By: Robin Ford Wallace, Staff Reporter

An ordinance regulating subdivisions that had preoccupied the Dade County Commission for months passed without a squeak at the body’s regularly scheduled November meeting last week. A much-amended version was put on the consent agenda without a separate vote.

County Executive and Commission Chairman Ted Rumley had brought the measure up at every regular and called meeting since July, lastly at an Oct. 29 work session at which finishing touches were added, including a specification by District 2 Commissioner Scottie Pittman requiring that developers guarantee planned improvements such as roads and utilities with a letter of credit rather than a performance bond.

The need for such regulation became apparent early in the summer, when the June bankruptcy of developer J.J. Detweiler left Sequatchie Pointe, a planned luxury housing project on Sand Mountain, without access roads, water or electricity.

The Commissioners, all present at the Nov. 5 meeting besides District 3’s Robert Goff, absent for a training session, also passed an ordinance introduced by Goff making the county’s sports complex smoke-free. 

In discussion before the tobacco ordinance was approved, District 4 Commissioner Peter Cervelli warned that passing an unenforceable regulation was worse than passing none at all. “It makes a mockery of the law,” he said.

But District 1 Commissioner Lamar Lowery said umpires could stop ballgames to enforce the no-smoking rule, and that most people knew better than to light up around children anyway. The ordinance passed without much more opposition.

In fact, it seemed to be open season on smokers as Chairman Rumley reminded the public that smoking is not allowed within 50 feet of county buildings these days. Rumley had received complaints in that regard, he said. Cervelli said that signs are currently being changed to reflect the new rules. 

Attorney David Dunn appeared before the Commission to ask for a renewal of the operating agreement between Dade County and the Public Defender program of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, otherwise comprised of Walker, Chattooga and Catoosa counties. Dunn, who heads the defense program in this circuit, reminded Commissioners that it was created by the Georgia Indigent Defense Act of 2003 and has provided defense in Dade’s superior and juvenile courts for those in need since January 2005.

Because the funds provided by the state of Georgia are inadequate to pay for sufficient personnel for public defense, said Dunn, the counties pony up to cover the difference. “We’ve had to suffer budget cutbacks on the state side, which has resulted in furloughs at various points during the past year,” he said.  Dunn said he personally had been furloughed, as had members of his staff.

Participating in the program, Dunn told the Commissioners, saved the county considerably, as it otherwise would have to pay individual court-appointed attorneys to defend the needy. “I think particularly here in Dade County it’s been working probably the best of all four counties that we have,” he said, pointing out that in both Superior Court sessions this year his office had finished two weeks of business in one week. He gave special credit for this efficiency to Chandani Patel, the defense attorney assigned to Dade.    

The commissioners approved without demur Dade’s share of the defense program’s cost, amounting this year to $72,790.65. 

Dawn Salyer of the Chattanooga Bicycle Club, organizer for the Three-State, Three-Mountain Challenge, a biking event that races through Dade the first Saturday in May each year, appeared before the Commissioners to address any concerns they had about the event, which is now in its 23rd year. At issue was yet another much-discussed county ordinance regulating such events that were also on the Commission’s November agenda. 

Chairman Rumley told Ms. Salyer he’d heard complaints from county residents about bikers who answered calls of nature with offensive visibility. “Traffic was another complaint,” he added. 

“We want to be respectful of the people in the communities through which the event comes,” seconded Commissioner Cervelli, who is sponsoring the ordinance. He said the ordinance wouldn’t affect the quality of the event but would promote safety.

Ms. Salyer announced herself ready to meet with anyone about any of these issues. Her club pays for the services of off-duty officers from the sheriff’s department to police the event, she told the commissioners.  Commissioner Lowery replied that the county should also be reimbursed for use of its patrol cars.  Ms. Salyer appeared willing. “We’ll just open up the communication very early in the planning so that no one gets a surprise or misunderstandings occur,” she said.

Cervelli said he would meet with Ms. Salyer early in the new year with a list of recommendations, and the ordinance was put on the consent agenda.

County Clerk Don Townsend announced that, after reviewing bids, the Dade County Sheriff’s Department would buy three new patrol cars at a base price of $22,142 each from Prater Ford, then send the vehicles to Mountain View Ford for additional equipment at a cost of $10,402 a pop. SPLOST funds for the expenditure were already approved, he explained.

The Commission also passed a proclamation in honor of Veterans Day and one declaring November Family Literacy Month.

“The courts facility’s coming out of the ground,” announced Commissioner Lowery during the business part of the building. Though construction has been delayed by heavy rains, he said, headway on the project is finally being made. 

Lowery urged citizens needing help in any district to call the Commission office; if the district commissioner is not available, another will be happy to fill in, he said. “We’re all working as a team,” he said. 

The Commission office’s telephone number is (706) 657-4625.

Commissioner Pittman used his address to the public to remind citizens that the transfer station would be closed today for Veterans Day. “That’s about all that’s going on in the world of trash,” he said.

Commissioner Cervelli said that, with 83 percent of the year gone, the county had spent 77 to 78 percent of its budget, while sales tax collections were about $50,000 less than planned for. “That’s a serious deficiency in terms of income,” he said. He warned that managing expenditures could become progressively more challenging in the current economic environment. 

Cervelli also reminded the public that Saturday is Clean Out Your Closet Day at Veterans Park.  Donations of used goods will be accepted beginning at 8 a.m. and will then be sold with all proceeds benefiting the local Hope for the Holidays project. “If you’ve got anything that’s useable and of good quality that you’re willing to give away, bring it on down here,” he said. 

In his public address, Chairman Rumley announced that a special called meeting will be held Nov. 19 pertaining to next year’s budget. “We’re ready to go with it,” he said. He also spoke of the fiscal difficulties awaiting the county during these times. “There’s no pattern to it,” he said. “That’s what’s scary.”

He reminded citizens that the U.S. Census Bureau is currently recruiting part-time workers for local jobs.

Mayor Barton Harris addressed the Commission on behalf of the city of Trenton, and Debbie Tinker updated commissioners as to the doings of the Chamber of Commerce.

The next regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Commission is Dec. 3.