Several Soddy Daisy residents came to the commission meeting Thursday night and participated in a discussion concerning the building of a new liquor store in the city. Three of them spoke in opposition to the store, partially due to its close proximity to Allen Elementary School and to a Baptist Church. Two others told the commission that they had no problem with the new business.
Commissioner Jim Adams reminded the audience that the matter of allowing liquor stores in Soddy Daisy was decided by referendum in November. He said the only thing the commission was tasked to do was to create an ordinance for controlling the new businesses. One of the residents who spoke said that meetings were held while the ordinance was being drafted and not a single person spoke up against it. She added that people who were complaining now should have participated when it was being considered.
Ashish Chaudhari was issued a certificate of compliance for the retail package store he is building. He has met all of the criteria that the board of commissioners asked for. The distance parameters set by the Soddy Daisy planning commission are the requirement of at least 500 feet from the door of the store to the doors of a school or church, and package stores can be placed no closer than two miles apart.
Commissioner Robert Cothran said he lives near the location and does not like it, however the state gives Mr. Chaudhari the right, and that the matter is now out of the hands of the Soddy Daisy Commission. City Attorney Sam Elliott told the commissioners that once the rules have been made, you just have to go forward with it. Vice Mayor Patti Skates asked Mr. Chaudhari to reach out to the school and church and to be a good neighbor.
A new ordinance was approved Thursday night that added a chapter to the city code concerning property maintenance and operations for mobile home parks. Attorney Elliott said that over a year ago the city had dealt with issues about sub-standard mobile home parks. Since that time there have been discussions between himself, the city manager and the new codes enforcement officer of ways to tighten up the regulations. This is an attempt to make them a better place to live and to give the city some control. The new ordinance was approved on first reading.
In the city manager’s report, Janice Cagle said that bids would soon go out for paving projects, and for the purchase of a dump truck and a pickup truck. A dump truck is needed to replace one that burned. The low bid of $85,985 was unanimously approved. She said $63,500 of that amount will come from the payment that was received from insurance.
As a matter of interest, Ms. Cagle tracked the number of calls that the city receives yearly. It is an enormous number, she told the commissioners. In 2014 there were 182,000 calls to the fire, police and 911 and 100,000 that came to city hall.
Fire Chief Mike Guffey reported that the new fire truck should arrive in Soddy Daisy soon. Firefighters that were sent to Glendale, Ariz., to bring it to Tennessee drove around 600-700 miles each day.
Police Chief Phillip Hamrick read statistics from his department from the month of January. Checks were made at the city’s schools 80 times during the month, 38,900 miles were patrolled, there were 344 traffic stops and 186 charges were filed, averaging six per day. There were four burglaries, 32 theft-related offenses and eight domestic calls such as assault. During the month, there were 66 drug-related arrests, and 10 arrests for shoplifting. He noted that most of these were not committed by residents from Soddy Daisy. The two police dogs were busy, he said, with one of them having an accuracy score of 85.7 percent and the other 100 percent.
Each commissioner took the time to praise the public works department for the way snow and ice problems were resolved during the past week. Commissioner Adams also announced that $173,000 in sales taxes were received in January. It is the largest amount the city has ever gotten for a one-month period, he said, and that the increased money will help keep property taxes down.