Chairman of the Red Bank and Soddy Daisy Foundation Arnold Stulce came to the Soddy Daisy Commission meeting Thursday night to present a donation of $29,000 to the city. The money was designated solely for the renovation or replacement of fire hall number three on Dayton Pike next to Veterans Park. The only condition on the gift is a request that once a year a report be made on the status of the funds.
This gift in combination with other donations from the foundation comes to over $144,000 specified for building the fire station.
City officials should know by the end of this year if another grant will be received that will allow work to begin on the project.
The Red Bank and Soddy Daisy Foundation was originally funded with money from the sale of a hospital that the two cities had jointly built. It has provided the city with enough money in the past to build the fire station next to Kid’s Park on the north end of town as well as buying a new fire truck.
Vice Mayor Rick Nunley announced the plans for a new city event, Poe’s Tavern Pioneer Day. He told the commissioners that Bud Ellis brought the idea to the parks and recreation department. He owns the school in Soddy Daisy that teaches hand carving of wooden carousel horses. There will be demonstrations in the park of many types of handcrafts typical of the 1850s. It is tentatively scheduled for May 31.
Julie Farmer, a manager at FSI, a manufacturer of liquid filtration products that is located at the Soddy Daisy Industrial Park, received approval from the commissioners to hold a job fair at Veterans Park. She said that her company has immediate openings and there are 15 other local businesses that are also looking for employees. Recognizing that there is a pool of people in the immediate area that are employable, these businesses would like to hire locally. FSI will coordinate and advertise for the fair. Ms. Farmer said she will try to schedule the event during a business day.
A resident of Soddy Daisy for the past 25 years came to the meeting to ask if he could put a trailer on property owned by his father. The land on Daisy Hollow Road is three and one half acres and is designated as a single lot. City Attorney Sam Elliott said that the pertinent zoning ordinance specifies that age restrictions of a mobile home can be waived if one is judged to upgrade the fair market value of the property by 400 percent. This would be determined by the city manager. This waiver can only be made when the mobile home is being used as a primary residence of the property owner. Because the property is in the father’s name, it will need to be divided and a lot deeded to his son since only one trailer is allowed per lot.
Another citizen of Soddy Daisy asked for permission to have a fundraising event at Veterans Park for Allen Elementary School. This has become a popular annual event and the commissioners voted to allow it to take place on Saturday, Nov. 1, and to extend that date to be used each year in the future to hold this benefit.