process, and there's no way that a cost projection, as Alderman Garza said, That's going to be five years from now. There's no way we're going to be able to have a crystal ball to know what that cost is. So we have to go back to the GNRC and say, hey, because of cost, we need more money. And then they fund it, and then we come up with our portion of that additional funding. Okay. Yes. It's clear to me. So, okay, let's go on to the next one.

Okay, the next project on our list is the Indian Lake. road school zone improvements. Uh, it's a approximately 0.6 mile stretch of road from Cosby drive or pin Oak drive to main street. Uh, this project consists of widening Indian lake road to include turn lanes, sidewalks, and other schools on improvements. The, um, estimated cost on that project is 13.3 million. Um, the, the local match on that would be about 2.7 million with the federal match being about 10.7 million.

And we haven't funded any of that project, correct?

We it's, it's in our transportation capital improvement plan. And we have a, um, a contract in place right now to do the traffic study and conceptual design all the way up through right of way design. Okay. So I'll go over that in a little more detail later.

Any questions regarding that? Okay.

The Saundersville road widening, um, that's about a 2.35 mile stretch of road. The RTP estimate on that was about $65 million. That would be from, oh, sorry, that was pretty much the whole stretch of Saundersville Road. We paired that down to a TIP project, which is doing the Innsbruck to Dayflower stretch of road, which included a roundabout and a turn lane at Dayflower. Our estimated cost, on those projects combined would be about $5 million, $5.3 million with the city match being about a million of that.

And we've already done a traffic study on that. We've done the traffic.

Yes. We've done the traffic study. The design is, is on hold until we found out where things fell with this funding, uh, except for the day flower road, right turn lane. We felt that was a scalable project that we could continue, uh, through with the design on. And, and we already have that. in process right now.

Any questions? Any questions regarding that? Okay.

Saunders Ferry road widening. That project is from West Main Street to near Imperial Boulevard. It's about a half a mile stretch of road. The RTP estimate on that one was about $6.5 million. considered this segment to be a little bit smaller where we were addressing the left turn westbound onto southbound Saunders Ferry, widening the roadway to have two left turn lanes onto that portion of road. We estimate that project to be about $10.3 million with a city match of about $2 million.

But this does not include any work on Main Street?

Turning on to? It would include the work on Main Street as well as the upper portion of Saunders Ferry Road where those two lanes would tie in and then narrow back down to one lane.

So would this project allow for two left turns from Main Street on to Saunders?

Yes, that was the intent of this project.

Okay, that's much needed.

We did put it in there and we're including it. It did not score very well. in the RTP. So we're trying. We're still trying.

Any more questions or any questions on that one before I move on?

All right. The Rockland Road and Imperial Boulevard intersection improvements. This is a project that we had recently completed a study on for a roundabout there by the new proposed development. It used to be the Bank of America and Crystal that's being consolidated. Um, we have the study done on that. That, uh, project is estimated to be, um, in the RTP, uh, about $4 million, $4.1 million to construct a roundabout at that location. Any questions?

Yeah. Oh, it's good.

Thank you very much. Um, I do, I was looking at that to be quite frankly, and I was talking to my distinguished colleague from three Jeff and I was going like Jeff Sassy and I was going like, I'm not sure we've, that process has gotten to capital projects yet because we have not really discussed that in public works and then we transfer it to public works or excuse me, from public works to capital projects. So if, um, Mr. Chairman, if I might ask for that to be placed on the agenda at our next public works, uh, committee, because I, I have, some questions that really remain at that level before we get to this level of it, of capital projects. And then when we meet again, which I'm sure that we will, then hopefully I won't have any questions about that because I want the alderman in public works to look at this to see we know that there was going to be a possible roundabout there, but I don't think they know that it's a reality or that we're really focused as much as we are into that, but we need to follow the procedure, I guess, is the thing. Certainly. Because I'm very interested in, Mr. Chairman, I've tried to get a red light there for probably 20 years, and we never could get one from TDOT because of, the closeness of the other red light at Main Street and Imperial. And I understood that, but I would still ask for it every single time, every year that we would have it. I would always be asking for it. But I think it's important that We stick the procedure and talk about it in public works a little bit and see what the schematics look like and let them look at it as well because it affects actually except one. Well, it still will affect all the aldermen because we represent the city, but more importantly, it affects two of the wards more than just anybody else. And there will be several neighborhoods that are affected by that. And so we just need to start there and then bring it on forward. But I'm glad that it's there because it will be passed out of public works if it hadn't been already. I know parts of it have, but as far as the roundabout, it needs to be – Cause it'll take care of that stop sign right there. Cause it's a nightmare during, um, working hours here by work, you know, that go to work and back. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will add it to the agenda.

Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Is it too late to add it to the, no, it is not. Okay. Agenda next Tuesday night. Yes. And, uh,

That one scored well, apparently. It did.

And that also, we've done an engineering study or a traffic study for that. Yes, we have.

So you have that? I do. I have a few copies of it with me. So if anybody would like to have. So if anyone wants a copy, I can provide a copy. Okay.

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I would like to have a copy of that, and thank you.

And I do have a schematic of it included with the update and the transportation capital improvement plan projects that are on the list in this agenda. Okay. All right, next on the list is Saunders Ferry Road reconstruction from Imperial to Hickory Heights. The larger scale of this project was roughly $29 million. That's what was on the RTP. We were, as part of the plan for the TIP, focusing on the Imperial Road intersection or Imperial Boulevard intersection. and constructing improvements there, basically constructing intersection improvements at that intersection. The estimate on that was about $9 million. It's a complicated section of road with the Army Corps and properties surrounding it, so driving the expense up on that. Any questions regarding that one?

Just one. That's where Moby Dicky's is? That is correct. How much effect would it have on him?

It depends on how the project is designed. Okay. It could potentially be shifted west to avoid impacts to the lakefront properties along there.

Well, it's probably the busiest independent restaurant in the city. Yes. He doesn't have chain store deep pockets. Right.

Um, next and last on the list is the center point road widening. The, um, the full scope of this project included widening of the entirety of center point road at roughly $30 million. Uh, the tip proposal for this was, was widening and curve correction of approximately a one mile segment of roadway. And I'm sure many of you are familiar with the culvert on the curve. that gets hit on a regular basis, we were proposing more or less a safety project to address that with some widening and extending that culvert out to address that curve and the road width through that one mile segment of road. So that's from about Mansker Boulevard up to Hunt Lane, more or less.

Yeah. many people know this project's near and dear to my heart. So, uh, I appreciate this one that that curve there is dangerous and we've made some cosmetic improvements. Uh, recently, you know, we put some additional signage, we, we marked up the road trying to slow people down. I have seen an impact, but ultimately the best scenario for this is just fix it the way it's supposed to be in anyways. So really excited about this one. Um, And this is part of a bigger project, right? Obviously, we have the RTP, which is widening all of Centerpoint. Is that right?

Yes.

Now, in that project, I see over here on the right-hand side, it says Main Street to Goshen Town Road. That is in the county. So in situations like that, do we partner with the county in order to fulfill that entire piece, or how does that work?

So on the far right, our land use and transportation plan looked at corridors of roadways, and I think that particular corridor was just identified to go out to Goshen Town Road. So that's where that description came from.

Okay, so that's not necessarily part of the project. That's just an indicator of...

Approximately the length of the full widening. Got it.

Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And so this is from the front entrance of Mansker farms Boulevard. Well, yeah. Two hunts lane, which is how we get to, uh, uh, Glenbrook. So, okay. So right now it's just one lane through all that. What would that produce? Will it produce a further widening? Is it just going to continue to widen those two lanes or will it provide a turn lane or what exactly is the concept behind it was to more or less maintain the one lane in each direction, but we'll widen shoulders.

Yeah. So, okay.

That makes sense to me. Absolutely.

Not necessarily change the, the, the, you know, adding turn lanes or anything like that, but it would just be widening the shoulders out. Yeah.

I would have said that's probably not needed through there. Uh, you know, you used to have residents, residential roads there. There's no actual residential driveways. There's no actual roads. So I completely agree with that. Um, of, of this project, how much do we know how many properties this would require, if any, uh, to purchase or sections of property, I guess.

Right. Um, if I had to guess a number off the top of my head, just based on what I know of that segment of road, I'd say half a dozen. Most of those properties are, have are fairly large and long frontages. So, you know, The parcels themselves are large, but that's just if I had to guess.

Okay, that's a lot less than I thought it would be.

Knowing kind of the property owners that I've looked at through there, it is interesting because our city limit just happens to be on the east side of the roadway through that segment, like right at the right-of-way line. Mm-hmm. it kind of affects County jurisdiction as well.

So, so we haven't reviewed that yet. Right. That would be kind of the next process.

If this got approved, if it got, yes, if it got picked up in the tip, that would kind of be part of the next process of, of design and development would be looking at those.

And how did that rank at the state?

Yeah.

Yeah. That's what I thought it is in the RTP though. What's that?

I'll be long gone by then.

But perhaps as a smaller scale project, it might be enticing for funding. So we'll see.

So these are the ones that we're holding our breath for the TIP funding? Correct. And so do we need to make a motion to accept these? to support staff recommended projects to submit to GNRC for the tip cycle. The only one I think that in question is the Rockland and Imperial Road. So maybe the motion could say pending approval by the Public Works Department, Public Works Committee. Or do you want to just take that one out and add it at the Public Works Committee? Alderman Skidmore.

Well, Mr. Chairman, if I may respond. Thank you, sir. I don't think we've got the time. I think it's ‑‑ and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there's a time element here. And by the time we get it to public works, and I'll take responsibility for it if someone calls it out, you know, as chairman of the public works, I'll take responsibility for it. but I'd like to go ahead and include it in this package because that way it will not hold this up, and I'm certainly not going to hold that package uh... that project are that particular one project up i'm not gonna hold everybody else because uh... chairman you've done you along with public works had and mayor's office and jesse's offices that have done an outstanding job on this and i commend you for it great deal odd I'm very pleased with what I see, and I certainly don't want to hold anybody up on anything that you've done.

Okay.

Thank you.

And we have Alderman Garten and also Alderman Evans. Do you all have any comments that you'd like to make before we move on this motion?

None?

Okay. So something we can do to maybe make it feel a little better about making this recommendation is changing the description on that project to just be intersection improvements rather than a roundabout at Imperial. And it would match many of our other descriptions that we're pushing forward, like intersection improvements at Imperial and Saunders Ferry or intersection improvements at Saunders Ferry and Main. So it would be consistent wording with that rather than a roundabout. Would that?

Chairman, I'm fine the way I'm fine the way that it is, actually. I just don't want, I think that it's, I think it's satisfactory unless, because you're in public works, too, and I would ask you for your opinion. Do you think that it needs to be changed?

Yep.

You do? Okay. Then I'll make that out of respect for the chairman of Capital Projects and the vice, you know.

Change in what? Change the verbiage?

Yeah.

I know I'm ambivalent toward the verbiage.

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Well, I'm sure that Alderman there, I'll, I'll take instruction from you on that.

Okay. Well, thank you. I just think it needs to, to, to remain the same because everything else is the same on this that what we're submitting and it won't change because we all know what that's for. I mean, in the city, um, And it won't change this whole thing. And we've got this ready to go. I would rather, you know, if you all think now, if you think I'm wrong, I want you to tell me. Because, I mean, I'm not one of those kind of people. We can keep it as it is.

Okay, good.

All right.

Okay, Alderman Sasse.

Yeah, and just on that, I know many of you know how anti-Roundabout I am because they're expensive and I don't believe they provide – value, there's a couple in the city already that I'm just, I'm not happy with, but I've researched other options here and I really truly believe, as all the options I've looked into, this is really the only option at that location. And when it comes down to that, all the other options I looked at, it was no contest. There was one that was a lot cheaper, but it would have limited traffic flow significantly. I was looking at making those a ride-in, ride-out to Rockland only, and it just did not make sense for the traffic patterns for that area. So, yeah, I'll own up to it when need be, right? This is the only option I see at that intersection for a roundabout there. Thank you.

Okay, so without any other discussion, do I have a motion to support the staff recommended projects to submit to GNRC for the 2026-2029 TIP cycle? Do I have a motion? I have a motion. Second motion. Motion by Alderman Garza and second by Alderman Skidmore. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carries unanimously. Next. All right.

So we're just going to go through some various project updates. We'll start with the Saundersville LIC project. So my apologies here while I go through my notes. The environmental document had to be redone on this project, and it was submitted to TDOT for review on April 17, 2026. The CSX plans on this are about 95% complete, and they're going through a QAQC review before they get submitted to CSX probably within the next month. And we're still anticipating right-of-way acquisition to begin fall of this year. Any particular questions on that project?

Do we have a new estimate? I guess when you're completed with that, you'll have a new estimate on the cost?

Well, yes. The last estimate I saw on this one was upwards of, I think, $35 million.

Yeah, I'd say that's probably old and not accurate anymore.

Yeah, so it has a pretty big price tag. Yeah. Okay, thank you. That's just a picture of the project we're talking about. All right. The Drake's Creek Stop 30 intersection, this particular project, we have a revised estimate of probable cost that we're using for our submittal to GNRC. That, again, was about $12 million. We are working on getting that amendment as part of this new TIP that's going on. Project work zone there. Lastly on this project, there have been a lot of questions about the staging construction plans. So we put together a few slides kind of breaking down how that's going to look. The area in green there would be the roadways open with two-way traffic. So the initial phase of the project will have stop 30 to the west will be entirely closed. All the dark gray areas would be construction zone. The east leg of stop 30 will be open. What they'll be doing during that phase is they'll be constructing more or less a new roadway alignment Kind of in that dark gray area along the east side of Drake's Creek Road The second part of the that that phase they'll close off both legs of stop 30 they'll bring the east leg of stop 30 to match that dark gray area and then we'll end up in phase two and where they shift the lanes over onto that new alignment that they just constructed and finish constructing the remaining portion of the road. You'll notice the west leg of stop 30 will be closed for the duration of the project.

So why is that portion of stop 30 closed for the duration of the project?

They're building a new bridge and tearing down the old bridge and there's just no way to accomplish that work without shutting it down.

So we expect that that portion of Stop 30 will be closed for 18 months?

I would say at least 18 months it would be closed. And it'll be pretty much for the duration of the project.

And Drake's Creek Road will always be open to some limited access?

Generally, it should have a lane of traffic in each direction. open at all times. I mean, there might be some intermittent traffic control here and there when they can't have, you know, free flow two lanes, it might have to narrow it down to one lane with flaggers at periods of time, but generally it would should be two lanes of traffic open.

And what about construction during school hours?

Um, well, my, my anticipation would be that they, they would adhere to most of what we do on other contracts, which is, uh, I think, 8.30, 9 o'clock to 2.30 or 3 is our work window. But if they're working outside of the roadway itself, I would imagine work to go on all day long if it doesn't affect traffic on Drake's Creek Road.

So I guess Jesse or I mean how are we communicating that on the web page. Casey, I guess maybe Casey would.

And I can generally answer, but if you want to, that's fine.

So these maps that Stephen and I put together are just preliminary based because it hasn't gone to bed. And so once things are final, we will obviously finalize everything. We can go ahead and put these maps out there and describe, you know, Stage 1A is really a short window. So there's just a short window of just a few weeks when that western, or is it the eastern, the other side of Stop 30 is closed. Yeah, the eastern side. So we can put these up there with some description if you guys want, if you think it would help people feel better, and we can make note that these are preliminary because this won't be finalized until things go to bid because it's not even up to bid yet.

I would prefer to wait to bid. Okay. That's kind of what we were thinking as well. Concrete plans. But, you know, TDOT has a notification system on Walton Ferry, and I get it every week. It's an update. Can we do that for this area since it's going to impact significantly the traffic in this area so people can sign up and get a flash notice this week? Expect this.

Yes, so that's already in place. When we created the webpage last year when this first started, we had all the project information listed there, and I created a specific distribution list for this where residents can sign up. We probably have about 45 that have signed up already, and I've used it twice when we've had closures throughout this. So I will encourage people to continue to do that. There's not a lot to communicate at this point. HUD is wrapping up their portion, and it sounds like there's going to be a lull, if I've understood that correctly. So there's not going to be a lot of communication at this point, but as we get into the project ramping up when that's done, we will absolutely be utilizing the website as well as that communication tool. Right now it's an email-only tool, but we can convert that to text when we get our new mass communication system in place.

So that will go out automatically each week?

Well, it wouldn't be automatically. It would be something I would set up, and it would just have, whatever the related news would be related to the project. And sometimes it might just be the same message, but, yes, we can do that. Because, you know, with TDOTS, theirs is a newsletter that they put out once a month, and then they provide updates on the project and things like that. So we would have to fine-tune those updates with newsletters or e-mail updates or things like that. But, yes, we do have the capability and can do that at whatever frequency we deem necessary.

Questions regarding the communication plan?

Yeah. Yeah.

So how can citizens, I know Alderman Evans is pushing this, but just for the people that are watching, how can people sign up for these notices? Sure.

So if you want to just go to the project webpage, if you go to the top of our website under residents, there's a link that says projects. You can click on projects and you'll see the list of projects. Stop 30 has its own project page and all of the information about this project, any updates we have, as well as the link to sign up is all on that one page.

Can we make it even easier and put it on the front page, sign up for Stop 30 Drake's Creek notices or information?

Yes, we can put it in the news section on the website and kind of circulate it in. It's been there before. We can add it back. And there also is on the front of our website, there's a little dot that says notify me. And if someone just clicks that notify me and they go in there, Stop 30 Project is one of the things they can check to be notified on, and that's a direct option as well. And they can bypass the project page that way.

Is that the easiest way that we can, I want to make it real easy for people to be able to sign up. Can we not put a link on the first page when we go on to the city website? Stop 30 Drake's Creek notifications.

Yes, it would have to be in the news section of our, it's on the front page when you scroll right below those buttons, it would be there. We can add it there.

Can we add that?

Sure.

Okay. I think that would be easier for people just to.

We can do that. We'll have to rotate it because we have other news things when we have different things going on, but we can get that right now and let people sign up and then we'll kind of rotate it in.

Okay. Any questions regarding the.

Yes, chairman. Uh, just to point to note, there's a lot of annex people out there and County people out there that use that road regularly. So I know we're protecting the city of Henderson. We put it out there, but we should coordinate something with the County. So they, those same people can. be notified if they're not following Hendersonville.

Sure. I mean, the notifications would be open to anyone, whether they're a Henderson resident or a county resident, they can still sign up to get those just the same. So we can just try to work to see if they can help distribute the messaging and their methods and just get it out there all the same way. Cause anyone can sign up. They don't have to just be a Henderson resident to sign up.

Thank you. So Steven, how far up is the red line going on stop 30? Um, it's not going up to, to, to the west, any of the residential developments. These are vacant lots that are vacant land.

Correct.

So it won't affect any kind of movement from neighborhoods coming out on to stop 30 course that now they'll have to turn right. To get out. Correct. To get toward Indian Lake.

Yes. And the residents in the county to the east and Arrowhead neighborhood, probably the best way for them to go would be over Stop 30 to Saundersville Road. Yeah. But it'll be an option.

Okay. Any questions regarding this project? It's going to be painful, but it's going to really be nice when it's finished. It's going to make movement through that intersection. I know I bet Alderman Evans was too. I got stuck in it today 30 minutes to get to the city hall. So it's pretty bad. I really hope that, Stephen, that the traffic engineer for your department We'll constantly go out and look at this area and to make sure there's nothing that we can do to make it better. And I don't know what that would be, maybe a police officer at times instead of a red light, but I hope that you'll instruct the city engineer over traffic to really monitor this during the process.

Certainly. We will all be watching it. Okay. Before we move on from this project, there are two other updates. The right-of-way, we're still in the court process for acquisition on the cemetery parcel. It just has to run its course of notification through the court process before we can take ownership of that property. And then we are also working through the Army Corps of Engineers and TDEC permitting processes. We believe we found a good way forward on that to get our permits. So we had some back and forth with the Corps regarding relocation of a stream. Ultimately, we ended up we're going to have to buy mitigation credits to do that relocation. So that additional expense is included in the latest round of estimates that we're submitting for funding on. But now it's just a matter of the acquisition process for those credits and hopefully once we do that we should be able to get something from the Corps, at least kind of a conditional agreement for permitting. So that will allow us to progress to the next step.

Do we have an estimated time of a bid, letting the bid?

Hopefully within the next four to six months is my hope. Again, the permitting process has really just dragged on a lot longer than anticipated with the government shutdown. That really held us up for a long period of time. And then once we got back to discussions with the Corps, it's been a process to figure out the best, most expeditious path forward. But I do think we're there.

Okay.

Wish I had better news for you, I'm sorry. Next. Next on the project list, we have the West Main Street Access Management Project. We've been working with our consultant on this. They've put together, they've done the traffic analysis and concept, or they're working on the traffic analysis and concept. We anticipate a draft report by late June and a final report on this by mid-August. And that should contain some recommendations on access management through this. Kind of ties into that first project on the list we're submitting in the TIP, right? Okay. As a subproject of that, we have a median pilot project that the same consultant is also putting together since it goes hand in hand with it. Timothy with our planning department is putting together a landscaping plan to go along with this. and we are currently in the TDOT coordination and permitting process on this one as well as the conceptual initial design.

Questions? Next.

Okay. Drake's Creek Anderson Road Improvements. So this project was on the capital project's agenda at the last meeting where RK&K presented their study on this intersection. That was done independently of the original design that had occurred on this a few years back. The recommendation that came out of that was for a roundabout at this intersection. I did bring additional copies of that study for anyone who wants to take one. So that's where we are on this one.

Questions? Okay.

This is the schematic of that preferred alternative.

And this is the second study that has been done, right, on this intersection?

There was the original design, which had proposed a roundabout, and then we had the study following that, making the same recommendation that had been proposed as part of that original design.

Right. And both studies have indicated the second one especially looked at other alternatives.

Yes. There were a whole variety of alternatives that were looked at and this one rose to the top as being the preferred.

So what's the will of the committee on this? What do we want to do? I mean right now It will require what this committee to act before a design is commissioned. So I'm just wondering, is there an appetite of the committee to move forward on this, or do we want to continue to study it and look at it?

Okay, yeah anybody else

we'll put this back on the next, we'll keep it on the agenda in the future for, for capital projects.

Okay. Certainly. Uh, next on the project list, uh, number five from our traffic transportation capital improvement plan, um, the Indian Lake school road school road, sorry, Indian Lake road school zone improvements. Um, We have a consultant that's working on a design for this. They collected data for the project prior to school being let out, so that was an important element of it since it's within the school zone. It's anticipated that field surveys will be completed by mid-August. The concept plans and school coordination will occur between August and September of this year.

Okay, any questions regarding this? Okay, I've had a request to go back and have one last discussion of the Drake's Creek Anderson roundabout.

He didn't see my light on.

Okay.

With the new information that's come out, I would vote to move it forward on the Drake's Creek roundabout. to bring us more information and move it forward.

Okay. So that motion would be to go ahead and authorize the staff to move forward with engineering plans. And what is the next step if we move forward tonight? Or would it have to go to BOMA? Or what's the procedural?

Yeah, we'd have to budget for it. It's not in the budget.

But it's... it yeah we don't have the money but we could we could reflect what this committee would like to move forward in the future on this it won't be this next year because it's not the budget right but it would give the staff some indication you know this this is ranked what number what's the ranking of this number three number three of the projects Okay, so we have a motion to consider this to authorize the staff to go ahead when the budget is available to go ahead and move forward on a design phase. So we have a motion. Based on the new information. Based upon the traffic study and the two studies that we have commissioned, paid for to do that.

I'll second that.

Got a motion and a second. Discussion? Discussion.

Yeah, I'll just say, you know, we have a lot of other important projects, too, and this is a big one. And without funding for it, I just don't feel comfortable moving forward with it at all at this juncture. Not to say that I won't in the future, but right now, as I said, we're in the middle of a budget season right now. with which will carry us through, you know, about 15 months from now carries through 20 into 2027. I don't, I mean willing to, I want to keep this on the agenda, but I just don't think it makes sense to move it forward right now. That's my opinion. Okay.

Any other comments?

Yeah.

Eddie. Yes. Excuse me, chairman. Yes. Um, Alderman Sasse, I understand where you're coming from here, but when I see the project ranking number three, it seems like it's a larger priority than some of the ones down there. Now, once again, I think the issue with budgets and all of these things have relevancy, but I think that we should start on it. And even if we don't get it anywhere for three or four or five years, it's still going to be a high-priority project. We know there's some eminent domain issues here, which I don't think are going to change anytime soon. But with a ranking of number three, I think we've got to get it out there as soon as we possibly can, even if it takes years to make it happen.

Alderman Skidmore.

Thank you. I've been real quiet about this, but I've been thinking about it. And even when this, Mr. Chairman, when this first came up and the Board of Aldermen had to – make some hard decisions on that uh... and there was really no right or wrong i thought it was a you know a lot of the alderman was a philosophical belief on on uh... taking of one's property which you know i mean there really isn't a i mean that's up to the alderman i mean to you know what their philosophical and i uh... belief is uh... but I think both Chairman Garza and Chairman Goodwin is right. There's been some significant change in what we need to do. With it being number three, I was going like, well, it still doesn't. It rises. My point is I still have a red flag, but I think With this, we need to go ahead and move forward with it, but I think it needs to go to the full board for discussion because all these projects, you know, they all have a far-reaching effect within the city, whether it be in the neighborhoods. whether it affects the schools that are out there, and that really is my concern as an elected official out there because that's far away from my district, but I still am very, very concerned about it for the people of Hendersonville and also for the schools And so I know that's what I was saying about a far-reaching effect of that. So I guess I would like to go ahead and move on with the design phase. What kind of money are we talking about, Mr. Chairman? I mean, what are we looking at as far as designing it? Would you know?

It would be a substantial design. I mean, it would probably be in the realm of $500,000. Okay, well, there's no way on this budget we can do that. If I had to just pull a number.

And there may not even be money for it in the following year's budget, to be honest with you, but it needs to be looked at. So I would go ahead and if we need to, and has there been a motion made on that? Yes. And I think Chairman Garsh has seconded it. I'd like to go ahead and just call the question and vote on that and place it on design, take a look at it and see where we are with it. Because it's going to be a while before that thing's built. But I know something has to be done out there that will benefit Durham Farms and then also everyone else that's affected out there, but also the school and the fire department.

I would like to make a comment. Would you rescind your... call to the question.

Yes, sir, I will. I'll withdraw my call.

These two designs, we've had two designs, preliminary designs. The first design takes up less land than this design. So I believe that if we move forward, we should move forward with the smaller footprinted Uh, meaning that we would need less land from the neighbors from these two neighbors. So, uh, would you amend your motion to, to, to do, to go with the smaller design? Does that, does that make sense? Yeah.

Jesse, if I may, um, if you could recommend that as an option for us to look at, there may be a possibility to shift the roundabout a little bit too. So some of the land, I know we had some property owners who wanted the roundabout. And so if maybe it can be shifted to where the land on maybe the two who don't want any type of land takes stays the same, but maybe someone who's more amenable to the project when it mined a little more of their property, uh, maybe we could consider that option as well.

I think, I would think you could just about by the broad parameters of, of, okay.

You want to change it? So I want to make a motion to move this forward using the least amount of possible, uh, land from homeowners, the design that uses the least that is still functional.

And will you second that change? Okay.

So Mr. Chairman, does that mean that we're considering that option as well? Right? Yes. Okay. So we're going to have those two options then.

And maybe even a third one. Okay. Mr. Aikenroth said, maybe there's another way that we can move even a little more. Okay. You know, this, uh, uh, so we have an amended motion, uh, and so we'll vote on the amended motion. All those in favor of the amended motion say aye. Okay, so now we are going to vote. Oh yes, opposed, any opposed? No, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, apologize. So now we have, I'm gonna support this for this reason. The neighbors, the citizens out there need to know that we are moving forward on trying to find a plan. both Alderman Evans and I frequently are asked, what are you going to do? You know, the Anderson Road is just dangerous trying to get out. So I think that I'm going to support this because I want to be able to tell the citizens that we are, when the budget is allowed, we are moving forward to try to find a solution for this intersection. So with that, anybody else want to make any comments? Alderman Evans or anybody? Okay. I appreciate the discussion. Okay. So we're voting on an amended motion. All those in favor of the amended motion say aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Okay. So it passes. So I'm sorry. Now let's get back on track, and we've got to hustle.

We do. We do. road school zone improvements, kind of touched on what's going on in this. Uh, we expect right of way plans development by February to may of 2027. Um, so next, next year, about this time, we should have right of way plans on this project. Okay. We have four projects combined here into one corridor study. We have 8, 9, 11, and 12. It's really the entire corridor of New Shackle Island from Main Street all the way up to Stop 30. And we put them together because it made sense to really study these all at one time. We are expecting a technical appendix and planning level opinion of cost on this one by October of 26. So it'll be looking at the entire corridor of making recommendations for each segment of roadway and some improvements potentially that could be done to that whole corridor.

Questions regarding, this is much needed, much needed. New shackle is horrible, especially from Glenbrook on down. toward beach is just horrible. But, but this, this improvement is just to, uh, stop 30. Is that right?

Uh, no, this is the, this it's four different segments here. We have from main street up to about Iris. Um, we have the stop 30 intersection.

Yes.

And we have the ramps there at three 86, um, as well as the Glenbrook intersection.

So how did this, how was this graded by TIP? Pretty high? It wasn't?

Phase one was high.

Phase one was a three-star and the other ones were two-star.

Which is phase one?

Main Street to Iris.

Okay.

Okay. Okay.

I just had a question. I don't know if it's a question or a statement. I live right off New Shackle Island Road, so I see it every day. And I don't know if there's been a report. I'm sure the police department hasn't. How many people have been hit? There's no sidewalks. There's no shoulder. So from a priority standpoint, I mean, I've literally picked up a mother and her son going to school and said, you know, I'm not a serial killer. Here's my card. But you don't need to be walking on this road because it's not just the cars. It's the cell phones. And people are looking at their cell phones. And you don't have but about 8 to 10 inches on their shoulder. And so, you know, this is a big deal for me, and I hear this one on a regular basis just like Jeff does over at Mansker's. So it's a big one for me.

Okay.

And I know the time is limited, but I want the people who watch this on TV and the rest of the aldermen that are here tonight and who serve on this board that that is – I really was gracious and had the opportunity to represent this area many years ago in Ward 3, and Ward 6 was affected by this as well. It was always a concern of mine because I knew that development would be growing there, and it has now. Unfortunately, I was correct in my assumption. I'll just leave that at that. That's another fight. And I don't feel like fighting tonight, really. or I shouldn't say fight, discussion. Yeah, discussion on it. But the point is it needs to match what has already been built from a little bit before, I guess, Sonic, where Irish Drive is, the way that that has been built to the bypass, to the hospital, because a lot of people use that, as Chairman Garza said, As a walkway. And it is so scary, you know, when you're driving. And I drive that area all the time. And, I mean, it is really scary not to have a sidewalk and the widening of that road coming from Iris to the main street. So I'm in agreement with that, with Chairman Garza. I think it really needs to be, you know, we need to support that. 100%. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

All right. Next on our list is the Stop 30 Drake's Creek improvements, number 10 on the list. This is the one we agreed to proceed forward with 10% line and grade design that can be used when developers propose projects that they will have to build to that design that we have. This project is currently with our consultant, And we expect some draft plans here shortly. Did it write pretty high with the tip? It didn't?

Not that second.

Okay. All right. The dayflower drive in Innsbruck, we've already kind of discussed this one. We're working with a consultant on the dayflower improvements right now for a turn lane, extending that turn lane.

Okay.

Drake's Creek Park exit at Indian Lake. This project had a stakeholder meeting in April. We had a good discussion on various options for improving circulation throughout the park as well as access here at Indian Lake. Rockland Road and Imperial improvements. We had some good discussion on this one already. Project number 25. As I mentioned, a study has been prepared And we have a conceptual design on that. We also worked with the developer on the site plan for this project in that northeast corner to dedicate some right of way for this particular project. Should we choose to proceed, we'd have that option. So the concept on the screen is really probably bigger than what we might end up with in the end, but it was kind of the largest design that would accommodate Largest potential truck that could go through with through that intersection We'd probably scale it down a little bit to match like a bus or our fire apparatus vehicles versus a large highway truck Yeah, mr. Chairman from my Yeah, when I look at that out I find myself in Paris France that roundabout right there makes me look at that He really does so

I don't know what to say about that, but I do know this. I know that the bank and God rest its soul crystals, who's been such a mainstay in our city for such a long time, will be gone. Are we going to try to, and I don't know, I need to talk to the mayor and Keith and Jesse about all this, along with our public works director. Do we know whether the developers that are coming in with a new project where the bank is and then it will roll on to the Crystal's restaurant area, are they going to offer any kind of help with that? And I just want a simple yes or no, and we can talk privately about that. We don't have to make something of it now. Just the land. Okay, just the land. Yes. And would you guys be agreeable so far to that too, what they're saying? Okay. I hope that we can. uh, get them to help a little more because that is going to affect so many people in the city of Hendersonville that, uh, right there. I mean, seriously, if you think about it, you're talking about a peninsula and then you're talking about, I guess that's the West side of Hendersonville. Um, and there's so many subdivisions. I mean, God, I can, I can count four subdivisions. Um, and thousands of people that it's going to affect. But we'll talk about it at a later date or at a later time about that. But I'm pleased that something is going to be done because I fought for a red light there for so many years, and I know I've said that before tonight or earlier tonight, but I never could get one because of the proximity to the first red light. Now, do we know whether there's going to be about that red light there at Main Street? Is it going to be changed any at all because of this roundabout?

It shouldn't. The roundabout wouldn't change the signal.

Okay. Okay. Because, see, what I'm concerned about, and I know this is probably not the, this is why I need to talk about this later, because I'm concerned that the red light is going to back up everybody on to the roundabout. And I'm concerned about that. I just want to let you guys know that for the record and I'll leave that at that. And I'll get with you guys, you know, when we talk about it, maybe in public works, uh, talk about it because it will, it will, it will back up there. I'm telling you. Thank you, chairman. And I'm sorry. Sorry. Um, I know we're with, uh, all right.

The led conversion project. These are projects that are in process. I'll just kind of skip forward here to probably the most important slide on this, which is, uh, the status, um, All the red dots on the screen there are lights that have not been converted to LED yet. All of the various shades of green have been converted. To date, we're about 40% complete. That's 973 of the 2,338 lights that are to be converted to LED. There are some HOA-owned streetlights. We have referred them to the contractor that we're dealing with, because they can get some preferred pricing, potentially, for replacing lights within HOAs that want to proceed with that process. So it's really between the contractor and the HOA to negotiate the terms of that. Cherokee Road culvert. This project, we issued a notice of award to proceed with right-of-way acquisition. So we're working on that contract right now for right-of-way acquisition for the culvert. Signal synchronization. We received the notice to proceed to construction from TDOT in December. And the contract was awarded on April 8th for $1.6 million to Stancil Electric. We had a pre-construction meeting This last Thursday May 14th and we expect construction to begin in June. So West Main Street ADA improvements. This is replacing a lot of curb ramps and some sidewalk that needs to be replaced. We are currently in the right of way acquisition process and negotiations have occurred on some of those as well as some contracts signed. Last is a Sumner County project. This is the old Drake's Creek Road intersection. This project is right at the beginning of the right-of-way acquisition phase. There are 15 parcels on this project. No acquisitions have been yet completed. The county has a goal of advertising this project for construction in spring of 27 with construction beginning summer of 27. That concludes it.

Okay. Any questions? Any questions for Stephen? Stephen, thank you. You've done a great job. You're welcome. Yeah, we have a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. All right. We're adjourned. We made it, Andy.