EMPOWERING TELLICO VILLAGE
December - NEWS UPDATE

Our Mission....To communicate critical village news in a fair, clear, truthful and concise manner of key issues that impact our village.

Greetings Tellico Village - As many of you may know, an educational Not For Profit (NFP) “Voice of Tellico” was formed to provide a counterpoint to the information published and decisions made by outside our POA. Our first objective was accomplished, with a legal opinion that our Board of Directors had overstepped the boundaries of our Protective Covenants by voting to enact a fee to fund our TAP water and sewer infrastructure projects. We are now focusing our attention as a tool to communicate to village on other areas of significant to us.

We offer 2 examples for the need of this educational effort. During the recent TV election, The Telegram publication was used in the campaign process to spread ONLY the CEO and POA board’s message. In some cases, it even went as far as attempting to discredit certain candidates. Further, recent attempts to drive revenues and/ or projects only supported the POA board and CEO’s position. These were published in the Telegram and made available on the POA website. The Water Authority project and the BUY-IN (property transfer tax) campaigns were two attempts that used POA publications to promote only one side. Both of these projects failed miserably and both caused undue calamity, distress, mistrust and division in our village and among our residents.

Voice of Tellico publication finds that unacceptable and inappropriate in Tellico Village. All of this can be avoided with clear, concise and unbiased information shared with our village.

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Proposed sewage tank update

A meeting was held Dec. 6, after numerous residents spoke out at the November POA board meeting regarding proposed placement of a waste tank to be built off RT444 just south (about 500 feet) from the Yacht Club entrance and about 300 feet from the Tugaloo Lake area.

They pointed out the odor from the tank and proximity to our beach, dog park and Marina would be a deterrent to enjoying these amenities. Homeowners also were concerned for the potential of negative effect to our property values. 

Present at this meeting were the POA CEO Chet Pilsbury, and two staff, Matt Benoit and Scott MacRae. Marty Inkrott, Ed Grollemond, John Orr and Mike Braddock (board members) from the POA board and the POA lawyer (correction..he was NOT in attendance). Joel Reed and Mike Lackey (and 2 engineers from his team, Gary Zika and Mark Stickle). A representative from Jacob’s Engineering and the PSAC committee were also present. One of our neighbors, Pandora Vreeland who had spoken at the board meeting and initiated this the request for this meeting also was in attendance.

Much information was shared and discussed. But two major points of interest came out of this meeting..., I&I is inclusion and infiltration.  

1. Jacob’s Engineering confirmed, that by reducing our I&I by 50% we would not need a tank. 

What is I and I?...I&I is inclusion and infiltration. Essentially, it's the rain water that enters our sewage system every time we have a major rain event. It enters via our sewage tanks in our yards. This historically is 4 to 5 times a year usually in the winter months and spring months. A major rain event is an all day or few days of rain. Where inches of rainfall are measured. Some tank lids are completely under water during these rain events. This water enters our tanks and then it has to be pumped out by our (in our yards) pumps into the sewage system. This extra water causes our system to be potentially overcapacity. Additionally we pay to treat this rain water estimated at about $200,000 per year. So we need to find the tanks that are causing this problem.A good starting point are the lids that are under water when it rains so hard for a long period. To date very little has been done to fix this problem, even though Jacob's engineering told us we have this problem in 2021. WE knew this problem existed since 2014 and earlier. 

In the Jacobs master plan dated 12/14/2021 and accepted by the board, I&I is listed as the cause of the high flows forcing our system to operate at near maximum capacity during major rain events. Max flows during rain events top out at 1250GPM. We need to get to 780GPM or a 38% reduction. Mike Lackey and his team have said we need to reduce our I&I. Loudon Utility Board has told us of this as well, and they were very supportive of Mike and Joel’s plans when they said they were going to focus on it.

So, what has been done since 2021 to reduce I&I almost nothing and the $37M TAP is not going to address it either. Instead, we are building a waste tank for $10m.

2.  Our CEO mentioned the grant from TDEC has been put on hold. This grant was earmarked to pay $2 mill of the cost of the tank. Several neighbors who had been working independently have discovered that the grant was never properly secured. Additionally, the proposed tank will sit on TRDA leased land, and their approval has not been secured.

In sum:

We as a Village have invested over $300k thus far on a tank
Confirmed by our Jacob's engineering that we do not need
That does not have any grant offset used as a rationale to build it
Nor can it be built at the current location.

Voice Of Tellico thought this information was timely and relevant to communicate, so that neighbors can further question the decision to spend any more money on this tank and TAP.

In the next couple of weeks....We will request of the board, that a motion be placed on the January 2025 POA board meeting agenda, to pause or completely stop the $80 fee being collected to to build this tank. We have no agreed upon solution at the moment for I&I and a 750,000Gal waste tank is not a solution.

A petition to stop this tank is being circulated. If you want to sign it here is the link: