City Awards Bid for Sewer Rehab on Three Streets (View video of meeting here)

September 3, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville will soon undertake an almost one-million-dollar project to rehabilitate deteriorating sewer lines and manholes in certain parts of town including Earl Avenue, West Main Street, and Carter Street.

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the aldermen voted to award a bid to the John T. Hall Construction Company of Sparta in the amount of $939,620 which was the least expensive of the three bids submitted. The other two bids were from Pipeworks of Tullahoma at $1,159,000 and H.L. Construction Management of Cleveland for $1,186,000.

Earlier this year the city had budgeted $750,000 from its share of American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) grant funds to cover costs of the rehab effort but as it turned out that amount was not enough. The city will make up the difference from its water and sewer fund reserves.

In March, the city contracted with J.R. Wauford & Company Consulting Engineers to provide services related to the project.

Daniel Tribble, Manager of Field Services for the J.R. Wauford Company who addressed the mayor and aldermen Thursday night, said the project will be done in phases.

“We had been requested to review sewer lines that had been identified by your city personnel that are subject to what is believed to be inflow. Inflow is simply when water that is collected in streets and roadways or flowing in ditches and creeks enters your sewer lines, which in turn increases the sewer that you have to treat at your wastewater plant. A lot of times the vitrified clay pipe (VCP) like any utility has a certain life span and over years it simply deteriorates. The reports we had received are that in this case gravels, dirt, and other material that is not sewer had been found in these locations where the sewer line is believed to be failing or collapsing which allows the debris and inflow into your sewer lines. More than likely these lines would be replaced with PVC pipe which is the standard 8-inch PVC that we call SDR-26 sewer line pipe,” said Tribble.

“Due to the cost of this job and the available funds we (J.R. Wauford Company) have proposed a phased approach to complete rehabilitation of the subject lines. Phase one of this project includes the open cut sewer replacement of approximately 2,700 feet of sewer line along Earl Avenue, West Main Street, and Carter Street. The second part of phase one of this job is the CCTV or closed-circuit television inspection of approximately 7,400 feet of sewer lines mostly in cross country areas that flow along creeks and not in roadways. Our plan is to review the CCTV footage and make a recommendation to the city as to the appropriate rehabilitation methods for these areas,” Tribble continued.

“We received three bids and sent a recommendation letter to the mayor. Our opinion and probable cost before the bid opening was approximately $800,000. This is to replace sewer lines along West Main Street, Carter Street, and Earl Avenue. You can see some of the streets sinking in which is evidence of the sewer lines failing in these locations. It was our recommendation based of a review of the bids and communication with the contractor that the project be awarded to John T. Hall Construction of Sparta at a unit price contract value of $939,620”, said Tribble

The project is expected to begin early next year.

September 3, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County High School will host a Financial Aid/College Planning Night and Pre-FAFSA Workshop on Tuesday, September 6 from 5-7 p.m. in the cafeteria.

The guest speaker will be Dustin Rawls of TSAC.

Students in grades 9-12 and their parents are strongly encouraged to attend in order to receive important information concerning college/technical school application, financial aid, and scholarships including the Tennessee Education Lottery and Tennessee Promise Scholarships.

Rawls will also conduct a Pre-FAFSA workshop during this event. Students and parents have to fill out the FAFSA during their senior year in order to apply for state and federal financial aid including the lottery scholarship, TN Promise and Pell Grants. This workshop is designed to help students and parents prepare for FAFSA filing.

September 2, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville has added a third full time paid firefighter to the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department.

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the aldermen voted to hire Glenn Lattimore upon the recommendation of Chief Charlie Parker. Lattimore has been a volunteer member of the department for 14 years. His budgeted salary is $35,131 plus benefits.

Chief Parker said Lattimore was one of two candidates for the new position and recommended after a review process.

“We went through the interview process last month. All six of our officers and Alderman Shawn Jacobs, who is the city’s fire department commissioner, sat in on the interview. We tried to take applications in house first. We had two applications, and we interviewed those two firefighters from our department. Both did an outstanding job but through scoring and everything else we selected Mr. Glenn Lattimore to be our new hire this year. Glen has been with us for 14 years as a volunteer for the department and he has done very well so far, and we have discussed with him moving forward what the new position will entail, and he is looking forward to doing that. He will start September 12,” said Chief Parker.

Chief Parker was the first member of the department hired as a full-time city firefighter in 2012. Dalton Roberts was added as the second city paid firefighter in 2020.

Every year during budget time, Chief Parker petitions the mayor and aldermen to fund more full-time paid firefighter positions based on need.

Members of the department ranging in years of service from one year to 42 years are Cole Wright, Tyler Cantrell, Dakota Nokes, Kim Johnson, Seth Wright, Dalton Roberts, Becky Atnip, Cory Killian, Glen Lattimore, Stephanee Wright, Gary Johnson, Lieutenant John Poss, Captain Jeff Wright, Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale, Lieutenant Donnie Cantrell, Lieutenant Danny Poss, Chief Charlie Parker, Wink Brown, Randall Hunt, Bradley Johnson, Dillon Hicks, C.J. Tramel, Kayla Johnson, Jeff Prisock, and Andrew Cooper.

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