MURFREESBORO – The saga of the Holly Hill road dam continues.

Several Murfreesboro citizens attended the Murfreesboro Town Council meeting on Tuesday afternoon and expressed their frustration with the lack of progress on the dam situation.

The town council appeared equally as frustrated with the process and attempted to explain why the delays continue.

&uot;We have to comply with FEMA regulations and state requirements,&uot; Mayor Ben McLean said.

&uot;The bid package is being given to the contractors now,&uot; Town Administrator Molly Eubank said. &uot;The town attorney talked to the engineer this week.&uot;

Apparently a rumor has been circulating that the town has received the necessary money to repair the dam, but the council quickly clarified this was not true.

&uot;The town doesn’t have the money to fix it yet,&uot; Council Member Bill Theodorakis emphasized.

&uot;This project is not cheap,&uot; Eubank continued. &uot;All of the work will cost over $200,000. The town has spent over $4,000 so far without a spade of dirt being moved.&uot;

&uot;Everything involved in this process has taken a long time,&uot; Town Council member Wayne Brown added.

&uot;We are trying our best to resolve this problem as quickly as possible,&uot; McLean continued.

According to Eubank, after the bid process has been completed, FEMA will review the contract and agree to pay a certain percentage of the cost of the project.

Damage was inflicted on the dam during Hurricane Isabel two years ago.

The next item on the agenda was a report from council member Bill Stephens from the latest Truck Traffic Committee meeting.

&uot;The committee has two recommendations for the council,&uot; Stephens said.

The committee recommended writing a letter to the Department of Transportation to find out what needs to be done to keep truck traffic off Wynn Street. The committee also recommended to either allow truck traffic on Main Street or for the council to approve a motion not to allow truck traffic on Main Street. The committee expressed the need for clarification from the state whether town police can enforce the present weight limit for trucks on Main Street.

&uot;The biggest problem is people like Mr. Futrell (a truck driver) coming into town and going to the bank to deposit money,&uot; Police Chief Darrell Rowe said.

A motion was approved to get the North Carolina Attorney General to provide the town with assistance on this situation.

The next agenda item concerned testing town wells to see if the recent drought has caused any problems.

&uot;In view of the drought situation, we will be doing a draw-down test tomorrow (Wednesday) to check to see if we have any water problems,&uot; Public Works Superintendent Gene Byrd said. &uot;Some people may experience cloudy water on Wednesday.&uot;

The final agenda item included an update on the potential speed bumps for the alley behind the library.

&uot;A lot towns have speed bumps,&uot; Bob Lee, Town Attorney said. &uot;But there is still gray area about the town’s liability.&uot;

&uot;We need to protect the pedestrian traffic,&uot; McLean said.

Rowe suggested the town change the speed limit to 5 miles per hour for the alley, install the speed bumps and table the idea of making the alley one way.

The council approved a motion to add the speed bumps and change the speed limit for the alley.