The East Ridge City Council has given City Attorney Mark Litchford approval to move forward with a settlement agreement relative to a lawsuit against the city. Two years ago, the East Ridge Housing Commission issued a citation to the owners of 5729 Stateline Road for being out of compliance with the city’s codes. The property owner hired a contractor but work started and then stopped for over a full year and it remained noncompliant. Finally, the Housing Commission determined that the cost to bring the house into compliance exceeded 50 percent of its value and they moved forward to have the structure destroyed. The city was taken to court and the judge determined that the property was salvageable. The property owner has now been given eight weeks to bring the house into full compliance and then the city will do an inspection. If it fails, there will be a $50 per day fine, and at that point, Attorney Litchford has the ability to go back and ask the court to mandate demolition. The judge said the Housing Commission did its job well and Mayor Brian Williams commended the Housing Commission for trying to get the property back into compliance.
The city is preparing for the coming winter with a large repair to the heat exchanger in the air unit at the East Ridge community center. It will be replaced after a motion passed to authorize the work that will cost $12,479. But, said City Manager Scott Miller, it would cost between $35,000 - $40,000 to replace the entire unit. With the expansion of the community center underway a second unit will be added, however a grant to help build the expansion will pay for that unit. The repair to the unit for the original part of the building will be the city’s responsibility.
New guardrails were approved for four locations around the city, 314 Camp Jordan Pkwy., 5401 Connel St., 3501 Bennet Road and at 4 Anderson Ave. The cost through the TDOT guardrail maintenance contract will be $23,165.
A resolution passed for an agreement with Parkridge Medical Center to be the city’s mental health services provider for the city of East Ridge’s first responders. This will pay for social workers for both the police and fire departments. The service will be capped to two hours per week to do some “basic immunization for how to teach how to deal with trauma,” said Police Chief Clint Uselton. Oakbridge Insurance has donated $7,000 to cover the cost for the first year of services.
There will be an update of the service agreement East Ridge has with Verizon Wireless for cell phone service. There will be a slight increase in the cost for phones, however, with the new contract, there is also the ability to trade-up and get better plans.
East Ridge adopted an updated Air Pollution Control ordinance that all cities in Hamilton County need to follow. It includes several small revisions that have been received by the county Air Pollution Bureau. This will bring everything into EPA regulations.
City Manager Miller said that the current contract with Waste Connections for solid waste disposal began at $33.91 per ton. The city recently was notified that price would increase to $53 per ton prompting the city to put out a new Request for Proposals. The best bid had additional clauses added that were more favorable for the waste companies than the city so the city manager recommended passing a decision to the Nov. 14 council meeting.
Property located at 4912 Bennett Road was rezoned from R-1 Residential District to C-5 Neighborhood Commercial District. A condition put on the property is that it must only be used as a commercial office space. And six foot privacy fencing will be required on the west side of the building.