Cookeville will spend some $74 million on capital projects under a budget proposal unveiled Thursday.
City Manager James Mills said that number is a slight reduction from the $80 million spent in this fiscal year. A new fire training center and two major road projects highlight the list. Mills said that includes the next step in the widening of 10th Street.
“Right-of-way acquisition will take us, I’m guessing, at least a year, it could be longer,” Mills said. “So that project’s a couple or two to three years away from actually starting construction. It’s another year to get finished the engineering and then a year or two years to do right-of-way acquisition. Of course, y’all know that project, we estimate, is probably $25 million. So it’s a big one and it’s going to stretch over several fiscal years.”
The city will also move forward a new east-west connector south of Interstate 40, designed to reduce traffic around the new Target-Home Depot Shopping Center. Mills said that project could span two fiscal years depending on the right-of-ways needed.
The capital project list also includes resurfacing the roads and parking lots at Cane Creek Sportsplex, two major water line relocations, upgrades to the Cane Creek Pump Station, and a stormwater project on West Jackson.
Mills said the city hopes to get the parking lot finished in the 39 Depot project, as a first phase of that project.
The fire training facility would be built at a location to be developed later. Fire Chief Benton Young said it would be an asset to the department.
“It’s actually saving the city money as far as we have to send firefighters to the academy now,” Young said. “It’s, let’s say, $45,000 a person, not counting their pay. That’s just for that 400-hour class. We just graduated 9 of our in-house, so you’re looking at $45,000-$50,000 on that one class. It cost us probably $15,000 to hold out the instructors, so it’s really, and you’re getting a lot better product as an employee in the end of the day.”
Mills said the plan includes building out the Stevens/Lowe Recycling Center. An old building has already been demolished to make way for the improved facility.
In addition to capital projects, Mills said the city will add additional money for paving in this budget if council approves. The city has paved some 65 miles of city road since 2021. Mills said he believes the city needs to find money to do more.
The Council will consider the budget over the next several weeks.
“I can’t think of a a year when we’ve done more than we’ve done this past year,” Mills said. “More projects completed, ribbon cuttings. We’ve got a few more coming up too. Henley’s about complete, should be in the next few weeks. Two fire stations will be complete this fiscal year. Honestly, I don’t know if a council’s ever completed more than’s been completed this year, and that’s a lot.”