The 285 acres of wilderness in Soddy Daisy’s park, Big Soddy Creek Gulf, has streams, mountains and hiking trails. At the Thursday night commission meeting, Mayor Rick Nunley announced that the city will hold a trail clean-up day this coming Saturday in the park. Volunteers will be needed and the work is planned to start at 8 a.m.
Soddy Daisy is fortunate to have many volunteers who assist the city in a variety of ways.
Groups such as Keep Soddy Daisy Beautiful, the all-volunteer group, regularly organizes clean-up events throughout the city to pick up litter, each time focusing on specific areas. And there is a new tree board that is being led by Jim Stewart, another community volunteer.
One of the most active organizations in the city was founded by Curtis Cecil and Kelly Flemings who, through their Kelcurt Foundation, have volunteered their time, funds and talents to create the Soddy Daisy Community Library. It is becoming a community center for the city in addition to being a library. Activities that are lined up for just the month of June include, among other things, story times for children, book clubs for adults and for young readers, Movie Mondays for children from noon-2 p.m. and Free-Book Fridays for kids. This summer there will also be many authors speaking, movie nights, art therapy classes, a Lego dump and baking classes. A schedule of events for the month of June can be found at kelcurtfoundation.org/current events.
Seth Green with Boy Scout Troop 20 in Soddy Daisy has proposed building a flag retirement monument in Veterans Park at 9009 Dayton Pike for his Eagle Scout project. This will be done at no cost to the city and all the labor to build the fire pit will be provided by the Boy Scouts and the Junior ROTC volunteers. After a favorable reception given to the project, Mr. Green will make a formal presentation to the commissioners at a later date.
In regular city business at the commission meeting, City Manager Burt Johnson reported that the order that was placed months ago for two vehicles for the Soddy Daisy Police Department was cancelled by the manufacturer. The city was notified that the trucks had been discontinued and that replacements would cost an additional $5,000 apiece. Instead, the commissioners authorized the city manager to order two 2023 vehicles from Chevrolet at the cost of $75,583. Seventy percent, or $52,000 of the total, will be paid out of the drug fund.
Soddy Daisy continues to grow. In the month of April, the city issued over $2 million in building permits. Half of the amount was for one commercial mini-storage building, said the mayor.