At the Knoxville City Council meeting Monday night, discussion was held related to the domestic water service and the potential for fire service line options for the 2023 Street Improvement Project.

The City of Knoxville had requested Snyder & Associates to review the options for the portions of the project on Main Street between 1st Street and 2nd Street and Main Street between 3rd Street and 4th Street, where streetscaping improvements are being proposed. With the options provided, the council and the Knoxville Water Department raised concerns about blanket installation of the system, resulting in no action being taken. City Manager Heather Ussery says the plan is to talk with property owners in the construction area and determine who is interested in installing the fire suppression systems before moving forward. 

“The direction from council was to survey and kind of gauge what the interest is from those property owners within these construction zones, to see if they would be interested in putting in the fire suppression pipes currently when the road is already torn up to be able to save those costs of the concrete. And so that’s the direction that staff will take now and then I think there will be additional conversations with council. And the engineers and staff in the future on this before making a decision.”

Ussery adds that city staff will be reaching out to the local property owners in these areas in the coming weeks. Hear more about this week’s Knoxville City Council meeting on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.