Road ahead
Norris launches street analysis as leaders pass budget without tax hike
This section of East Norris Road, south of Dairy Pond Road, is one of the Norris streets in need of repaving. At the top center is the entrance to the new Creamery Park. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
In a related move, the City Council on Monday night declined to raise city property taxes by 7% for the coming 2027 fiscal year to help pay for street improvements.
Instead, the council approved on first reading a budget for the year beginning July 1 that does not include an increase in the tax rate.
Councilman Bill Grieve made the motion to raise the property taxes, but there was no second to the motion, so Mayor Chris Mitchell declared it moot.
Mitchell and others suggested that the city should wait until the street assessment is completed and recommendations for improvements are made before considering any tax increase.
“We don’t pre-emptively raise taxes,” the mayor said in response to Grieve’s motion and a comment of resident Joe Feeman from the audience supporting the tax increase.
“The city is making a mistake by not raising taxes,” said Feeman, who now serves as chairman of the Norris Planning Commission “We haven’t done so in 15 years.”
The suggestion that Norris find a way to get its street conditions assessed came from a public workshop on roads held just prior to the March 9 City Council meeting by Grieve.
In response, the council in April agreed to contract with the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization at a cost of just $2,920 to the city to have the streets assessment performed.
The Norris “Roadway Pavement Condition Analysis” is similar to one recently completed by the same organization for the city of Clinton, which has resulted in a plan by that city to undergo a comprehensive repaving project.
The Knoxville Regional TPO, founded in 1977, “is federally mandated to provide comprehensive transportation planning in the TPO Planning Area,” according to its website.
Grieve, who set up the streets workshop and led the discussion, said in his opening remarks that the city has “gotten behind” on street repairs, and “has a lot of catching up to do.”
The only outside money Norris gets for road maintenance comes from an annual payment of about $55,000 from the state’s gas tax revenues, Grieve said.
“We have to accumulate three to four years of that to do a [road] project,” he said.
Grieve noted that the recent resurfacing of a short section of East Norris Road close to downtown cost the city $175,000, and to finish the work all the way to the traffic light at Andersonville Highway would cost an additional $275,00 – which the city does not have in its budget.
The city’s most-recent property-tax collection brought in a total of $774,000, which went into the city’s general fund for regular operations.
Grieve proposed raising the city’s current tax rate – about 88.5 cents per $100 of property valuation – by 7.1%, or about 94.8 cents per $100, which he said would generate about $55,000 more annually. The extra money would go into a dedicated fund for roads, he said.
But Councilwoman Loretta Painter said during the workshop that she would first like to see the city hire an engineering firm to assess the current road conditions and prepare a plan for improvements.
“We need to bring an engineer in to see what we need to do, what needs to be addressed first,” she told the assembly. “We need an expert to come in and give us options.”
The decision to seek the agreement for such an assessment from the Knoxville Regional TPO came as a result of Painter’s request.
With Councilman Chuck Nicholson absent, the council Monday night approved 4-0 on first reading the ordinance setting the budget for the coming fiscal year.
A public hearing on the budget ordinance will be held at 5:50 p.m., just prior to the 6 p.m. regular City Council meeting on June 8 – during which the council is expected to approve the budget on second and final reading.
City Manager Bailey Whited told the council that besides maintaining the current property tax rate, the new budget:
• Includes 3% cost-of-living raises for all city staff, and also provides for increases in pay rates for some positions to help keep pay competitive and deter turnover.
• Provides $185,000 in capital improvement funds to pay for a new roof, siding and air-conditioning for the gymnasium in the Norris Community Building.
In a separate resolution, the council voted 4-0 to enter into an agreement with “TextMyGov” for “municipal notification services, at a setup cost of $3,000.
This will allow the city to notify residents by text message of important announcements, including road closures.
Residents will need to opt in to the service to receive notifications.
