The gears of government grind slowly.
A year and a half after one city official said the design phase of a new $25-$30 million law enforcement training center across Amnicola Highway from Lake Junior would take a year, a spokeswoman for Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said the design and acquisition phase of the project is likely to take another year.
City and Hamilton County officials in March 2021 announced plans for an indoor firing range, the cost of which would be shared in equal amounts by both governments, on property owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It would replace the 33-acre outdoor firing range on Moccasin Bend that then could become a part of the 768-acre Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District.
In December 2021, then-Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said the county's funding portion for the 85-acre training center was included in $74 million issued in bonds for county projects. Earlier this year, according to newspaper archives, city officials said $7 million had been included in the fiscal 2023 budget for the center.
Kirsten Yates, a spokeswoman for Kelly, said an interlocal agreement between the city and county will be drawn up at some point to cover use of the facilities under an easement from TVA.
"Details are still being ironed out," she said.
Yates said the center will be built to "national industry standards," and "no noise will be heard" due to sound- restraining baffles at the indoor range. The property also will include an outdoor physical fitness course, an emergency vehicle operation course and a K-9 unit training course, she said.
Then-Chattanooga Police Chief David Roddy said last year the property would have separate entrances for city police and members of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, one at the south end and one at the north end.
He said at the time the design of the indoor center would be similar to one planned off 12th Street near the old Farmer's Market nearly a decade ago.
The next step, Yates said, is for TVA to complete its "due diligence" on the property. Then, she said, acquisition of the property could move forward.
Scott Fiedler, a spokesperson for TVA, said that "due diligence," an environmental assessment, "involves a comprehensive evaluation of the proposal's effects on the environment, as well as TVA's programmatic interests. Through the process, we ensure that any impacts to resources, including threatened and endangered species, wetlands, historic structures, archaeological resources, floodplains and power lines are addressed and either avoided or mitigated."
The process, he said, is "near completion" but "on hold" because the city is working with a few other parties that have infrastructure crossing the property to be sure it doesn't conflict with plans for the training center. When those t's are crossed, he said, the completion of the assessment is likely to take another eight months.
Former Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said Friday in a telephone interview that he is frustrated at the time it's taking to get the new firing range/training center started. He said he's been interested in the topic for decades, that a memorandum of understanding about the relocation of the range (and the land going to the archeological district) had been drawn years ago. He says he told folks he didn't want to "leave office with the issue of the firing range hanging around."
He said his administration had looked at the site now in design phase during his tenure (2005-2013), but officials believed it would take too long to get the process through to completion. He favored the former Army Reserve Center on 23rd Street. The administration eventually settled on a 12th Street site because police favored it, he said. He said he favored that site for homeless services but agreed to advocate for it.
In the end, despite an architectural design, plenty of parking, the proximity to a police precinct, federal grants arranged by then-U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, and a groundbreaking the month Littlefield left office, the county balked at adding money for the facility when projected costs rose higher than expected. The site was abandoned in August 2014.
Littlefield said the Amnicola Highway site will be "transformational" and "worth it," despite a price tag more than three times what the proposed 12th street center would have been.
Nevertheless, he told this page Friday, "they need to get on with it. [The city and county] need somebody to hot dog this thing, to push the right buttons, to do what we have to do. They need to find somebody who really wants to get it done and charge them to get it done."
We urge the city and county to identify such a champion and give them marching orders. A comprehensive training center would be a boon for law enforcement, would eliminate the irritating noise from the current firing range and would free up the land at Moccasin Bend to allow further work on the archeological district. And with talk picking up about the relocation of the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute, hope exists that the national park site could one day actually be completed.