by Jim Ashley
posted September 20, 2008
Former State Rep. Arnold Stulce is calling for the city of Soddy-Daisy to talk with Red Bank and East Ridge government officials and “bring a class-action lawsuit” with other citizens like himself against the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority (WWTA).
Mr. Stulce told members of the Soddy-Daisy Commission he attended a meeting of the WWTA in August and “thought they were very rude.”
Right off the bat, he said, “They came out and told me they did not want me to say anything in the meeting” and that if “I wanted to say anything in a meeting, I could get my name on the agenda and come back next month. But I told them I didn’t want to come back next month, so they finally agreed to let me have two minutes.”
He said two minutes is not long enough to say much, but that he spoke anyway and then listened.
And as he listened, he learned that the WWTA planned to impose an $8 per month fee on all its gravity sewer customers for a major program to report its sewer lines. The WWTA board proceeded to vote in the fee, along with a six percent rate increase, on Wednesday.
“I think it is absurd that we as taxpayers have to kick in a fee to repair sewers for those whose sewer between their house the main sewer line is in disrepair,” fumed Mr. Stulce.
After he made his request to the Soddy-Daisy Commission, Soddy-Daisy Mayor and authority board member Bob Privett said the issue is “something we could talk about.”
In other action, during the "report from board members," Mayor Privett asked Soddy-Daisy Police Chief William Loftis about a vehicular accident that happened about a month ago involving a male driver who admitted to police being under the influence of alcohol but was not arrested.
The man told the officer that he had “just left a bar,” Mayor Privett said, barking, “I’m really upset about this.”
The mayor said that from what he had heard, proper procedure “was not followed” by the officer on the scene.
He said the driver hit a wall in front of Soddy-Daisy City Manager Janice Cagle's home at about 4 a.m. and “refused a field sobriety test and was allowed to leave that wreck with a friend of his who had stopped behind him.”
Mayor Privett continued, “If he had gone home and gotten in another vehicle … and hit someone and killed them, that would have been terrible, terrible. Thank God that didn’t happen.”
He said that what he had heard about the incident was that the officer at the scene did not “want to incur any overtime because it was close to third shift getting off that morning. To my knowledge, this gentleman has had … outstanding warrants on him for two weeks, and he has still not been picked up.
“I think that in 99 percent of the time that when they arrest someone for DUI they take them to jail. I would just like to know what in the world possessed them to turn a man loose who said he had been drinking and had refused a field sobriety test.”
Chief Loftis told Mayor Privett that the driver was “complaining of back pain that night” and refused an ambulance. “At the same time, a person came that he lived with and said, ‘I’ll take him to a hospital.’ The officer got warrants on him."
Chief Loftis said, "I have written the supervisor up and the officer over this incident … and I told him not a week ago to find this guy and serve these warrants. I don’t know if they’ve been served yet or not, but I will go and check on that.
“I wasn’t happy about it when it first came to my attention.”
Mayor Privett responded, “When he refused a trip in the ambulance, he should have been transported in the patrol car to the jail.”
Chief Loftis replied, “That’s exactly what I told them that night, sir.”
Mayor Privett later asked if the man, who he said previously had one DUI, went to the hospital. The chief replied that he went to the hospital the next day so that “if they drew blood and we got a blood sample, it would be clear.”
Mayor Privett said, “The sooner we can pick him up and put him in jail, the better off these citizens will be.”
Among other topics discussed by the commission was installing a traffic light on Sequoyah Road in front of the Soddy-Daisy High School entrance. The commissioners decided to do further study, perhaps hiring a school mom to direct traffic there.
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