Special Called council meeting Thursday 5 PM on Garrison Park, splash pad and sidewalks. Budget work follows

Crossville city council meets in a called meeting followed by a work session on Thursday starting at 5 PM in Crossville city hall.

The called meeting will include discussions and possible action on at least two items deferred from the regular council meeting last week. One topic is moving forward with the plans to redevelop Garrison Park on Fourth Street and the other is another round of discussion on downtown sidewalks, a topic that has been around since plans were first put forth for downtown improvements 14 years ago.

Garrison Park entrance

The council put off action to move forward and approve contracts for grant administration and engineering for the Garrison Park project until they got a response from the Local Parks and Recreation Fund (LPRF) about keeping the fence around the park and keeping the larger baseball filed known as Field A. Plans remain to remove the old grandstand structure built around 1949 as it is in poor condition and not ADA accessible.

The redevelopment plan for the park includes a splash pad, playground, new restrooms, a walking trail, and redoing the basketball court. The city was awarded a 50/50 match grant of $500,000 for the project.

Example of Splash pad in Cookeville's Dogwood Park

A discussion is also planned on a splash pad proposed for Centennial Park. The project was discussed last year and a motion to have the then interim city manager negotiate a contract with engineers on such a project. No contract was ever brought back before council and current city manager Greg Wood is recommending the council seek a design/build contract on such a project.

Council will hear information about the city manager and engineers recent meeting with TDOT officials on the sidewalk and Main Street paving project. TDOT will correct some of the downtown sidewalk corners to bring them up to ADA standards and current plans are for the city to do the rest. At this point the city hopes to know which corners TDOT will fix.

Deteriorated sidewalks in downtown Crossville

Councilman Scot Shanks has proposed the sidewalks be repaired by bidding the project out, a scenario that is estimated to be a 9 month process versus having city employees do the work, a process that could take 3 years.

Additional items on Thursday's agenda include approving the replacement of the traffic light signal at Lantana Road and Main Street. The project will be paid for 100 percent by funds from Surface Transportation grant funds with no local match required.

And one of the air conditioning units at the Crossville airport has failed and the city is taking bids for its replacement. That action will also come before the council and budgeted funds are available.

Crossville Memorial Airport Terminal Building

Following the called meeting, the council will meet in work session to continue work on the 2017-18 budget.

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