It has served the city for nearly a century, but the Chickamauga City Council has agreed that the time has come to rewrite the city’s charter.
During the Council’s November meeting Mayor Ray Crowder expressed concerns about the necessity and potential expense of preparing a new charter.
Crowder, a lifelong resident of the town, said he has served 28 years as mayor, been a councilman, a volunteer firefighter and member of the school board.
“No one has ever had a problem with our charter,” he said and suggested that the current charter, while showing its age, just needed minor revisions.
Councilman Jim Staub said piecemeal revisions made since it was adopted in 1913 have led to conflicts and confusion in the charter’s language and application. His suggestion to the Council was that it was not necessary to change the city’s form of government but that its charter needed modernization.