Long John Silver’s intends to rebuild at same location


Kimball, Tenn. – In the dawn of the new year, the Kimball Board of Mayor and Aldermen convened for its first regular monthly meeting of 2023, assembling just enough members to form a quorum. The swift meeting was succinct and to the point barely eclipsing 20 minutes, but managed to address a number of items for the Town.

The Board approved the second and final reading of Ordinance 281 amending the current fiscal budget. Pursuant to information gleaned from the December reading, this was a rudimentary changing of line items within the confines of the approved budget.

The position of Maintenance Supervisor will receive a raise given the decision, at least for the time being, not to hire a replacement Parks and Recreation Director following the resignation of the prior Director. Some of those responsibilities will now fall to the Maintenance Supervisor, according to Mayor Rex Pesnell and that largely contributed to the recommendation for the raise.

Pesnell announced that the Town’s recent record of being awarded grants that it applied for finally had one that didn’t make. Pesnell said, “The Town had applied for a CDBG (US Dept. of Ag Community Development Block Grant) for the fire department. The Town received notification that our application did not score high enough to be funded. The Town will continue to save money annually toward the purchase of the new fire truck.” Pesnell took the opportunity to thank Kimball as well as the mutual aid responding departments for quickly containing the recent fire at Long John Silver’s. Pesnell also clarified one point from the fire confirming plans to rebuild. “I have spoken with the representative with Long John Silver’s and they have plans to rebuild on this site.”

From left: Alderman Johnny Sisk, Attorney Billy Gouger, Mayor Rex Pesnel, Town CFPO:Recorder Tonia May, and Vice Mayor Jerry Don Case look over the new DTF agreement

Following a brief outage of the traffic light at Main Street and Dixie Lee Center Road, the Board gave the “green light” to pay the repair bill of $4,388.36. The Board also reaffirmed its commitment to the 12th Judicial Drug and Violent Crime Task Force (DTF) adopting the Inter-local Cooperation Agreement. With the recent election of a new District Attorney for the district, Attorney Billy Gouger suggested this may have played into the issuance of the new agreement. Gouger responded to an inquiry from Alderman Johnny Sisk on any changes from the previous agreement, “Well, nothing other than some things have been updated in it, but it’s the same basic agreement that’s been in place now since the drug task force was created. The agreement is a perpetual agreement between the participating governmental entities, but it requires the district attorney to upgrade the agreement every four years. So that’s what this is for.” Gouger also reminded the assembled board members that the agreement does include a 60-day opt-out clause. The DTF is a collaboration of local law enforcement entities across the entire 12th Judicial District (Marion, Franklin, Grundy, Rhea, and Sequatchie Counties) allowing for more fluid investigations across municipal boundaries.

Matthew Tucker, Kimball’s contracted engineer, confirmed that all the final punch list items have been completed on the sewer system grinder station, and all final payments have been approved to the contractor involved in the project. Tucker also confirmed that a safety issue of access brought up in the previous meeting was addressed and the unit is now locked.

Mayor Pesnell also announced that the final hurdle for the repaving project for Industrial Boulevard had been met, though the exact time-table was still not nailed down. “The contract for Industrial Boulevard has been completed, and so we’re just waiting on warmer weather. They said this summer, so I don’t know {specifically when}.”

Throughout the meeting, standing advisory committee and board meetings were announced, including the Park Board scheduled to meet on January 12 at 5:30 p.m., as well as the Planning Commission slated to meet on January 17 at 5:30 p.m. Both of those take place at the Town Hall facility at 675 Main Street. Mayor Pesnell also reminded residents that Town services would not be open on January 16 in observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Trash services would instead run Tuesday, January 17.

The next regular, monthly meeting for the Board of Mayor and Aldermen is scheduled for February 2, at 6 p.m., also meeting at the Town Hall facility at 675 Main Street.

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