Chattanooga City Council members voted 9-0 Tuesday night to proceed with two of the city's first stormwater projects but balked at rehabilitation of a stormwater project at a private golf course.
The city agreed to pay $66,515 for a Brainerd Road stormwater drainage project and $315,500 for a north St. Elmo stormwater drainage project. Public Works officials said those drainage areas have numerous pipes that are failing.
But the council voted 8-1 to defer for three weeks a resolution to pay $750,000 to fix the Sterling Avenue drainage system that runs through the privately owned Chattanooga Golf & Country Club. Council members raised questions about whether the city should fix a drainage system on private property.
Councilman Peter Murphy said the city is being unfair by agreeing to fix a stormwater system on the private golf club property but not on residents' private property.
"We need to have something on what we are going to do, and what we're not going to do," Murphy said during the council's regular business meeting.
Mayor Ron Littlefield said repairing the thousands of drainage problems across the city will be a step-by-step process.
"Let's address these big problems," he said.
Council members said they have concerns there is no written policy on what the city should work on with stormwater projects.
Steve Leach, administrator for the Department of Public Works, said within the next few weeks the city would start looking at minimum requirements of stormwater projects.
Contact Cliff Hightower at chightower@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/CliffHightower.