Bell Buckle employees will receive Christmas bonuses

The five employees of the town of Bell Buckle will be having a merrier Christmas than they might have hoped. Although they were warned by Mayor Dennis Webb during the budget process earlier this year not to count on Christmas bonuses in light of the current economy, they will be getting them after all.

"When we did the budget, we said no guarantees," said Webb at the Tuesday night meeting of the board of mayor and aldermen. "But I think the bonuses are something we should do."

Alderman James Anderson agreed.

"I've been a proponent of it for two years," he said. "I agree that things are tight, but the relatively small amount can be absorbed."

The 2 percent bonus, based on the overall $160,000 budgeted for payroll (excluding the safety officer), will cost the town $3,200. Anderson made the motion to approve the bonuses and it passed unanimously.

Clear signs

The board also passed the first reading of an ordinance amendment pertaining to signage within the city.

"We were short on definitions," said Rodney Simmons, chairman of the Planing Commission, which recommended the amendments.

Webb said a recent issue with one business's sign drew attention to a need to clarify certain aspects of the ordinance. Included in the amended zoning ordinance are definitions of several types of signs, as well as more detailed standards for the signs and their placement.

Alderwoman Annie Rooney asked when the ordinance banning "neon" signs was lifted, stating she remembered it had been part of the town's code in prior years.

"Neon is not in keeping with the town," she said.

Both Simmons and Webb said they didn't know when the change had been made and that the current emphasis was on prohibiting flashing "neon" or illuminated signs.

"Amendments can be made," said Anderson.

"It seems like that may be a topic for the Historical Commission and the Planning Commission to get together on," said Webb.

A public hearing will be held about the ordinance before the next meeting in January.

Fenced in

Another topic the board will look at in future sessions involves fencing, and whether or not chain link will be allowed in back yards. Currently, the town ordinance only allows board fencing, with no chain link, barbed wire or woven wire fences permitted except in the zones where there are still large lots or pastures.

"I thought we'd been through this," said Rooney at the work session prior to the regular meeting.

"We've gotten a lot of calls," said Webb, who said the general feeling has been the town should allow chain link in back yards, especially as a means of keeping pets from roaming.

"Where you are going to get into trouble is where your back yard is part of someone else's front yard," said Rooney.

"We've got that factored in," said Webb.

At the meeting, resident Charles Cook suggested woven wire and barbed wire also be allowed for back yard enclosures.

"I've got 10 acres here," he said. "If I had to use board fencing ..."

The aldermen told Cook he lived in a zone where the woven wire and barbed wire fencing was permitted and he suggested it be allowed for other zones as well, citing the high costs of both board and chain link fencing.

BCUD offer

Webb told the board that the Bedford County Utility District has renewed its offer to sell the town all of its water at a rate of $2.55 per thousand gallons. Currently, Bell Buckle gets most of its water from Wartrace at $1.55 per thousand, and additional water from BCUD at $4 per thousand, but that could change when Wartrace completes its connection with the Tullahoma Utilities Board in the next month or so. In September 2008, Wartrace Mayor Don Gallagher told Bell Buckle the new rate from Wartrace, once the connection is complete, would be $2.70 per thousand. In February, that rate was reported to change to $2.50 per thousand.

BCUD made the same offer last year.

Another issue to consider, said Webb at that time, was the fact that the THMs in the BCUD water were much higher than that coming from TUB. THMs are particles formed when chlorine attaches itself to organic matter. If the THM numbers are too high, the water system will be in violation of state laws. He said then BCUD was looking at chlorine alternatives that do not form the THMs, but it would be three times as expensive.

Another differences between the two utilities is that BCUD uses sand filtration and TUB uses a charcoal filtration.

"Their THM readings are next to nothing," said Webb, referring to TUB.

Webb said that if the town chose to keep Wartrace as its primary source, the system would still be able to draw from BCUD, but not at the lower rate. At the Tuesday night meeting, he told the board he didn't believe there was a deadline on the decision to accept or reject BCUD's offer.

"I told them that we're happy with Wartrace and we're not going to push them, as long as we're getting it for $1.55," said Webb. "But we do have another option."

Webb said he was reluctant to commit until the Wartrace-TUB connection was up and running.

Other business

* The mayor also spoke about the town's recent meeting with the county about Urban Growth Boundaries and the possibility of Bell Buckle getting its own Regional Planning Status, which would allow the town to set subdivision regulations for building outside of city limits but within the UGB. The town's request for RPS was denied.

"Basically, they said 'Your UGB is too big,'" said Alderman Frank Reagor, who also attended the meeting.

"I don't think they wanted us to have subdivision regulations over that large of an area," said Webb.

* Ronnie Lokey, supervisor for the water and sewer department, told the board that a pump at one of the stations had to be reworked and new seals put in, costing the department about $3,000. He said recent improvements have increased the amount of water the system can now pass through the plant, reducing some of the overflow in the equalization basin.