Rocky Top approves $125K for roof repairs, parking lot plan moves ahead
The Rocky Top City Council, missing an absent member, conducts business during its meeting on Thursday, Sept. 18, at City Hall. Looking on at left is City Manager Mike Ellis. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
During its September meeting last Thursday, the council approved spending up to $125,000 on a contract for the roof work.
The city manager was authorized to choose the lowest qualifying bid out of three submitted for the job, with the winning bid expected to be about $120,000.
The council also approved paying Cannon & Cannon engineers to prepare an application for a federal Brownfield Redevelopment Area Grant of an unspecified amount to help with removal of the old Martin Funeral Home building at 225. S. Main St. to create a downtown public parking lot.
Because there once was a gasoline service station with underground fuel tanks on part of the site, the city likely will have to pay for environmental remediation to remove fuel that may have leaked into the ground from the tanks over the years.
The Brownfield Redevelopment grants are meant for that purpose, but the city also will try to get enough money in the grant to pay for demolition and removal of the old funeral home as well, if that is allowed.
More than a year after the parking lot was proposed by Mayor Kerry Templin, the City Council voted in February to pay up to $175,000 to complete the purchase of the old funeral home and its adjacent parking lot to create the city’s first public downtown parking lot.
The funeral home building was most recently used for a business called the Tool Shack, but that has been closed for several years.
The property had been tied up in probate for several years, but last year became available to be sold.
Templin said earlier that there are still “at least four old fuel tanks in the ground” that would need to be removed, which is an environmentally necessary operation.
In other business Thursday, the City Council:
n Passed a resolution to seek federal assistance of up to $700,000 for a sludge press for the sewer plant and a vacuum truck to help clear out blocked sewer lines. The assistance would come primarily from a low-interest Rural Utility loan, which also could include some grant money.
n Heard from the Recreation Committee that a “trunk or treat” event sponsored by some local churches would take place from 6-8 p.m. on Halloween (Friday, Oct. 31); and that the city’s Christmas parade this year would be held on Friday, Dec. 5, with the city’s tree-lighting ceremony the previous evening, Dec. 4. There will be no entry fees charged this year for the parade.
n Approved a bid of $32,100 to purchase a four-door side-by-side all-terrain vehicle for the Fire Department from Tommy’s Motorsports in Clinton.
n Approved a bid of $10,700 from Southern Fence to put a 60-by-120-foot chain-link fence around a city-owned lot near the sewer plant to serve as a secure police impound lot for vehicles.
