Vicki Anderson, Elizabeth Baker and Clay Crumbliss
photo by Gail Perry
Three commissioners were sworn in at the Signal Mountain Council meeting Monday night. Vicki Anderson and Elizabeth Baker are returning and Clay Crumbliss is new to the council. The new council first elected Charles Poss as mayor. Council member Vicki Anderson said that “he has done a tremendous job as mayor for the last several years.” She also said that since Ms. Baker has been on the council, she has been an asset and has had innovative ideas. She was elected to serve as vice mayor.
Mayor Poss took the opportunity to thank Susannah Murdock for her four years on the council. He said that she had come in at a time when there was a lot of discord within the council and she helped stabilize it and to ensure it stayed civil and was responsive to the citizens of Signal Mountain. Councilman Andrew Gardner agreed and added that it had been a pleasure to serve with someone on the council who had the objective of making the town a better place.
The first move made by the new council was to redesign the town’s website to be more functional and user friendly. After getting proposals from several website developers, they were narrowed to two - Revize and Proud City. Both the council members and the city’s staff preferred the proposal from Revize, A sticking point in discussing the two companies involved transferring documents from the city’s old website onto the new one. The cost of this “migration” was included in Proud City’s bid, but not from Revize, and the cost of that work was estimated to be from $2,000-$5,000.
The council members want documents from the past to be accessible for all residents, but if they are stored on the website, the large file sizes are expected to take up too much space. Also, because of the format used to store them, the only way that they can be searched is by the number of the ordinance.
Mayor Poss said it makes sense to store the old documents on the cloud, so as not to clutter up the new website with documents that cannot be searched. It was the consensus to put the documents “on the cloud” where it is inexpensive to store information. There will be a link to it on the new website. The council has agreed to compare the cost from Revize for moving all the stored documents into cloud storage to the town’s labor cost for transferring the data.
A vote was unanimous to move forward with Revize as the website developer up to the proposed amount of $10,430 if the other costs are satisfactory when they are adjusted for the cloud storage and migration costs.
A contract for electrical work at the Mountain Arts Community Center was approved in the amount of $34,476 which was the lowest and best bid. Dick Graham, board member of the Signal Mountain Preservation Fund, told the council of upcoming events at the MACC, including improv classes and performances, a Christmas Market on Nov.19, a Christmas tree lighting Dec. 10 and “Wings to Soar,” a raptor program on Dec. 17. Mr. Graham said the pottery studio is expected to open near the beginning of January and classes are now posted.
The council members serve as a liaison to each of the town’s many boards. The mayor said the role of a liaison is not to be an active participant in the meetings, but to listen, take notes and bring what is said back to the town council. Each council member then chose the boards they will represent.
Town Manager Elaine Brunelle said that McCoy Farm has contacted her regarding a joint Christmas tree lighting with Signal Mountain and Walden. It has been scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 11.
The next regularly scheduled council meeting will be Nov. 28. The second council meeting in December, which would have been held on Dec. 26, has been cancelled.