The city of East Ridge is expanding its community center. It received a Local Park and Recreation Fund grant from the state of Tennessee to make $1.2 million in improvements. The grant amount awarded in 2023 was a 50/50 match, with the state providing $600,000 and the city of East Ridge being responsible for $600,000. Pillar Construction was the low bidder for the project at $1,590,000, but that is $550,000 over what had been budgeted. At the Thursday night meeting, City Manager Scott Miller recommended how to make up the shortfall.
The expansion of the community center is for adding three rooms and that is the only part of construction that the grant can be used for. The gym will be enlarged to be a regulation size basketball court and improvements will be made to the senior complex and a kitchen off of the senior room and two restrooms will be added. “Anything else that is done to the building will be on our dime,” said Mr. Miller.
The original plan for the restrooms did not include making them ADA compliant and that will cost an additional $59,000. And the city was aware that the new rooms needed to have sprinklers, but did not count on doing the original part of the building as well. It has now been decided to add sprinklers throughout the building at the same time as the rest of the work. The cost for those upgrades will be $918,000 in addition to the original contract of $1,700,000 for the construction. The city manager asked for authorization of an additional amount for kitchen equipment including appliances, that was not included in the budgeted amount.
The council approved taking $536,434 from the city’s capital improvements fund balance to pay the difference in the original estimate and the final cost. That fund is replenished each year from the city’s Border Region payments from the state. Additionally, a $200,000 contingency was approved for change orders if they are needed for the building during construction. The total amount for actual construction of the project will be $2,118,000. There is also another contract for $160,000 with the architects.
Back in 2014-2015, another grant was approved for East Ridge, this came from the Tennessee Department of Transportation. The grant was for engineering the resurfacing of John Ross Road from Ringgold Road to South Terrace. The city awarded the bid to Volkert Engineering years ago after only receiving one bid. Now that the work is ready to begin, the cost is $600,000 over budget, mainly because the manhole covers are raised and need to be corrected while paving is done. East Ridge wants to re-bid that work but to do that it will have to pay the state $5,000.
The mayor and city manager discussed a policy that has now been implemented which is meant to get East Ridge’s streets back in good condition. When work is done and street cuts are made, the utility that does it must make the repair correctly according to specs established by the city. And the city will monitor the repairs for two years to hold the utility responsible.
The city’s human resources manual has been given an update and the council gave approval. It amends the city’s policies regarding travel reimbursements, giving gifts, what food purchases by employees that will be allowed, subscriptions and membership expenses, and the use of city credit cards.
Appointments were approved for two of the city’s boards. James Meyers will fill an unexpired term to the East Ridge Housing Commission and Stan Allen, past chief of police, was nominated to the Industrial Development Board for a term of six years.
Six building permits have been approved out of 57 apartments and townhomes that are planned for Graston Avenue behind Parkridge Medical Center. And the old horse farm on Frawley Avenue has been cleared in preparation for 108 two-story townhouses.