Dalton RobertsFrequently when I pass the Ooltewah interchange on I-75 and see how it is still booming, I remember a conversation I had with then-Hamilton County Commissioner Bill Bennett, who represented that area so well for many years.
We discussed the fact that there were no motels there and even a limited number of fast-food outlets. The problem was evident to us: lack of sewers. The county had decided to tie some potential high-growth areas onto the city’s system, and we knew the Ooltewah interchange would boom if we got sewers to it. So we found the funding to run the line two miles. From day one, it took off like a rocket.
Becky Browder, formerly Hamilton County’s real property manager, used to give me research reports on things like this. Maybe Mayor Coppinger can get whoever replaced her to do a comparison of the taxes now paid on all the properties there with the income before sewers were installed.
It would be a shocker, and one of those shockers that teach you something. What it would teach us is that sewers are one of the best investments government can make in the growth of a community. Sewers bring in so much revenue they make it possible to provide other infrastructure, like roads to homes and all that goes with community expansion.
My plea today is that we do a better job of identifying hot spots where sewers would make an area boom. This needs to be a permanent priority with city and county engineering staffs regularly meeting and evaluating our progress.