The Red Boiling Springs City Council met in regular session on September 8th, 2005. George Gardner, of Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon, asked the Council to contribute money to the planned water project that will construct a direct water line from the Oshkosh tank to Nestle Waters utility water system. Originally budgeted at $96,000., the cost for the project increased to $156,000.00 when BWSC added a control valve, security fencing and other items to the budget. After meeting with RBS Mayor Kenneth Hollis and the BWSC engineers, Nestle agreed to raise the amount of their contribution to $113,490, leaving the remaining money to be collected from the City's coffers.

Gardner asked the City Council to consider contributing $16,000.00 to the project. He said as planned, "the system will work with the control valve in it. It just won't have the new transmitter from the Oshkosh tank to the two water plants. And it won't have the new pressure tap at Oshkosh. It still will be measured at Spivey Street, which is reasonable, but not as good as it ought to be."

Adding the new control valve, he said, would allow "a direct link between the two water plants and the Spivey system and make sure that the Oshkosh tank, which really is the juggler vein for your water system, is in fact the system that's controlling the water plants."

"That would be my recommendation," he said, "because it will make a big difference in how the system operates and how it responds. You'll still have the control valve function that will automatically close the control valve and protect the City's water supply in the event that the Oshkosh tank does get low for some reason and Nestle's still drawing on it."

The Council voted to contribute the $16,000 to the project, though the question was raised by Councilman Shirley Russell whether "we'd need this $16,000. worth of equipment if we were not running a direct line to Nestles from Oshkosh. Councilman Jimmy Roark responded to Russell's question by saying that a control valve at Oshkosh would "give a better, accurate reading of what's going on." He said, "Brian and them half the time they can guess at the tank and come pretty close to it with the system we got, but it don't give an accurate reading. With this new system in place, there's not going to be no guessing to it. And we've upgraded our system to the point - we're putting all the bells and whistles in - to let us know when something's going on - if something's going on wrong in the system. This only makes sense to me to go ahead and put this in."

City Water Plant Operator, Brian Long added to the discussion by reminding the Council that the City currently pays between $300 and $400 a month to NCTC in fees for use of open phone lines to send and receive signals between the water plant and tanks. The new control valve, he said, would be radio-controlled and provide an alternate way to sending and receiving signals.

Jeremy Gray, from NCTC, addressed the Council next, asking the Council to grant a franchise to NCTC to offer digital cable television to RBS and surrounding communities. Gray said fiber optic cables from Lafayette to RBS already were in place. The new cable service could be delivered over existing phone lines. "The future of our business," Gray said, "is not in access lines. It's not in local telephone service. The future of our business is being able to provide other services. The Council approved the request on first reading.

Citing the increase in the price of gas, Mayor Hollis and other members of the RBS City Council agreed to begin a policy of gas conservation in the fire, water, utilities, and police departments. They also determined that repairing RBS Police Chief Terry Tuck's car would be a more cautious solution at the moment than purchasing another car. However, they did agree to take bids on the price of a new police car for Chief Tuck.

At the request of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) the Council agreed to provide a police officer for two weeks to assist other police officers in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Marvin Smith told the Council that major changes need to be made at the Sewer plant and need to be made by city engineers Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon. The Council agreed to let the engineers handle the project.

The Council will send two men to Mississippi to look at a fire engine for possible purchase. The City is in dire need of a new fire engine, Councilman Roark said. He found one of suitable proportions to fit the fire department building for a price of $49,000. Mayor Hollis said the City would have to borrow money to pay for the new fire truck, but that it probably could be borrowed from the Utilities Department budget. Councilman Bilbrey remembered that the very first fire engine bought for RBS was paid for by adding a half cent tax to the price of gas tax and a dollar to each individual's property tax bill. The last fire engine bought by RBS was paid for by money borrowed from the Water Department.