This year is a landmark for the impact that the Red Bank and Soddy Daisy Charitable Foundation has made on the city of Red Bank. The check for $24,000 presented Tuesday night, brings the total to $1 million given to the city in the 32 years since the establishment of the foundation.
When the Red Bank Community Hospital was sold to Erlanger, Arnold Stulce Sr. and Sam Swope established the foundation with the proceeds from the sale. Interest on the original investment is divided between the two cities each year. The gift is meant to benefit the whole community for the betterment of the city of Red Bank. This year the foundation has specified it will be used to update the community center playground and public rest rooms there. With thanks to Tricia Baker representing the foundation, the commissioners voted to amend the budget and accept the conditions of the grant.
The public works department was authorized to apply for a Tennessee American Water environmental grant for $3,500. If received this year the grant will be used to clean up along Stringer’s Branch. This work has been done by the Red Bank public works department in the past, but this year plans are for the organization Green Steps to use the money for supplies, and the group will coordinate citizen volunteers to work along with them.
Periodically cities are required to update their codes. Red Bank has been using the international building codes from 2012. At the commission meeting, approval was given to update the building and fire codes to the 2018 versions. This will make Red Bank’s codes match the codes that Hamilton County and other surrounding municipalities have already adopted.
The ordinance regulating beer sales in Red Bank was also amended to update and modernize it. With the amendment, growlers can be sold in the city and self-pour service will be allowed. Beer can now also be sold at special events. Previously it could only be given away.
The chief of police will enter into an agreement with Hamilton County and other law enforcement agencies and cities in the area to create a child protective investigative interagency team. This has already been in effect but because new people are now involved with law enforcement in the area, the agreement needs to be signed again by all.
City Manager Martin Granum reported that Red Bank staff members have met with the Trust for Public Land to walk the White Oak Connector Trail in preparation for its final acceptance. He said the new trail is substantially complete and it is already heavily used. The city will add amenities such as pet waste stations, trash bins and benches along the path.
Noise complaints caused by school buses have been coming from neighbors near the former White Oak Elementary School. They are being addressed by Hamilton County schools, by relocating them, when school resumes after spring break, said the city manager.
The new Red Bank Cemetery Citizens Advisory Board will meet for the first time on Saturday at 9-10:30 a.m. at the entrance to the Red Bank Cemetery. The city manager said that the public works department has already secured an arborist to do an inventory of the trees and to advise the city how to care for them. A survey of the property lines around the cemetery will also be done.
Mayor Hollie Berry said the next food pantry in the city will be April 6 at the Red Bank United Methodist Church from 4:30–6 p.m. Vice Mayor Stefanie Dalton reported that the topic of most interest to Red Bank at the recent TML meeting was the shared sales tax that cities around Tennessee would like a share. In 2002 an additional one cent was added to the state sales tax that year and the increase was kept by the state. She said that had the city been receiving money from this added amount during the last 20 years, Red Bank would have collected an additional $220,000. She urges residents and business owners in the city to contact their local legislators asking them to support sharing that money with the municipalities.
Commissioner Jamie Fairbanks Harvey said she will hold her next “listen and learn,” on April 17 at Mr. Burrito from 6-7 p.m. Commissioner Pete Phillips said planning is taking place for the Red Bank Festival that will be on the first Saturday in May. And Commissioner Hayes Wilkinson asks for residents who have children’s bikes that are not used, to donate them to the White Oaks Bicycle Co-op.