Repair delay costing city $10,000 a month

By Jim Young / jimyoungreporter@gmail.com

Council members continue to be frustrated with delays in starting work on the Caryonah dam repair project because they have not yet received a permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation water pollution control office.

The council approved the bid for the repair project in November but was advised by the engineering firm to hold off on issuing a notice to proceed until all necessary permits are in place. Currently the delay is costing the city some $10,000 a month for rental of water pumps at the dam needed to pump water out of the lake and keep pressure off of the dam. That cost would be transferred to the contractor upon starting the work.

Crossville Mayor J. H. Graham III planned to call the Nashville office of TDEC if the permit was not issued very soon to try and find out the reason for the hold up. City engineer Tom Wolf reported he had left several messages with the Cookeville office but not had calls returned.

The council spent some time discussing city employee salaries under an item requested by Councilman Jesse Kerley. Kerley told the council that he had looked at the revenue from the liquor inspection fees and he wanted to use some of those funds to give city employees a 2 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) starting in January.

Councilman Carl Duer praised and thanked all city employees for the work they do. He added that he has never had complaints but has had people call him with praise for the work city employees do.

Mayor Graham said the city was operating under tough times. He said that there were no Social Security COLA raises for next year, the state was making even more budget cuts that could result in layoffs.

Graham explained that a COLA was used to compensate for an increase in the consumer price index (CPI). According to Graham, the federal government that puts out the CPI numbers calculated there was no increase in the CPI over the previous year. Based on the CPI there has been no raise for teachers or for state employees for the past two years.

Mayor Graham added, “No one believes more in the employees that we have.” He added that the city has provided a 3 percent increase every year for the past 10 years and worked hard to make sure the city employees are paid competitive salaries and have excellent benefits.

“Currently we're in a great recession and we need to be very conservative,” concluded Graham.

Councilman Boyd Wyatt said he was happy with city employees and would put them up against anyone. “This just isn't the time,” added Wyatt.

Councilman Kerley's motion died for a lack of any other council member seconding it.

Later during the city manager's report Kerley brought up discussion of changes in the medical insurance by taking older workers off of the city's insurance and paying for Medicare supplement instead.

Tonya Hinch of Don Hinch and Associates that currently handles the city's medical insurance said that it was possible there could be some savings but there were also a number of issues that that could affect the savings.

One issue that Kerley wanted to change was to drop insurance for council members as part of the changes to save money. City manager Ted Meadows said that such a possible change had been discussed with the Tennessee Municipal League that said the city could not deny insurance to elected officials as offered to employees under state law.

Under the consent agenda the council approved the third and final readings of three annexations including 6.33 acres off of Sparta Highway, part of the Gardens expansion; and smaller pieces of property on Myrtle Avenue and Meadowview Lane.

The council also approved a resolution requesting the state place directional signs along I-40 for the location of the U.S. Chess Federation.

One item pulled from the consent agenda passed with a no vote by Wyatt. The item was to approve emergency repairs to locks and doors at Centennial Park after a recent break-in and vandalism incident. Wyatt was concerned about the high cost and failure to bid out the repairs. Recreation director Steve Hill said that there was not time to put out for bids as they had to secure the buildings to protect their equipment and supplies.

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