As Signal Mountain continues raising fees for services the town provides across various departments, the second and final vote paassed unanimously for approving a new fee schedule for building and codes. These increases passed on a first vote at the Aug. 28 meeting where fees were also raised for the water utility.
Discussion of the increased fees for services provided by the public works department took place at the first council meeting in September. Public Works Director Loretta Hopper has suggested increasing the yearly solid waste fees for both residents and non-residents from $300 to $400. The proposal will charge businesses, which can have two containers, a yearly charge of $80 per year plus a monthly fee of $20 for each receptacle.
Changes will also take place at the transfer station. As an added service, there will be a new one-day use of the transfer station for $25 plus any additional charges for specific items to be disposed of. Contractors still cannot use the facility to dispose of materials. Last year the amount for hauling away building materials from the transfer station cost the city $37,500, said Vice Mayor Elizabeth Baker, and the council wants to make sure that this year the cost is covered by fees from people who bring the materials. The cost to the town has doubled, said Ms. Hopper, but the fees charged have not. The council voiced the opinion that all the fees formerly charged should be doubled. There will also be a new street cut fee and curb cut permit fee.
The parks board and recreation boards have now been combined. The new board will be an advisory organization to the town council. The goal of the new board will include providing recommendations to all facets of the public parks, to support quality recreation programs and to solicit donations and make recommendations for their use. The final approval to join the two boards will take place at the first meeting in October, after which applications for the new board will be accepted for three weeks. The applicants will then be considered and approved by the council. The entire process is expected to take five weeks and during that time no board will be available to put together new events such as a movie night or a trails clean-up day, which have been considered.
Setting up Memos of Understanding with nine organizations has been recommended by City Manager Elaine Brunelle. A MOU specific to sports will include how teams are charged based on how much it costs for the town to maintain the fields. That will vary by the different leagues, said Council Member Andrew Gardner, because some are struggling and some can pay more. In the past, fees have been charged and collected during the online registrations, but because the groups were unaware that money was supposed to be paid to the town, they just kept it.
An agreement on language for a sports MOU will be written by Town Attorney Harry Cash. That template will be altered to be specific for each organization. A notice will be given to each league that fees will be collected by the town in the future and that the money will be used to contribute to maintenance. Once the MOUs are written a member of the council will be assigned to each organization as a liaison to help customize and implement it.
Highlights from each department’s monthly report includes information from the public works director that more than half of the department’s completed operations for the month of August were related to maintenance of parks. Ms. Hopper said that a meeting is planned in October with engineers on how to move forward with the sidewalks in Old Town - a project that has been stalled for several years. Commissioner Gardner suggested looking at building the sidewalks without using the grant that has been received but which comes with many requirements and extra expenses.
Another public works project with much work left to do is to make the upper tennis courts usable. The first step will be to figure out why they are cracking and determine what it will cost to fix them. An idea to reduce the cost would be to piggy back paving them at the same time street paving is being done. Commissioner Gardner commented that it might be better to abandon the top two courts that are having erosion issues and just maintain four quality courts.
Interviews are scheduled for a new chief for the Signal Mountain Fire Department. City Manager Brunelle has narrowed the list to four that she will interview in person, she told the council. Other activity in the fire department is that new CPR devices have been received and all firefighters have been trained to use them. A new records management system has also been installed that will keep track of work done. Flow testing continues for the town’s fire hydrants. Each year 20 percent are tested. The hydrants are all flushed twice a year and the second time this year will be done before leaves fall. A FEMA grant has been received that will replace hoses on all fire trucks to standardize them. And representatives from the department will be holding fire prevention talks at the schools.
A car safety check will be held this Saturday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Pruitts, that will be conducted jointly by the fire and police departments. Police Chief Mike Williams said two new police officers have been hired and another two are scheduled to retire at the end of the year. The chief is trying to locate new patrol cars to purchase, but he said that might be pushed to next summer since there are still availability problems with new cars. Police cross training is planned at Nolan Elementary.
Because of the dry summer, Matt Justice, water utility director, said a lot of water has been pumped up the mountain. Recent upgrades have been made to the meters with no interruptions to the water supply, he said. Water quality reports to the state have been good. Most issues have been caused when water sits in lines for a long time so quality is better when water is kept flowing. He said engineers have found that there is about a 12 percent loss of water from leaks in underground pipes in the town, and that is one of the lowest rates in Hamilton County. He said that the push continues to get residents to use a paperless billing option.
A new service is being provided to residents at town hall. Finance Director Jennifer Broomfield, who is certified as a notary public, can notarize documents. Likewise, the library is also planning to train an employee to be a notary that will be available there. The library is also hoping to become a designated location to apply for a passport.
After hearing complaints from homeowners in the town about a large path that has been cut, now referred to as the “runway,” a representative from EPB in vegetation management came to the council meeting to answer questions. EPB’s main goal, he said, is to provide customers safe and reliable power and Internet connections. To do it he said every 5-7 years vegetation and trees are cut. And the reason for clearcutting under power lines and along the EPB easements is to provide faster response time and make it easier for linemen. In response to the recent aggressive pruning outside the standards, he said the contractors are human and can make mistakes, even though he said a representative arborist from EPB is always on the mountain to monitor the contractors who do the tree cutting.