News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Clay County Commissioners agreed Monday night to move forward with a consulting company to develop the county’s parks and recreation master plan.
County Mayor Dale Reagan said Tennessee-based RaganSmith will work with a steering committee the county put together. Reagan said the development of the plan will be fully paid for by a $20,000 grant from the Department of Health.
“I think it starts out with like a five-year plan and then it extends out to like a ten-year,” Reagan said. “But at any time during that you’ll go back and you’ll revisit it and you can add to or whatever you need to if you see something else it needs. And that committee will be the one that’ll be doing that and taking care of that and everything.”
Reagan said the steering committee is expected to come together in January to move forward with the plan. The master plan is the first step in obtaining grants to expand recreational opportunities in the community.
“They’re probably going to come back and they may suggest some things that you need to look at doing,” Reagan said. “That don’t mean you got to do it.”
Reagan said part of the work will require the commission to cooperate with Celina Aldermen as the town’s Donaldson Park is included in the program. Reagan said General Sessions Judge Jimmy White reviewed the agreement with the company and found everything to be in order.
Reagan said the county is not required to spend any money on the plan but commissioners should consider funding improvements as finances allow.
“That’d be up to this body here to do that and everything,” Reagan said. “…it’d just be left up to the discretion of the legislative body and to the city council.”
In other business, the commission approved a resolution to conduct an actuarial study for a new hazardous duty supplemental benefit. Sheriff Brandon Boone said the benefit would affect sheriff and fire department retirees who have been with the county for at least twenty years.
The commission also approved a resolution requesting the upcoming Tennessee General Assembly to allocate one half of real estate transfer taxes to the county where they are collected.
