By Jim Young / jimyoungreporter@gmail.com
June 12, 2008 06:34 pm
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The Crossville City Council authorized Crossville Mayor J.H. Graham III to sign documents accepting a grant award of $1 million from the Economic Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce for the expansion of Crossville's wastewater treatment plant.
A pleased Graham praised the work of grant consultant Evan Sanders in securing the funding for the project that is planned to increase the capacity of the city's wastewater treatment plant from the current 3.5 million gallons per day (MGD) capacity to 5 MGD.
Sanders told the council that another grant for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds is being submitted and the city is requesting an additional $500,000 toward the expected almost $4 million cost of the project. Sanders recommended the city also seek loan funding from the Tennessee revolving loan fund. The current interest rate at which the city can borrow money is 1.2 percent fixed for 30 years.
The project is being designed so that it can be constructed in phases. Sanders said that if the city is successful in receiving the CDBG money, there is a possibility the city could apply for an additional $500,000 grant in the next grant cycle.
Graham spoke for the council when he told Sanders, “We want to get the engineers started on the full design of the plant improvements as soon as possible.”
Another project that has been on the city's mind for some time may also be ready to move forward. The council approved the low bidder on the third rebid of the Holiday Dam improvement project that will close off access to much of Holiday Hills from Sparta Highway for months.
The last low bidder approved by the city, Highways, Inc., was rejected by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) for failing to meet the requirements for using disadvantaged business enterprises as subcontractors in their bid. This action by TDOT required the project be rebid for a third time.
The latest round of bids added just $25,000 to the overall cost of the project, a lower increase then was estimated. In addition, because of the way the funding for the project is split between the city and TDOT, city officials noted the bid for the portion the city will be funding decreased while the portion that TDOT covers increased.
The total bid for the work to the dam and new, longer bridge across the dam's weir is $2.871 million. The repair of the dam has been in the works since the city received a letter in 2001 from the state notifying them the Holiday Lake Dam was in apparent violation of the Safe Dams Act. At the time, the city was looking at making improvements to the Holiday Lake dam spillway and weir to better control the level of the lake for the city’s water plant intake.
That 2001 letter indicated the Holiday Hills dam appeared to violate the Safe Dams Act based on a very unlikely Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) rainfall event of 29.85 inches of rain within a six-hour period. Based on calculations prepared by the state, such a PMP rain event would cause the water behind the Holiday Lake dam to rise more than two feet above the top of the dam and, if the dam failed, it would threaten several houses and bridges below the dam.
The repairs to the dam should allow it to survive the unlikely scenario of the PMP.
In a related matter, the council agreed with City Manager Ted Meadows' assessment of a previously approved project to realign and straighten out Deerfield Drive near where it connects to Tenth Street at the Tennessee Technology Center. Meadows looked at the project and recommended the roads stay as they are.
Deerfield Drive is the most direct alternate route that Holiday Hills area residents can use while the road over the Holiday Hills dam is closed for several months for repair. Deerfield Drive was extended to the back of the Holiday Hills area because the only other way out of Holiday Hills is the narrow Myrtle Avenue. In addition, the city paid to have a traffic light installed at the intersection to help with the increased traffic expected.
Originally, the city planned to straighten the road, but that would have taken parts of at least two lots and the estimated cost of the changes totaled $70,000. Meadows did not feel the amount passed a cost benefit analysis.
One other aspect of the review showed there is an existing right of way for Tenth Street to continue on and tie into the end of Knight Street off Fourth Street, making Deerfield a stop street should Tenth Street be extended.
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