First Crossville city council work session of 2017 set for January 3 at 5 PM

The first council meeting of the new year comes on January 3 as the council meets in work session in preparation for the regular January meeting a week later.  The meeting will be in room 317, the third floor conference room.

Among the items to be discussed are a proposed special city census, more on the city manager selection process, the shooting sports park and solid waste collection.

During their December meeting the council approved a motion to amend the budget to fund a special census during the coming year. Previous census work has been performed by Dave Warner who previously served on the council and ran for election in November. Warner has been invited to discuss the census with the council and offer some suggestions.

New council member Scot Shanks wants to hire a new city manager sooner rather then later. He will be leading a discussion with the council on a process for interviewing and selecting a new city manager.

With plans for construction to start on the proposed shooting sprots park sometime after March 2017, the council must approve a lease and operating agreement with a non-profit organization that is going to run the operation of the park. That organization is now being formed and the agreements will be on the agenda. A work session on the park was held recently (LINK) with the council and County Mayor Kenneth Carey.

The council will start discussion of the future of solid waste collection for the city. The current contract with Cumberland Waste Disposal expires in August of 2017 and the city has to decide if they want to bid out the contract again or take the collection of solid waste back in-house. There are some issues that need to be resolved before the city can make the decision but a direction will need to be chosen soon so that specs for a contract can be developed or equipment purchased and employees hired.

Also at the work session the council will hear a report on the animal shelter from the group FOCCAS that wants to raise some $500,000 to build a new shelter, a proposal from Butch Smith and Forbus Investments to purchase about 7 acres in the Interchange Business Park for $25,000 an acre and a request for directional signs to Lake Tansi Resort from the property owners association.