Cookeville Water Department Seeks City Service To Water Intake Pumping Facility

Cookeville City Council will consider a negotiation of the purchase of facilities from Upper Cumberland Electric to serve the city’s Water Intake Pumping Facility.

Water Quality Control Department Director Ronnie Kelly said that they would purchase a primary meter and a depreciated transformer feeding the intake from UCEMC.

“In August there was a tree that fell across the electric line that serves our intake so we were out of power and not producing any water,” Kelly said. “So we were talking with Upper Cumberland about let’s take that potential problem off the table.”

Kelly said that they also intend to contract with the Cookeville Electric Department to install an inground electric line from a point where UCEMC’s facilities leave the roadway and access becomes unreliable. He said that the newly installed line and transformer would become the responsibility of the City of Cookeville.

Kelly said they’ve negotiated this project for a number years, and that UCEMC gave an estimated price of $100,132. He said that currently, the water department is one of their biggest customers and pays over $1.5 million in electric bills.

“The portion we have a problem with and we think is the danger down there,” Kelly said. “We want the city of Cookeville to put it underground, and own it and then we would take care of that portion and we wouldn’t have to depend on (UCEMC) to come down there when they need to come down there.”