CROSSVILLE FLASHBACK February 2000: Road Improvements to Elmore & near CCHS, Chamber promotes Golf

News from the Crossville city council meeting February 2000

Crossville city council approved moving forward with two road improvement projects that staff and city officials have been studying since last year.

The first project is to help the situation on Elmore Road between Main Street and West Avenue. The state will take the current four lanes, mill the asphalt surface and repave the road striped with five lanes including a center turn lane. The road itself will not be widened, but the lanes adjusted within the current road width. According to correspondence from the Tennessee department of transportation, the two outside lanes will be 11 feet wide while the three remaining lanes will each be 10 feet wide.

A state study of the number of wrecks put the road’s accident rate at almost three times the state average. The short one-third of a mile stretch has tallied 130 accidents in the last three years, 40 of those were rear-end type accidents.

The city’s piece of the project will be to replace the sensor loops in the road that operate the automatic traffic signals and adjust the signal heads as necessary. Public Works director Richard Campbell has estimated the cost to the city at around $5,000.

The other road improvement project approved by council was to make Stanley Street and Fourth Street three lanes in the area of Cumberland County High School. In addition to the road widening proposed, the city plans to build a one-lane drive from Stanley Street across the front lawn at CCHS as a quick student drop off or pick up area. The city has been studying the congestion problems caused by both the morning and afternoon school traffic rush for several months at the request of school officials.

The total estimated cost for the complete package is $75,000. The state will fund around $45,000 of the project leaving about $30,000 to be paid for out of the city’s budget. Council members discussed the fact that their intentions have been to use their portion of the additional sales tax revenue from last year’s sales tax increase referendum for road improvements. Sales tax collections from the holiday shopping season increased dramatically over previous years. October and December sales tax revenue increased over $100,000 with November almost that much.

Both road improvement projects were approved by a unanimous vote of the council.

Don Hinch updated the city council on tourism and different ways the Chamber of Commerce promotes the local area to potential visitors. In addition to a brochure promoting overall tourism, the chamber has started promoting a trademarked logo and slogan of Crossville as the golf vacation capital of Tennessee. According to Hinch an estimated 400,000 rounds of golf were played in Cumberland County last year.

The Chamber has developed a multi-page golf brochure, the 2000 Lifestyle magazine and placed ads in the state tourism and golf magazines. Currently, through a state tourism grant chamber employees man the two Cumberland County I-40 rest areas during daylight hours. An estimated 200,000 vehicles stop in at the rest areas while it is manned and visitors have a chance to ask questions and pick-up information on area attractions.

Council also passed a resolution in opposition to action considered by the state legislature that would balance the state budget by reducing the so-called state shared taxes returned to Crossville. Currently the city receives almost $1 million a year from the program and estimates city property taxes would have to raised by 60 cents per $100 of value to offset the loss of all that state funding. Currently city property taxes are 70 cents and the increase would nearly double property owners’ city tax bill. City taxpayers could also face an increase in their county property tax bill of nearly 44 cents per 100 value.

In other action, council:

• Commended public works director Richard Campbell for his “exemplary” service as interim city manger;
• Recognized Crossville Elementary third grader Barbara Brady as the student of the month. Teacher Glenn Linebaugh said Barbara was an excellent student with excellent behavior and helped others;
• Directed city attorney Lanny Colvard to send a letter to Highways, Inc. requesting payment for the estimated $7,000 to $10,000 still owed to the city.
• Increased city attorney Colvard’s hourly billing rate from $100 to $125 per hour.
• Deferred action on a request by the Art Circle Library for further study and deferred action on establishing Martin Luther King Day as a city holiday.