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Tuesday, September 8th

The Cleveland Daily Banner- The Bradley County Commission will perform its annual selection of officers during its voting session Tuesday night. Norm

The Cleveland Daily Banner- The Bradley County Commission will perform its annual selection of officers during its voting session Tuesday night. Normally, the session would have been held on Monday but was delayed because of the Labor Day holiday. The current commission chairman is Louie Alford and Jeff Yarber is serving as vice chairman. Under the standard protocol, Alford will open the meeting before stepping aside, allowing County Clerk Donna Simpson to take nominations for the offices and conduct the vote. The new chairman will then preside over an agenda with five significant items. Commissioners will be voting on the new amendments to the contract with Santek Environmental for the operation of the county landfill. The new agreement would allow Santek to double its use of the landfill to 400,000 tons per year and would increase the county’s revenue from 6-7 percent from the first 100,000 tons to an across-the-board 10 percent. Consideration will also be given to a change in policy that would allow county employees to receive their per diems in advance before attending training conferences. Acceptance of the lowest bid for irrigation at Elrod Park and the highest and best bid for property at Minnis Road will also be given votes by the commission. A resolution requested by members of the Bradley County Democratic Party that would support Gov. Bill Haslam’s “Insure Tennessee” program will also be on the table. The Cleveland Daily Banner- The magic number is $6 million and the hopes are if the city and county spend it, they will come.“They” are industries that can fill the new Spring Branch Industrial Park and the subsidiary businesses that may one day surround the area. The land itself is sitting ready to be worked and the access roads are being constructed, but the park will still need infrastructure to become a viable player for industry and a revenue stream for new local tax dollars. Doug Berry, vice president of economic development for the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce, recently spoke as part of the Chamber’s “Food for Thought” series and addressed the park needs and benefits as well as an overview of the region. “We have absolutely no reasons as a community to be unhappy or down about anything,” Berry said. “We are the sixth fastest MSA community to come out of recession according to organizations on the West Coast that evaluate such things.” He said the area has seen the largest growth in the state with a total of $3 billion invested since 2009. “We’ve protected and insured the stability of about 3,600 existing jobs through the expansions of 16 existing industries — some of which we don’t even announce or talk about because they prefer to work quietly,” Berry said. “We also have a steady stream of industries because of our major regional initiatives and our successes.” Berry also said both the Wacker project and Volkswagen have played a part in the area gathering more interest. “We went from 18 leads in 2012 to 46 within the last 12 months,” he said. “That means we are on a steady increase in lead generation.” “It’s pretty simple,” Berry said. “We don’t have a park until we get the next $6 million.” The Chattanoogan- Chattanooga firefighters rushed to a house fire in the Highway 58 area on Monday afternoon and found significant damage, but no injuries. The call to 3913 Merrywood Lane was at 4:30 p.m. Merrywood Lane is off of Webb Road. Incident Commander Captain David Peace said the first firefighters who arrived made a quick interior attack. Four other fire companies arrived at the scene to assist. The firefighters attacked the fire quickly with hand-held hose lines and got the fire under control in about 30 minutes. There was reportedly no one in the home at the time of the fire, but fire officials were quickly contacted by neighbors. Details are limited to the resident discarding some smoldering combustible cooking materials into a container adjacent to the structure. The Red Cross, Hamilton County EMS, Chattanooga police and EPB also provided assistance at the scene. The estimated loss was about $150,000 for contents and about $130,000 for property damage. The Times Free Press- NASHVILLE — Gov. Bill Haslam will bring his road tour to Chattanooga and Cleveland this week as he seeks to build public support in the state Legislature next year for new revenue to address growing transportation needs. The Republican governor is scheduled to make his pitch to the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce on the state’s transportation and infrastructure needs on Wednesday morning. Later in the afternoon, the Cleveland-Bradley Chamber of Commerce will hear from Haslam as well. It’s part of Haslam’s 15-city tour in which he, Transportation Commissioner John Schroer and others hope to make the case that a growing population, new road needs and a $6 billion project backlog warrant more funding. The governor isn’t saying anything for now about where he intends to find the new revenue until he completes the tour, which is nearing its conclusion. User fees in the form of fuel taxes are how Tennessee currently pays for its road, bridge and transportation system. It’s been just over 26 years since the state’s gas tax was last raised. The tax is currently pegged at 21.4 cents per gallon.

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