Very busy called meeting agenda set for noon Friday July 22 includes city manager, sidewalks, shooting sports park

The meeting started out to be about moving up the process of hiring a new city manager rather then wait until after the council election in November but the agenda has grown.

The meeting will be held without councilman Pete Souza who previously advised he was unavailable to meet. 

In order to move up the city manager hiring time line the council will have to rescind a previous action agreeing to put it off until the city election is held.  No reason for the change in plans has been released.  Emails this week from one council member sought to keep the applicants secret though city attorney Will Ridley advised that was not allowed under the open records law.

Also on the agenda is appointment of two members of an oversight committee for the economic development funds to the Chamber of Commerce and two appointments to the health and education facilities board.

A discussion of the use of city office space by the non-profit group Cumberland Rising, the drug alliance that came from the Horizon Initiative has been requested by council member Pamala Harris.  The partnership group has a temporary space on the fourth floor used by its director.

Cumberland County mayor Ken Carey will be at the meeting to discuss topics to include the shooting sports park that was discussed just over a year ago.  Carey will update the council on the project.
2015 story on the Shooting Sports Park

Carey will also talk to the council about the pay for 911 dispatchers.  The county's recent salary study showed that the dispatchers are below the average pay for the classification.  The city and county share the costs of the communications operation.

The long expected council discussion of the downtown sidewalk project and how to handle it will also be part of the called meeting.  The project has been looked at for bidding by a contractor and a study done by city staff to see what the cost and time frame would be to do the project with a dedicated city crew.  City engineer Tim Begley and street supervisor Kevin Music are expeted to report to the council as they try to decide the best way to proceed. 

Council will also discuss the lease between the city and Downtown Crossville, Inc on the building known as the Snodgrass building.  The initial term of the lease expires October this year and DCI is requesting a three year extension.  The city and DCI worked on repairs and upgrades to the building and all those have been completed according to the letter from DCI president Bob Schwartz 

An item on a project to convert old council audio tapes to CDs