TRACY HARRIS – Staff Writer
Lewisburg City Council met June 11 at 6:00 p.m. and opened with prayer by Henry Foster followed by Pledge of Allegiance. Councilmembers voted in the following order: David Perka, Joe Bradford, Vickie Michael, Tommy Burns, Patty Parsons.
The minutes for May were approved unanimously, as were the bills and financial statement.
Under Old Business there were five items. All were second and final reading of Ordinances that passed 5 – 0.
- a) 24-07 Fiscal Year 23-24 Budget Amendment #3 appropriated $22,000 for a grant match with TDOT for E. Church St. project
- b) 24-08 changes the minimum lot size for R -3 Zoning (High Density Residential) from 7,500 sq. ft. to 9,000 sq. ft. as recommended by the Planning & Zoning Commission
- c) 24-09 amends Title 7, Chapter 2, Section 7-201 by adopting the 2021 Fire Code with amendments to the language, with addition of Section 7-209 Permit and Fees Schedule
- d) 24-10 fixes the tax rate for 2024 and approves the 2024 – 2025 budget
- e) 24-11 amends 23-26 and approves budget amendments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 amendment #4
New Business included “consider approval of Resolution 24-22, a resolution to authorize cooperative purchasing agreement with BuyBoard Purchasing Cooperative for use and benefit of all city department.” Passed 5-0.
Director of Parks & Rec Cary Whitesell reported summer is keeping Lewisburg Rec Center busy “with the Chapel Hill pool closing, we’ve received a lot of folks from that area. We’re running out of pizza and snack bar items, and things like that – but this is a good problem to be having!”
Lewisburg was not awarded the grant for Harmon Park. However, the City is still doing the mulch in the playground area. The water fountain has already been replaced and they are putting a culvert in the drainage ditch.
Whitesell reported: The lights are in at the adult softball fields thanks to ARPA funds. Jones lights were on for a couple of days. Then an oil switch went out, but that’s solved now. She thanked Councilmember Burns for bringing it to her attention.
The Rec has upcoming basketball camp June 24-27 and July 8-11. Summer camp July 1-31. Cheer camp July 9-12. New sod was laid last week at the golf course on 4, 7, and 8 tee boxes. According to Whitesell, the kids who vandalized Exploration Station were “in court on May 10 and they each have 30 hours of community service work.” She is working on a plan for their community service hours.
Police Chief Scott Braden reported 1,316 calls for service in May resulting in 25 new cases. One new recruit will be entering the police training academy in Nashville in July. Braden reported, “Unfortunately, there was not enough space; so, the other three will have to wait till the next go round.”
Lewisburg Fire Department (LFD) Chief Drew Hawkins reported May calls totaled 174 with 71 fire/other and 103 medical. All shifts combined totaled 1,395 hours of training in May. Hawkins said, “The extrication training that we did went great. Just want to give a huge thanks to all the tow companies that donated vehicles. I think we had somewhere around 12-16 vehicles donated that we cut up and put back together.”
LFD is in the beginning stages of setting up a digital process for inspections that will apply to fire alarms, sprinkler systems, fire doors, smoke doors, fire extinguishers, etc. The new software will require inspections to be submitted digitally through an online portal which the LFD will have access to.
Hawkins said, “One of the problems has been when doing inspections, we go out, and when we say ‘hey where’s your sprinkler inspection?’ they’ll tell us it’s at their corporate office. Well, we’ve got to have that. So, this’ll keep us from having to chase down the documents.”
The meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m.
