The city of Soddy Daisy passed an ordinance at the commission meeting on Thursday night that will give the city the ability to regulate camping in city owned parks or rights of way. Mayor Steve Everett said that transient and homeless people are not a new or big problem in Soddy Daisy now, but the new law gives the city a way to legally deal with it before it ever does become one.
At the public meeting before the final vote for the ordinance, a resident of Soddy Daisy asked what is the plan for the homeless who are currently camping on public property.
The mayor said the officers enforcing the law will try and assist if the person allows it. The city is aware of only six people now that this law will affect. Often, he said the officers will hand money to a homeless person they encounter in a city park, and the protocol now is to transport them to a safe space. There is no welfare facility in Soddy Daisy that is designed to help them, but there are places in Chattanooga and in Rhea County that do, he said.
Another ordinance was passed regarding site plan requirements for off-street parking. City Manager Burt Johnson said this will revise the parking conditions when a new building is being constructed, such as the number of spaces actually needed for the type of business that will use the building rather than having a set number of parking spaces for the size of the building.
Final approval was given to rezone property at 341 Hixson St., to R-TZ Zero Lot Line Residential Townhouse District from the current R-5 Single Lot Mobile Home District and A-1 Agricultural District. Commissioner Gene-o Shipley was concerned that the development, which will be on a slope, will cause stormwater runoff problems. He said the land is in an area known to have poor drainage and that water will move faster when vegetation is removed and there is an increase of paved surfaces. The size of the retention pond on the low point of the property will need to be large enough to prevent flooding of Poe Branch, he warned.
The developer assured him that the site will be engineered and the pond can be large because the property at the bottom where the pond will go, is in a 100-year flood plain for Poe Branch and not much of that land will be built on. He also expects that the engineer will design the site to have another pond on the higher levels of the property so that all stormwater will not be directed downhill.
There are nine schools in Soddy Daisy and all but two had security personnel last year, placed by Hamilton County Schools. This year the two remaining, Ivy Academy and Skillern Elementary, both charter schools, will also be provided with school resource officers. The positions will be funded with a combination of state and city money and contributions from each school.
This year the state of Tennessee will give $75,000 grants to every school for the new officers. That pays salaries but there are also extra costs for the first year to get the program started. It will take an extra $65,000 for each position to pay for start-up equipment such as automobiles and guns. Each of these schools is contributing to that expense, but City Manager Burt Johnson asked and the commissioners approved up to $60,000 for the extra costs, in addition to contributions from the schools. He said the state may give additional grants to cover those costs and Soddy Daisy will apply for them if they become available.
The Soddy Daisy Fire Department has bought a used ladder truck. The commissioners approved spending $39,000 for painting the truck yellow to match the others in the city. The cost includes painting, striping and decals.
A new Kubota utility vehicle will also be bought for $30,000. This equipment will be used for maintenance of parks and the ball fields.
The digital sign in front of City Hall stopped working and will be replaced. The commissioners voted to extend the city’s cooperative purchasing agreement and add the Equalis Group. This will add another cooperative purchasing business to give the city more options for replacing the digital sign.
The contract with TDOT for repaving Dayton Pike ended at the end of July before the work was completed. The commissioners voted to extend the contract until Nov. 1 to give enough time for TDOT to finish adding signage, striping the road and to put up guardrails. The additional costs for extending the time will be reimbursed to the city.
Soddy Daisy has hired a city planner who will begin work in December. Approval was given to spend $10,942 to continue using Southeast Tennessee Development District for planning services until the new planner begins. And an interlocal agreement was authorized for Soddy Daisy to provide electrical inspection services for the town of Signal Mountain. That will replace the electrical inspector that retired. Soddy Daisy will be reimbursed for time.
The volunteers in Soddy Daisy are busy planning a fall festival. Jim Stewart with Keep Soddy Daisy Beautiful and the city’s tree board, gave an update to the festival that is scheduled for Sept. 30. There are already approximately 80 vendors he said, including food, arts and crafts, non-profits and music. He said beer will not be available to keep the event family friendly. However another “adult event” is being planned for later.
City Manager Johnson thanked Curtis Cecil for leading the effort that brought 20 people to Soddy Daisy who helped with maintenance of landscaping and cleaning up the city parks. Those 20 people doing community volunteer work were from Bryan College.