The Tennessee Municipal League recently recognized the Hamilton County cities of Collegedale, Lakesite and Red Bank with two awards of excellence and two personal achievement awards. The awards were presented July 25 at the TML’s 83rd annual conference, held at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.
Each year, the TML honors cities throughout the state for overall excellence, improvement, specific outstanding programs or department accomplishments. Collegedale, Lakesite, and Red Bank received four of the 15 awards given statewide.
Lakesite was presented with an award for Excellence for Small City Progress. Incorporated Jan. 20, 1972, Lakesite celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and has gone from a population of around 500 to one of more than 1,850.
This growth required the city to increase its number of commissioners from three to five and hire its first full-time city manager, Kirsten Ert Acuff.
Under the current leadership, Lakesite has completed the city’s first strategic plan, conducted a community survey and began to develop a parks and recreation master plan, which will provide a long-range strategy for the creation, optimization and maintenance of the community’s assets and makes the city eligible for parks and recreation grant funding opportunities.
The Collegedale Public Works Department received the award for Excellence in Public Works in recognition of their concerted efforts made to respond quickly and efficiently to the Norfolk-Southern train derailment in December 2022.
The department immediately went to work ensuring the safety of citizens and has continued to work to repair the damages sustained during the accident.
The TML recognized the city of Collegedale with a second award when honored Commissioner Katie Lamb as the recipient of the distinguished Bob Kirk Leadership Award.
The annual award is presented to the commissioner who is at least in their second term of service to their municipality and has shown themselves to be an outstanding public servant to both their municipality and their community.
City of Red Bank Public Works employee Johnny Ledford received the Murphy Snoderly award sponsored, which the American Public Works Association sponsors. The Murphy Snoderly Award is given to a city employee who has proven themselves by doing outstanding work.
The recipient of the award must be an operations-level employee. Ledford has served in the Public Works Department for the city of Red Bank for 31 years.
All three cities participate in the Hamilton County Small Cities Coalition, which aims to foster collaboration in legislative matters and the exchange of ideas among member cities.