The budget for fiscal year 2016-2017 was adopted without discussion at the East Ridge City Council meeting Thursday night. Scott Miller, the new city manager, is making some changes to the organizational charts which will include adding six new employees, three firefighters, a building inspector and one part-time employee for the parks and recreation department. The city will now have 10 major departments and the city manager will appoint a senior staff employee to head each. The property tax remains unchanged at $1.4227 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Discussions took place about several city ordinances that were written with conflicting or vague language or needed to be updated. Codes Division Supervisor Kenny Custer brought the matter of construction hours to the council. He informed the council of construction guidelines from surrounding municipalities for comparison. This is a case where the existing East Ridge ordinance lacked information relating to weekends, Sundays and holiday hours among other things.
The city gets most complaints about site development, Chief Custer told the council. Vice Mayor Marc Gravitt said that he sees a difference in work that is done inside versus outside, and possibly the rules could be different for each. Mayor Brent Lambert suggested prohibiting construction on certain major holidays. "We’re pro business and pro development, but we need to do it responsibly," he said. The city manager added generators to the list of construction equipment that can be loud and may need to be regulated. Another consideration is that some businesses may need special consideration due to heat, such as roofers. The council asked Chief Custer to come up with a couple of different scenarios and bring them back to the council for further discussion at the meeting on Aug. 25.
The wrecker ordinance also needs clarification because there are currently two differing versions. Items that need clearing up pertain to the weight capacity of booms on the trucks, if companies that are not licensed in East Ridge should be allowed to work in the city, and a way to certify that the company is insured. There also should be language that specifies a driver’s license matches the type of vehicle they are driving and if the city which currently has three classes for wreckers should specify four classifications. The councilmen would also like for the East Ridge ordinance to match the requirements that the state of Tennessee and Hamilton County uses. The city now has three companies on their rotation list and there was talk about whether or not to add a fourth.
City Attorney Hal North recommended that all prior ordinances to be revoked and a new one be re-written from scratch. Councilman Jacky Cagle suggested that the city’s wrecker inspector does his job and bring information back to the city manager who will put together a draft and then the city attorney write the ordinance. A wrecker inspector will need to be appointed, said Mr. Miller. The council asked for the new ordinance to be ready for a vote at the next council meeting.
Clarification on political signs was also a topic Thursday night. To prevent confrontations like those that have happened in the past, it is recognized that rules need to be established. In question, is when signs will be allowed to be put out and when tents or awnings can be put up. The consensus was to allow signs to be put up 60 days in advance of the date that voting begins. As for tents at the polling location, in the past the rule has been first come, first serve, which has resulted in people starting earlier and earlier, said Vice Mayor Gravitt. Both he and Mayor Lambert favor using a lottery system to specify the location a person will be assigned, prior to the day of the election. If the site is known and size of tent is limited to 12 by 12 feet, there would be no need for a person to set up before 24 hours before the election begins. Councilman Cagle also said that the person who is responsible for putting up and taking down signs should be registered with the city. Political signs will be allowed on city property at the polling location and on city property that is along right-of-ways, but not in city parks.
A vote was to approve the construction of a cell phone tower at 4320 Bennett Road.
The application and acceptance for the Walmart Foundation Community Grant for the fire and police departments was approved. The $1,800 from the grant will be used for the East Ridge needy child fund.