NEW KNOXVILLE – The planned 2021 reconstruction of Bremen Street was moved forward when the New Knoxville Council approved a storm sewer reconstruction contract at their meeting Wednesday night.

Tom’s Construction Inc. was awarded $198,518 contract to replace the storm sewers along Bremen Street sometime in the spring of 2021.

Village Administrator Larry Kellermeyer told council that he was working with Choice One Engineering to coordinate this storm sewer construction project with the planned widening and repaving of this section of Bremen Street in 2021.

Also, he said village crews would be burying electrical lines along the north side of the street around that time so that poles can removed. He added NKTelco had already buried their lines in that location.

In other news, council approved a 3% raise for village employees, following an executive session.

Council also approved an ordinance to accept increased appropriations of Coronavirus Relief funds, which rose from $106,000 to $122,529.29. There was a separate ordinance approved that agreeing to spend the funds only on items related to dealing with Covid, such as laptops in case employees had to work from home. Kellermeyer said the bulk of the funding will go to purchase equipment for the Fire and Police departments, as those departments perform their roles as first responders.

Several ordinances allocating income tax receipts to meet yearly 2021 obligations were read. They included $15,266.22 from the water fund to the water bond fund, $32,091.50 from the general fund to debt service fund, $15,000 from the general fund to Capital Assets Fire/Emergency, $30,000 from the sewer fund to the sewer reserve fund, and $100,000 from the electric fund to the electric reserve fund.

Finally, council approved an end-of-year meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 28 to finish village business. The next regular meeting is Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m.