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City Council upped the entertainment ante for outdoor events with a unanimous vote to approve a project bid to upgrade electrical services in the downtown area.

The project, in the amount of $232,358, will provide additional electrical services to Main Street, at the Downtown Green and at the Farmers Market.

“Council will recall that we received Federal grants from the Recovery Act Funds that will allow us to do several things around the community. This is one of those things,” City Administrator Tony Cox said.

“These improvements will allow us to host a number of different events and allow us to have flexibility in configuration and allow us to do these events without having to bring in portable generators, so it will be more pleasant and easier to manage the events,” he said.

According to Cox, the bid price was lower than engineering estimates – “We are below budget in terms of the project,” he said.

Discussion by Council, led by Kay Senter in Mayor Gary Chesney’s absence, clarified that the added exterior electrical service on Main Street would be used to power an entertainment stage, food trucks and the like – not to serve existing businesses, but instead be used for special promotions.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Council Member Al A’Hearn said, reminiscing about a Morristown Theatre Guild production staged downtown in the mid-80s that required utilizing a Main Street businesses’ power at a cost of thousands of dollars.

In July 2022, Gresham Smith was hired by the City to design, create specifications, and manage bidding upgrades for this project. The bid was awarded to Shoffner Kalthoff MES, Inc.

Council voted to accept a nomination to the Board of Equalization held by the late Robert Russell. Realtor Billy Daniel will serve a year’s term.

Senter explained to council members that the board typically meets just two to three days, once a year, in June. However, in a reappraisal year, the meetings are held daily for six to eight weeks, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“You have to find someone who is eligible and also available to spend that much time,” Senter said.

The vote for a new member of the Civil Service Board, to fill the unexpired term of Joel Hice, was postponed by Council’s vote to defer. Hice’s resignation was effective last week.

“That will give us some time to bring this to the March 7 meeting, to have Council input,” Senter said.

Appointments to the Morristown Regional Planning Commission were voted to be deferred by Council, as it is a mayoral appointment and Morristown Mayor Gary Chesney was absent from Tuesday’s meeting. The appointments will be taken up at the March 7 meeting.

The Council has reinstated its Listening Roundtable sessions. One is scheduled for 7 p.m., Thursday, March 2 at Trinity United Methodist Church located at 425 Wilder Street.

“The idea with this round is to focus on a particular topic,” Cox said.

The March 2 topic of discussion will be the study of the 160 Corridor and how improvements can be made.

“There will be people from the consulting engineering firm there to make a brief presentation, and to take in comments from the community. Of course, we will be able to listen to anything else that may come up. We would encourage you to do that. We’ve been unable to do that for a while because of Covid; we’re getting back in the swing of things,” Cox said.