The Elizabethton Police Department expansion project is back on the map after being deferred in July.
City Councilmen approved a resolution to authorize an agreement between Reedy and Sykes for construction drawings at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We’ve got the layout the way we want it and know what it will look like outside, but we need to develop blue prints,” said City Manager Jerome Kitchens.
Architects have worked with the Police Department to get a layout, said Kitchens, and construction drawings are the next step. After that, those documents will go to contractors.
Then the city selects the best bidder for the project, and work begins. The project will include a new two-story structure alongside the current EPD on E Street as well as the purchase Ritchie’s Warehouse.
Kitchens estimated that the construction drawings would be done by Fall and that they would be accepting bids by Winter.
The financial impact of the agreement with Reedy and Sykes totals $142,000, and the entire project is estimated to cost nearly $3 million.
In other news, the city was awarded a $25,000 grant to purchase more recycling containers, which City Council approved.
Street and Sanitation Manager Danny Hilbert began the application process last summer, and recently learned that they will receive the money.
The budget allows for $14,550 to purchase two cardboard recycling containers and two compartmentalized recycling containers. With the grant money, the city will only spend $9,275.
Hilbert said the additional financing will make it possible to purchase eight cardboard recycling containers, eight paper recycling containers and three compartmentalized containers.
“Hopefully we will have drop-off points throughout the city,” Hilbert said, adding that one would likely be closer to the Milligan area, with another between there and the Mill Street recycle center.
“The cardboard cans will be distributed to places where we have heavy cardboard use, and that will help again with taking less to the landfill, and we’re recycling,” he said.
Council member Robert W. Cable asked what the benefit would be to the city.
“Recycling is a good thing that we’re trying to do more because it cuts down on what goes in the landfill, and it’s better for the environment.
Councilman Jeff Treadway pointed out that the grant affords the city more than half of what it could have purchased without it.
“It’s a good deal,” he said.
The plan is for the county trucks to collect the recyclable materials, which Hilbert said will help the city by not requiring the purchase of additional vehicles.
“It’s already approved by the landfill manager, and it helps the city and county by doing that,” said Hilbert. “It’s a little more work for us, but it will be a good thing.”
After a meeting in February with officials in Knoxville, Hilbert said the project should be moving forward.