By: Robin Ford Wallace, Staff Reporter

An ordinance regulating subdivisions that has been in the works for months remains there after the Oct. 1 regular monthly meeting of the Dade County Commission.

At the Thursday night meeting, County Attorney Robin Rogers provided yet another draft of the already often-revised ordinance, which would require developers to provide the county financial guarantees of certain promised infrastructure such as roads and utilities in their projects. County Executive Ted Rumley wished the Commission to read the new draft before a vote was taken. 

Additionally, Peter Cervelli of District 4 brought up more questions. “This says either a bond or letter of credit would be acceptable,” he said. “You probably read the problem Marion County (Tenn.) had with the bond that they had with Sequatchie Pointe.”

As The Sentinel has reported at some length, Marion County, Dade’s neighbor across the state line, is in the process of suing both developer J.J. Detweiler and his bonding company following the failure of Sequatchie Pointe, the luxury retirement home community that straddles the Dade-Marion border.  Detweiler declared bankruptcy in June, leaving roads, electricity and water lines in the development unfinished and lot owners in limbo. 

On the Marion side, basic improvements were bonded according to county requirements; on the Dade side no such guarantees were in place. The ordinance currently under discussion is Dade’s attempt to correct that situation.

On the other hand, Marion County – also as reported by The Sentinel – has often found bonding companies slow to make good on their guarantees, and civil litigation a necessity for collection.       

“Personally, I’d just like to be conservative and just accept a letter of credit instead of bonding,” said Cervelli.

“If we have to pay an attorney to go and stay on top of trying to get those bonds collected and claims made, we could be out a lot of money,” said District 3 Commissioner Robert Goff during the ensuing discussion. 

Cervelli also said that the ordinance should be amended to include specifications for plats to be submitted by prospective developers. 

Rumley said he hoped to call a special called meeting for the purpose of the first vote on the revised ordinance, which will require two readings before it becomes law.  “We do need to act on this,” he said.

In other construction news, the Commission voted to accept as a county road Emma Lane, a road created by developer Phillip Hartline in the Woodlands, a small subdivision on Sand Mountain. Rumley described the road as a top-notch job. “I wish all our developers put that much care into it,” said District 2 Commissioner Scottie Pittman. 

An ordinance to regulate parades and other special events in the unincorporated county passed without much discussion. “It’s not going to stop anybody from having an event,” said Commissioner Cervelli. “It just requires prior notification, and it’s really around safety issues and making sure all our expenses are covered.”

Yet another ordinance, this one sponsored by Commissioner Goff for the purpose of making the county park tobacco-free, came back up for consideration this month after being tabled in September pending public comment. The anti-smoking measure seems fated to go forward not so much from fervent support as from lukewarm opposition. 

Goff said he’d had comments from only a few constituents. “Every one of them – and at least one of them was a heavy smoker – had absolutely no problem with declaring it tobacco-free, as long as there was a designated place for people to go who did smoke,” he said.

A few members of the public spoke up with such comments as “How can you enforce it?” But with no violent objections voiced from any quarter, the county attorney was asked to explore ordinance models.

In other business, the commissioners approved $4,050.09 in SPLOST funds to buy equipment for the North Dade volunteer fire department. A routine agreement with the Area Agency on Aging to provide transportation for the elderly was renewed, and $7,500 was approved for an energy audit of county buildings. The cost should be covered by a federal stimulus grant, said Rumley, with the county only liable for it if the funds do not materialize as predicted. 

During the regular business part of the meeting, Commissioner Lowery announced in his address to the public that the NACo (National Association of Counties) prescription drug discount program he sponsored had so far been a roaring success, with $19,380 saved on prescriptions by 66 families who had used the savings cards 457 times. “I take that as good news,” he said.

Lowery reminded the public that the discount cards are available to all Dade residents. In general, he said, they are of more use to uninsured or underinsured citizens than to those who have good health coverage. For more information about discount cards, call the Commission at (706) 657-4625.

Lowery also used the occasion to distance the county from the Streetscape project discussed at last month’s Trenton City Commission meeting, which, with its proposed rerouting of traffic around the courthouse, has excited much lively public debate. ”That is not a County Commission project,” he said. “It has nothing to do with us.”

Peter Cervelli, who had introduced the subject at the city meeting in his role of Better Hometown Manager, did not comment on it in his capacity of District 4 commissioner but instead stuck to county business, discussing Dade’s financials going into the fourth quarter. He described the situation as grim but basically unchanged. Initial collections for the new SPLOST were a little better than predicted, he said.  “But we had lower expectations,” he added.

He reminded the public that the New Salem Festival will take place this weekend, and that another fall celebration will be staged on the Trenton town square on Halloween weekend. 

Cervelli also said that the federal government had approved a $200,000 grant to address the ongoing sewer problem in the Flintstone community, with another $100,000 applied for. “We’re getting closer and closer to actually being able to fix the problem,” he said.

“The transfer station is rocking right along,” reported Scottie Pittman in his address to the public. Robert Goff used his to talk about the recent floods that struck surrounding counties, but not Dade. “We dodged a bullet,” he said.

Chairman Rumley reported that work on the new courts facility is going forward smoothly, and warned county officials to watch spending in the months to come. He also spoke of the parked train that blocked Dade intersections over 12 hours last week. He said the snafu came about as a result of railroad rules requiring trains to switch crews after employees had been on the job for a set number of hours. In this case, he said, a relief crew was not on the spot to replace the employees required to leave duty. “They had every crossing in Trenton blocked except Church Street,” he said.

Rumley also announced that Dade is laying the groundwork to build a small kitchen at the county jail to alleviate the financial burden of feeding inmates. “We’re looking right now at possibly spending this year for feeding prisoners around $250,000,” he said. For one week, he said, the county bill for meals was $5,575.

The next regular Commission meeting is scheduled for Nov. 5.