By: Summer Kelley, Staff Reporter

Many times it has been said that “no news is good news” and that may be true for everyone except those of us who rely on “news” to make a living for ourselves, but “no news is good news” is definitely the perfect way to describe Monday night’s city commission meeting. Mayor Barton Harris even went as far as to apologize to the media for the shortness of the meeting.

Most of the meeting remained upbeat with many things on the planning list as the year begins.

The only negative piece of news came from Fire and Utilities Commissioner Tommy Lawson who said that the Georgia Power lift station for the water department had one breakdown, but the city was able to get it fixed and get it up and running.

Lawson reported that the fire department went on 11 fire calls and 61 medical and rescue calls in the month of January. The water and sewer department did 24 underground locates and went on eight sewer calls. Lawson also said the new controls at the main lift station have been installed.

Streets Commissioner Greg Houts said the road department had taken care of 67 work orders in the month of January and had been hard at work clearing roads during the recent winter weather.

Police Commissioner Sandra Gray said the police department responded to 391 calls, took 11 incident reports, worked six traffic accidents, made 63 arrests, gave 95 citations and collected fines in the amount of $5,962.35 in January.

Harris talked about the donation of the city’s old bucket truck to the City of Ider.  Harris said that the city of Trenton had received a letter of gratitude from Ider who had previously been hanging Christmas lights and doing other things using a ladder.

“A lot of people in Ider spend tax dollars here,” Harris said. “They were glad to get a bucket truck.”

January is a planning month for the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), according to Better Hometown Manager Peter Cervelli. 

“We have just barely started on the activities planned for the year,” Cervelli said.

The Authority has polled local businesses that participated in the Shop-at-Home event and the feedback overwhelmingly indicated, Cervelli said, that the event was beneficial to bringing people in to local businesses. The Development Authority also held a bowling tournament fundraiser recently that raised $770 that will be used toward the next Shop-at-Home event. 

Cervelli said the DDA would be working closely with the Chamber to bring new businesses into the community. Chamber of Commerce Director Debbie Tinker reported that she is working to bring a seminar on economic trends and the future to Dade County and that the Chamber and other representatives have been one of three groups invited to present at a summit later this year. Tinker said she has stepped back and asked Cervelli to represent Dade County and talk about what it means to the county to develop a workforce with students.

Eloise Gass of Tree City said that the group planted and dedicated a tree to Karen Bankson and would be dedicating another tree to the founder of Dade County Tree City. Georgia Arbor Day will be celebrated by Tree City on February 19.

Mary Petruska spoke for the Arts Council saying that the Council’s entire effort has been focused on the Farmers Aid event to help Jeffrey Farmer, a soldier in Iraq who had all of his property and belongings stolen while stationed overseas.  The Council is also working on a performance event to be held at Sunrise Farms on Sand Mountain, Sept. 11 of this year.

In other business, Gray said that the city is working on getting a speed limit sign in Rosewood to slow drivers down and Tinker said that Ashley Houts has been added as a notable citizen of Dade County in a book of the Chattanooga area produced by the Times Free Press.

The next Trenton City Commission meeting will be March 1 beginning at 7 p.m.