Martel

Martel, LCUB merger nears

Jeremy Nash news-herald.net

A consolidation agreement between Martel Utility District and Lenoir City Utilities Board could soon be in place months after both sides started talking.

Martel board members Mark White and Greg Reed voted unanimously March 24 on the proposal as written with a couple of minor changes. Board member John Morton was absent.

The agreement will now be sent to the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury for review.

“We have essentially approved it, we did not sign it, we have essentially approved it,” White said. “Again, it was in form enough to send to the comptroller’s office to make sure that what we’re — we don’t want anything to be wrong in what we’re doing. This has been done before and it’s been done properly and it’s been done improperly. We’re trying to make sure it’s all done properly and we just want to make sure we get the comptroller’s blessing on it before we sign it and send it through the channels.

“So in other words, if there’s something wrong we want to know it now so that we can make those changes so we can make everything work,” he added.

Discussion began in August when LCUB initially approved moving forward with the process. Lenoir City Council in October approved plans for the agreement.

“That’s what was taking so long on it was trying to find out the wind-down plan of how it does,” White said. “There are certain aspects of it that have to happen and we have to sign something and then we’ve got an RDA loan that we have to pay off. There are about 10 working parts that have to happen in a sequence. ... I think we’ve got this thing hammered out and it’s going to be a really good thing for the rate payers in our area.”

White said Martel would hold a special called meeting if needed before board members meet again in April.

“If he comes back and says, ‘Hey, you’re a go. You need to change this one thing,’ I think it will be minuscule,” White said. “I don’t know what he would change. That’s what we were trying to do is make sure everybody that had no heartburn over anything on it.”

A public necessity meeting with Loudon County Mayor Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw remains undecided.

“I think everything is on track,” Shannon Littleton, LCUB general manager, said. “The thing that is going to slow us down is this coronavirus issue and I don’t know of how well staffed the state offices are right now. I know they’ll respond. That may slow down some of the issue, but barring that I think we should be able to pull this thing off fairly quickly and I assume it’d be first of summer it’d be finished.

“... I think there’s a good possibility that the merger could be in total finished capacity by the first of July,” he added. “What that means is they will be a separate department that the city established with the advisory board. The LCUB will be aiding in running the Martel Utility District.”

However, a definitive timeline consolidation will go into effect is unknown, he said.

“I’ll be honest with you, this has taken way too long,” Littleton said. “I don’t think it’s any fault of Martel or LCUB’s side. I think there’s a lot of legal issues to go through. ... It’s my opinion that there was never really any holdup from the political sides of the Martel side or the LCUB side. It was really all a legal holdup.”