City Commissioners Monda Wooten and Jerry Henegar
There will be an empty chair on the Trenton City Commission until next spring.
The position vacated by former Police Commissioner Sandra Gray, who like Edward VIII abdicated her seat in favor of a forbidden love, the culmination of which rendered her continued occupation of it anathema, will remain untenanted until after a special election on March 19.
At their regular October meeting on Tuesday, Trenton Mayor Alex Case and two of the three remaining commissioners whose tenures remain uninterrupted by amatory complications--no. 3 was also absent for most of the meeting, though due to the vagaries of traffic rather than the darts of Cupid--discussed what to do about replacing Ms. Gray. She had been police commissioner for over two decades but resigned last month when she married and moved out of the Trenton city limits and into the waiting arms of the man she loved. (His arms, along with the rest of his corporeal appointments, awaited Ms. Gray in the unincorporated county atop Lookout Mountain.)
In any case, what the commission decided to do about the vacant chair until an election could be held was: nothing.
"It takes a good six months even to get your feet wet," said Streets Commissioner Monda Wooten. "To bring someone in here would be kind of a waste...unless it's someone who's been here before." A former commissioner, she clarified, or former mayor.
"I agree with Monda," said Fire/Utility Commissioner Jerry Henegar. Mayor Alex Case being also amenable, and the only other voting member of the commission present, the matter was settled, and a schedule set for advertising and executing the election. It will be officially announced Dec. 3, and qualifying will be open for candidates to present themselves Dec. 14-16. The election for Trenton police commissioner will be on Tuesday, March 19, in the Dade County Administrative Building. Qualifying fee is $108. For more information, interested parties may call City Hall at (706) 657-4167.
In less romantic business, Commissioner Henegar discussed the current problem of the city sewer backing up. Trees are the problem, he said. "We're not taking care of our right of ways," he said. Either the city should fight the tree problem with Bobcats itself or hire a service to do it, he said.
A discussion of grants, Bobcat attachments, the insidious power of tree roots, the perils of aging clay pipes and the clogging properties of disposable diapers, adult diapers and Wet Wipes ensued; and lest the reader find these details indelicate or insignificant, Mayor Case reminded: "If we're going to have the city continue to grow...sewer's the main part of that."
Commissioner Wooten reintroduced an issue she had brought up at a previous meeting: Trenton's continuing efforts to keep the city streets spruce were being foiled by certain business owners who were not keeping up their end, she said. "It's just two or three properties that continue to be the problem," she said. The owners always promise to mend their ways, said the commissioner, but: "Instead of getting better, they're getting worse. The garbage is building up and the grass is never cut."
The mayor and commissioners resolved to send the three offending businesses certified letters pursuant to Trenton's ordinances. This starts a process that gives the property owners the choice of remedying the situation or ending up in city court, with fines and liens possible.
In regular monthly reports, Commissioner Wooten said it had been business as usual with her department and Commissioner Henegar said the Vanguard solar farm had completed its inspection phase and was up and running. The mayor reported for Parks and Recreation Commissioner Terry Powell (still in traffic) that the Trenton Civic Center had been rented 82 hours in September. Police Chief Christy Smith, reporting in absence of a police commissioner, said that police fines for September had been $26,052.16 for a year-to-date total of $224,681.58.
Chief Smith also said Silver Bells, the Trenton Police Department's Christmas benefit for the elderly, was coming up--check out the PD's Facebook page for details and donor opportunities--and the department's fundraising motorcycle ride for the event is coming up on Sunday, Oct. 28. The day starts at 10 a.m. and includes a chili cook-off by Dade's volunteer fire departments. The ride will be up the mountainsides this year, said the chief. "We're hoping for good color this year," said the pulchritudinous police pontiff.
(Officer Danny Ellis's annual masterpiece: He carves the wooden motorcycle toys by hand and they are raffled off as part of the fall motorcycle ride benefit event.)
In Alex Case's mayoral report he started out with an update on the national push to get better internet access and speed in rural parts of the country such as our own. Right now it seems the focus is on figuring out who's got good coverage and where; Case spoke of a proposed direct questionnaire of consumers. "We don't want to go off what the telecos say," said Case. "We want to go off what the people say." Knowing where good access is and isn't will allow the city and county to lobby Georgia to push it further, he said, and to challenge the purported providers: "They say it's there; why isn't it there?" said Case.
He said city tax bills should go out the 18th and meanwhile the city is in passable financial shape though things could always be better. "Truthfully, we've got one month's worth of money in case we didn't have any revenue coming in," he said. It would be better to have two or three, he added.
Heather Cochran, past president of the Dade County Chamber of Commerce, appeared before the commission on its behalf in place of the C of C's executive director, Cheryl Allison, who she announced had stepped down to part-time employment. The chamber's one full-time employment slot, explained Ms. Cochran, is now filled by Hannah Green, who will act as the "RVIC"--regional visitors' information center--staffer. The RVIC is required to be open 35 hours.
Otherwise, there wasn't much much business on the city agenda besides shuffling around a few thousand dollars from one SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) project account to another to satisfy bookkeeping. And besides the aforementioned Ms. Cochran, there were none of the usual appearances by representatives of agencies funded by the city, perhaps owing to the change of meeting date from the second Monday of the night to the following Tuesday. (Monday was Columbus Day, a holiday for government employees.)
Following regular business, the commission went into executive, or closed-door, session at 7:18 p.m. to discuss personnel. Commissioner Powell arrived in the nick of time to participate. Upon return from executive session (at 7:35 p.m., but who's counting?), Mayor Case announced the commission and Chief Smith had discussed applicants for an open position on the PD. The commission had voted to authorize the chief to conduct interviews and to hire the candidate she found most suitable.
The Trenton City Commission meets on the second Monday of each month at City Hall, except for this one, and except for next month, when the second Monday is the observed holiday for Veterans Day. Next month the meeting will be on Tuesday, Nov. 13, instead.
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