Signal Mountain officials may soon rule in favor of doing away with most of the town’s dedicated court system. Almost all the cases currently heard at Town Hall could be sent to the Hamilton County Courthouse downtown, according to Police Chief Boyd Veal.
“We’re not trying to make a profit off our court, but I would like to cover our costs; otherwise what are we doing,” Town Manager Honna Rogers said in regards to this year’s expected $7,900 deficit. “I asked some other municipalities, ‘What do you do when you lose money with court?’ They said, ‘Lose? Who loses money?’ That had us looking at the way our court system operates.”
Only city code violations would have to be heard on the mountain, she said. Traffic citations, which account for the majority of the town’s cases, could be written as state offenses, according to Chief Veal.
Over the last five years revenues have been an average $1,600 higher than expenses, fluctuating between $ 4,100 and $17,000 over expenditures, according to Rogers.
“I don’t see a problem,” said Councilman Dick Gee. “The numbers there are variable but it looks to me over the past four or five years the court pays for itself.”