JOHN COFFELTEditor

The Coffee County Capital Outlay Committee addressed improvements to the community room at the Oct. 3 meeting.

The room, which is currently available for public rental, habitually receives costly damage from public events. The commission directed the maintenance department to investigate the cost of paneling the walls with decorative galvanized tin and then suggested a rental rate increase to the Mayor’s Office.

The committee felt that the rental rate should be raised from $40 per four hours to $120 per four hours with a$100 cleaning/maintenance deposit.

Commissioner Frank Watkins called the amount affordable for groups who need an economic venue but expensive enough to weed out those who might not take care of the property.

According to Maintenance Director Rick Soucy the room is regularly left in poor shape after events, with one sewer repair costing $15,000 and that three holes in the walls have been fixed just this year.

“We have to have the walls repainted once every two years, but we are fixing holes constantly,” Soucy said.

Soucy also stated that the county loses money renting the room to the public and suggested limiting it to county use only.

Capital Outlay Chairman Terry Hershman said that the issue is the amount of use the room sees, and that often no county employee is available to inspect for damages between users.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.