City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we're going to go ahead and call the uh March 17, 2026 council meeting to order. Appreciate everybody being here. Got a good cross-section of the community here tonight. starting very very young. It's good to see everybody. I see Spider-Man back there. Oh man, I'm feeling I'm feeling safe now. Good to have everybody out. If you would, if you'd bow with us, we'll have a word of prayer. Our father in heaven, we're thankful for yet another day of life and opportunity to gather here tonight. We're thankful for the blessings you bestowed upon this community and our people. We pray that you'll be with us tonight as we make decisions. Give us a clear head and clear mind, clear heart, and uh bless us as we go about our business here. Forgive us our sins. Amen.

We have a quorum. We have everybody but one. And uh um I knew that that she would not be able to be here tonight. We have a set of minutes from February 19. And this is going to get more difficult if I don't get these glasses out. Y'all ready to act on the minutes? I might. All right. Is there a second? We have a motion and a second for the minutes. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I.

I. Anybody opposed? Okay, the minutes are approved. We are at that point of our meeting where we consider comments from the public and uh you're welcome to address us on uh anything we say on matters germanine to items on the agenda, but we're pretty laidback here and we'll let you talk about anything except maybe world events. Uh but anyway, anybody like to speak, come on up and tell us your name and address and what you want to talk about. Hey, doctor. How you doing, Katie? I'm

all right. How are you? I'm fine. I guess I will. Yeah, come on up. Somebody's got to start.

Yeah, somebody's got to start. So, my name's Cody Tipton. Uh I don't currently live in Watertown, but I do pastor the church at Pentecostals of Watertown. So, want I want to live here. So, we're getting there. Uh so, 8480 Sparta P Sparta Pike is the address of the church. U just here to talk about the Easter egg hunt that's coming up. uh for the community on April 4th. Um so excited about that. So excited. Our her church will be hosting that as well. Um we will it has been started at 3 p.m. We're going to probably start it a little earlier, probably around 1:00 or 1:30 cuz we got some exciting things. We're going to bring in some inflatables and some food trucks and kind of get that going and and and do some fun stuff. And then the egg hunt will start at 3:00 p.m. uh for age groups staggered up within time slots. And so we're super excited for that. And uh if anybody has any questions from the community, they can reach out to us. We do have an egg drop at the church. If anybody wants to drop eggs, filled or not filled, whatever that looks like for anybody, candy that you've bought, whatever it might be.

Okay. I I'm I'm glad y'all picked this up. Yes, sir. We're grateful for the opportunity. We've had an egg hunt here. As long as I can remember, too. And uh we're we're glad that John, we going to be able to make that work with opening day. Yes. said that was going to be one of my questions when we got up there was what time they planned on start we plan on starting our open today baseball and softball league where we'll start at 8 a.m. Okay and try to have our guys wrapped up and done 12:30

Okay, that was a phone call that I did um talk to a young lady about a week ago. She said they'd be done around 12 or 12:30. And that's actually why we thought to move it up a little to encourage people that were already there, maybe just to hang out and be a part of the community. Um, I talked to several people this week and the sentiment I'm getting around town, which is a good thing, is that we don't have to do everything, but just be together. And so that's what wanted to create an environment so our community could be together. Well, and we've had some some good events over here. I think you'll be amazed at the number of people that show up. I hope so. I'm looking forward to get busy laying. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Uh, Wat's Edge is working with y'all some on this.

I have not spoken to Wat's Edge yet, but I am planning to speak to several churches over the next little bit. The biggest thing this week was just getting a lot of information on how it normally goes because we haven't been there before. And so, the last three days, I've probably got like 15 people's phone number that I've never had before. So, I'm just making my rounds talking to those people. Okay. Well, I just wanted to make sure we didn't mention it and leave anybody out. So, yes, sir. So, you know, in the past, it was always this person or this person has done it. So, when we got down to it, the chamber got a phone call and basically I probably about 5 years ago, all the churches backed away and it went to the chamber

and the chamber, you know, they're like, "This isn't a chamber event. This is a city event, church event." Okay. So that's when we reached out to a few churches and uh Pastor Tipton just took it on and said we absolutely will host it. Uh they are asking other churches in the area to help donate field eggs. We have heard back from Waters's Edge. So they are participating in that. They're they're getting eggs together. So if you want to donate candy, donate eggs, whatever that that is needed. Uh, with that being said, since it's a city event, um, I don't know in the past how we've handled that, but I think that we should contribute some monetary to help pay for some eggs and candy. 500, 200, whatever.

We've never done that. I know. Always been a But it's a it's a community event. It's a community event, but we have a lot of community events. We do. we have a lot that's the chamber or this or that or so that's just my opinion like don't control that once you do that you open the door for a lot of a lot of other things so that's just how I feel because there's yeah absolutely so you know the chamber does their things the museum does their things so I just feel like with the community doing something the community needs to help support some stuff sometimes. Okay. So,

we'll talk about that. So, yeah, absolutely. Um, something I was going to say, but like everything else, it leaves me pretty quickly. Anybody else want to bring anything to our attention? By the way, welcome to Watertown. Glad to have you. Thank you. Looks like uh when you move here, the population is going to go up significantly. Yes, sir. At least a few. That's good. Got got two children. Yes, sir.

Okay. Good. Good. Anybody else? All right. We'll move on into our part of the program then and uh talk about uh Chief Hender Light's not here. We got anybody from the police department? It was very nice to be first. Um you've got a report there that April sent out to you yesterday. Everything from my perspective looks to be in order. I will tell you that we'll be watching the price of fuel pretty closely uh over the next few weeks because there's no indication that's going to drop. And the fuel expense in the budget was based on about 75 cents or a dollar cheaper uh per gallon. So, we may have to uh well, we'll watch it. I I don't speculate. It could go down tomorrow. I I shouldn't say that. If anybody uh has any questions, uh shoot them to Chief Underlight and he'll be glad to respond to him. I I suspect he's probably watching and I'm at least remembered a little quicker tonight. Was there anybody on the uh out in the public radio land, TV land, whatever wanted to participate in public business? Anybody on Okay. I usually don't remember that till right before Quinton time. Uh, Chief Han Fire Department, come on up, buddy.

All right,

we are uh last month we had a total of 31 calls. Uh, little lower than the same month last year, but that's not always a bad thing. I kind of looked back and where uh that 12 calls that we were lower uh was county medical calls that um was further out. Now the county is sending their resources that keeps our resources here. So uh within the city we're staying pretty consistent to what we have been. Um just a few notes. Our rescue truck, it's showing on here that it was out of service. It had uh tie rod in issues. It had to go out of service for a couple days. That's been repaired and everything's good with that. Uh we've also been uh given some attention over to the helellipad. We've changed the light bulbs in the pad. I think we've replaced the wind sock over there and kind of got uh that it needed a little attention. So, uh I think the next step is we're going to try to repaint on it. And uh that's about it on that. We did have our ISO eval. Um he said that we should know something within about six months. Um kind of on the results of that. Uh some interesting things we picked up some points that uh we' never got before uh in community risk reduction. The adoption of the codes that we had done last year that helped us out and kind of uh was beneficial to us. And also with the staffing that we've had over there, the volunteer staffing, uh they've kind of added all that up and we got credit for having equivalent to a per paid person 24/7. So that is uh reflected good on us. Um, I I don't see any um reason that that

would come back negative, but they have a pretty standardized uh way of how they calculate the points, but how you're given the points is sometimes left up to interpretation depending on who done the evaluation. So, um, so we'll see. Um, we also have April 4th, uh, the fish fry and barbecue. Got a little bit of live music. So, we've got a train coming in that day. A lot of good events in the community for people to come out to. It is good. Y'all have any questions? Any questions? Chief, appreciate you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Uh Dale, I thought I saw Bale over. I did have a couple blockages in our main pump station on uh Commerce Avenue with some construction debris from the utility work that's been going on there. I had to disassemble a couple pumps. Uh those pumps are pretty new and we've had a they've been doing a lot better than the previous pumps that were in there. Um beyond that, I haven't had a lot since last meeting. That's in your department. No need good news. Yep.

Any questions of Dave? Thank you, Dale. Later on the agenda, we have the renewal of his contract consideration, and we'll get to that here in a few minutes. Uh, you going to do the

Where y'all? What was it? A week and a half ago. you wouldn't have to go middle Tennessee electric drill through a 6 in water man. So I I was off which I come in and helped them. But anyway, uh we've got a cut off valve on the end of it and Barry's here is going to jump off. So we're asking a company to come up here to put one in the line so we can rehook the fire plug up. And I think it's around $8,400. 86.97. 86.97.

And I want to tell you something. When you up to water this deep, put the 6 in cut off on it's hard, y'all. And we uh we we lost what about 200,000 gallons of water, which we're going to try to, you know, keep up with everything, try to get them to pay. I was going to say that company is the going to pay for this, right? They said it wasn't marked, right? It was marked. You know, it's it's hard to find a line that you you know, you don't know that's there. So, but we need that lab. Yeah. Well, um

because it's got a fire plug killed right now and we need to get that in to put the fire plug back. We vote to do that tonight. How long will it be before it gets He's going to call him something get done. Okay. Well, I recommend that to you. Something needs to be done and uh Bob had to come in. Everybody fell in on it and we lost a lot of water and we had expense of course of pumping that treating it. Never got to pay for it.

Uh our construction workers let us use a rock hammer so we didn't have to use one. So, I want to thank him for that. And one of his employees helped us put that valve on. I want to thank him for that, too. But everybody was neck deep in water. So, okay. All right. Uh had it on the agenda here under new business for the water valve purchase. I will recommend that to you so we can get that going. Make a motion to purchase water valve for 86. How much? 8697 I think is what it was something.

Got a motion in a second. Everybody understand what we're doing. Okay. Ready to vote? All in favor say I. I. Opposed? All Cody. Thank you guys. Yes. Thank you. Uh Jonathan, you want to talk about parks? Yeah. afternoon.

Uh we have started our baseball softball league for the community. Uh we've had our drafts. We've picked teams. We currently have 343 kids that signed up to play. We come out to be around 28 teams. Um plan on start opening ceremony today be April 4th like I said earlier. um to accommodate for the Easter egg hunt. We're going to have our guys out of here by 12:00 12:30. Uh I try to keep them around long enough to maybe participate in. Um but on the same note, on that day, I do have uh team photos, individual photos going on. So maybe we can work out a location to maybe keep that going since I've got so many teams this year. Um, field three, the lights are bright. They're done. Um, so everybody was that plays on that field is excited. They're ready to ready to get going on. We did get a loner uh boom lift that was given to us to use for free. It cost nothing on that. Did put some diesel in it for him. filled it back up cuz we used it for two days straight and it didn't turn off. So that's um that's where we're at.

That's a good uh that's a good number. That's building our baseball and softball program back up down there for a year or two.

We're getting there. I mean, you look on the fences, uh we got banners going up for sale trying to raise money to keep the lead going to make sure we got funds there. you know, if we need something and whatnot, um, and trying to better the fields. So, that's the direction I'm going, that's where we're at on that. And probably at the end of this week, probably going out with uh some shirt sales to try to earn some little extra money that way as well. Okay. We uh, and Jonathan was a part of this, too. We concluded our basketball season the end of February with 600 kids and 50s something teams. Yes.

Unbelievable. I mean just we had Southside joined in and Tuckers but still managing that. These guys did a heck of a job doing that. So appreciate them. Very proud of that parks and recreation. Very proud again. Yes, I'm doing the concessions again. Me and my wife we we It's hard to feel city. I don't know about that yet. Anybody got any questions? Josh, appreciate you, buddy. Do think Jeff is working on something for field one about lights. He may have already discussed some of it with you. I don't know.

We hadn't talked to him yet, but one thing you said there, you can always count on Jeff's working on something. He's working on something. That's my show. think that's kind of in gear with the balance. Yeah. Lighting upgrade the lighting on the at least one if not both. Yeah. So, like I said, he's working on something on that. Okay. All right. Anybody questions? Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. All right. Chris, you got Railroad Museum? Sure. He's got a cool book. He does got a good book here.

Good evening to everybody. Uh yeah, put a book out for each of you. So that's the what we've been working on with Tennessee Central. So when the folks get on the train, this is what they receive. Uh so it's got a lot of railroad history in it, Watertown history in it, museum, you know, things like that. Uh this is a we plan to do a twice a year issue kind of thing. So we'll we'll change it over. We'll have new information, have uh new photos on the front and things like that. So, we'll kind of update it. Tennessee Central took the lead on this one, hence the uh covers about them. Watertown's going to take the lead. Watertown Rails are going to take the lead on the next one. And then next spring, we plan to have Nashville Steam take the lead on that one because we're anticipating the steam engine coming around that time. So, it's really meant to be um you know, good information for the train guests before they get here about all of the organizations uh and just kind of a souvenir thing they can take home, you know, like you'd get at the going to the theater, the ballpark or that kind of thing. A lot of businesses stepped up, put an ad in there. Um you know, that way people take it home with them. Uh we passed some out. We have some at the bank at the uh coffee shop. Gave some to Jason at Wilco. Um he's very excited about this and things down the road. We've we've kind of restarted our discussions about some national advertising things, things like that that so we've got a lot of kind of marketing plans taking shape that are kind of developed over the next 6 12 18 months kind of thing. So So we're excited about that. So, but the whistle post uh will kind of be kind of a continuing um thing that'll center around the train, but really want to focus about, you know, the train, Watertown, and Wilson County is what we're trying to do. Jason has committed from from Wilco to, you know, allocating money towards this and us uh every year. So, that's kind of a good sign. He's

super excited. So, um we had a couple trains so far. I know we talked about last week was another great train. It was a murder mission train. Went really great. Sold out train. Uh two weeks ago I think three weeks ago was the Marty Gro train was lowelling train. It's been that way two years in a row. Tennessee Central knows that. I think we're going to revamp that next year to try to get those sales up. It really you know the businesses anticipate you know certain number of people kind of thing. So any folks obviously is a benefit, but if we can work with Tennessee Central to boost those, helps the town kind of thing. So, uh, next this coming week, we have another train. I think it's a wine train again, so that'll be great. And then coming up in April, we've got, uh, the Easter egg hunt, which coincides with the city Easter egg hunt. Um, Tennessee Central does their own kind of thing. So, we work with them to help them set that up. uh which is in the field kind of where in the future the rail yard will be. So we've started discussing how to change that, where to move that kind of a thing. Uh but they're excited about that. They come in, they supply all the things for their folks. It's really centered on the train folks, but we help them facilitate that. So

So they li that that's limited to train.

That's limited to train folks. If someone would happen to walk in, it's not a big deal, but that's really meant for the train folks. They get off, it's right there. They take care of themselves. Kind of separate from what Watertown's doing. Uh, and then we have the yard sale train coming up after that. So, and they're all seem to be sold out so far. So, really, really good train so far this year. Terry's feeling very comfortable with the communication we've been developing and, you know, feeling like we're paying attention. So, I think that's a good thing. Um, and then lastly, I'd asked uh I think the last meeting about or two meetings ago about putting some signs down here in the sidewalk, Tennessee Central had asked about getting some signs up at the end of the loading sidewalk that just say no access beyond this point because sometimes people would just walk down through the grass all the way into the woods there to get to the train. So, city fellows helped us get some posts up. Uh, Tennessee Central got some signs, so got those up. So, they look great. Terry's really happy about that. So, I think it's a a good safety step and and kind of crowd control as we move forward. So,

good. I think that'll do it for this week. All right. This hero will help me more than anybody. It's what something people can see. Yes. Yeah. That's we want to accomplish something that people can tangibly see. The question I don't see anything, you know, but they got this to start with. We got something going. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Yeah. We had a couple a couple of the vendors said it was great. They saw people walking around with them. You know, one lady was saying, "Oh, yeah. We were sitting with the train and you know, circle on the map where we wanted to go visit kind of thing." So, I think it's really a a helpful informationational thing before people get here. So, good. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Chris.

Yeah. Thanks. Uh Laura, civic civics planning. So, we met last night Um, let's see. We've talked about just about everything here. Amy is here to talk about the yard sale because that was a big discussion last night because that's the next event. So, yes. Now, approach the bench.

Absolutely. We're all approachable. So, we've got our road closures. They're pretty much the same as the fall sail um with a couple differences only that um we talked to Chief Hinder and he looked over all this and he thought it was a good plan. Depot Street um you can see we're going to close it right there um behind the ATM kind of in between Depot Junction and uh the bank. So then that back parking lot will be available for bankers or people that are going to the bank or people that are going to eat at the depot. So they'll have that entire parking lot to park or shoppers for the day. And then once 12:00 hits, they're going to move that uh road closure back down to the highway like they always do. Um the only other thing is that um coming down West Main to Central, we're moving that road closure a little bit further back into the Hunter Funeral Home parking lot. So that way because we saw a lot of this in the fall, people would turn right there thinking they could go there and then they get stuck and it's a whole big mess of them trying to turn around. So they you can they can use that back parking lot to kind of turn around and then go around the square through North Central Woodland and all that. And so everything is accessible. We seem to think it was okay and Hinderite did. So that's kind of where we're at. Any questions? And Hinder did mention in the meeting last night that he would be the one in charge of making sure we um Joe Decker was there for my fire. So he was going to communicate with everyone to make sure they knew the safety route for this.

We have a standing closure for the yard sale. Don't we we we don't need to vote on that tonight. Good. Looks good. All right. Can Can I ask you to do me a favor? Yes. The pavilion down here. Yes. The two out of the last three Saturdays, even though there's signs there that say no parking on there, somebody's pulling up in there and pulling their car in there in the pavilion. In the pavilion. And we don't want that because of the oil spots and that type of thing or cracking the concrete. And I told the police department about the first day I saw it. I just happened to be riding down through here and chief said he'd take care of it and I believe he did. But then last Saturday they were back in there again.

And is the chamber stepped up the volume a little bit. H just when they're doing the yard sale, make sure nobody pulls down and we want you but we don't want the vehicles in the end of it. I see. So, I called him last week and and I think he'll he'll take care of it. So, but if you if it's somebody that's a chamber member or whatever, please tell them we don't mind them using it. It's there for use, but it's not to pull your car. Yes. Yes, sir. Any questions? Anybody? Thank you.

The only other thing that we had talked about um was Cody had said for the mileong is blocking the machines in. So, Officer Hinderite was aware of that and so he Cody W said that he would block off tape off the building over there and have the machines kind of pulled out in case there is an emergency he can just go. Um, and so Officer Hinderite is aware that that wasn't has been an issue in the past. So, he said that he would help make sure that that happened. Um, did you demote Hinderite? I bragged on him. Told him how much shucks. I thought maybe be texting me if he's listening. Yeah, you'll hear from him.

He sure will. Um, so yeah, that was it. Everything else that we've already talked about by someone today. Good. I think this committee is a good thing. Yes. Helps keep us informed. Yes, I think it's a really good thing. One thing I'd like to see you do is uh keep people off the sidewalk instead of setting up. Last time we had, it might have been you or someone I talked to, it was people setting up business on the sidewalk and the people had to go out the uh highway to get out the street. Yeah, that was past the bridge.

Well, it was some up here too near this end up here. But we they don't have any business being on sidewalks and whatever. Yeah. Anybody that's paid uh that's registered with the chamber, they know where they have parking spots that they're allotted. They don't park. They don't put their stuff on the sidewalks. Anybody that's paid with the chamber. Now, if it's outside of our chamber area, I don't have any control over that.

And yeah, pretty much Mr. How the what's in the yellow here, that's the chamber. That's what the chamber's in charge of. Anything else the chamber's not in charge of? That would be more of the city hinder light and all that. I saw I think two up on this end. Uh one just about uh near the school and then I saw two like you said across the bridge, right? And they had I mean they completely set up all the way out from the highway to the street. I guess you need to talk to the police. Yeah. Is that another time? That's making it hard for everybody.

Okay, that's it. You mentioned that two or three months ago after the last one. I'm glad you remembered. There he is. His timing is good. Anything else?

Okay. Thank you. Anybody got any questions with Laura? Okay, Christopher, your timing was good. You were next on the agenda. We're ready for a public hearing. Thank you, sir. All right. You um you have in front of you the plans of service and the annexation request. Um public hearing was given that the mayor and city council of city of Watertown, Wilson County, Tennessee will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. or thereafter on Tuesday, March 17th at Watertown City Hall located 8630 Sparta Pike. This is for the second and final reading of public comments as to make recommendations to annex into the corporate boundaries of the city of Watertown and to adopt a plan of services for additional 18 acres of property located on Parkson Road being part of map being part of parcel 58 Wilson County tax map 110. Um, for further information, this this information was on file at the Wilson County Planning Office located 228 East Main Street, Lebanon, Tennessee, um 37087. Anyone desired to comment is requested to attend. This was published in the Wilson Post on February 25th and this was your public hearing for the annexation.

All right. If you are here and you'd like to comment on the annexation or the plan of services, now is the time to do it. Uh it is not a major annexation. It is.1800s of an acre, 8,000 some odd square feet. So it's not going to alter our city tremendously. Anybody want to talk? I'm just curious. Why did we not bring this on board? So, I'm just curious why we didn't bring the 1.8 in when we brought in the 1.71. Uh, you you want to explain why we had to add that little extra.

Does anybody want to see a copy of the FL just for refreshing memory? Well, I'm wrong.

Okay. You understand Laura's question? I understand. I'll take the answer. I mean, Brian, I'm Brian Keith, KNA surveying. Um, so this it's a long story, but I'm going to shorten it up. We've been working on this a long time. There's been several changes going moving forward. We started with a different size piece of property, then went to another piece of property, and then now we're at this next piece of property. So what happened was we did the annexation on the original piece of property, then found out we need to do something different. We had to come again and now we're here for the third time and it's the last time.

Anybody else want to comment? Thank you for answering that. All right, I'm going to close the public hearing part of this and we'll move on then. Uh Christopher, we take up the ordinance or the plan of services first? Um well they go they're both ordinances. It's um they probably do the annexation first because there's no reason of having plan but we'll need two separate votes.

Two separate votes. Yes sir. And there's two ordinance numbers that will go with it. Um and this is annex the8 acres. Um this will come into if annexed if approved here today. This will come into Watertown as R1, which is low density residential zoning in R1. That's the standard um annexation process unless otherwise um requested by the applicant. They are not requesting a reszoning at this time. They're going to come in at the base residential zone district. Again, this is for8 acres. This will um this will um accommodate the plan of services that was previously approved on the 71 acres that was annexed in 2025. So when we get to that point, it's not adding any additional to it because this property being annex is on the rear of what was previously annexed. But um they need to act on the annexation first and then that's approved. We'll approve the plan of services. The planning commission recommended this unanimously, didn't it?

They did. Yes, sir. Comes with a positive recommendation from planning commission. Yep. I'll make a motion to approve. Is there a second to that? I'll second. Okay. Discussion. Everybody understand what we're doing? Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed and next session's done. Shannon, we're on to the plan of services. Now,

your next item on the agenda is the plan of service for um the previously annexed properties. Um this is typical. This is water, sewer, trash pickup, police enforcement for these properties. I would say for the most part with the um um agreements with the county, you're probably already doing most of those services for these properties. Um this will add that um natural gas is provided by Middle Tennessee. So that is not you you are responsible for um sewer service and I'm not 100% sure if you're responsible for water service out here. I don't know if that's you or the water authority. I hope it's

I'm pretty confident it's you. I'm just not 100% on that one. Um, sewer extensions. This will be a rollover from the existing. So, this will reset the time. There was a previously they had to um make those um modifications within two years. Um, that got held up and in the in this instance they're adding additional property. So, approval of this plan of services will extend that um timeline additional two years from the date of approval. Um, but we've recommended and we put in the ordinance that sewer extensions will be constructed by the owner of record at the time of proposed construction at the time not to exceed 2 years from the date of annexation unless both the municipality and the property owner agree to a modified timeline for completion of work. This is in essence kind of modifying that previously approved timeline, but this is just going to take precedent over that since they're adding additional property to it as well. So that time clock will start if approved today and they'll have two years to install that to the city's satisfaction.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve plan of service? I ask one question. Sure. You got two houses on here. You going to have two behind those two? There's there's four lots total. Two in the front and then two larger lots in the rear. The board is on the field that we where we met the last time we all three of them that the houses would be lined up. That was that was Craig Head sales property that was on Grand Avenue annex.

I know. But we agreed that any other house built Mar County that would be lined up. It wouldn't be one back one back here, one here and one up here. They going to be lined up. My understanding that you all that was a different proposal that was for Craig Head home sales was the property but it was on Grand Avenue had annex for five homes to have front yard setbacks to allow them to line up. Um I think Mr. Malone made the motion that any future um properties that are coming into Watertown they would not be given those same variances and would have to abide by the rules enforce the time. Um, these are not asking for anything.

We gonna have to meet again to have fun. Well, no, because all these are going to meet all the rules. They won't Yeah, they won't have to come back before Bozo um there's no barance request associated with these lots. No, sir. Well, no. I mean, we wouldn't recommend annexation that lots are going to come in with a variance request off the top because I mean that you're creating a problem that doesn't need to be made at that point.

Um, but those were different different lots, different different road entirely. Um, these lots, it's just two in front, two behind, they meet the road frontage requirements and all the lot size requirements for the city of Watertown. But I answer any other questions we have on. Okay. Other questions? Yeah. Probably should ask when we first did this. I'm just asking out of curiosity at this point. Um with us annexing this into the city, will those will that road become city road? Yes. in the that portion of it in front of in front of

in the meets and bounds description that was is going to be handed over to the county at the finalization of that. It does include the additional road and you all city of Lebanon does not annex a road unless they get both sides which is unique to them. Um, Watertown, I don't know if they have that policy because it's different, but in order for the sewer main to be extended, the city of Watertown likes it in the road and the county will not allow that unless you annex the road. So, that's probably the only way you're going to get the sewer extension to your all's criterion.

I'm just asking cuz if we're given a 2-year leeway on the sewer as far as if we pave before then, how that works, that'll be the most That'll be the widest road in the city of Watertown once you annex it. And it got paved in 2024. Okay. That can be the recent pave. 24. Yes, sir. Yeah. It'll be um it'll be the widest road you have in the city of Watertown when you um can I get a motion to say I did, didn't? Not for business. Not this. Okay. I'll make a motion. We approve the ordinance.

Is there a second? Second. Okay. Further discussion. I don't want to cut off the discussion. Is that okay? Good question. Okay. You ready to vote? All in favor say I.

I. Opposed. All right. It's done. Um, unrelated to this, and maybe I shouldn't say it, but I'm going to. The, uh, board of education approved the site for the Watertown Middle School, and it's progressing forward. When this happened last time, the high school site was not in the city limits, but they asked for it to be brought into the city limits. I hope they will do that on the middle school site as well and keep that all together. Uh I haven't talked to the directoral about it, but I will. Uh I I suspect he'll want that done. So if not, I've spoken out of turn, but that that'd be my thought that we ought to bring it in.

All right. One question. Sure. I'm still on this house. How are we going to line houses up if we just take it by? It should be something done for the whole city. Well, and that's now maybe a good time to talk about that while Christopher's here.

As it stands right now, if they meet our zoning requirements, setbacks and everything, we can't do anything like that. But if we want to adopt a policy like that, then Christopher would need to write that for us. We need to approve it on two readings. But uh right now we don't have anything to enforce that. We we don't have we don't have anything lined up. Oh, no. I know. And and that has got to be done. Well, certainly with these people coming in here now and putting anywhere from five to 15 lots in. That' be a good idea.

We've got we That was house bill two houses and they're not lined up and and they re we got stopped and started lining out like appointments with command avenue. They wanted variance on the front setback and they were subdividing one lot into four or five and at that meeting zoning variance and then the then the planning commission agreed that all five of those lots had the same setback houses would line up given the one house that already existed. So we we we're starting to enforce that as we can. I mean, we can't change history if we can only do it going forward. And that's what was I mean, we did put that regulation and said that anything new they do because they've got 8 acres behind that. Anything future coming in would have to be the same minimum requirements that we already have and set. So, we're trying to get that.

Well, we don't have to quit trying and do it and and get have lined up. We've got if you run a line down any street, you wouldn't find probably a third of the house lined up and they built them. Uh 4T 5 ft 10 ft down here that this one over here behind this one and this out 10 ft that way. It's it's that way all over. And it's time

Christopher, can you bring us something on that that we can work into our zoning orders?

Yeah. um you kind of need a little direction on that because like it's a different kind of resolution. I'll look in the city if the city of Lebanon has anything an example, but like if you have a front setback of 30 ft, there's not a requirement to put the front of your home right on that front setback line. I mean, if you have 125 ft deep lot, you could build your house 50t back from the road as opposed to the 30. Um I guess you could make it a blanket. You could have a maximum setback line for the front of homes on streets. That way everything is within 10 ft of each other. It'd be a a unique resolution for sure.

It'd be a unique Well, is that not a little overreachy? I mean, we kind of there's already enough regulations on distance of, but well, the only thing we have on distance right now would be minimums. We don't have any sort of You don't want too close to the road. Too close to the road or too close to side property lines. Yes, sir. Well, why don't we take a stab that have some discussion? It's not on the agenda tonight, so it's something we can bring back next month. I'll put it on the agenda to talk about so we can talk some more. Yeah.

Okay. We'll have try to have it on the agenda next month. You got anything else you need to know? I need to trade your copies. This one's got you want me to sign one of them for you? You have to attorney part of it. Okay. Where do I sign?

Okay. Oh, okay. So, just give us April and let sheer T do this for

Yeah. If you don't mind as you're going by there, you'll have to leave, but if you're leaving, if you don't mind dropping it off there, All right. Uh, I got a few more items of old business. Um, we got a budget report out today and actually we didn't get it until this afternoon. We'd had a couple more earlier this month. But the uh good news on this one, I did get to go through it about 3:30 or 4:00 today. And we are finally back in the black in the general fund now. Just barely, but we're there. And I'd been a little concerned about that. And we'll still have to watch it close. The other two are fine. Have been fine all year, but as you know, the property taxes come in big in February and that generally gets us back up to where we're supposed to be. So, you've got that. If you have any questions, let me know and we'll try to get the answers for you. But this is the first time this year that that fund has been in the black.

Mike, I do have one quick question cuz I'll be honest with you, I didn't have time to look at that cuz it came out so late today. Did we ever get the insurance? I had fun yet, but it it'll have to be okay. I'll do that when we bring one budget amendment with line item transfers and stuff.

Okay. Uh we uh we concluded the water tank project. As you know, the state money has come in. We got $212,000 of state ARP money on that. The project was $280 something,000. Our match was 70 something,000. We've got that covered and we'll be paying that tomorrow or Thursday. Uh, far as I know, everything else is running smooth on the water part. I'll have more to say about that in just a minute. Uh, we have another turntable meeting on April 16th. Steve Casey and April and I participate in that. We're very hopeful the federal government will that'll be their last meeting with us so we can start designing and bidding the project.

Excuse me. Yeah. Is there uh so let's say that was your last meeting. Is there any indication of like when the fun will come? Yeah, we thought it was going to be February and in the December meeting they indicated February and when we got there this time they said April. Uh but after that once they we've been approved for the money but once they release us to spend the money then uh the engineer will start designing the project and they release you six weeks later when the check comes

I believe it is a reimbursement grant we have to spend and then get reimbursed I believe uh but uh we'll be in shape for that ask you know the number of organizations Yes. No, no, no. Legitimate question. And I said on the radio this morning, I hope I didn't overreach, but we're hopeful to have that up and running in 2027. Okay.

Summer or maybe a little later. Um, street paving, of course, it's awful. I know that. But once we get all these projects done, the well the sewer project, we've had some weather issues of course the last few days, but I intend to have a meeting with our engineer and architect and u builder and everything about this project shall be wrapped up. And one of the men down there told Bob the other day said he'd probably be next made before they done. No, it won't be next May. If it is next May, they won't be doing it. Um, so I think we can get to the bottom of that. And I don't not sure this guy had the authority to speak, but uh he came in and told us that. I thought it ain't going to work. We've been convenient to teach these people long enough. Um, I do want to circle back to the water thing just a minute. We get uh what's called a u an well it's an inspection by the state of Tennessee department of environment conservation division of water resources and they came in in February performed a sanitary survey. What they do is they do a records review to docu document the operational performance of the system and onsite inspections of the water treatment facilities and distribution system. This survey covered from March 2024 to February of this year. So roughly two years. We received a 98% grade which is very good. They're not going to come in and give you 100%. We earned 589 points out of 599 points. So that's very good. Um now I know that is

what that means is our facilities are clean. They're functioning properly. We all know and maybe some folks here are not quite as familiar with it, but we have hard water here. We know that. And we have to treat it with certain ways. And our water is not always uh well, some people just don't like it. I'll just be frank about it. But that's uh that's that's what we have coming out of the ground. So um but we have always passed that uh grade as well. But this was an excellent uh report. So, I just wanted to let y'all know that. Let the public know that. Uh we talked last time about the parking spaces on the south side of the square. We had some suggestions. I hadn't been able to do anything with that. Um maybe maybe next month, but uh not tonight. I do have a couple of items of uh new business. Let me get back to what we talked about. Dale's still here and he leave.

There you are. Usually back neck corn. He moved to the front. Um Dale has been our independent operator for many years and his dad was before that. They operate through MS Environmental Services Incorporated. We operate under with him under a 4-year contract that expires June 30 of this year. We have he has presented us a new contract for the next four years and uh the only difference in the contracts is beginning July 1 uh he would get a 3% raise each year goes up 3% each year he takes care of his social security all of that stuff he is an independent contractor we don't have to do any matching funds or anything like that um sewer operator is very very very important and u if you don't think so just wait till something's not working right and you'll hear about it Dale will hear I'll hear about it and Dale will hear about it from me if he had doesn't already know about it most time he knows about it before I do uh but anyway I have no problem recommending this 4-year renewal with MS Environmental Services I say Dale he is that company but uh we be contracting with them and I've given you a copy of that agreement which would if we approve it tonight, we'll pick up July 1st seamlessly. Wouldn't be any downtime. So, I recommend that to you.

Second. Is there discussion on that? Okay. All in favor say I. I. You stuck with us another four years, buddy. All right. Don't go anywhere.

Um and pre and We appreciate you. Uh, and I had one other resolution here tonight, and I want to make sure everybody understands before I bring this up. I have absolutely no plans whatsoever to to recommend the property tax increase. So, that's not what this is about. But, there is a a bill working through the legislature down there where the legislature wants to put a cap on how cities how much they can increase property taxes at a time. And that sounds real good except for the people that are sitting around here that have to make the city run on a finite amount of money. Um, this resolution would say we're opposed to that. I certainly am because it basically would tie our hands uh if we had some type of major catastrophe here and we had to come up with some extra money or whatever. So, they need to, in my opinion, um, need to leave us alone on this. Every city and county that I know of feels the same way. This resolution, I didn't create it, came from Hendersonville, and they asked that we consider it. So, I have no problem recommending that to you, but I want to make sure everybody understands this. We're not talking property tax increase. What is that called?

It's a resolution expressing opposition to any state imposed cap on property taxes which limits local governments and funding services desired by their residents. Motion that we approve this resolution. Is there a second? I'll second.

Okay. Discussion. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Okay, thank you. I'll get that out to our senator and representative. It's all items of new business I have. Our next meeting will be April 21 at 6:00. Uh we've already talked about the egg hunt and all the activities on April 4th, egg hunt opening ceremonies, barbecue and fish, train coming in. That's good. That's real good. And I do want to say one other thing. I didn't have it on the agenda, but I don't really need to. I want to give a a public thank you to Don and Lita Shipper. They uh at their expense, if you'll notice as you leave Watertown there, past the uh elementary school, there's been a whole lot of trimming, you know, the growth of uh trees have grown out there. They they did that uh for the city. And I want to publicly acknowledge and thank them for doing that. And that that's a nice thing they've done and makes our uh makes the road look a lot wider and u we appreciate them. So

all right, we'll go around the table here. Caleb, we start with you tonight. Uh, I thought about it after y'all were done talking about it, but um, regarding the yard sale. Mhm. Right there where the bridge going over to East Main where they someone ran through it and that fence is gone. Mhm. That temporary one's also laid down too. So, I don't know if we want to put up some cones or something before the yard sale just for safety reasons. So,

I'm glad you brought that up and uh wish Mr. Morgan was here to and y'all April you and Tamara remind me talked to Bob about that and also got totally unrelated but I meant to say a while ago for the Easter egg hunt I've asked him not to mow the outfield for a week so it'll be a little bit of a challenge for him to find Easter eggs and last year we mowed it if you'll remember the eggs were everywhere you can see them so it'll be a little bit of a challenge this time so we won't mow for for a week or so. Anything else? That's it. Yeah. Nothing for me. Mr. Laura,

you good. Steve, did we uh tight up that sidewalk? No, that's what I was talking about. Didn't have a chance to work on it. Hope to bring something back next month on it. Yeah. No, we're talking about fixing. We want to do that, but I was talking about overall fixing that down to there. Yeah. Hope to add you something back next time for that. Anything else? All right, that concludes the agenda items for tonight, y'all. I make a motion to

Let's go start March Madness in one second. All right. baseball game started.