News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The city of Cookeville wants to explore cleaning up and beautifying the area around the Historic Courthouse Square.
Council Member Eric Walker brought up the need in a meeting several weeks ago. City Manager James Mills said he agrees with Walker about a need for beautification, and wants to explore options for how to achieve that.
“We’ve tried to do some here at the city hall–spent a lot of time and money trying to spruce up City Hall, the West Side–a lot’s been done there,” Mills said. “Of course the square is the original downtown, we want to do all we can to make sure it’s attractive to visitors and our citizens.”
The city has put some $15,000 in the new fiscal year budget to work on beautification. Mills said they have had issues in the past with keeping the greenery alive in the area.
Mills said high foot traffic and vehicles cutting corners on the island have caused some of the issues. Mills said the upkeep and maintenance for the area would be a joint effort between the Leisure Services and Public Works Departments.
“The maintenance division is a part of Leisure Services Department and is responsible for upkeep of the city grounds, and they over the years have been responsible for that,” Mills said. “The CityScape project that was done there many years ago was done by the Public Works Department, so it’s a joint effort among city staff.”
Mills said the city council would also like to explore beautifying entrance ways to Cookeville.
Previous beautification projects included adding vegetation, greenery and flowers to areas around Jefferson Avenue and Willow Avenue. Mills said the biggest issue they ran into with that was maintenance from TDOT, and Mills said a main focus for future projects would be on obtaining welcoming signage at the entrance ways of the cities.
