Greenfield City Board to Honor Lady Jackets

Receives $75,000 Grant for Street Improvements

BY DAVID FISHER

david@dresdenenterprise.com

GREENFIELD (May 12) — During Thursday night’s meeting of the Greenfield City Board of Mayor and Aldermen, members agreed to honor the Greenfield Lady Jackets Basketball Team next month by presenting them with a proclamation in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments.

After the Lady Jackets advanced to the TSSAA state semi-finals, officials suspended the tournament on March 12 due to COVID-19, and the tournaments were officially canceled April 15.

City Attorney Beau Pemberton stated, with the board’s permission, he’d like to prepare a resolution honoring the Greenfield Lady Jackets. “Alderman Mark Galey had the idea, since they have been deprived of a chance to play for a state title, that we could honor them by official proclamation, on behalf of the city,” Pemberton said. He noted the proclamation will honor the team for being Regional and District Champions, along with all of their many other accomplishments on the basketball court. Pemberton added Coach Willie Trevathan sent him all of the statistics for the 2020 teams, from which to draw information to be included in the proclamation.

In other business, City Recorder Callie Smithson states each county and municipality in Tennessee is receiving a $75,000 grant, which may be used for street and sewer repairs. But, before the money can be received, the City of Greenfield must complete an application form. Mayor Cindy McAdams stated Greenfield’s grant writer, Shannon Cotter, will help complete the grant application. “We’re either going to be spending it on streets or sewer lines,” Mayor McAdams said. “We don’t want to go over $75,000, but we want to get as close to it as we can.”

Mayor McAdams stated, according to Water, Sewer and Streets Supervisor Tony Stout, several streets need to be patched including: Parker Drive, $13,000; Second Street, $7,800. She stated materials cost $115 per ton. Some of the streets needing repaved are: McCumber Road, Jackson Street, Woodside Drive, Littleton Street, White Oaks Drive and North Ridgecrest Drive.

The mayor noted all of these improvements, which will be funded in fiscal year 2020-2021’s budget, will be discussed in upcoming budget meetings.

In department reports, Greenfield Fire Chief Bob Dudley, who also serves as the city’s code enforcement officer, reported he is dealing with several issues regarding dilapidated housing. Specifically, he mentioned property on East Main Street saying, “We need to move forward with a second attempt on that (to get the owner to demolish the house).” Chief Dudley noted he has received a plan of action from a property owner regarding demolishing a house on Akin Street. Lastly, Dudley said he has not heard anything from the property owner of the old Callins Industries Incorporated plant. Dudley added other property owners, who were notified concerning the poor condition of their properties, are waiting on contractors to come to town and get the work done.

In reference to condemned properties, City Attorney Beau Pemberton said he will send a second letter to property owners regarding demolishing their dilapidated properties. However, he advised that they may not take it seriously, until the city sends in demolition crews and begins to tear down the houses on these properties. “If they’re not going to do it themselves, we’re going to have to do it for them,” Pemberton said. “That’s just the cost of doing business.” He stated, if the city has to demolish these houses, a lien will be placed on their properties. If the owners don’t pay the lien, which includes all costs incurred by the city involved with tearing down and removing these run down structures, the properties will be sold to recoup costs.

“The problem is, when cities pay for clean up work and place liens on their properties, the owners sometimes just walk away. I’ve had them come to me and hand me a deed to their property and say they don’t want it anyway. ‘It’s the city’s problem now.’”

Chief Dudley said there is approximately $6,000 in this year’s budget that may be used for house demolition.

“I’d like to put LED fixtures in the fire station,” Dudley said. “The light fixtures we have are from 1977. We have 46 bulbs that we’re going to use. I need $1,000 to do that. I do have it in my budget under ‘repair and maintenance’.”

Dudley said the city’s radio tower was damaged the previous weekend, as well as two years ago. “We need to spend about $3,200 in repairs. “About 15 years ago, we lost a tower when it blew down,” Dudley said. He added Mobile PC Guys have agreed to place a satellite antenna on the water tank, and will also install the city’s radio communication antennas for the fire and police departments.” Dudley stated it will cost a total of $4,200 on these two projects. The board approved these requests by unanimous vote.

In the Parks and Recreation report, Mayor McAdams stated she phoned other nearby municipalities, regarding their opening dates for parks and sporting events to get an idea when it would be possible to reopen Greenfield’s parks and ball fields. “We can’t play until everybody else plays,” she said. “The governor hasn’t told us to open up yet, so we’re on hold. I figure we might be able to reopen in a couple of weeks or so.”

In other board action, the financial report for the previous month showing $19,288.80 in local sales taxes collected and $14,815.30 in state sales tax receipts was approved.

In announcements, Mayor McAdams mentioned Randal Yates of 503 South Second Street received the Yard of the Month Award.

She noted Greenfield has three new businesses, RB&B Car Wash, RE/MAX Solutions Real Estate and Wimpy’s Corner Restaurant. The mayor announced the Business of the Month Award for May goes to RB&B Car Wash.

The mayor stated next month’s city board meeting might be open to the public and local citizens will likely be able to attend in person. In addition to the public attending in person,