“Well, it is East Ridge.”
This saying is something I heard so many times while running for city council this year.
I get handed a sign ordinance when I pick up paperwork to run for council and I’m told no other municipality does this, but “well, it is East Ridge.”
I talk to a business about yard signs and I’m told a typical race needs this many but I’ll need more because, “well, it is East Ridge.”
I talk to business owners who complain about being unable to put up a banner because they have used their monthly allotment, yet a nearby business has left a banner up almost all year with no attention paid to it by code enforcement. “Well, it is East Ridge.”
This week, everyone is talking about how the Fire Chief, Mike Williams, forgot to deposit some cash collected that was put in the safe of his truck. While it was a rather large sum it was all accounted for and was deposited into the account it belonged into eventually. From my interactions with the Fire Chief, I believe him to be a good man who loves his brothers in the fire department, loves this city, and cares more about the unfortunate in our community than most.
I’m sure there will be those on the council that will try to use this as a stick to punish Chief Williams. But, I have to ask: in a city that continually blunders one thing after the next to the point where East Ridge is punchline to a joke, did Chief Williams make an error so outrageous it demands justice be served, or was he just following the comical and embarrassing example of what we call leadership in this city?
We are going to get tough on extended stays and when the hotel lobby comes knocking we let them write our laws. “Well, it is East Ridge.”
Businesses are crying for help and rather than just put a moratorium on LED signs and pass the rest until we can figure things out we do nothing, because … “well, it is East Ridge.”
We have laws on the books that counter other laws and we point these out at council meetings but don’t repeal them, because we can do that later .. “well, it is East Ridge.”
Our city employees are working with no updated handbook or personnel policy because having workshops are tough, and “well, it is East Ridge.”
When we got back bids a million dollars over budget for Camp Jordan parkway we stripped out plans for fancy lighting and other things that were unnecessary. Don’t worry, because now we’re going to get those things using a bond, because things deemed unnecessary a year ago are now must haves. “Well, it is East Ridge.”
We get a grant and decide to put in medians on Ringgold Road, start progress on that idea then out of the blue decide to scrap it completely. It should of never happened in the first place, because … “well, it is East Ridge.”
We had a beautiful pavilion built with nice bathrooms at Camp Jordan but we keep those public bathrooms locked. Citizens paid for it but they will just wreck it … “well, it is East Ridge.”
We got we hit with a $600,000 bill from the state for the Camp Jordan fire hall property because no one bothered to lift a deed restriction. Despite every member of the council getting an email about it and a letter about it signed by the mayor, no one knew. The mayor says he didn’t sign that. It must have been done on his behalf by John Anderson. “Well, it is East Ridge.”
Now we are going to build up Camp Jordan. We are going to add more soccer fields to sit empty five days a week with signs on them saying citizens keep off. While we are at it we should add a few more ball fields to keep locked up because we want to keep them nice for the out of town folks. Let’s pay for it by locking in the tax money from Jordan Crossings.
After all, who needs a dog shelter, more police, or maybe to take back our failing school system. Give our kids calculators and google and they will be fine. After all, what’s most important to the citizens of East Ridge is that we make Jordan Crossing more profitable by forcing more traffic right past their businesses and to those new ball fields and soccer fields.
After all, it is East Ridge.
