Collegedale Commissioners voted Monday night to adjust the starting salary for police patrol officers and corporals. “This may stem the tide of turnover,” said City Manager Ted Rogers. The city conducted a study to determine how salaries of police officers in Collegedale compared to surrounding cities. It was found that the beginning pay for patrol officers lagged behind other municipalities in the Chattanooga area by around $3,000, and that of corporals was around $1,000 less.
The commissioners increased the starting salaries for these positions to $39,000 for patrol officers and $42,637 for corporals. Mr. Rogers said this change in base pay will make Collegedale competitive, while delineating the steps between levels of responsibility. It is also appropriate, said Commissioner Ethan White, since Collegedale is ranked at number 10 of the safest cities in Tennessee. The change will start immediately. Other positions in the police department are in line with area cities, it was stated.
Vice Mayor Tim Johnson suggested that the staff should do this study every three years to make sure Collegedale is in accordance with other neighboring towns. The Municipal Technical Advisory Services (MTAS), that is available for city governments in Tennessee, provides this service for specific positions, City Attorney Sam Elliott told the board.
The commissioners also voted to accept a bid from Retail Strategies as consultants to promote Collegedale for the location of new businesses. Retail Strategies is perceived to have a strong knowledge of the immediate region because of contracts it has with other cities in Tennessee. A retail conference will be held in May to discuss merits of new business sites, and the commissioners considered this to be an opportunity to “get a seat at the table.”
The vote will allow the city manager to enter into a contract with the company for three years for $110,000. What the city is buying, said Strategic Planner Kelly Martin, is data analysis, exposure, marketing and access.
With no opposition, the commissioners approved changing the speed limit on Little Debbie Parkway. Currently the speed limits starts at 50 mph on one end and then changes to 35 mph. With the increasing traffic caused by apartment developments it was felt that traffic needed to be slowed down along the whole length of the road by making the limit 40 mph the entire parkway.
Requests from several citizens were considered Monday night. Forty years ago the city fulfilled a commitment to pave a driveway on Cliff Drive from the street to the property line. Collegedale recently received a request to make improvements to that driveway in order to alleviate a low area where water stands. It was determined that the runoff does not come from land owned by the city, but from a hill that is on private property. Additionally, the problem area of the driveway is on privately-owned land. To fix it, the city would be using city funds and equipment to make improvements to private property, prompting the vote to deny the request.
A house and land at 7235 White Oak Valley Circle was annexed into Collegedale several years ago from Hamilton County. The property was the only one on the circle that was taken by the city because the property has a 10-foot section that touches Lee Highway. The owner described his driveway as being 1,600 feet long, going up a 300-foot mountain. He said that prior to the annexation, a private garbage service came up the driveway. Since the house is now part of Collegedale, he is expected to haul it a mile down the driveway to the street for the public works department to take it. He asked the commissioners for help by either de-annexing the property and returning it to the jurisdiction of Hamilton County, or for the garbage truck to go up the driveway. City Manager Rogers said the first step will be for the public works department to find out if it is able to get a truck up the drive. The city will make a determination and contact the owner.
Another citizen came to the meeting seeking information about a rezoning request for 1.86 acres on Bill Reed Road. In 2005 the property was zoned for townhouses that have never been built. A request has now been made to change the designation to High Density Single Family Residential zoning in order to build eight detached single-family houses on the property. The concern is increased ingress and egress and more traffic on a narrow road that is already busy. Mr. Martin said the matter has only been before the planning commission and will be sent to the city commissioners at the next commission meeting on April 6. Concerned citizens should speak at that time.