Newport City Council Tackles Large Agenda

The Newport City Council met last night and tackled a large agenda. One of the items was the second reading of an ordinance that would punish any business that sells beer that does not renew their beer permit in a timely fashion. The council also had the first reading of the budget for fiscal year 2022-23 which goes into affect on July 1st. The main thing in that budget is a 5% raise for all city employees.

The council also agreed to move forward with the annexations of two pieces of property…one for the distribution center on Edwina Road at the request of Pheonix Investment. The other annexation is the Woodland Park property that the city recently purchased as an addition to the current city park.

The city council also approved a maintenance contract with TDOT to maintain the roads within the Newport city limits.

The council also approved the purchase of a license plate reader system that will be placed on several of the city’s roads. That system reads the license plate numbers of vehicles on the road, which then can alert police to stolen vehicles in the area and also wanted suspects.

And finally, the city council approved the hiring of new firefighter Stephen Payne. He will now join the Newport Fire Department.