The city of Soddy Daisy rezoned multiple properties Thursday night, all within an eight-mile radius in the oldest part of the city. City Manager Janice Cagle said it was an attempt to clean up spot zoning to make it more uniform in that area. She said all the zoning changes were made by request from the city.
That part of town had zoning in place from the time before Soddy Daisy became a city in 1969, when the district was unincorporated Hamilton County.
There were multiple properties zoned R-5 for single lot mobile homes, C-2 Local Business, C-3 General Business and TCM, Tourist Court and Motel Districts scattered throughout the area even though the properties were not used that way. Everything in the eight-mile radius was rezoned back to either R-2A Rural Residential District or R-2 Urban Residential District, all for residential use.
The commission gave approval for the city manager to purchase five sets of turn-out gear for the fire department. Ms. Cagle said that the department has planned and budgeted for five sets each year to spread out the replacement cost. The lowest bid was $9,400.
Ms. Cagle also informed the commissioners that the city is in the process of interviewing for two new police officers. One will replace an officer who has resigned, the other is needed to bring the number up to 18 patrol officers needed by the city.
A discussion took place about the cost of the city court system. It has operated in the red by about $80,000-$100,000 each year, said City Recorder Burt Johnson. Commissioner Gene Shipley was concerned about the large amount of unpaid fines, which for the past seven years amount to around $500,000. Suggestions were made to set a percentage that must be collected before a person leaves the court, hiring a collection agency, or having the judge issue warrants for each person to be kept on file so an officer could make an arrest if that person is stopped for an unrelated cause.
The cost of hauling prisoners to and from courts and the safety of doing it is another contributing factor of monetary losses. Police Chief Phillip Hamrick said the police average moving around eight people each week. Additionally, the arresting officers must be present in court and are paid two hours of overtime each time they have to come. Another issue that needs to be resolved, is that many of the prisoners run up court costs, walk out owing money and could care less, leaving it for taxpayers to take care of, said Mr. Shipley.
City Attorney Sam Elliott said collections are handled at the court’s discretion, but that he will investigate what can be done and explain the commission’s concern to the judge.