Editor's Note: This is the original story published following the Crossville City Council's regular September meeting held on the evening of 9-11-01.
City Council holds regular meeting in spite of national tragedy.
City Council holds regular meeting in spite of national tragedy.
The Crossville city council went ahead with their regular September meeting Tuesday night, but the tone of the meeting was more somber than usual following the day of destruction in New York City and Washington DC.
Earlier in the day, Crossville Mayor J. H. Graham had sent out a request that all flags in the City of Crossville be lowered to half-staff in memory of the unknown number of dead in what was apparently the worst terrorist attack in world history.
The council approved with some changes the second reading of an ordinance concerning the sale of fireworks in the city. Council heard from Jim Inman who has operated a temporary seasonal fireworks sales tent for 11 years and from Jim Jones who runs the Bean Pot on Peavine Road that has year-round fireworks sales.
9-11-01 City Council Meeting-L to R Carl Duer,
Mayor J. H. Graham, Ken Burnett, and Ronny Hill.
Burnett who was then Chair of the now defunct Airport
Committee reported on State recognition of the airport
Inman spoke on behalf of his fireworks distributor Mid America. Mid America had written a letter to the city suggesting among other things, a reduction in the amount of product liability insurance required. The council agreed and reduced the required level of insurance from $5 million to $2 million.
Mid America also wanted to see a restriction on the size of tents along with a reduction in the required distance that tents must be separated from on-premise beer locations. Council did not agree with these changes.
Bean Pot owner Jim Jones complained to the council that his year-round fireworks sales business was being affected by their attempt to control the number of seasonal fireworks tents in the city limits. Jones’ biggest complaint was the additional $1000 annual fee the city is proposing.
“I’m inspected by the state and I have to pay a license fee of $750 to the state as well,” said Jones.
Jones described the seasonal fireworks tents as potentially dangerous should someone drive by and throw a firework into one of the tents. He added that the seasonal sales locations just take the cream off of the top.
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Crossville Mayor J. H. Graham responded to Jones’ complaint saying that he felt the state did not do an adequate job inspecting fireworks.
Council passed the second reading of the fireworks ordinance with councilman Ronny Hill opposed. Hill opposes the license fee and has compared the number of fireworks tents with the annual 127 yard sale tents.
Council took the first step toward changing the way the city water department handles water deposits and service fees. Currently, the city charges a $10 service fee and holds a $50 deposit on a rental property water service account and a $25 deposit on a property owner’s water service account.
Council passed first reading of an ordinance to do away with water service deposits entirely and to instead charge a onetime non-refundable service fee of $25 for property owners and a $40 non-refundable service fee for renters and commercial accounts.
The Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) from the University of Tennessee that consults for cities across Tennessee also recommends that city change the handling of such fees and deposits. According to MTAS, the handling of customer deposits takes a fair amount of time and there is also a cost involved in applying the deposit to the account or issuing and mailing a check to the customer when the account is closed.
If the council passes the matter on two more readings, current water customers with deposits will have their deposit amount credited to one of their water bills sometime in the future.
Amanda Houston, city finance director said currently 99.6 percent of customers pay their bill. It is a very small group of customers that don’t pay their bill.
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