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Several Projects Are Lined Up for the City of Cleveland
by Mary Hunter

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A City Council meeting was held Monday, April 12th 2010. These are the following events that took place;

Mike Weston, a new building inspector for the City of Cleveland was introduced to the council. Weston is a resident of Cleveland, and comes by way of an architectural background.

The Cleveland Boys and Girls Club member Maria Hernandez is the winner of the Tennessee Youth of the Year award. Hernandez shared a speech with the council and received a seal of the city pin from Mayor Tom Rowland. Hernandez is a senior at Walker Valley High School.

The Cleveland Middle School Dance team was recognized for their outstanding achievement of 16 first place wins this year, the dance team recently competed in Walt Disney World, winning the international competition.

"Historic" Downtown Cleveland is in the process of receiving $15,000 worth of updates. These updates include black posts for stop signs and parking signs to make them more consistent. The new "Historic Downtown Cleveland" signs will be installed and done by an in town sign shop.  There will also be banners added to the First street square with new graphics identifying the downtown historic district. It all must be purchased by June 30th. These updates will be completed over the next few months.

Bambi Hines regretfully resigned from running in the August election. Hines has been a member of the council for 8 years.

The Cleveland Police Department will be receiving two new 4 x 4 ATVs. The winning bid was from Dal Kawa Cycle Center, Inc. located in Hendersonville, NC with a unit price of $6,548.24 each and a total bid of $13, 096.48 for two Kawaski ATV's.

The greenway is still awaiting the installations of restrooms; there is a re-bidding taking place due to some items left out of the original bid.

Bids were received for the Cleveland pedestrian facilities project; the project entails the construction for sidewalk improvements along various city streets. Those streets are Walker St. NE (Central Ave. to 6th St.) Edwards St. (1st St. to Central Ave.)  Central Ave. (Parker Ave. to Truck St.) 1st St. (Edwards to 2nd St.) and Raider Drive. (Peerless Road to 400 feet west of Keith St.) The existing sidewalks along said streets have been in place for many years, and are cracked/damaged, and in need of replacement. The City would like to accept the bid from Caldwell Paving of Cleveland with a bid of $126,860.00, Black Construction of Cleveland is the lowest bidder at $113,682.00 however, their bid is non-responsive due to items not included in the total bid amount. The Recommendation is contingent upon final approval from the State of Tennessee.

Councilman Bill Estes proposed that more should be done about homes in violation of Property Maintenance Regulations. Estes would like for the Title 13-103 ordinances to be re-written to give it more "teeth," so that "repeat" offenders will be fined accordingly. Estes is apparently very concerned about the upkeep and neatness of the city due to the fact that he stated, "It's not about revenue, it's about getting the grass mowed and keeping it neat."

Councilman George Poe even suggested that the Cleveland City Code Enforcement Officers should be armed as they distribute the warnings and fines so that they would gain more "respect."

An ordinance has been established for a processing fee and other charges for paying bills to the city with credit cards and debit cards. The city currently accepts payments for fees, fines, court costs and other various charges, which do not incur a fee for processing. The new ordinance would include that the amount of the fee shall be equal to the amount charged to the city by the third party processor for processing the credit or debit card payment, subject to the maximum amount allowed by state law. However, this ordinance has not been passed, due to Mayor Tom Rowland's veto until all council members are present to vote.

Corporal George Campbell of the Cleveland Police Department is retiring after several years of service. Campbell was given his weapon, after being deemed surplus property, as a token of appreciation for his commitment of service on the Cleveland City Police Department.

The staff has reviewed traffic data for 20th street and Chambliss Ave, and does not recommend a four-way stop. The long term solution recommended would require the removal of the "No Left Turn" sign from the Ocoee Street and 20th Street intersection and widening of the roadway to accommodate a left turn lane for "vehicle stacking" from Ocoee Street. 

A new traffic signal is to be installed at 25th St. and I-75 the fiber optics and video detection are currently being designed by a traffic engineer. New traffic signals are also in store for the Candies Lane and Freewill Rd. intersection.  Construction was scheduled to have started April 8, 2010. Cleveland Utilities will relocate the high voltage power lines and complete the diagonal bores under the intersection for the conduit and signal wire. Contingent upon the weather and all things going according to plan, Cleveland Utilities estimates that this project should be completed approximately the last week of April.

The Cleveland City Council will meet again at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday, April 26, 2010 in the City Council Room of the Cleveland Municipal Building.