By Jim Young / jimyoungreporter@gmail.com
With the continued growth of the city of Crossville, city council members bit the bullet and approved moving forward with building, equipping and staffing a third fire station.
For several years the city has been looking at the need for an additional fire station. Budget requests have been delayed in previous budgets but now the city has put grants and loans in place for funding a third fire station and the time had come to either approve the expenditure or put it off once again. The council discussed the issue at their regular November meeting at some length.
Crossville fire chief Mike Turner said that for 13 years the city has worked for a low Insurance Services Offices (ISO) rating. The city's rating currently stands at 4 and has an effect on what residents and businesses pay for their fire insurance coverage. ISO ratings range from 1 to 10 with lower numbers a better rating.
Unfortunately, Chief Turner pointed out that since the city was last rated the standards have tightened. Where once the rating looked at a three-mile circle around each fire station, now they look at one and a half miles, not in a circle, but by road. Turner said that change has dramatically changed the way the city's coverage looks when mapped by ISO. Currently the city of Crossville has 20.4 square miles.
Turner told the council that when the city's ISO rating dropped previously from 7 to 4 that fire insurance rates for residents dropped by 27 percent.
“Crossville is a three (fire) station town now,” explained Chief Turner; “We have to keep up with growth but we still won't have the best coverage even with adding a third station.”
Council Boyd Wyatt commented, “I know we need it, but it is a big project.”
Turner outlined how big the project is. In addition to construction of a fire station, the city would need to equip it with fire apparatuses and hire 15 new firefighters. In addition to the initial cost of some $3.2 million for the building and equipment, the new personnel cost would run approximately $650,000 per year.
Crossville Mayor J.H. Graham said that while the $3 million capital expense is one thing, “The addition of $650,000 a year to the city budget is big costs.” Graham added, “Protection is very important and we expect community growth to continue.”
Turner said it would be at least 18 months before the new station would be online with construction and lead time for ordering fire trucks and hiring new personnel.
All four of the council members present voted in favor of the motion to approve the necessary agreements required by Rural Development for the financing and grants on the project. Council member Earl Dean was absent from the meeting.
The council also approved moving forward with plans for energy improvements in several city buildings. Previously the state had done energy audits on several city buildings and council looked at financing for making the recommended upgrades. Now grant funds are available through the ARRA Recovery Act funds.
The council approved applying for $100,000 in grant funds to help pay for the $191,000 in energy improvements to be installed.
The council also approved accepting wastewater from administrative buildings of the Bean Pot Campground. The city had received a request from the business to accept up to 2000 gallons a week. Veolia Water, the city contract plant operator, recommended approving the request at a charge of 3 cents per gallon.
The action request was approved with the contingency that the fee was the same as what others are charged for the same service.
Martin Elementary School seventh-grader Ryan Burgess was recognized as the student of the month for his manners, the November character trait of the month. Burgess was nominated by his teacher, Mrs. Frietag.
