Portland, Tennessee Blog

The Proposed Dam – We will have to appeal the issue, which means our chances probably go down. Without some political pressure from higher up the food chain this is going to be difficult. This not only hurts our city but many other communities in northern Sumner County.
The city has put a great deal of time and money in this over the years and based on what they perceive to be environmental concerns, they have denied us.
Somewhere in this process, human life has to out weigh that of impounding a stream.
This drought has proven how great a need we have for another water source.

City Hall – Finance will once again look at this issue this month, but support is waning.
This is not a perfect solution by no means, but based on the amount room we will gain verses the cost causes me to support this.
The Police department needs expansion and this plan will help in that greatly.
The cost of city hall is shared between the enterprise fund and the general fund; due the fact that public works shares the building; this is how the move would be paid for.
Building a new facility on 52W is probably the best, but we are looking at a multi-million dollar project that would probably have to have a revenue stream not presently available to pay for it.

HWY 52 Corridor Project – We have selected a firm to start analyzing and designing our 52 corridor. We feel this is where a lot of the retail growth will take place in the coming years, and we are putting a plan in place now to deal with it. Infrastructure, design standards, building setbacks, and traffic flow are all important areas to consider, and we look forward to this project being completed.

Codes enforcement – There are still several problem areas in town and I admit that, but the codes department has done a great deal in the last year. Some properties seem like a prime target for enforcement, but sometimes there are underlying circumstances.
We are making progress. People say Gallatin and Hendersonville do not have these problems but I say this is false. Most people are just driving through the newest parts of their town. I made an effort to go look at these cities; not just the new retail sections, but the older parts also and I can say with out a doubt that our city is in pretty good shape.
Some problems take several months to solve. Our people start out trying to be helpful and understanding and sometimes we have to go to the court system, and sometimes a place that looks bad may not be violating any codes.
The city is trying, and as our manpower increases we will do a better job.

We have a good city and I for one would not want to live anywhere else. Every town has problems and Portland is not excluded from them, but having people committed to the welfare of our city has made this a good place to be.

Thank you,
Alderman Mike Callis
cityofportlandtn.gov