Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Franklin City Manager Rosylen Oglesby provided Franklin City Council with an update at its Oct. 28 meeting on certain projects taking place throughout the community, including the efforts to help some residents of Dorchester Square Apartments whose units lost power for days in September due to an electrical issue.

DORCHESTER SQUARE APARTMENTS

During the council’s Sept. 23 meeting, Franklin Vice Mayor and Ward 5 Councilwoman Wynndolyn H. Copeland noted that the apartment complex has had trouble with this same electrical issue before — multiple times with the former owner and now once with the new owner.

Dorchester Square Apartments, a 125-unit affordable housing community in Franklin, sold for $9.5 million in May to a new owner.

Oglesby included a rundown of project updates in an agenda statement within the council’s Oct. 28 meeting packet. The rundown included the following information on Dorchester Apartments:

Review and inspection:

• The Department of Housing and Development (HUD) hired Navigate Affordable Housing Partners to conduct a review and inspection of the apartment complex. 

Utility infrastructure and payments:

• Although the new owners are on a payment plan, the complex is behind on utility payments;

“So we’re reaching out to them to get them current with their payments,” Oglesby said during the Oct. 28 meeting.

• The city was informed that repairs are needed for a bad underground wire located on the private property; and
• The city is still waiting to hear about long-term power solutions.

“So the latest that we received was from the contractor that HUD hired to do the review and inspection, that they provided the owners with a copy of their report on Friday,” Oglesby said Oct. 28. “They did not provide the city a copy of that report, and they’re waiting for the owners to respond to their findings.”

She indicated that the inspector did, however, share information with the city from the report.

“There were multiple physical issues that were noted in that report, such as fixing breezeways, sidings and parking lots and that right now, Dorchester owners do not have a capital plan in place to address that part of their physical update, as well as that bad wiring that’s under their building,” Oglesby said.

“Also, too, there were reports I guess about moisture issues up in the apartments,” she said. “According to the inspector, that’s mostly dealing with poor housekeeping, so there’s some things that need to happen there for residents to eliminate that moisture problem that happened within the apartments. But overall what he said is they’re going to get an overall satisfactory report back on the apartments.”

Copeland said, “So they didn’t say anything about the rodents (in some apartments), or they didn’t even address that?”

Oglesby indicated they did not.

Ward 3 Councilman Gregory McLemore asked if the city has sent its own inspectors in.

“Because if you hire me, I’m going to give a report based on what you want me to say or leave out, wherein if we send our inspectors in, they should pretty much mirror each other as well as point out things, such as the rodents and these things,” he said.

“My concern is we’re still without a plan for owners of multiple dwellings to address them expeditiously when things like this happen,” he continued. “It’s like we’re kicking the can down the road, and you weren’t here,” he said to Oglesby, “(Interim City Manager) Ms. (Darlene) Burcham was here, but we’ve had these power outages before. I would like to see a plan for that underground box being repaired that is inspected by our people, the city people, saying, ‘Yeah, this is right. They got it right. They couldn’t have done any better.’ But until we oversee what they’re doing, I don’t think we have any guarantees that it’s being done to standard.”

Oglesby said, “One of the things I will caution council, and our city attorney can correct me if I’m wrong, but by this being private property, our inspectors cannot go on that property unless they are invited to go on that property, so unless any of that happened, we can’t go up there. We have no control over whether or not they’re going to do any improvements to that property, down to the wiring. 

“Those things are not within our scope because it’s owned by a private company,” she continued. “So we stop where our lines are at and what they connect to, and so there’s not too much more we can do to that.”

McLemore said, “Well, I thought we discussed that we were going to come up with something that we could put into ordinances that was requiring them to meet certain standards, private or not. If it’s within the city, we have the right to make ordinances to address these things. I thought that’s what we talked about. Maybe I’m mistaken.”

Franklin Mayor Robert “Bobby” Cutchins said, “I remember we talked about (how) we were adamant about wanting somebody to go in and check it. I do remember the part about the rodents. Maybe we need to send a memo and ask them about that. As far as private property, I totally understand that.

“Maybe we can find out if this company recommends for something to be upgraded on this site, and then we could follow up,” he continued. “And then if we could get our people involved if something is wrong, that would be a possibility, I would think, if you’ve got something that doesn’t meet standard.”

“But I do understand it’s their property,” he added. “It’s not the city’s electric, so we are limited, but yeah, we can’t go through what we went through last time.”

Oglesby indicated that HUD is the department that would have to be responded to because HUD hired the contractor conducting the review and inspection.

Ward 4 Councilman Dr. Linwood Johnson said, “Working with HUD in the past, HUD inspectors are very thorough going into a situation of that nature. And I think after we get the full report from HUD, their inspectors, then we can look at that. And I agree with Mr. McLemore; if we need to set a policy for that, then we have something to go on. But right now, we need to let HUD finish their inspecting.

“And we can send a note to HUD, basically, about the rodents and so forth and the mold, because that is very important,” he added.

McLemore said his concern is that there are multiple dwelling locations in Franklin that, like Dorchester, are on private property and are owned by private businesses, and he wants the city to have policies in place that hold those businesses accountable to keep the dwellings in good condition.

“It’s up to us to make sure that multiple citizens are not affected because (these business owners) want to be, for lack of another word, irresponsible in taking care of their business because, ‘Hey, this is mine, I can do it any kind of way,’” he said, adding that the city should be able to reply, “‘Yeah, but those are our citizens, and we have provisions and ordinances in place that say you have to conform to certain things, and if you’re not, you’re in violation of city codes and city ordinances.’”

McLemore concluded by saying, “But if we don’t do that until something happens again, then we’re right back where we started here. We’ve got to put something in place prior to it happening. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.”

Cutchins said, “If you come up with any recommendations to council, I think it would be appreciated.”

“Yes,” Johnson agreed. “Yes.”

Following are other key projects taking place throughout the community that Oglesby updated the council on during the Oct. 28 meeting.

BLACKWATER PARK

The rundown in the council meeting packet stated that all surveys are completed, and the developer is finalizing documentation for property transfer to the city, expected by early 2025.

Oglesby noted to council members that portions of the park belong to the city.

“There was another portion that we took a tour of where they’re putting some campgrounds and some things like that (in), so they’re finalizing, and we should be receiving something probably early 2025 to have that portion turned over to the city,” she said.

ARMORY GYM

The rundown in the meeting packet stated that construction documents are 95% complete, and the estimated project cost is $10.37 million, remaining within the targeted range. 

“That project is slated to go out for bid on Nov. 22,” Oglesby said.

MARINER STREET PAVING & WATERLINE REPLACEMENT

The rundown stated that the water main and service designs are complete, and the contractor is preparing a materials list. The project is expected to start early next year, followed by asphalt road overlay.

POPLAR SPRING CEMETERY SIGNAGE

Oglesby said, “Some people have brought up about the signage, that you have signage out at Southview Cemetery that is not also present at Poplar Spring, so those signs are ordered and will be posted as well.”

Her rundown in the packet stated that installation was anticipated within a couple of weeks.

SOUTHVIEW CEMETERY CLEANUP

Echoing what was in her printed rundown, Oglesby said, “Section C was cleaned up, and then they’re going to start with Section B, and this progress should go a little bit faster now that the growing season has started to slow down. 

“I’m going to add one project, which is city ditches,” she added. “So again, with the growing season starting to slow down, staff is working to develop a plan to go in and do the cleanout of those ditches.”