There’s a saying about best laid plans.
With Blount County barely into the new fiscal year, two seven-figure proposals not included in the budget will be up for discussion Thursday before the Budget Committee, and if passed, moved on to the following workshop session of the Blount County Board of Commissioners. Projects to prevent data center development in Alcoa and the ongoing attempt to fund the county’s portion of an agreement for accelerated right-of-way acquisition for the Pellissippi Parkway Extension are both on the agenda.
The first item on the published agenda for the committee is for the county to contribute $8 million in an inter-local agreement with the cities of Alcoa and Maryville to fund a portion of the estimated $20 million price tag for the Industrial Development Board to purchase the ALCOA South Plant site. The site, which has an Arconic operation for can recycling on a portion, is owned by ALCOA, Inc. Earlier this year, the company issued a memo that included the former smelting site in Alcoa as one of its potential locations to form a joint venture for a data center operation…