As you may recall, our Hamilton County Mayor, without input from our elected Hamilton County Commissioners, sold our Hamilton County Health Department’s facilities and the prime real estate it sat upon, to Erlanger for the paltry sum of $10 million.
What a deal. No wonder Erlanger could afford to pay $2.5 million per year for the naming rights for the Chattanooga Lookouts’ Erlanger Field.
We will never know how bad of a deal this was for the taxpayers since our county mayor never asked for an appraisal of the value of the Hamilton County Health Department’s facilities, or its prime real estate, before he sold it to Erlanger. If he wanted such an appraisal, Mayor Wamp would have had to ask permission from the Hamilton County Commission, tipping off the County Commissioners of his back-room shenanigans. Our county mayor prefers to lurk in the dark shadows rather than operate in the refreshing sunlight.
But it is no secret that the mayor’s office is closing the Soddy Daisy Health Department. Instead of its building, Mayor Wamp has decided to replace the Soddy- aisy Health Department with a bus. Yes, a bus.
The mayor’s office claims that shutting down the Soddy Daisy Health Department and replacing it with a mobile unit is actually a good idea. In his mind, a mobile health department that shows up to different locations on different days is a lot better than keeping the Soddy Daisy Health Department in its current location. I hope the Soddy Daisy folks have Internet to track the location of the medical bookmobile when they wake up one day with the measles. Or when it’s time to get the kids their vaccine shots for school and they can’t find this roving health department on wheels.
These are the same taxpayers who would have benefited from the McDonald Farm $3 billion manufacturing plant that would have brought jobs and opportunities. Instead of jobs, Mayor Wamp closes their health department and gives them a retro-fitted Mega Bus to chase around for flu shots.
How much nonsense can Soddy citizens continue to take from this county mayor? Instead of providing health care and jobs, he leaves them with picnic tables and walking trails.
#geno4mayor
C. Mark Warren
Ooltewah