Soddy Daisy Commission Passes No Tax Increase Budget On 1st Reading; Dayton Pike To Be Repaved

  • Thursday, April 15, 2021
  • Gail Perry

A public hearing and first reading of Soddy Daisy’s budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2021 and ending June 30, 2022 took place at the April 15 commission meeting. The budget includes no property tax increase. City Manager Burt Johnson told the commissioners that the federal highway project keeps getting passed from year to year and $3.5 million is again included in the upcoming budget for that work. It will be done with a grant that will pay 80 percent of the cost.

Soddy Daisy is responsible for $700,000. With it, Dayton Pike will be repaved from one end of the city limits to the other. That road was last paved in 2000.

 

The budget also includes a lot of capital outlay items, said Mr. Johnson. New radios will be bought for the fire department, and three new patrol vehicles are planned for the police department. Dispatcher equipment that is 11 years old will also be updated. The city has money available for the purchases without borrowing.

 

A related ordinance, which provides the revenue for all the projects included in the budget, also passed on an interim bases, pending receipt of the certified rate from the Hamilton County Assessor of Property. That rate is unknown until mid-summer. Because the home values have gone up significantly, the certified rate is likely to go down, said City Attorney Sam Elliott. When property values increase, the tax rate is lowered, so that the property tax amount that is collected stays the same as it has been since the last reappraisal four years ago.

 

The commissioners accepted a bid of $22,200 to purchase 17 rifles for the police. Purchase of a new vehicle that will be used by both the police and fire department was also approved in the amount of $17,970. A motorcycle and a golf cart were declared surplus from the police department, which will allow them to be sold on Compass Auctions. So far this year the sale of surplus equipment from the city has brought in $62,947 with payment of several other items still outstanding, said Police Chief Mike Sneed.

 

Chief Sneed gave statistics from his department from the month of March. He said there were 164 charges for the month including 40 drug arrests and five arrests for DUI. There were 35 cases reported to the police during March including 15 related to thefts and five involving vandalism. There were four burglaries and 11 assaults. Officers made 500 traffic stops in March and attempted to serve 27 warrants. Of these, 14 cases were cleared. The chief said he has been seeing a shift to more minor thefts from the more major ones.

 

The commission gave the city manager authority to enter into a new contract with Johnson, Murphey and Wright for audit services for the amount of $25,760.

 

The Soddy Daisy Classic softball tournament had been moved outside of the city in recent years. Soddy Daisy has done major renovations to the softball fields this year and it has paid off with the tournament moving back to the city indefinitely, reported Commissioner Gene Shipley.

 

It was noted that in the month of March, Soddy Daisy received $2.3 million in building permits.

 

Nate Sanden, community volunteer and organizer of the new group Keep Soddy Daisy Beautiful, updated the commissioners on progress they have made. He said so far the citizens group has gathered 162 bags of garbage and found 63 tires along the roads they have cleaned up. He gave a reminder that this coming Saturday the group will meet at Sequoyah High School at 9 a.m. The goal that day will be to pick up trash on Sequoyah and Lovell Roads. Vice Mayor Robert Cothran thanked Mr. Sanden for the clean-up work that his group has been doing and he said it appears that their work has spurred others to join in.

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