The Signal Mountain Council has approved a plan to finally get started on repairing and rebuilding sidewalks in the Old Town neighborhood.
The work has been on hold many years after a grant from Tennessee Department of Transportation was awarded for the project. The original scope of the work exceeded the amount of money that was allocated for the project as requirements from the state and prices of materials and labor increased over the years. To restart the sidewalk project, Wesley Stokes, director of the public works department, has developed a plan to lower the scope of the work to fit the remaining amount of the money from the TDOT grant. Beginning this fall, the public works department will replace and repair the areas of walkways that are in the worst shape. The areas to be contracted out will be done in two to three years.
Another big project that is about to begin is the Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority’s rehabilitation of Signal Mountain’s sewers to prevent inflow and infiltration into the sanitary sewer system. The work is scheduled to begin in mid-July and is expected to take 18 months from start to finish. The council has requested Mike Patrick, executive director of WWTA, to come to the next commission work session and give an overview of the project. The WWTA will also be asked to communicate with the citizens who will be impacted by the construction.
The town is currently without a finance director and a human resources director. While those jobs are vacant, Town Manager Matt Trollinger has recommended combining the two positions as an efficiency. To do this, a new job description was created and the pay grade was raised to 13 to attract and retain a highly qualified employee. The council approved the new job description and advertising for the job will begin this week.
The Signal Mountain Fire Department has used the First Due Fire Department Management application for documentation and record keeping for all functions of the department since July 2023. This includes incident response, equipment and apparatus inventory, maintenance, training, codes enforcement and community risk reduction activities. Renewal of the application was approved for 2024 at the cost of $15,382.
One of the activities that will be conducted by the Fire Department to increase safety is a CPR class for residents that will take place on July 27.
The town has revised and adopted an updated personnel policy that was originally created in 2008. It establishes guidelines and standards to incorporate expectations of professionalism of staff and to a high standard of conduct and service for town employees. Amendments to the old policy include revisions to sick leave accrual, jury or court duty leave and to the dress codes.
New consistent hours for the Signal Mountain recycling center have now been established. The facility will be open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. There will be discussion in upcoming meetings whether the recycling committee’s job is done or if there is more work that group needs to work on.
Two appointments were made to the Signal Mountain Design Review Commission. Daniel Oakley and Derek Greene will both serve on the commission until the end of December 2026.