Wilson Post

City will lose $360K in state funds with delay XAVIER SMITH Main Street Media Lebanon leaders said the Lebanon City Council is expected to pick a site for the new wastewater treatment plant next year and miss the September deadline to get about $360,000 in state funds for the project.

Karl Bailey (right) reads a plaque to his uncle, Carl Bailey and Carl’s wife, Mildred, at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church’s 155th anniversary celebration on Aug. 16. Carl Bailey has been a deacon at the Watertown church for more than 70 years. XAVIER SMITH One of Wilson County’s longtime churches celebrated its 155th anniversary on Aug. 16, which brought together family, friends and intertwined churches to celebrate its history.

XAVIER SMITH Main Street Media Lebanon residents have until Aug. 31 to apply for a tree through the City of Lebanon’s new giveaway program. The Root for Lebanon program is intended to grow the city’s tree canopy, which could help to reduce flooding. Lebanon leaders expect hundreds of trees to be given away in the program’s first year. Tree species included in the program are Service Berry, Sycamore, Eastern Red Bud, Nuttall Oak, River Burch and Tulip Poplar.

The Lebanon City Council likely will choose from three sites for a future sewer plant after the Lebanon Wastewater Site Search Committee forwarded the sites to the council during its Aug. 4 meeting. The committee was formed in June to recommend no less than three sites to the Lebanon City Council for the future wastewater treatment plant to replace the current 60-year-old facility on Hartmann Drive.

XAVIER SMITH Main Street Media Nearly 18,000 people cast a ballot during the early voting period for the Aug. 6 election. Around 17,980 of the 113,495 registered Wilson County voters cast a ballot at one of four sites during the 14-day early voting period, which ended Aug. 1. The figure included more than 500 absentee ballots. The highest single-day total for voters was July 31 when 2,240 people cast a ballot.

ANGIE MAYES The Wilson Post The Lebanon Special School District’s board unanimously approved taking funds from the district’s Capital Improvement Fund to purchase Ace Sports Scoring Tables for Winfree Bryant Middle and Walter J. Baird Middle. The boards allow computer students to design elements of the display board in the gym during a basketball game or wrestling match, to display statistics, the school’s logo or sponsors. The cost for the boards will be $30,000.

A handful of incidents outlined in a departmental hearing notice detailed what led to longtime Lebanon City Attorney Andy Wright’s four-week suspension that ended July 31. The suspension of Wright, who has served as city attorney since May 2004, began July 6, according to the hearing decision letter Wright received from Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell. Wright returned to work on Monday, Aug. 3.

Members of the Lebanon Planning Commission discusses proposed standard for data centers in the city limits during a July 28 meeting. CITY OF LEBANON The Lebanon Planning Commission approved changes to the city’s zoning code related to data centers during its July 28 meeting that add standards and conditions to any perspective data center development.

XAVIER SMITH Main Street Media The Lebanon Wastewater Site Search Committee trimmed its list of potential future sites to four during its July 21 meeting at Lebanon City Hall with two of them outside of the city’s urban growth boundary. The four sites were the only ones of the highest-rated 12 sites that had owners willing to negotiate with Lebanon officials after the committee sought willing sellers following the June 29 meeting.

XAVIER SMITH Main Street Media Lebanon officials are scheduled to have the Don Fox Community Park splash pad’s official opening Thursday, July 30 at 4:30 p.m. with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The splash pad opened to the public July 21, but city officials temporarily closed the splash pad June 23 because of the new surface caused some children to slip and fall on the concrete pad.