Property Acquisition Continues In TTU Pump Station Replacement Project

One property is secured and two others are in negotiations as Cookeville continues the Tennessee Tech Pump Station replacement project.

Cookeville Water and Sewer Director Barry Turner said the city needs three properties on Lee Avenue north of the Tech campus to start construction. He said an engineer has completed the designs and some 18 months of construction will begin once the properties are all purchased.

“We have a pump station there at the site now, but we’re going to build a new pump station, and then that wet weather storage facility,” Turner said. “That way, we wouldn’t have any overflows at the site. We would pump that excess wastewater into the storage tank.”

Cookeville City Council has authorized the purchase of a Lee Avenue property from a local rental company that currently houses eight apartment units. Turner said the department will go to the council once the next two agreements are reached, and the bidding for the construction can begin.

“We occasionally have overflows out there during high storm events, high rain events,” Turner said. “We’re diluted when it overflows, but we still have some overflows and we’re trying to eliminate those overflows, so that’s what this project is intended to do, is to capture what we’re currently overflowing now and then be able to pump it back into the system after the storm event passes.”

The first property was purchased for $550,000. Turner said the apartment complex will be torn down to make way for a 1.5 million-gallon tank. He said the apartments are rented out on a month-to-month basis, so no evictions will be necessary.

“We’re working on it and we’ll take it to the council as soon as we have an agreement,” Turner said.