Brooke Montague, who grew up on Lookout Mountain and worked a Victory Garden as a child with her parents, asked the Lookout Mountain, Ga. City Council on Thursday to consider using the area in front of the current City Hall for a Victory Garden.
The site is where the former Mountain Market and a commercial building once set. The city has been waiting for the ground to dry out to put topsoil down and smooth the contours and seed or sod the site.
Ms. Montague presented a well-designed plan for each season. In the summer, she said, users would grow vegetables and perhaps children could sell the vegetables at a weekly farmer’s market. In the fall, users would seed the ground with winter rye grass and plant tulip bulbs and pansies. In winter, Christmas trees could be brought in for sale and winter rye grass would then be bright green. In spring, the tulips and pansies would come up and ornamental trees would be left for a park.
A budget of $2,500 from the city was requested by Ms. Montague for seed, bulbs, and construction of a safety fence made of winter dead wood. A garden club representative at the meeting suggested the club would be willing to help financially in support of the Victory Garden.
Mayor Bill Glascock, while sounding enthused by the presentation, said the council will take it under consideration. Council member Catherine Kelley noted two council members were absent and should be allowed to see the plans. Also, since Scott Maclellan owns the property, it was noted that he should see the plans too.
No action was taken on the proposal which received applause by residents attending the meeting.
In other business, the council approved a motion to enter into a franchise agreement with EPB for fiber optic services. Katie Espeseth, Vice president of EPB Fiber Optics, told the council service for the city is planned for this summer. No fiber has been deployed in the residential areas yet, she said. Service to homes will be by whichever way the home receives service now, she said. If a home gets service through an underground conduit, they will attempt to provide service through that conduit. They have been over 95% successful in all attempts, she said.
Mayor Glascock said the Comprehensive Plan process is ongoing. In a called meeting of the council last week, a new plan for the Town Center was presented. The former plan presented by The Walker Collaborative is still a viable plan, the Mayor said.
Mayor Glascock appointed Catherine Kelley to chair an architectural review committee with a stated task of getting two to four architects to present alternate plans.
The sidewalk plans mentioned at last month’s meeting of the council will take a back seat, the Mayor said, to the need to construct a building on city property which has already been designated for the relocation of the public works department. He said an estimate of $130,000 has been formulated, but he will proceed to get three bids by contractors and present everything to the Municipal Planning Commission.
Once the building construction is underway, we can concentrate on the sidewalks again, the Mayor said. He said current opinion seems to be favoring a six-foot wide sidewalk.
Council member David Bennett said eight-foot sidewalks to match the existing sidewalks would be best and it needs to be consistent the whole way, not varying from eight-foot, to six-foot, to four-foot.
Blair Ramey suggested using alternate materials for a pathway once the sidewalks extend beyond the commercial area. He acknowledged that maintenance becomes a factor for such a pathway.
Mayor Glascock told the council the proposed Flintstone sewer system rebuild continues to have bumps in the road, but, “We will take care of them,” he said.
The stormwater report indicated that samples of runoff on Rock City Trail have been collected and sent to a lab for tests to find out what is causing the reddish color.
For the mayor’s report, Mayor Glascock deferred to Mr. Bennett for a report on the Police department. Mr. Bennett said Cary Taylor, the city’s investigator, has resigned. He leaves in good standing and will be missed, Mr. Bennett said. The department must interview and hire a replacement for Mr. Taylor and a police officer position. He said he will bring recommendations back to the council before extending an offer to any new employee.
The council approved a motion to allow a privilege license to Craig Johnson to operate a home remodeling business from his home. Mr. Johnson assured the council there would be no customers coming and going, no equipment would be stored, and no inventory would be on the premises.