Crossville city council approves industrial site price and sewer connection to Homestead Tower Museum

Crossville city council approved a number of items, including setting the price of the industrial property being developed by the city with help from the state and the county, a water sales contract for South Cumberland Utility District and a sewer connection to the Homestead Tower Museum.

Council approved a price per acre on property in the Interchange Business Park that will soon be the site of a 200,000 square foot building pad for quick use by a potential industrial prospect. As part of the project funded by state funds and city and county taxpayer funds, a certified price must be approved. The property was purchased several years ago by the city.

Proposed industrial site located in

Interchange Business Park at

I-40 And 127-N

Councilman Graham moved to set the price at $75,000 per acre for the 20-acre property that could house a company with up to 300 employees. Councilwoman Harris seconded the motion.

Engineering on the project is in the final stages and bids will be called for a bit later on in the year according to city engineer Tim Begley. Councilman Scot Shanks asked if the county would have a say in the price since they were funding part of the project? Mr. Graham addressed the question saying that there could be a lot of incentives for the purchase of the site.

City manager Wood said they were working on a matrix of incentives that may offset some of the price including a credit of up to $5000 per job hired by the purchaser. In addition, the matrix looks at capital investment and average wage. The motion passed unanimously.

PARK PLACE MOTORS

Near the new car stores; not near the price!

Crossville city council easily approved a renewal of the water sales contract between the city and South Cumberland Utility District. The brief discussion included information from city manager Greg Wood who advised the council that the SCUD board unanimously approved a request to the city for the renewal for a ten year period at the same terms.

Councilman J. H. Graham III moved to approve the request quickly seconded by Councilwoman Pamala Harris. The motion was approved by unanimous vote of the council.

Council also approved a request from the Cumberland Homesteads Tower Association for a connection to the city sewer. The tower museum has been operating on a septic system that has failed and the museum no longer has a public restroom facility for their visitors.

Cumberland Homestead

Tower Museum

Councilman Danny Wyatt moved that the city pay $10,371.47 to run the sewer line from where it is to the tower. This would install the line and would leave the cost of a grinder pump of around $5,000 that the CHTA is seeking from Cumberland County. The tower is leased from the county school system.

Mayor James Mayberry seconded Wyatt's motion. A budget amendment was added to the motion on first reading and the motion was unanimously approved by the council.   

September City Council meeting may decide Depot future, water sales contract and industrial property price.

Will the city take over operation of the Depot? Will the city agree to a new contract with South Cumberland Utility District for sale of water? And will the council agree on a price for the industrial property with a pad ready to construct a 200,000 square foot building?

All these questions and more could be answered during the Crossville city council's regular September meeting Tuesday, September 12. The council's busy evening starts with the Audit Committee meeting at 5:15 PM followed by the Beer Board meeting at 5:45 PM. Council will also meet as the solicitation board at 5:55 PM. The regular council agenda starts at 6 PM in Council Chambers at city hall.

Council will consider the renewal of the city's water sales agreement with the South Cumberland Utility District. The district's board has requested that the same terms be continued on a 10-year renewal of the contract.

PARK PLACE MOTORS

Near the new car stores; not near the price.

Council will discuss and consider the future operation of the Crossville Depot. For many years the depot was operated by the local Rotary Foundation and for the last 2 years by the C.A.T.S. Art organization. C.A.T.S. Advised the city they would not renew the lease and the city began looking at options.

Crossville Depot

In addition to upgrading the facility, the proposal for the city to operate the depot in the future includes 1 additional full-time and 2 part-time employees. The meeting room would generally be available between 9 AM and 9 PM but additional hours could be arranged. The city would not give out keys to renters but a city staff member would be present to assist the renters whenever an event is being held. Rental of the depot meeting room for 3 hours is recommended to be $105. The city would also operate the gift shop and plans to stock only Tennessee made products.

Council will consider a request for sewer service from the Cumberland Homestead Tower Association. Currently, the tower museum does not have public restroom facilities due to septic issues. Sewer service is currently used by the Homestead Elementary School and sewer lines are near the tower.

Council will also consider setting a price per acre for the site being developed in the Interchange industrial park. The land is the location of the 200,000 square foot construction pad funded through a state grant along with the city and the county. $60,000 per acre has been recommended though discussion during the work session indicates that price may change. The property is currently being marketed in anticipation of the site being ready next year.

Council will discuss the proposal for health insurance from the Tennessee Municipal League risk pool program. The city currently participates in the liability portion of the program and the health insurance pool is a newer program. Council members heard a presentation on the program during the work session last week.

Council will go back to first reading in an attempt to remove the monthly report by the Chamber of Commerce from the agenda.

Additional items on the agenda for council are bids and purchases on 10 items including water meters, a street department leaf vac trailer and several trucks. Under the consent agenda Council has the second reading of the telecommunications facilities ordinance, several grant applications, and several event street closings.

Final regular council meeting for Souza and Kerley includes ethics complaints, grants and funding request for Jet Stadium

The final regular Crossville city council meeting for the current version of council comes two days after the election for two new members of the council. The agenda for the November regular council meeting includes a long list of the ethics violations filed by councilman Pete Souza that may or may not be investigated depending on the vote of a majority of council.

Crossville city hall

The council's evening starts at 5:15 PM with the council meeting as the audit committee in conference room 317.  A public hearing on annexation progress report is set for 5:50 PM and the council's regular meeting starts at 6 PM.  

In addition to the ethics complaints that come near the end of the meeting's agenda, council will also consider grant applications for site preparation for an industrial site building pad and a tourism development grant for the shooting sports park. Council will again consider a sidewalk proposal for Dunn Ave near Walmart and a request for funding by Cumberland County High School for repairs to their football field.

The list of ethics complaints can be found at this link. City attorney Will Ridley recommended the items should be covered at a special called meeting and one was close to being scheduled but was pulled just before the notice was to go out. Councilman Souza then asked that the items be included on the regular meeting's agenda.  

All 13 of the complaints are listed as individual agenda items and in each case, the council has three options, to determine that the complaint has merit, determine that the complaint does not have merit or determine that the complaint has sufficient merit to warrant further investigation. If the Council determines that a complaint warrants further investigation, it would authorize an investigation by the City Attorney or another individual or entity chosen by the City Council to make that investigation.

The Chamber of Commerce is seeking permission to apply for a grant of up to $500,000 for a Tennessee Department of Economic and Community development site development grant. The grant will require a minimum $214,000 match up to a maximum of $500,000 match from the city to construct a 200,000 square foot pad ready for construction to start.

The site for the pad is in the Interchange Park at I-40 and 127-N and the plan would include space for some 255 parking spaces and an area for trucks as well.

Council will also consider making an application for a tourism enhancement grant to assist in the development of the Shooting Sports Park proposed for the old city landfill property at Chestnut Hill. The project construction will be funded though the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency at $2.3 million to develop the park. The city can request up to $50,000 for the toursim grant and a $15,000 match will be required for the grant. The grant looks at bringing people more than 50 miles from their home and a method for measuring the impact.

Once again the council will look at a proposal for construction a sidewalk on Dunn Avenue between Interstate Drive and Matherly St. Property owners on the street have agreed to fund 50 percent of the material to build the curb gutter and sidewalk with the city funding the balance and labor.

The project was discussed at a work session in 2014 where council accepted a recommendation that the owners provide all the material and the city would fund the labor and ranking the project with other sidewalk projects. The project also came during two subsequent work session and deferred.

CCHS principal Jon Hall has requested help from the city on a project to make major repairs to their football field. Problems include drainage issues and a need to replace drain pipes under the field, redoing the sideline hillsides, irrigation system and new sod. The total cost of the work is estimated at $100,000 and so far they have received a commitment of $10,000 from Pilot/Flying J. Hall's email to the city also says the school system had “some funds” to help but no amount is known at the current time.

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.