Norris council approves gazebo roof repair, OKs funds for 2026 fireworks
With the fundraising campaign already concluded, renovations to the iconic downtown Norris gazebo — including a new roof — are expected to begin soon and be completed by early November. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Both allocations were made through a budget amendment ordinance that the council OK’d on second and final reading during its September meeting, although neither expenditure was included in the budget amendment when it was approved on first reading in August.
Citizens had been complaining that the city’s 2026 fiscal year budget, which went into effect July 1, did not include money for next year’s fireworks show, which is usually put on by the city’s Fire Department, but paid for out of city funds.
As for the gazebo roof, the $6,500 appropriation the council made Monday isn’t actually costing the city anything.
A private group held a campaign in August to raise $6,000 for gazebo renovations, and reached its goal – and then some – in just nine days.
But because the gazebo, in the downtown area, is owned by the city, the council was required to accept the donated money and then allocate it to the project.
“When people of this community value something, they will invest in it,” said Lisa Barger, who collaborated with Cynthia Edrington, Mike Robinson and Bonnie Peacock as the “Save the Gazebo Team.”
“While we reached our goal in nine days, what’s important is how many people donated,” Barger said. “We had 48 donations – some couples and some individuals donated.”
She said earlier that the plans for the gazebo renovations would be taken to the City Council for its approval and acceptance of the donations on Monday, and that work could begin within days after that.
“We’re really excited,” she said. “It will be done pretty quickly. We have already picked out the shingles. We hope to have it finished by the first of November.
“Our contractor for the new roof will be JTI Construction of Knoxville, and we will have community volunteers doing the re-staining of the structure. We also plan to replace some of the benches inside, and hope to install lights inside, as well, so people can sit there in the evenings.
“It’s not a fancy structure, but it’s iconic for Norris,” Barger said. “The kids sit in it all the time [after school]. We will have the Christmas lights and tree there again this year.”
Jane Stribling, who donated the gazebo and the land on which it sits to the city of Norris in August 1998, wrote on Facebook in early August that she and others were working with the Norris Lions Club to seek donations for the new roof. She also spoke during the Aug. 11 council meeting about the fundraising effort.
“Please support the fund to replace the Norris Town Center gazebo roof!” she wrote on Facebook. “The gazebo has been a cozy gathering place in Norris since 1998.
“It was the [brainchild] of my late ex-husband, Charley Wells,” Stribling said. “He grew up in Norris, retired here, and we donated the gazebo for the enjoyment of Norrisonions and their guests.”
The fundraising campaign was not initiated by or given advance approval by the city.
City Manager Adam Ledford said the council had placed $5,000 in the city budget two years ago to pay for a new gazebo roof.
But three of the four contractors the city had approached for potential bids on the project said the foundation under the roof also needed replacement, and subsequently the $5,000 allocation was removed from the budget and no action was taken.
Barger said, however, that three contractors the group contacted had inspected it and said it was salvageable.
Each holiday season, the Norris Shines group puts about 10,000 lights on the gazebo, and decorates it with wreaths.
