News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Livingston-Overton County Chamber of Commerce received a $100,000 grant to add directional signage throughout the city.
Director Shannon Cantrell told the County Commission Monday that they will be adding new signs and replacing old ones to guide people to different local offerings. Cantrell said many people driving through the city with a GPS are taken through the bypass and completely avoid downtown Livingston.
“This addition is hopefully going to move some of that traffic into our downtown so they’re exploring what we have here,” Cantrell said. “Once they get into our downtown they learn a little bit more about the county. They learn about Standing Stone. They learn about Cub Mountain ATV Park.”
Cantrell said she hopes to use any leftover funds to put up signs guiding people to places in the rest of the county. Cantrell said they have a year to complete the work but have been planning for the project long before the grant came in.
“This has been on our radar for awhile and we were waiting on the opportunity to apply for the right grant so that we could get it all covered,” Cantrell said. “And we have managed to already have, we have our design, we know about where we want all the signs placed. We just recently found out about a new sign company that is locating in our Industrial Park that we can talk about later.”
Cantrell said the tourism enhancement grant comes from the Department of Tourist Development and includes a $10,000 match. Cantrell said they should be able to do everything for the project using businesses in Overton County by working with that incoming company.
“It’s not often we’re about to do something of this nature locally,” Cantrell said. “So we’re excited to be able to do business with someone locally.”
Cantrell said they will have signs leading people to the library, Central Park, city hall, and the county services building.
“As far as the locals, I would hope that they know where everything is,” Cantrell said. “But where it’s going to help the locals is, I mean it creates kind of a cycle. Because when you get tourists who come in and they’re spending more money in our area because they’re learning more about this area and in turn spending more money than what they were before because they found out about this little boutique down the street they didn’t know was there or they decide they want to go up and experience the ATV park, all of that money that they’re spending comes back to us by way of sales tax revenue that helps increase the quality of life and all the amenities we have for our locals to enjoy.”
In other business, the commission approved a $174,000 bid for four vehicles going to the Sheriff’s Department, a $23,900 bid to purchase an HVAC unit for the county jail, and a $6,400 bid for two dehumidifiers to help protect the wood floors at Hardy’s Chapel Community Center.
The commission also approved an $1,800 bid for a GPS monitoring system to track certain arrestees. Sheriff John Garrett said it will cost the county nothing as those being charged with the relevant crimes will each have to pay $1,800 for the system before they can post bond.
The commission also approved a resolution to hire three judicial commissioners to start working for the county.
