The town of Signal Mountain is moving forward with the study for creating its own school system by filling slots on a seven-member study committee.
Resumes of 30 potential candidates who applied to work on the school system viability committee had been distributed to each council member prior to the Friday agenda meeting of the Town Council. Each council member to the meeting having ranked the candidates.
The city’s charter restricts the committee to no more than seven participants. Earlier, the council decided that four members of the viability committee should come from within the city limits of the town, two from unincorporated Hamilton County on the mountain, and one representative should come from Walden.
The purpose of the committee will be to find facts and not give opinions, said Mayor Chris Howley. The goal of the council was to choose people without a bias for or against the project. The group chosen was to be diverse as to age, gender, experience, and those with children who would be involved directly with the schools and older individuals that would represent taxpayers without children.
After compiling and comparing each council member’s choices, it became apparent that they all came up with similar names. Thomas Peterson was chosen from Walden and Tom McCullough and Melissa Wood will be the representatives from Hamilton County. Committee members chosen from the town of Signal Mountain are Charles Spencer, John Friedl, Amy Wakim and Susan Speraw.
Mark Rothberger was first elected municipal judge for the town in 2006. He recently announced his retirement starting Jan. 1, 2017, but he will remain in the position until his replacement is selected. The council is responsible for appointing a replacement for his unexpired term, until the next scheduled election, which will occur in 2019. The town received interest from nine candidates who want to fill the vacancy.
The council members and City Manager Boyd Veal said they believe that the council’s selection of a judge would constitute an unfair advantage at the time of the next election because they feel that an incumbent would have less competition. Therefore, the decision was begun based on finding a candidate who would function as a “place-setter” and who would not run for the position two years from now in an election.
During discussions, the council became aware that at least one of the candidates for judge was not clear about that arrangement causing a change and delay to the process of choosing the new judge. City Attorney Phil Noblett suggested appointing a judge pro-tem for the next two years instead of a judge in a temporary position, which would eliminate some of the advantage created by being known as an incumbent.
Mayor Howley made a motion that was approved for City Manager Veal to notify the nine candidates that the position will now be a judge pro-tem to see if they are still interested in the job. During the next two weeks, the qualifications for each candidate will be verified and a vote will take place at the next regular council meeting.
An update on the Centennial Committee was presented to the council by Patrick Emanuel, chairman of the committee. He said that work has been started on a website for the centennial celebration. It will be separate from, but will link to the town’s website. Because of that, the town will have oversight of the content on that website. A liaison will be chosen by the committee who will work for and get approval from the town for items on the website. Until now, no money has been needed by the committee, but in 2017 it is expected to request $10,000. The first expense will be work on the website.
Mr. Emanuel said that what is being celebrated is the founding of the charter of the town, but that the celebration will be “mountain comprehensive” and inclusive as possible by involving neighbors. It will not be the government that is celebrated, but the culture and lifestyle of the town which was started in 1919. Local businesses on the mountain will be involved. Founders Week in April will be the kick off, but festivities are expected throughout the year, such as a Christmas Tour of Homes. Mr. Emanuel will return to the council in February with a more formalized calendar of events and version of a budget.
The status of the MACC Building “A” was also discussed at the meeting Friday. The city manager said he is still waiting for information from the architect concerning the cost of the sprinkler and alarm systems in the original building and how it compares to the town’s original estimate. He said from paring down the work to that which is considered necessary preliminary costs range from $600,000-$700,000. The work that is included is for remediation of drainage issues, repairs to the exterior of the building and structural water issues, patching and painting the interior, an alarm and HVAC system. The goal is to get that part of the building functional. Actual costs will be known when bids for the work are received, which should be in time for the next agenda meeting in February.
Other items of discussion Friday included a suggestion by Council member Dick Gee to set architectural standards for commercial buildings in the town. He said there are now three vacant buildings and creating standards now would pre-empt the re-development of the buildings before they are sold.
Council member Amy Speek reported that the playground on Timberlinks is not up to code, and presents a liability. The advice is to shut it down immediately. The first estimates to replace equipment and bring it up to the standards is $70,000, versus the budgeted amount of $30,000. Ms. Speek said that the old playground will be removed and the council will make the decision if it should be replaced.
Mr. Veal attended a meeting about the state’s transportation plan that took place in Nashville last week. While there, he heard of the plan to accelerate the reduction of the Hall Tax. The town will lose one percent this year, he said, and one and a half percent next year, versus the original reduction planned that was one percent in 2018. The tax will be gone sooner, he said, and will have a direct impact on the town. “We will hit zero sooner,” he said.