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By Buzz Trexler
Star Correspondent

Elizabethton City Council members and city staff began discussions of the 2025-26 budget and capital projects requests during a workshop earlier this week, with Parks and Recreation Director David Nanney at the table for a good portion of the time as they discussed Franklin Pool.

Of the $5,172,032 in total departmental requests, the Parks and Recreation Department’s $1.6 million for Franklin Pool was the highest, followed by $1,250,000 for Covered Bridge Park. Both projects made it through staff filtering of initial requests, trimming the total projects down to $4,013,133 for City Council to consider.

“There’s more there than we can fund; that’s always the way that it is,” City Manager Daniel Estes said of the departmental requests. “That’s the nature of the job, to try and prioritize what we do as an organization.”

Nanney was first at the table, Estes said, because if it was going to move forward, the Franklin Pool renovation needed to do so this spring and could not wait until the next fiscal year.

The Parks and Recreation director gave a high-level view of the pool’s issues, which was constructed in 1928. The city purchased the facility in the mid-1990s, Nanney said, and it has undergone minimal updates since that time, except for a “facelift” in 1998. “We did the inside of the pool, no plumbing, no anything, but just the surface of the pool,” Nanney said of that project.

“The plumbing, to my knowledge, is the same plumbing from 1928,” the director said, explaining that the inside diameter of the piping had been reduced to the size of a ballpoint pen, dramatically reducing the flow. “It just doesn’t work,” Nanney said while describing the aquatic facility’s myriad performance issues, including substantial leakage.

“You’re refilling overnight,” Estes said, as Nanney and Councilman Richard Barker discussed the leakage from when the pool closes one day and 7 a.m. the next.

“The filtration in the pumping system doesn’t flow adequately. It leaks significantly, and at the end of the season last year, the pump itself bit the dust,” Estes said. “We were trying to get it repaired to salvage some of the season but couldn’t get that done. We ended up trying to buy the pump we needed for this renovation project, trying to think ahead, but it just didn’t work out.”

In late 2023, the First Tennessee Development District awarded a block grant of $630,000 to help fund improvements to the pool.

“Do we have it?” Barker asked.

“They don’t advance the money,” Estes said of the federal funds, but explained the city grant was locked in.

“You have to spend it to get it,” Councilwoman Debbie Gouge said.

Estes pointed out there were options beyond the total renovation, including closing, which he said “may be insane, but you need to consider.”

However, none of the council members voiced anything but support for keeping and maintaining the popular pool.

“The thing we need to realize is Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol could kill for that facility,” Barker said.

PROJECTS UPDATE

Assistant City Manager Logan Engle reviewed a handout on scores of special projects, advising whether the projects were in progress, completed or had yet begun, including:

— The Doe River Water Crossing project that began in 2019 was completed by the Water Resources Department in August, except for some final paving that has not yet been done due to damage from Hurricane Helene.
— The Misoft GIS Mapping System upgrade, which the Elizabethton Electric Department began in July 2024, was marked as completed this month. The update noted the GIS map, outage management system and mobile Field Syte applications are now live, while AMI, IVR systems and engineering analysis software work continues.
— The Traffic Signal Timing Study undertaken by the Engineering Department in August 2024 was approved by the City Council in December. The update noted that recommendations from the study, which was fully funded by the Tennessee Department of Transportation, continue to be implemented but had to be altered due to the closure of Broad Street Bridge.
— The Elizabethton Municipal Golf Course lease agreement was negotiated in May 2024 with a five-year agreement to lease 24 golf carts and two utility carts.
— The ADA Transition Plan that the Planning Department began in June 2019 was adopted by the City Council in December 2024.

Among the projects still in progress but anticipated to be completed soon included:

— Restoration of the Bonnie Kate Theater, which was beset by delays due to unanticipated sprinkler additions to the theater space. The update notes construction is nearly complete and Friends of the Bonnie Kate are working on bathroom renovations. The theater is slated to reopen in July.
— Seven Downtown Improvement Grants have been awarded and work is ongoing, with two projects completed. The update notes installation of the new downtown sound system will begin this month.
— Seven Local Façade Grant projects are in the process of being completed.
— The Downtown Electric Vehicle Fast Charger is scheduled to be installed in June. The station, which will be able to charge up to four vehicles, will be in the city parking lot behind the 500 block. The pad-mount transformer is in stock, and the charging station has been ordered.
— Upgrades to the golf course mowing equipment are expected to be completed as capital outlay notes have been issued to purchase two fairway mowers, two rough mowers, two greens mowers and a sidewinder trim mower.
— Renovations to the Franklin Pool have been delayed by an environmental review process, but construction is to begin this summer.

The update listed 34 other projects — six that were not yet underway, and 28 that were in various stages of progress.

The next budget workshop is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, in the city manager’s conference room.