At Monday night’s meeting, the Caryville Board of Mayor and Aldermen discussed how to move forward with cleaning up nuisance properties. Clean up of some properties can cost up to $10,000, according to Alderman Lloyd Lawson.

Attorney Kathy Parrott spoke to the board about how to proceed with the process of having the properties cleaned up. Parrott explained that in some cases the property owners were in the nursing home or maybe lived out of state and were depending on someone to keep the property maintained. Parrott recommended they start the process by sending out letters to the property owners about the issue. This will allow the property owners an opportunity to respond to the city with an appeal. If the owner is not located, then Parrott can begin to work on locating them. The board discussed one property of concern where someone is living without running water or electricity. Mayor Bobby Stooksbury requested codes officers to see if they could assist the individual by locating resources to help with the water and electric issue, if possible.

Last month, Stooksbury mentioned to the board about raising the fire hydrant maintenance fee. Tonight, the board agreed to an amendment that would increase the fee 35-cents per family. There has not been an increase in the fee since 2002. Aldermen Eric Smith told the board that the city has received a community development block grant for a fire truck. The grant is $279,752 with a 12% match of $39,000 from the city. Smith said the city cannot bid this out yet, but they can start to compile the specs for the new fire truck.  The board accepted a bid of $10,679.98 from SCBA Sales and Rentals for the purchase of 20 air bottles for the fire department. In other fire department business, the board agreed to advertise for bids on seven sets of turn-out gear.

The board accepted a bid of $5,801 from Geiser Services for a salt spreader for the street department.

In the final business of the night, Alderman Lloyd Lawson spoke to the board about the paving of Walnut Street. Lawson said that some citizens did not want the street paved because it could create water drainage issues. Lawson said that he felt the city could widen the road, gravel it and be okay.