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Sunday, April 9, 2017

Tuesday Council agenda looks at rehiring retirees, solid waste contract and a report on downtown sidewalks

The April Crossville city council meeting is set for Tuesday April 11 and includes mostly items the council has discussed before.

One item not on the agenda for the first time in several weeks is the Shooting Sports Park and the sale of the land to the nonprofit is scheduled to be closed prior to this meeting.  This will also be the first real council meeting for new city manager Greg Wood who started one week before the last meeting.
New Crossville city manager Greg Wood

The Council's regular meeting starts at 6 PM and will be preceded by the monthly audit committee meeting at 5:20 PM and a brief public hearing on the annexation plan of services for two new annexations at 2496 Lantana Rd and 99 Grandview Dr in addition to a report on annexation progress for Orange Circle at 5:50 PM. The council also meets as the Solicitation Board at 5:55 PM to consider an application from the Crossville Lions Club for their annual white cane project.
Council meetings are held at city hall and open to the public.

The regular agenda includes possible action on the rehiring of retirees policy that council has been discussing for some time now. Councilman Danny Wyatt had requested some additional information on the cost and savings of the previous early retirement program. The spread sheet prepared by Leah Crockett shows an amount of annual savings totaling $282,708 for the current year looking at how much the retirees would be receiving compared to the cost of their current replacements.

The total amount of the 6 months of salary buyout for the 18 employees who took early retirement was $446,275 so it appears the city has already made back its investment in the 28 months since the program was offered.

The issues that have cropped up with the rehiring of retirees include that they must be returned to the more expensive Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System and the 6 month salary buyout and other regular retirement incentives they received. Discussion by council has included whether the buyout payment should be paid back if a previous retiree return to work.

New city manager Greg Wood has recommended that such employees not be rehired unless there were “extraordinary circumstances.”

As the deadline nears for a decision on renewal of the city solid waste collection contract with Cumberland Waste Disposal the city has been looking at its options. One option is the city's purchase of a leaf vacuum truck to allow the street department to do some or all of the leaf pickup. Such a truck is estimated to cost around $40,000.

During last weeks council work session, Manager Wood suggested that the city renew the the contract for 12 months to give him time to come up with a plan and recommendation. Council did not seem to want to do that. Council must either renew the contract, rebid the contract or take over waste collection with city employees.

Council will receive an update on the status of the downtown sidewalk project and a proposal to replace the traffic signal at the bottom of Water Tank Hill. The sidewalk project may affect the state plans to resurface Main Street through Downtown.

Council will also consider a request from the Lake Commission for additional funds to pave additional parking at the park between the playground and the large shelter. The project will require an additional $5,000 added to the almost $10,000 the park has in their budget.

Council will consider 4 appointments to the Industrial Development Board, approval of several bids including repainting the Catoosa water tank in Interchange Business Park, and proposals for the next city financial audit.


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