Cookeville Planning Work on Two Pump Stations

The city of Cookeville is planning work on two pump stations, leading with the station in DeBerry Heights.

Cookeville Water and Sewer Director Ronnie Kelly said the plan comes with a desire to accommodate a growing Cookeville.

“There’s another pump station–another sewage basin pumps into it, and the station is getting close to capacity now,” Kelly said. “Cookeville is growing, so we want to be able to take more growth in that area.”

The station is nearing 40 years old, and Kelly said now is a good time to update it. Kelly said they’re ready to enter into the design and construction phase with Gresham Smith, an infrastructure company based in Nashville. The process is estimated to take about six months.

In addition to replacing the DeBerry Heights pump, Kelly said they’re looking to add a new pump location to the Tennessee Tech area and that plan is in its preliminary stages.

“This is the start of  ‘Where can we put it? What are the geological formations there? Will the location support it,” Kelly said. “It’ll do a preliminary engineering design process during this also to give us an idea of cost, do we need to acquire more property, and what are we going to have to do.”

Kelly said they’re also looking to add a wet weather storage facility at the Tech location. Like the DeBerry Heights Pump, the current phase is expected to take roughly six months.

Cookeville City Council will vote on the budgeted $182,767 DeBerry update and Tech’s $118,589 plan during its Thursday meeting.