City Council recap: Budgets, taxes and nixing new neighborhoods

A full agenda with big implications leads to a crowded session

Adam Delahoussaye news-herald.net

It was a jam-packed evening at the Lenoir City Municipal Building on Monday, June 9, where deliberation on taxes, budgets and more housing growth were all met with varying degrees of reception by Lenoir City Council and the city’s residents that packed the Courtroom.

TAX RATES AND BUDGET CHANGES

At the top of the meeting, Council heard the new budget layout and a similar proposal on the tax rate slated to impact Lenoir City residents for the next fiscal year.

As far as the tax rate, residents can expect no changes to their property taxes heading into the latter half of 2025 and the first half of 2026. The rate proposed and read by Finance Director Maggie Hunt was $0.9455 per $100 of assessed value, which is lower than the certified value.

The continued tax rate passed unanimously.

Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens stated his satisfaction with the stagnant rate, criticizing his peers at the county level who raised their rates by 16 percent in 2024.

“I’m glad we’re giving the Lenoir City taxpayers a break,” Aikens said. “They certainly need it after the county raised their taxes to help build a school that wasn’t needed.” Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean the checkbooks aren’t strained … at least in some capacities. Ahead of the unanimous approval of the new budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, Financial Director

Shawn Bunch indicated that expenditures could be exceeding revenues, causing the city to dip into its reserve funds during the upcoming financial season.

Bunch reassured Council and those in attendance that the reserve funds built in over the years should supplement those additional costs as needed. He also highlighted inflation, as have many municipalities in the state, as a big reason for the monetary stress.

Some of the other reasons listed besides rising costs were the 3 percent increase in wages given to city employees this year, as well as new retirement benefits for those employees to adjust for increased cost of living.

While Bunch stated that the Financial Department doesn’t expect a significant uptick in revenue over the next year, there are still new channels that money will begin to flow back into the city from.

As the city expands, state-shared revenues and permits and building fees were the biggest areas of cash accumulation that Lenoir City could see within the next year.

Garbage collection fees will also increase from $15 to $16 in the new fiscal year.

SCHOOL BUDGET APPROVED, 5-YEAR PLAN UNDER WAY

Even while keeping taxes down, the Lenoir City School System was still able to approve and implement a budget designed for its Five-Year Strategic Plan to prepare for a future that indicates growth and development.

Dr. Millicent Smith, director of Lenoir City Schools, listed a number of different new expenditures that promise to enhance students’ day-to-day experience.

A big avenue of improvement Smith cited was safety. This year, the district will add three new open-gate weapons detection systems, Centegix safety badges and geo-mapping all campuses for easier emergency access — all of which were discussed by the Board of Education and Lenoir City Police Chief Don White at last month’s board workshop.

The school system also plans to give all employees, including support staff and faculty, a 4 percent raise in wages … a result of the expanded student base bringing in more funds from the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) program.

Director Smith said they’re able to do all this while still retaining enough money to pour back into the school’s fund balance at the end of the year.

She also said that acceptance of new students into the school system is more than feasible.

While an exact number wasn’t overtly stated, Smith did explain that the addition of more pupils wouldn’t apply stress to staff bandwidth, current facilities or virtually any other aspect of the dayto- day operations at any Lenoir City school.

According to Smith, they could take “literally hundreds more students.”

Mayor Aikens also asked Smith if Loudon High School has more square footage and a smaller student body than Lenoir City. The Lenoir City Schools chief confirmed that to be true.

All aspects of the Lenoir City Schools budget passed unanimously — following the unanimous vote during the Board of Education meeting held just a few weeks prior.

NO NEW NEIGHBORHOOD?

Even among financial deliberation and conflicts of interest with other governing bodies, perhaps the biggest point of contention came in the form of a new, incredibly dense neighborhood proposal seeking annexation into Lenoir City.

The 42-acre property is currently located off Shaw Ferry Road, connected to the Lenoir City Urban Growth Boundary and not too far from the now-under- construction North End School approved by Loudon County Commission just weeks ago.

Preliminary specs of the property were projected around 97 single-family homes for that lot, a major point of concern for the mayor and some Council members given that it would need road easements and be placed in an area with up to 500 new commuters just a few miles down the street.

Although it received a unanimous vote for its passage at the Lenoir City Planning Commission, multiple members of Council voiced concerns about this new plat of land adding to unwanted, and potentially damaging, growth to the city.

“I’m just concerned about the traffic,” said City Council member Robin McNabb. “I think that’s a horrible place for a county high school or any high school … and then to add another 90 households in that same area is concerning to me.”

The initial Council vote was a tie at 3-3. Council member Eddie Simpson, who sits on the Lenoir City Planning Commission, spoke in favor of the annexation on the basis of the family currently sitting on the land to have the freedom to develop or sell it whatever manner they deem appropriate.

“The family has owned the property for 40 or 50 years, I think they have the right to do what they wish to do with the property within our guidelines,” Simpson said. “They have guidelines, but I also think they have the right to do something with it.”

Simpson followed his statement with a motion to approve the annexation, followed by a second from Jennifer Wampler. Voting for the annexation were Jennifer Wamper, Eddie Simpson and James Brandon. Voting in opposition were Robin McNabb, Todd Kennedy and Jim Shields.

Mayor Aikens said he believed it to be the first tied vote since he took office.

Aikens then stated that he was unprepared to vote as a final say in either direction, declaring the proposal dead for a lack of majority. Applause rang out in the Courtroom following his statement.

In other news, the Lenoir City Council:

• Approved an agreement for the full-time employment of Landon Armes at the Lenoir City Fire Department.

• Approved its contract from the previous fiscal year with Brown, Jake & McDaniel PC, auditing retirement and income plans for Lenoir City employees.

• Transferred a portion of property next to The Venue to the Industrial Development Board with the intent of zoning and utilizing it for commercial purposes.

• Approved a road closure on Depot for East Tennessee Axe Throwing to host a crawfish boil on Saturday, July 12, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Beer permits and alcohol sales are currently pending approval from the Lenoir City Beer Board … though that approval is considered likely.

• Annexed a three-acre property on Robinson Drive and Highland Park Drive into the city, transferring it from a commercial district to a medium density residential district.

• Voted to utilize their state contract to pave Browder Hollow Road and Johnson Drive — employing APAC-Atlantic for the project.

The Lenoir City Council will reconvene on Monday, June 23, for their second and final readings on city and school budgets among other business.