FRANKLIN
On Monday, the Franklin City Council opted to grant a contract extension for the sale of the old power plant to Highground Services Inc. to March 31. The extension is to give the company, which is a recent graduate of the Franklin Business Incubator, time to do its due diligence.

When the city did its required environmental investigation, inspectors discovered that a phase II followup operation would be needed. Rather than doing a full-scale phase II, the city opted to do a limited investigation for vapor intrusion, with no problems being found.

However, the bank, as part of the loan package, had its engineers review the studies and will require the city to perform a full-scale phase II study.

Originally, the period was supposed to close within 90 days of the council’s meeting on Dec. 8. After a 5-1 vote, with Ward 3’s Greg McLemore voting nay and Ward 2’s Benny Burgess abstaining due to a potential conflict of interest, the closing date was pushed to the end of March.

Union Street Properties, the company executing the purchase for Highground, will close out the due diligence after the city completes its followup. The study is anticipated to be completed by the beginning of next month.

“It’s not anyone’s fault,” said City Attorney Taylor Williams. “We just need to ask for an extension to give the purchaser time to satisfy the bank’s requirements.”