Preparations are continuing for the 50th anniversary celebration of Soddy Daisy’s founding. KELCURT Foundation, which is creating a recorded history, has been interviewing past mayors, commissioners and “bedrails of the community” to hear their stories about the city. Another recording session is being held on Aug. 24 and 25 in hopes to add to the recordings with interviews of those who were not available earlier. Curtis Cecil, who is heading up this project, asks that anybody who knows a person with interesting stories to tell, call him at (423) 645-7427.
City Attorney Sam Elliott, who grew up in Soddy Daisy, told the commissioners an interesting fact about the incorporation of the city on April 22, 1969.
The vote was close with 744 in favor of becoming a city and 689 opposed.
At the commission meeting Thursday night, City Manager Janice Cagle received approval to go forward with a Tennessee Department of Conservation (TDEC) Local Parks and Recreation Grant to build a new playground at the north-end ball fields. The tennis courts have been removed and the new playground will be moved from its present location to where the courts once were. This is a 50/50 grant for $165,000 which requires the city to match the amount received from the state. The new playground will be ADA compliant. It will be bid out with installation included, said Ms. Cagle.
The public works department budgeted for a new back hoe this year and is now ready to buy it. The commissioners authorized the city manager to surplus the old one and set a minimum of $5,000 for selling it. The bid for the new equipment, that is recommended by Public Works Director Steve Graham, is for $98,500.
City Manager Cagle and the council members plan to encourage all citizens of Soddy Daisy to participate in the census head count that will be done in 2020. The city manager would like to emphasize how important it is to the city and how easy it will be to do. She said the forms can be filled out online or on the phone. If the information is not received, she said that someone will knock on your door. It is very important for people to fill out the census forms, she said, because this is how the city gets federal grants. Money that would otherwise be available for the city will be lost if all residents are not counted, she said, because it is based on population. Commissioner Rick Nunley added that people should be aware that any information given is private and will not be used to find illegal aliens.
Vice Mayor Robert Cothran made a motion to cancel the Oct. 17 commission meeting because all members of the board are planning to travel to Washington, D.C. On Oct. 16, Congressman Chuck Fleishman will read a declaration on the floor commemorating the 50th anniversary of Soddy Daisy’s founding and the commissioners will be recognized. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, he said.
On the suggestion of the vice mayor and city manager, the commissioners approved having a police officer at each meeting who will be seated facing the entrance to the council room to ensure safety during the meetings in light of recent violence that has taken place across the country.
Mayor Gene Shipley told the commissioners and room full of Soddy Daisy residents that building permits in July were at around $1 million. As growth continues in the city, permits have been at that amount each month, he said.
He also announced that construction of a new commercial building for Dollar General has been started on Highwater Road.
In an effort to maintain property values, the commissioners denied allowing property owner Chris Ferguson to put a mobile home on a half-acre lot he owns, which he had planned to use as a rental. Attorney Elliott told him using an old trailer for rental property is equivalent to being a slumlord. He will be allowed to put a double wide mobile home on an adjacent one-acre lot with the conditions that it meets city codes and that he lives in it himself. Mobile homes are allowed only if they increase the property value of the lot where they sit by 400 percent, said attorney Elliott.