The County Commission, at a raucous meeting with charges flying, voted 7-2 on Wednesday to approve a resolution calling for the county to work together with the city on a possible merger of the city and county sewage treatment operations.
Commissioner Chester Bankston said that was the recommendation of a citizen committee he was a member of and was headed by Dean Moorhouse, a leading foe earlier of the county building a sewage treatment plant at a site on Mahan Gap Road.
He said the county would join with the city in a cost/benefit analysis of combining the city's Moccasin Bend sewage operation with the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority (WWTA).
Mr. Moorhouse told the commission the panel's plan not to build a new sewage treatment plant but to use Moccasin Bend would save over $6.3 million a year and more than $189 million over 30 years.
Leaders of the WWTA, including Mike Moon and Mike Patrick, say, however, that a new sewage treatment plant should be built in the Ooltewah area. They said it is increasingly costly to pump sewage up to 30 miles to the city's plant and that the city has been increasing its charges to the WWTA.
Mr. Moorhouse said a second emphasis of the committee was to reuse an idle sewage treatment plant in East Ridge.
Commissioner Tim Boyd, who represents East Ridge, called the Moorhouse report "a piece of crap." He added, "I don't want your crap flushed to East Ridge."
He called the Moorhouse report "disingenuous, biased and hypocritical" and said it amounted to "We don't want a sewage treatment plant in our white flight neighborhood."
Commissioner Boyd said the mayor and council of East Ridge had written a lengthy letter saying why the old decommissioned treatment plant behind the hospital on Spring Creek Road could not be restarted. He said the East Ridge site would require pipes for over five miles going through Brainerd and under railroad tracks to the Tennessee River.
He said opponents of the Mahan Gap site had pointed to "harmful air borne pollutants coming from the plant. And now you want to put it right next to a hospital. That's crazy."
Commissioner Boyd said Brent Smith, one of the leaders against the Mahan Gap site, had made a statement about little growth in the Ooltewah area. He said, "This is the fastest growing area in the region. Where has this guy been for five years?"
Commissioner Boyd said the Moorhouse group often criticized the WWTA for not being transparent, but he said the committee was even less transparent, listing one member as Anonymous. He said Commissioner Bankston to identify that member and he retorted, "As long as you are talking about people in my district the way you are, I ain't telling you nothing." Commissioner Bankston later apologized for losing his temper.
Commissioner Boyd also said he had been told that Commission Chairman Sabrena Smedley had been holding a number of meetings with City Councilman Chip Henderson, who has asked the City Council to vote on a study of a possible wastewater consolidation.
Commissioner Boyd said Councilman Henderson "is a leading proponent of metro government."
Chairman Smedley said she has held a number of meetings in connection with the sewage topic to try to gain full information. She said she is in favor of moves that will bring "efficiency" to government.
Commissioner Boyd said the WWTA was set up to help spur growth out in the county. He said, "The city could care less whether there is growth in Apison, Soddy Daisy or Ooltewah."
Chairman Smedley and several commission members said they were "embarrassed" by the Boyd remarks and said they wanted to apologize to Mr. Moorhouse.
Commissioner Randy Fairbanks said, "I would have climbed down behind the podium if I could have."
Commissioner Greg Martin, who voted with Commissioner Boyd against the resolution, said he had only seen the document that morning. He asked for more time to study it.
Chairman Smedley commented that he "should have done his homework." She said she read the document the previous night after it was emailed to the commissioners. Commissioner Martin took affront at being told he does not do his homework.