5-year CIP: $23.24 mil
Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen started planning for upcoming capital improvement projects during a budget workshop Thursday, March 22.
The Board can expect CIP to total $23,242,700 over the next five years, according to a PowerPoint presentation.
David Smoak, Town administrator, said the staff proposed funding the following projects: Campbell Station Inn renovations, funding $500,000 in fiscal year 2021; land acquisition, $500,000 per year; pedestrian greenway connectors, $100,000 each fiscal year from 2021 through 2023; Smith Road Greenway, $225,000 in 2019 and $350,000 in 2020; and a climate-controlled storage building, $210,000, for 2019.
In land acquisitions, he said the Town would have about $1.6 million saved up at the end of this year. “There aren’t any land [acquisition] monies going into greenway connections for the next two years because they are going into the Smith Road Greenway project,” Smoak said.
“Already, we know, with Union Road and Virtue Road, there are a couple of connections that will wind up being made — and also Concord Road when (Tennessee Department of Transportation) gets done,” he added.
Exterior work is continuing at Campbell Station Inn, Smoak said.
“We’ve got design work going on, right now, for the rest of the site, so we’re planning by fiscal year 2021 that once we have all this work done, (we will) be able to do the interior renovations,” he added. “(The $500,000 in FY 2021) will go toward interior renovations.”
“We’ve had dismal weather … but it’s’ moving along very well,” Darryl Smith, Town engineer, said about the project.
An 8,000-square-foot insulated storage building is a new item for FY 2019 that would be used by Public Works and Farragut Museum, Smoak said.
The staff also proposed funding $6.2 million for McFee Park expansion to make its restrooms and fields ADA-accessible.
However, he said Sue Stuhl, Parks & Leisure Services director, is planning to apply for a state grant to pay for half of the cost. Following the workshop, the Board authorized Stuhl to proceed with the application process during its regular meeting.
Road projects also are on the list of capital improvement projects, with the Union Road project currently under way.
Next year, Smoak said there would be a $500,000 right-of-way acquisition for Union Road.
Then in FY 2020, $3.5 million is proposed for construction, but 80 percent of that cost will be paid for by a federal grant, he said.
“Right now, our engineers are working on preliminary designs,” Smoak added.
One project the Town will not have to pay for, Smoak said, is upgrades to all 26 of its traffic signal lights and their equipment.
He said the Town received a $2.76 million federal grant a couple of years ago that pays 100 percent of the cost, “which is outstanding,” he added.
The Town also is looking at paying $2.75 million for Phase I of Virtue Road improvements in FY 2019 and 2020. This project encompasses 2,200 feet of roadway from 700 feet south of Kingston Pike to just past the proposed Brookmere subdivision off Virtue Road.
Smoak proposed allocating $450,000 in FY 2019 and $2.3 million in FY 2020.
Phase II of the Virtue Road project, from Brookmere to Turkey Creek Road, would be funded in FY 2023 with $900,000.
After the Town’s stormwater infrastructure — based on an evaluation of Village Green, Fox Den and Kingsgate subdivisions — was examined by officials at the University of Tennessee, “They found that our systems are all in good shape,” Smoak said. “... Overall we have a very good stormwater system.”
