June 29th city meetings

There were officially two meetings of the Town Council on the 29th. We attended both and as last time, it started with a bit of humor. 6:30 cam and went and the meeting had not started. Mainly because no one had shown up yet. They finally showed at 6:40pm and then the first meeting got going..

The 6:30 meeting was primarily for public comment on the proposed tax levy of .86 per $100 of assessed property value. Additionally the council considered resolutions to amend the pay scale of city employees and to provide funding to various non-profits. Two additional items, not on the agenda, was a settlement proposal for the lawsuit between the City of Smyrna and the Smyrna Medical Center and a change order for the work being done on Front Street to put the electrical utilities underground instead of on poles. A change resulting in an additional cost of $41,000. All of the proposals passed, with only Cole and Yates dissenting on the lawsuit settlement. No reason was given.

The same thing that happened at last meeting happened. When the floor was opened to public comments there was a deafening sound of nothing. Again my wife and I were the only non city government people there. Only later into the 7pm meeting did a land developer with business with the city, and a reporter, show up.

The second being a workshop, or review, of proposals for the next council meeting on July 11.

A few highlights:

A contract for Mighty Mow to handle "codes violation" mowing and trash removal. There were only two bids on this, and the lowest bidder retracted their bid as they had not understood all that was involved.

A contract for Smith, Seckman, Reid, Inc. to do an EPA Mandated, unfunded (meaning Smyrna has to food the bill) study. They were not the lowest bidder (2nd lowest) but were determined to be the better company to handle it and are doing the same thing for Murfreesboro as well.

Discussion on various road projects and property acquisitions as a result.

Discussion on how to move on a proposal to get TDOT to consider acting more swiftly on a new interchange at I-24 and Rocky Fork Rd. They mentioned the Murfreesboro construction of their interchange and how it took about 10 years total from start to finish. So do not hold your breath on this one.

Also of note was the popularity of the new water park. There has been a counter on the road going into the park and in the first two weeks of operation there have been 6,000 cars go into the park. This has definitely proved to be a popular item. The talked on a few issues that had come up such as grass in the filters from all of the kids. A footwash device was mentioned as a solution

Future Dates of Note

July 25 at the Town Center there will be a public hearing regarding the 10 year master plan for the parks department.

We need to be there.

Written by Elizabeth(harelipfrog) and Gunner