Franklin Mayor Highlights Infrastructure Improvements, Budget Updates

The City of Franklin held its 2025 State of the City address at Rolling Hills Community Church on Wednesday which highlighted city accomplishments and upcoming projects as well as budget talks.

Franklin Mayor Ken Moore hosted several city department leaders in conversation about a variety of topics including the city’s numerous ongoing projects including the construction of a new city hall and new parks. (Read more about those in our recently published Guide to Williamson's Best.)

“As we grow, we're keeping that same small town feel, but adding the things that make you strong,” Moore said in a promotional video that played during the event. “This is what Franklin is about, honoring the past but looking ahead, making sure that Franklin stays a place that welcomes everyone whether you've been here for generations or you're just starting your story. … We make sure that growth is always balanced, strategic and in line with what makes this place so special. Because in Franklin, there's always room for one more dream.”

The city is also undertaking multiple major road projects including the $45.8 million McEwen Phase Four project which will widen McEwen Drive to a four lane, median-divided road from Cool Springs Boulevard to Wilson Pike. The project is scheduled to take three years and includes more than $30 million in federal funding.

Another project to watch is the $28.8 million Columbia Avenue investment which includes $3.8 million from the state and will widen the road to five lanes with sidewalks. Also coming down the pipeline, the $28.2 million locally-funded Long Lane overpass project and McEwen Phase Five which is a $19.8 million partnership with the City of Brentwood to extend McEwen and connect the cities.

“We have put a very aggressive proposal forward to the state to partner with them to widen both Mack Hatcher southeast and Mack Hatcher northwest from two lanes to four,” City Manager Eric Stuckey said. “Southeast has been included in the first round of their 10 year capital program, so there's funding there, so that's good to see. It's not fully funded. There's a little bit left to go, so we got to work on that. Northwest is not yet funded.”

He added that there's a second round of funding ahead because this year the state budget includes another billion dollars of infrastructure funding. Stuckey said the city is continuing to seek an equal partnership with the state to fund the Mack Hatcher expansions.

“We've got to fund it through specific, dedicated funding, and that's what we're looking at with what we're calling invest Franklin 2.0,” Stuckey said.

The city previously dedicated funding from the property tax to roads about nine years ago, Stuckey said. This year the city leaders are proposing to do that with around $0.06 added to the tax rate for roads and about $0.02 or $0.03 for city services. He also explained that the reappraisal is expected to bring the rate down from $0.32 to around $0.20, though that exact number is unknown for now, meaning the total rate could still come down to about $0.30 if the dedicated funding is added.

“So the rate will go down, but it will generate additional dollars to get projects done,” Stuckey said. “That's just what we're going to have to do to address those needs. Otherwise, we're going to wait 10 to 15 years for the state to get it far enough up their list to get that work done. And quite frankly, we need to do more, and we're willing to step up, and that's really the backbone of this budget to help propose that.”

The city’s upcoming budget also includes funding for three additional Franklin police patrol officers, three additional firefighters and a new police victim support counselor role, which according to FPD Chief Deb Faulkner, “can provide crisis intervention and referral assistance to the victim, not just that day [of a crime], but for many days and weeks and months to come.”

“I can't tell you how important that is and how delighted I am that we're going to add that to the police department,” Faulker said.

“Victim-centered law enforcement responding is important. It plays a vital role in stability, the safety and the healing of crime victims.”

Last year, FFD rolled out a new alert system to notify drivers of incoming emergency vehicles, and this year has debuted a new summer camp internship program for students to allow a path into public service jobs.