Three new appointments were made to the Red Bank Planning Commission Tuesday night at the regularly scheduled city commission meeting. Jon Baker, Rufus Smith and Billy Cannon will replace three members of the planning commission whose terms have expired. The planning committee has just completed a new land use study and new zoning and planning ordinance. The draft is now in the hands of the city commissioners, waiting for review and approval.
James Webster, an involved citizen of the city, told the commissioners that he commended the planning board “for an absolutely outstanding job” and for including so many perspectives and details in the document.
Several items related to zoning and multi-family housing were postponed until the Feb. 3 meeting when the plan should be finalized and accepted by the commissioners. A resolution passed Tuesday night that extended the moratorium regarding multi-family housing in Red Bank until the new plan has been put in place. A public hearing to consider a request to rezone property on Pine Breeze Road from R-1 residential to RT-1 residential townhomes was postponed until the first meeting in February.
Mayor John Roberts said the police department has weapons which have been seized and the public works department has some excess equipment that is no longer needed. The commission approved a resolution that declared these items as surplus property and authorized the sale, trade or destruction of them.
An ordinance was unanimously approved to change the order of city commission meetings to allow citizen participation to come at the end instead of at the beginning as specified by the city charter. The revised order will give citizens an opportunity to contribute to the discussion of issues that have taken place during a meeting, officials said.
In his report, Mayor John Roberts said that Erlanger North is planning an overhaul. He has been invited as a representative from Red Bank, along with representation from the two other cities north of the river, Signal Mountain and Soddy Daisy, to an informative meeting at the hospital on Wednesday.
City Manager Randall Smith gave the year-end statistics from the Red Bank Police Department headed by Chief Tim Christol and the fire department headed by Chief Mark Mathews. The police responded to 21,169 documented calls for service, made 1,178 arrests, and dealt with 550 motor vehicle incidents. “They stayed busy,” he said. Additionally, each officer participated in around 79 hours of training.
The Fire Department’s response time averaged five minutes and 11 seconds. The value of property saved last year was $1,677,000 versus $110,000 in property lost. A total of 690 incidents were handled by the department. Mr. Smith said that citizens of the city should feel comfortable that in a crisis, someone would respond in just a few minutes.
The Public Works department headed by Tim Thornbury, picked up and disposed of over 300 tons of debris including garbage, trash and brush excluding leaves. And, during the year there were 3,123 code enforcement actions.
“The department heads are doing a great job every day,” said the city manager.
On Tuesday night the Red Bank Beer Board was called into session to hear the request from Walgreens at 4039 for a new beer license. The store already had a beer permit, but was required to reapply due to new ownership of the business. The license was granted with a warning to check every ID when selling beer.