City of Elizabethton 2015 in Review

Wow! It’s hard to believe another year has passed by already. And it has been a busy one for the city! Today I’d like to do a rundown of some of the top things the city has accomplished this past year.

To start off, the City Council voted to decrease property taxes by 2 cents this past year. After the budgets were completed for the 2015/2016 budget year, City Council decided that some of the additional revenues not budged for operations should be returned to the property owners in the form of a tax cut. The rationale was that this would also help out homeowners pay for an increase in water rates which also happened during the same budget cycle.

This past year has also been a good year for the city’s finances as well. As our community continues to slowly move out of the recession, financial revenue projections are surpassed. Other financial moves were made this year to help improve the city’s financial state. Some Electric Ratepayer Debt was refinanced this year in order to take advantage of low bond rates. This refinancing saved Elizabethton Electric ratepayers over $799,000 in interest payments over the life of the bonds.

Also, the city applied for multiple different grants this year and were awarded three! These grants totaled over $417,000. While many of these require the city match money, many of the projects the grants will be used for are projects that the city would need to complete at some point in the future. Rather than city taxpayers paying for the entire amount the state will be paying for a portion of these projects.

This year the city also updated and adopted new building code regulations, property maintenance regulations, and disability accessibility code regulations. These regulations ensure that buildings are constructed as they were designed to be and that they were constructed safely for the resident or occupant of the building. These regulations also help the city enforce a minimum standard of external appearance of buildings within the city. The disability accessibility regulations ensure that facilities constructed in Elizabethton will be accessible to all citizens regardless of disability.

This past year also brought the completion of two major projects. The first was the completion of the Eastside Waterloss project. This project was targeting the dramatic water loss that we saw in many of Eastside’s old water lines. This was a large project which utilized various funding mechanisms including grants. I’m sure many of our citizens in Eastside were glad to see this project completed! The completion of the Tweetsie Trail was also another major win for the City and our citizens. You can now ride from Snap-On to Old Navy in Johnson City along a variety of paths and trails.

Some other projects this year included the completion of the new Citizen’s Bank Stadium, the beginning of the EHS Band Room, the implementation of new library software, and a variety of other projects. As we look to the new year, what progress would you like to see your city make? Let’s talk about it!