Chattanooga Pulse

Recycling and Sustainability
The State of Tennessee has no waste management goals or mandates for sustainability [“Summing Up Sustainability”]. Greg Haynes and Karen Hundt of the Hamilton County Regional Planning have refused to address this subject other than to encourage and embrace the status quo of “increased landfills” scenarios. Although Chattanooga has experienced a bit of “recycling renaissance” with its bi-weekly program, it is very much below subsistence, compared to other states and cities.  State, regional, local politicians and TVA are in the pocket of the garbage and landfill industry. The results of our region and state ‘environmental/sustainable’ apathy: “Tennessee Emits More CO2 than 83 Developing Countries Combined”, according to a report from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Frank DePinto

Czar Littlefield
“You can’t have a boundary and areas where you only have served by volunteer fire departments and the Sheriff’s department,” he (Littlefield) explained [“Ready For Metro Government?”].  You can’t? You mean we’ve not had anything for all this time? We can’t have neighborhoods, or towns, or cities, or states? My goodness! What have we been thinking? We’ve been deceived! I thought Ron had run for mayor, and not for czar. Silly me.
Richard Payne

Why Metro Government?
What factual basis does anyone have that favors a consolidated government or annexation? I believe this is just a strategic move by Littlefield and his cronies to distract and confuse from their annexation efforts that are meeting organized opposition. No one at the City has presented any logical argument supporting annexation nor have they presented any financial data that supports it. The sole driving force behind this appears to be increased federal “welfare” for the City at a significant cost to both the existing City residents and those that would become residents via annexation/consolidation. It’s shameful that the Mayor and city Council won’t just be honest with us all and tell us why annexation/consolidation is so important to them.
Billy Stewart

Can’t Afford Annexation
We are elderly, on a small fixed income, and due to economic conditions our income is even smaller. We have cut back and cut back on most everything we can. We will get no increase in social security, will get an increase in medicare and supplement insurance cost and being annexed into a city, that is going to raise our living expenses and give no benefits or less than we have now. Annexation is the last thing we need. Annexation should be by referendum, not just pushed onto people who do not want it. This action by the city would put us in a dire situation. Would Mayor Littlefield and the city council do this to their mother and father? The scope of this action is not the American way.
Keith Dixon