Read about Rossville
For the Times Free Press article about Rossville that officials referred to during the meeting, check out Tyler Jett’s coverage: Community group organizes to clean up Rossville.
Fire Department looking to increase staffing
Catoosa Fire Chief Chuck Nichols came before the County Commission with other fire officials to request a roughly $500,000 addition for staffing.Nichols would like to fully staff Station 4 on Keith Road with paid firemen. The station is currently staffed by volunteers. The reason for the request, Nichols said, is an attempt to better that station’s response time. The county’s stations manned around the clock with paid firemen average lower response times by several minutes.The Keith station receives about 9 percent of all calls in the county, he said, and improving response times there would make a significant difference in safety as well as insurance rates for citizens.The commissioners expressed concern at the response time differences — 13 minutes vs. eight minutes — but balked at the $500,000 price tag. After significant discussion, the commission decided to readdress the issue at a separate meeting sometime before Aug. 30.Nichols will be retiring at the end of the year, and also said he wanted to give his replacement room to work with in the budget. It is undecided as of yet who will replace him as fire chief. That decision will lie with the commission.
During a recent budget hearing by the Catoosa County Commission, the Zoning and the Building Inspection departments came forward with a request: Help us clean up Catoosa.
Building Inspection Director Rick Quarles and Code Enforcement Officer Rodney Pfeifer asked the board for funding for an additional employee who would split time between both departments, easing the workload for each.
Pfeifer said the Zoning Department's ability to perform inspections has dropped in 2016. Code enforcement officers performed roughly 2,900 inspections in 2014 and 3,100 inspections in 2015, but so far this year they have done about 1,100 inspections.
Pfeifer and Quarles said there is a large backlog of inspections and requests that they are each struggling to work through.
Many of the Zoning Department's inspections are for violations such as high grass or trash in someone's yard, but trash and grass complaints are just a small part of the department's workload, Pfeifer said at the meeting. The officers also deal with issues concerning buildings without permits, complaints of people burning trash or brush, pool violations, issues with fire hydrants and farm animals outside of approved areas, to name a few.
Pfeifer, Quarles and members of the commission all expressed concern at the changing perception of Catoosa. The officials cited a Times Free Press article regarding the state of nearby Rossville several times during their conversation. Pfeifer worried that if both departments are stretched to the point of being unable to meet their caseloads, Rossville would be a "microcosm" of what could happen to Catoosa.
"My department and Rick's [Quarles] department ensures Catoosa stays as nice as it is," Pfeifer said during the meeting. "We keep it clean and free of trash."
The article, which appeared on the front page of the Times Free Press Aug. 1, referred to abandoned rental homes and shuttered businesses that have become overgrown with neglect, a problem echoed by Pfeifer and Quarles. Concerns about property values were raised, as well.
According to Zillow.com, Catoosa County's median home value is currently around $126,000, and has been on the rise since the beginning of 2015, when it hovered around $114,000.
Meanwhile, the website puts Rossville's median home value around $58,500. While Catoosa's median home value has always been higher than Rossville's, the data indicates that Catoosa's home values have bounced back from the 2008 recession, while Rossville's have not.
The commissioners were open to Pfeifer and Quarles' request, although they will continue discussion regarding the budget during another meeting. A date has not been set for that meeting, but they agreed it needed to happen before Aug. 30.