Signal Mountain, Tennessee Issues and Happenings

I said that I would post a review of my campaign positions and how I have addressed them. Here it is. This is from my original "issues and positions" site on my webpage with "updates" in bold. I hope to hear from citizens about whether they agree or not.

ISSUES & POSITIONS

In the area of future development, I believe we should:

Be sure appropriate infrastructure is in place before any development moves forward. This includes considering traffic, schools, town services and environmental impacts. While aesthetics are harder to quantify, they are also clearly a priority for the citizens of the mountain.

We have completed a traffic study which showed minimal impact on traffic by development in this area. Sewers are in place for the area although the moratorium prevents their use. The current schools have extra capacity as I understand it, but clearly this is the responsibility of the school board. Town Services, etc must be considered on an ongoing basis.

Traffic studies must be completed and considered before any new development should go forward.

See above

Require new development on Shackleford Ridge to have paths which allow and encourage pedestrian and bicycle access to the new schools. Look for similar opportunities in other areas of town.

This is still my desire although my input has been diminished since I was removed from the Planning Commission.

Consider strongly the idea of Development Impact Fees and investigate legal changes needed to apply them. If legally possible, these should be based on the square footage of the homes built.

This was researched and is not legally doable in Tennessee.

Investigate possibilities for extending sewer service into existing areas of town.

We continue to work with the WWTA and hope to develop a town wide plan. This has taken a backseat with the moratorium and all the WWTA’s political problems.
Seek out consultation from experts in town planning to advise best use practices which are consistent with the town vision statement.

We brought in Randall Arendt and I am very supportive of his advice and vision. I hope it will be used to significantly influence future subdivision and zoning plans.
Water run-off into the sewer system is an issue that will need to be addressed in the near future.
We continue to support WWTA with its service lateral program which will significantly help this problem. They have completed the lining project which also helps.

It is important to remember that there are other issues before the town. In the area of safety, I would encourage:
· efforts to decrease speeding in neighborhoods.
Subdivision regulations with narrower streets and more curves will help in this direction.

· looking for opportunities to create bike paths and sidewalks
Our new Transportation Committee will hopefully contribute to this effort. I continue to support requiring sidewalks in all subdivisions and hope this will be part of the subdivision regs.

· continuing to support our police, fire and EMS departments to have state of the art equipment and techniques to keep us all safe.
I believe our budget priorities show this support and that we have improved quality and morale.

I strongly support recreational opportunities on the mountain. My children have played most sports up here at one time or another. We must maintain our recreational facilities and look for opportunities to expand these. I would like to see the town look into acquiring or having use of the gym and football field at SMMS when the new middle school opens.

I continue to hope that whatever proposal the School Board accepts will allow for this, however I realize this is hard for us to control. I would support any reasonable efforts in this direction.

In addition, we must support our cultural and artistic activities. The MACC is a tremendous resource for this mountain which should be supported. I also want to continue strong support for the Signal Mountain Playhouse. The Signal Mountain library is a unique resource. It should continue in its current location and I agree with its supporters that contributions to the library should be used for the library and not to offset the Town's contribution.

I am liaison for the MACC Board and have worked to improve communications between the MACC and the Playhouse. I still strongly support the transfer of the MACC to town ownership and hope this will happen during my term.

I would love to see more social opportunities for our youth. Scouting and church youth groups obviously serve an important role in this area. The new middle and high school will also be a great asset in this regard. Opportunities to expand and add to these options should be sought.

One step has been the beginning of the “Coffee House” music performances at the MACC on the last Saturday of each month. I hope to see these expand to allow young musicians and other performers a venue and a place for kids to go on Saturday nights.

Obviously, our greatest resource is our citizens. We should continue to value the tremendous volunteer ethic of our town.

I am working to learn more about the management of the town. I have scheduled meetings with many town officials. I certainly think we should be fiscally sound and responsible. I would:
· work hard to avoid lawsuits and their costs. As a physician, I know that even frivolous lawsuits can be expensive and time-consuming.
While these are not always avoidable, I am confidant that our annexation efforts were legal and done right and that we will prevail in the lawsuit.

· work with the Town Manager to continue to be as efficient as possible, realizing that our town’s employees are an important resource who should be respected.
Again, our budget priorities have strengthened benefits and morale of our town employees.

· support efforts to improve trash collection and decrease injuries and work-comp costs without diminishing services to our elderly and less able citizens.
Our move to automate garbage service is saving almost $100,000 per year. We have retained backdoor service for elderly and disabled.

· look for ways to increase recycling in our town. This will reduce our utilization of the landfill and ultimately our town costs. We are blessed with an excellent recycling facility and I would like to see a public campaign to encourage more citizens to use it.
We continue to focus on this effort.

· be proactive in addressing town problems rather than being constantly in crisis management mode. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
Our recent strategic planning session is an example of this effort.

In the overall area of Town/Citizen relations, I think that we need to investigate better ways to communicate with our fellow citizens. I would seek to create an atmosphere of neighborliness and strive for amicable resolution of disputes without resorting to micro-management with ordinances or litigation in the courts.

I pledge to be always polite and respectful to my fellow citizens, even when I disagree with them.

I do want to be clear that I oppose the current recall effort. While I sympathize with the frustration of the supporters, I mourn the atmosphere of distrust.

I think we can find better ways to handle these situations. Such ways might include:
· Better public notification of public meetings and important issues facing the town.
I think this has improved. I created a Communications sub-committee soon after election. They worked on many efforts to improve communications. I applaud Susan Robertson and her tireless efforts to keep up a weekly “Council Notes” article.

· More public hearings early in the process when important issues confront the town and more transparency in town affairs.
We have tried hard to open up our meetings to more public input and have lots of public meetings on important issues. We have moved “public comment” to the early part of the meeting to encourage more participation.

· Better use of internet. I would consider letting interested citizens sign up for email notification of Town Council and various board meetings with agendas attached.
This hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. We have tried to have sign up sheets for email notification, but it doesn’t seem to work well. We are currently working on a new website that hopefully will help in this direction.

It is important to remember that Town Council members are representatives of the citizens of Signal Mountain. They represent best when communications are two-way. If I am elected, I promise to listen to my constituents and will look forward to hearing from them. I will strive to make myself available to my neighbors and work hard to seek out their views on important issues confronting the town.

I certainly hope that I have been successful in this regard, but will allow the citizens to decide.

Sincerely,

Paul M. Hendricks, MD
Signal Mountain Town Council