Once again the students in the north end of the county are getting the shaft. I just saw where East Ridge was going to get $50,000 to put in public restrooms at the high school football stadium. I thought when it was agreed to give the facilities to East Ridge that they would be footing the bill for any and all improvements.
Since the county still has to pay for things, how about giving Sale Creek $50,000? We don't have money to get the lights put in or restrooms so that we can play there and try to start making money for the program. We are still paying to play our home games at Finley Stadium. We need bleachers, restrooms, lights, a press box.
We are doing all we can as a community but we need help. It puzzles me why a stadium that was turned over to another entity that said they would take care of it are now asking for money from the taxpayers. How about making sure all programs are even before we go and play favorites.
Dave Rievley
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Dave, I definitely feel we're are significantly underfunded in Northern Hamilton County. There's a lot that goes into the reasons for that.
Commissioner Boyd's district is compromised of East Ridge and parts of the city of Chattanooga. Why is that important you may ask? Well, he doesn't have a severely underfunded Volunteer Fire Department with a massive set of needs. You know, the guys that typically show up before the short staffed EMS. Yeah, we need like two more of those stations in North Hamilton County.
All of those underfunded items should really be addressed in the budget, not in discretionary funds. I'm really happy about what all Mr. Fairbanks has used his portion of discretionary funds on. It's not that our county commissioner is neglecting the badly needed items at Sale Creek, nor is Mrs. Thurman. We're just the victims of living in mostly unincorporated areas. It kind of comes with the territory, unfortunately, if you're only paying Hamilton County property taxes.
Now, I say all that as a citizen of the city of Soddy Daisy. We have a paid fire department that our property tax as well as sales tax dollars support. As well as the best police force in the region. Most of District 1 is unincorporated, and that's the truth.
James Berry
Soddy Daisy Resident