Chattanooga City Council member Demetrus Coonrod this week threw out the idea that the city should study whether it should get back in the schools business.
My thought as a resident of Hamilton County?
Be careful what you ask for.
For the most part, this is simply pie-in-the-sky grandstanding because it almost assuredly will go nowhere. All kinds of hurdles would have to be cleared for such a measure to make it to resolution form, and even if it got that far, I am betting city voters wouldn't come close to passing it.
Almost 27 years ago, Chattanooga voters narrowly approved an ordinance for the city to get out of the school business. The final tally was 22,815-19,211. Hamilton County took control of all the schools before the 1997 school year.
Part of Ordinance No. 10079 reads that giving up the schools would "result in city property tax savings in excess of $5 million annually," and the opposite - multiplied by who knows how big a number - would be needed to get back into the school-running business.
To engage in a study almost 30 years later is a waste of time. The city recreating a separate school system makes absolutely no sense today. It's ludicrous on a practical level and financial level. We'd be setting up separate central offices with double the bureaucracy and overhead. What a nightmare.
It's also ludicrous politically, because despite his public and earnest pledges to help the county's schools, here's betting Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly would rather buy a Kia than have the city get back into the school business on his watch.
On the Lookout for the Lookouts
So, who knew that Lookout was not only the name of our town's baseball team but also a caveat for investing with John Woods?
The biggest story in town this week centered on Chattanooga Lookouts minority owner John Woods being charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with running a Ponzi scheme on his investors.
First, I truly hope there is some sort of misunderstanding. Woods is a local fellow who grew up in East Ridge and seems like a nice guy. More importantly, I truly pray for the folks who gave their hard-earned money to his investment groups that this works out. As someone now in his 50s trying to put some nickels away to hopefully pay for my kids' college and not need to work until I'm 82, this type of thing is a complete nightmare.
So, we can all hope it's not as bad as it seems, but like its namesake in college football, when the other SEC comes calling, it almost always comes with a purpose.
But beyond Woods, this is simply the latest hurdle for the Lookouts here in Chattanooga. And while majority owner Jason Freier said he and his group want to keep the Lookouts here "for another 100 years," this is a major obstacle.
In truth, this almost assuredly will hurt the public perception of the club - through no fault of the team, its employees or Freier and his crew - in its pursuit of public funds for a new stadium. It simply has to.
Some folks love having the Lookouts enough that they would support taxpayers' money helping construct a new stadium. There are others who are directly opposed to that idea in principle.
But the folks in the middle, who are the majority, may not know a great deal about the team, the park, its role as an asset to our community or much else. But when presented with the talking point of "Should the county and the city help the Lookouts pay for a new stadium," how many will respond with, "You mean the team run by the guy who ran a Ponzi scheme?"
I hope I'm wrong about that. Truly. About all of it, honestly.
A challenge that seems mental
The ice bucket challenge swept the country a few years ago, and that endeavor - dumping ice water on someone's head to raise money to fight ALS - was noble and silly.
This week, across social media, the milk crate challenge created a monster buzz.
And a growing number of folks in need of medical attention.
In the myopic and self-important worlds of TikTok and Twitter, folks were finding new and stupid ways to injure themselves. The challenge is stacking a pyramid of milk crates and seeing how fast someone can go up and down.
Yes, the first question here is why. Why in the world are folks doing something so meaningless and potentially dangerous?
But not far down the list is where - as in where are all these milk crates coming from? And who - as in who was the anti-rocket scientist that hatched this challenge in the first place?
Obit observation
The obits this week were filled with familiar names and names that certainly had the sound of famous folks in their circle of life.
Country music legend Tom T. Hall died late last week. Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts died earlier this week. Locally, longtime activist Paul McDaniel and local entrepreneur Bob Creswell Sr. of Creswell Richardson Electric also died in the past week.
And then there are the lesser-known but wonderfully named Princess and Santa Mike who were also in our listings this week.
May their names - and legacies - live on.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.
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Jay Greeson