During the year, more was spent by the city of Red Bank than was collected from the general fund, but now the city is “tightening its belt” to spend less because the city has less income due to an error made by Hamilton County when property taxes were calculated. By the end of the fiscal year, the city will have spent more from the fund balance than was anticipated, said Finance Director Kris Pickel on Tuesday night.
Spending less will mean that each department will be postponing some purchases, and hiring will be slowed down. At the next commission meeting City Manager Martin Granum said that he will give a more formal update on ways the city plans to save money in 2026.
One of the ways will be to withdraw from the Small Cities Coalition, but Mr. Granum said spending less is not the only reason that will be done. Red Bank plans to perform the functions of the coalition on its own. That includes working with the city’s legislative representatives to the state of Tennessee and creating and sending press releases.
CPA Brian Wright with Johston, Murphey and Wright presented the audit report for fiscal year 2025, to the Red Bank commissioners. “Overall, everything looks really good,” he said. The city received an unmodified opinion – the best you can get, and no material weaknesses were identified. There was one issue of non-compliance in the solid waste fund. $188,000 was spent that had not been budgeted. This can happen when equipment is ordered one year and is not delivered until the next, the auditor said, and then was forgotten to be included in the 2025 budget. And a budget amendment to add it at the end of the year was not done. Every dollar has to be appropriated to spend it, he said. The city had the money because it was left over from the year before when the equipment was originally budgeted. A corrective action plan has now been put in place so this will not happen again, Finance Director Pickel and City Recorder/Human Resource Manager Tracey Perry told the commissioners.
Traffic safety is being worked on in together by the Red Bank police and public works departments. Safer streets were the focus of the remainder of the commission meeting. Several plans have been done over the past year by transportation safety groups that have made recommendations to the city. There has been a lot of discussion about speeding, the increased volume of traffic and an increase in crashes. And bad weather is a factor in the crashes, said Director of Public Works Greg Tate.
One area looked at in the studies was Ashland Terrace, which was found to have an average of 17,606 cars each day. And the speed limit there is 25 mph, but eight to 10 percent of the vehicles were traveling over 41. And crashes there have increased to 44 last year.
Point Christian Academy is a new school that is at the intersection of Ashland Terrace and Dayton Boulevard. A new school zone is being created there. The traffic plan will include design, enforcement and a reduction of the speed limit on Dayton Boulevard and an increase in speed limits on Ashland Terrace. Funding for this project is already in place.
Recommended changes for a second school zone were also given to the commissioners. A couple of studies have been done on the existing school zone around Red Bank High and Middle Schools on Morrison Springs Road. This location sees about 14,000 vehicles daily and 82 percent of them are traveling five mph or more over the speed limit. People are ignoring speed signs, said Police Chief Dan Seymour, and 64 percent are going more than 11 mph over the limit. Improvements that may take place here could include maintaining signage and using warning devices that has already been begun. Traffic enforcement technology would be installed here.
Another roadway project is also being talked about. It is being referred to as “Safe Streets for All.” This project will be to keep pedestrians and bikers safe. The plan presented by public works director Tate, showed sketches of three proposed round-abouts on Dayton Boulevard at intersections with Browntown Road, Martin Road and Gadd Road. And three stretches of bike lanes are being proposed on Morrison Springs Road and Dayton Boulevard, plus some cross-walks will be well defined. Some of these will initially be done as temporary features to see how well they are accepted by the public. It they are considered successful, then Red Bank will apply for an implementation grant.
Red Bank City Judge Johnny Houston was first appointed in 2000. For the past couple of months he has been unable to serve in that capacity due to medical reasons. During that time, Brian Hoss has been filling in as Red Bank’s interim judge. City Attorney Arnold Stulce told the commissioners that Judge Houston remains in grave condition with his prognosis still unknown. To keep the city court moving forward an interim can be appointed for 30 days at a time. Mr. Hoss was appointed for a second interim period of 30 days.
