The Crossville city council approved
applying for a $500,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of
Economic and Community Development (TDEC) to help pay for a
construction ready pad that could help attract as many as 300 new
jobs to the area.
The grant requires a minimum match of
$215,000 but the proposed project is estimated to cost almost $1
million dollars and the city hopes to have the financial support of
the Cumberland County commission on the project. Even though the
county has not approved the help yet, the county commission's budget
committee unanimously agreed to recommend funding $250,000 toward the
project to the full commission.
Crossville city council members L-R J. H. Graham, Danny Wyatt, Mayor James Mayberry,
Pamala Harris and Scot Shanks.
The site development grant is part of
the Select Tennessee program of TDEC and is designed to help local
areas be ready to attract industry and jobs. The proposal is to use
a 20 acres site in the Interchange Business Park to have a location
ready for the construction of a 200,000 square foot building with
space for loading docks and parking ready for construction to start.
Preliminary site design
The costs of the project are currently
only estimates as the site has not had nay geotechnical testing that
will determine how much the project will cost based on the amount and
type of rock found from the testing.
The grant application was actually due
the day following the city council meeting and has been in the works
for several weeks as part of the cooperation between the Chamber of
Commerce, the city of Crossville and Cumberland County.
Mayor James Mayberry moved that the
city apply for the grant and the city would be optimistic that the
county would approve the matter at their full commission meeting to
pay for half of the match funds to complete the project up to
$250,000. Mayberry's motion was supported by councilman J. H.
Graham.
City clerk Sally Oglesby pointed out
that the resolution to approve the grant requires that the city
commit to the match for the grant application to go in since the city
does not yet have a firm commitment from the county.
The council voted unanimously to
approve the application for the grant.
At the end of the council meeting,
Co-Linx manager Ed Camera and member of the Chamber of Commerce's board of directors spoke during the time of public comment and
praised the council for their leadership on the matter saying the
site was desperately needed and it will make the community better.
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