The Tennessee Municipal League (TML) announced the City of Knoxville as its recipient for a state award in Excellence in Public Works last week. 

Citing Knoxville’s new Fleet Services Center (located in the Public Works Service Center) as the focal point of the award, TML’s announcement came during the state agency’s 79th annual conference, which was held at the Knoxville Convention Center this year. 

The City’s fleet includes more than 1,500 vehicles and pieces of equipment ranging from fire and police vehicles to mowers and trucks for sanitation, brush collection and road work. 

The new Fleet Services Center now allows crews to maintain the City’s fleet from a 6,525-square-foot fire ladder truck building that makes way for a ladder truck to be extended and maintained indoors, a small engine repair and fabrication shop for smaller equipment, a welding groom, a heavy equipment shop with six service bays and a parts facility, and a crew building for administration offices.
When constructing this new facility, the City followed soil guidelines from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to convert the brownfield into a usable space.

“This new facility has allowed our team to better serve City departments that rely on a fleet, such as the Police, Fire, and Public Service departments,” said Keith Shields, Director of Fleet Services. “Our department is a more behind-the-scenes operation, but a more efficiently maintained City fleet translates to improved services to the public.”

Chad Weth, Director of Public Service, accepted the award at the TML conference last week on behalf of the Public Works Department.

The TML web site provides a self-description as a voluntary, cooperative organization established by the cities and towns of the state for mutual assistance and improvement.