Knox Co. Finance to report on potential loss of federal funds
By Mike Steely
Senior Writer
steelym@knoxfocus.com
The last item on the proposed agenda for the Knox County Commission meeting today is a discussion on federal grants suggested by 4th District Commissioner Shane Jackson.
Jackson explained the request during the agenda review meeting last Monday.
He is asking the Knox County Finance Department to take a look at all the federal grants the county receives and report back on what might be lost as federal policies are changing.
“It’s a good tool to look at the risks that we could lose with everything that is going on now,” Jackson told the meeting. Commission Chairwoman Gina Oster said the report by Finance will be added to the presentation section of today’s meeting.
In a related matter, District 9 Commissioner Andy Fox is asking the commission to change the county code to require all applications from any department for federal grants to go through the full commission before being forwarded for approval. Fox told the commission’s agenda session that he ran his proposal through the law department.
During the brief agenda meeting, District 6 Commissioner Terry Hill moved to postpone for 30 days the closure of part of Ball Camp Pike.
District 5 Commissioner Angela Russell questioned an agenda item dealing with the hiring of Orion Planning and Design, LLC, to create a Unified Development Ordinance. She asked what happened to another firm that was previously contracted to do the same work and was told the company contract was terminated because it wasn’t working out.
Other agenda items for today’s meeting include honoring Eddie Mannis and HonorAir Knoxville; honoring the West Valley Middle School girls basketball state champions; and honoring Keep Knoxville Beautiful, Keep Tennessee Beautiful, Ijams Nature Center and Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful for their efforts to remove trash from Knox County and bring litter control awareness to East Tennessee.
The second and final readings of amending the county codes dealing with the Internal Audit Department and repealing the code dealing with the Technology Development Authority are on the agenda.
Also before the commission is a routine vote on the education calendar and one item there is authorizing the construction of a new Farragut-area elementary school for about $43.7 million on a contract with Merit Construction, Inc.
