City Councilwoman Deborah Scott put up her "hand" often in a sometimes-heated City Council meeting Tuesday afternoon over the city capital budget.
Ms. Scott, who often raises her hand to ask questions about city spending, has taken to using a mold of a hand that she can sit erect when she has a query and put back down when she is through.
At one point in the meeting, Councilwoman Carol Berz said, "Enough with the hand, Deborah."
Ms. Scott, who cast the only no vote on the capital budget later Tuesday, told fellow council members and Mayor Ron Littlefield and his staff that not nearly enough is in the budget for paving city streets.
The budget includes $1.7 million for paving.
She said the city had spent millions of dollars on a study of city street paving needs, then failed to act on the recommendations.
"It's sad. It's just pitifully sad," she said.
Ms. Scott said more paving funds ought to go ahead of $1.4 million in spending on getting the former Hixson Middle School into shape as a new Hixson rec center. And she said the city should not set aside the full $8 million for fixing the "hard edge" problems at the riverfront at Ross's Landing - saying it can be done in three phases.
Mayor Littlefield said the city has other money set aside to make periodic repairs to roads, and he said all the money "is not spent on overlay paving. You would need $8 million for that - or $25 million."
He said, "To claim we're ignoring paving needs, that's not a true statement." He said paving costs $64,000 a mile.
The council took no action to change the $8 million to fix the "hard edge" or to pull the money for the Hixson rec center that was vigorously defended by Councilwoman Pam Ladd. She said that project had been on the books since before Dan Page was on the council.