Money has been awarded to Hamilton County from TDOT for License Plate Readers. The Sheriff’s Department is passing them on to individual municipalities and has to get approval from each city to accept the grant and for identifying where they will be placed. The plan was presented to the Signal Mountain Town Council on Monday night. They were told that the only information the LPRs capture is the tag, nothing about the owner and that is stored for 90 days then deleted unless that tag is under investigation. The LPRs would notify the Signal Mountain Police Department if that tag sets off an alert that it or the owner of the vehicle is associated with a crime. Otherwise, nobody looks or cares, it was stated. It would be an investigative tool and useful to the town since most of the crime in Signal Mountain comes from outside of the city. It also alerts the police if it recognizes other information that has been entered into the system such as an Amber or Silver Alert.
Most of the council members could see the benefits but they have concerns about privacy rights. They also are uncomfortable knowing that the information is stored by Motorola, where the system was bought, rather than by the town or by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department. Signal Mountain would have the ability to set up who has rights to see the information, but the information could be sold.
There already is one LPR at Signal Point and they are in all the sheriff’s patrol cars. If approved, there would be six additional cameras, stationed at the entrances into the town on the state highway. The cost of the camera system being given to Signal Mountain is $65,000 which includes the yearly maintenance fees for three years. The other cities in Hamilton County who have been awarded LPRs are East Ridge, Red Bank, Chattanooga, Soddy Daisy and Collegedale. The council wants to have more discussion before voting to accept them.
Another grant from TDOT was received 10 years ago for replacing, repairing and building sidewalks in Old Towne, but due to delays out of the town’s control, the project still has not even started. At the council meeting Monday night, Public Works Director Loretta Hopper made the recommendation to terminate the agreement with TDOT and have the city do it without the grant money. The city has already paid $89,000 toward the grant over the years which could be paid back, she said.
The next move needed will be right-of-way acquisition that would begin with getting appraisals for about 43 properties, each appraisal estimated to cost $4,000-$6,000. And if the grant is used, TDOT requires a second “review appraisal,” that would cost another $1,500-$2,000 each before the right-of-way acquisition could be done. It is estimated it would take around eight months to complete that phase. TDOT requires a very structured process with check points at every stop, the council was told.
If the town does the sidewalk project itself, Ms. Hopper suggested breaking down the project into four segments and four years, that could be done without so much red tape, but there are parts of the building the city cannot do itself such as building retaining walls. Mayor Poss estimated it would cost more if the city did the work in-house and said it might not be worth the cost to get it built earlier. Councilman Clay Crumbliss wondered where the money would come from to pay for it without the grant and said it might not be the best use of taxpayer money. The grant is capped at $2.5 million for the entire project with Signal Mountain paying 20 percent of that, and prices have increased over the past 10 years.
There will be more discussion before deciding how to proceed. Council member Andrew Gardner asked the public works director for her best estimated cost doing the project with the TDOT grant, and also the cost of each of four phases that she proposed as an alternative method for the city to build them without using the grant.
Another topic of discussion at the council’s work session was how residents and businesses would pay for having more than one garbage can. Residents can have a maximum of two, businesses can have more. The final decision was to have an additional charge of $240 for every garbage can over one. This will apply to both commercial and residential properties. A benefit that is seen by doing this is an incentive to recycle. The town’s sanitation ordinance will be changed to reflect the new charges.
Town Attorney Harry Cash will be reviewing uses that qualify for American Rescue Plan funding. The town wishes to use some of the money it receives for repaving. Allocating the money will not have to be done until the end of next year.
The council approved the bid from Tree Worx to remove dead trees in the rights-of ways. The company’s bid was recommended by Ms. Hopper with the cost of $18,698.
A citizen survey is being planned and the council discussed the scope of the study with Town Manager Elaine Brunelle. Information is wanted from residents and taxpayers from the 3,200 households in the town of Signal Mountain. The council wants to know the value added to the lifestyle, from the services provided. That might be done by ranking their value from the most important and the ones most used. One of the goals is to find out how the city wants their tax money to be spent. The survey will be available online at the town’s website or on paper that will be available at various locations throughout the town.
During the time set aside for citizen participation, residents lined up to talk about the benefits of building pickleball courts. They said that it is a multi-generational sport that is enjoyed by all ages, it contributes to an active, healthy lifestyle and is also considered to be a social event. They all thanked the council for considering to convert underutilized tennis courts or building new dedicated pickleball courts.