Crossville city council approves sale of industrial property and lease with DCI for Snodgrass building

After two months of uncertainty, the group Downtown Crossville, Inc. (DCI) will be able to continue using the historic Snodgrass building for their headquarters with the approval of a new lease between DCI and the city on the city owned building.

Council also approved the sales agreement and gave final approval to the sale of 9.09 acres on Wyatt Court, one of the city's industrial parks. The purchaser, L. E. Butch Smith plans to build an industrial building there that could be either rented or purchased. The property is sold at $25,000 per acre.

The Snodgrass building is one of the oldest standing buildings in Crossville, the structure behind the courthouse was once the law office of Charles E. Snodgrass who, in addition to being a lawyer served as a state representative and as US congressman from the Fourth District of Tennessee. The building predates the 1905 courthouse and was built about circa 1890. It served as a law office until 1970, was purchased by the county in 1989 and used as the veterans service office until purchased by the city when the county considered tearing it down.

Historic Snodgrass building

During the council's called meeting on July 22, the topic of the DCI lease on the building was on the agenda. Councilman Danny Wyatt said that DCI had used the building for three years and that if notice on the lease wasn't given to DCI 90 days before October 31 it would automatically renew for another three years. Council voted to give DCI notice so the old lease wouldn't automatically renew.

At the August regular council meeting Wyatt proposed to put the building up for bids to see if any other non-profit wanted to lease it. That measure failed and a motion was approved that interim city manager Steve Hill should negotiate a new lease with DCI. After 6 weeks with no contact from the city, DCI began to get concerned that the city didn't intend to continue the lease but finally the draft lease was presented to DCI with a new rent of $100 a month, a one year lease that becomes a month to month after the initial term and either side can give a 90 day notice to terminate the lease.

The motion to approve was approved by all four council members present. Councilman Jesse Kerley did not attend the meeting.

Council had previously agreed to the purchase of some 9 acres of the Wyatt Court industrial park, the last usable piece of that property to Butch Smith who said he plans to construct an industrial building to either sell or lease. Originally Smith had requested a credit for the number of jobs created against the purchase price but has since dropped that request according to city attorney Will Ridley.

The purchase price for the property is $25,000 per acre for a total price of $227,075. The sale was scheduled to be closed right away as required advertising of the sale has already taken place several months ago. The four members present unanimously approved the sales contract.

Property being purchased by Butch Smith at Wyatt Court off of Woodlawn Rd.

Smith already owns the building in the background on the left.

Interim city manager Steve Hill's fate back on the council's October Agenda along with sidewalks and Wyatt Court land purchase

The majority of the city council's regular October agenda is mostly routine, but one item is anything but routine.  The meeting is Thursday October 13.

Councilman Pete Souza is proposing an item to hold “discussion and action on removal and replacement of interim city manager.” The current interim city manager Steve Hill has held the position since April when a majority of the council dismissed city manager David Rutherford and appointed retired parks and recreation director Hill as interim manager.

Interim city manager Steve Hill listens to discussion at a previous council meeting.

Hill has attracted a lot of attention with some of his actions including removing derogatory items from his personnel file from his time with the parks and recreation department. Those items have since been returned. Story on Hill and missing documents returned.

Councilman Souza has filed a number of ethics complaints against Hill including questions about what happened with some city property during his time with Parks and Recreation, several items related to the investigation of the incident between Mr. Souza and councilman Jesse Kerley and his father following a meeting June 2, and providing false information to the media on supposed investigations into actions by interim police chief Rod Shoap. Souza files ethics complaints story. 

The schedule for the evening's meetings starts with the audit committee meeting at 5:00 PM followed by a closed executive session at 5:30. The beer board meets at 5:45 PM and a public hearing on annexation of Orange Circle will be held at 5:50 PM

The council's regular agenda gets underway at 6 PM in the council chambers at city hall.

Council once again takes up the bid on the long delayed safe routes to school sidewalks on Fourth St and Myrtle Ave. The project has run into numerous problems and has passed two absolute deadlines that have been extended to try and complete the project. The low bid has been approved by TDOT and the project may finally get underway.

Additional bids and purchases by the city include cemetery record keeping software and a new playground for Meadow Park Lake. The cemetery software would tie into to GPS location of plots and allow for genealogical research.

The purchase of the final usable plot in the Wyatt Court industrial park to L. E. “Butch” Smith will be considered by the council. The cost of the property is 227,075 for the 9.09 acres just off of Woodlawn Road. Originally Mr. Smith was seeking a credit against the purchase price for the addition of jobs but that part of his request has been dropped. The public notice of the sale was published back in April and now only requires the approval of council. Smith previously said he planned to construct a 50,000 square foot speculative building on the property at an estimated cost of $2 million.

The vacant land in the foreground is the property proposed for purchase be Butch Smith.

The council will consider the final approval of the sale during the October council meeting.

UCBJ article on a new industrial spec building for Crossville

From the May issue of the Upper Cumberland Business Journal.

http://ucbjournal.com/crossville-businessman-plans-spec-building/

My story about Butch Smith's proposal to build a spec industrial building.

Council OKs purchase of industrial property by local businessman Butch Smith

The Crossville city council approved the offer of local businessman Butch Smith to purchase a 9.09 acre lot in the Wyatt Court industrial park off of Woodlawn Road.

The property is prices at $25,000 per acre and Smith is proposing to construct a 50,000 square foot industrial spec building on the property.  Smith currently owns the adjoining property that is currently being leased by CoLinx for their latest expansion and the plans could eventually allow the two buildings to be joined creating a 150,000 square foot facility.

Smith's proposal is for the city to give the project 3 years and deduct $5000 per full time job created by the project from the land cost up to the purchase price.  Smith told the council the total investment in the initial part of the project would be some $2 million.

Smith also requested property tax abatements similar to payment in lieu of taxes programs offered to other industrial firms locating in Crossville. In addition, Smith requested some fill material located on adjacent city property that the city has stored to fill in part of the property to bring it up to grade and provide additional truck parking to the project.   

The sale is contingent on the charter provisions that allow a petition of 10 percent of registered city voters to put the sale to a referendum and a a sales contract by city attorney Will Ridley.  

Chamber of Commerce Brad Allamong praised the project saying currently there are no local industrial buildings to show potential industrial prospects.  Allamong added that he hoped additional local investors would step forward.  "This is really unique, talking about a private person making a commitment to the community and I'm all for it," Allamong concluded.

The motion to accept the offer of Smith was approved with all council members in favor.