Monitor Photo/Carla Gray
Cedar Creek Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Gun Barrel City Chapter meets Oct. 17 for their network breakfast. Cedar Creek Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Chair Marty Mullins (from left), Edward Jones Financial Advisor Charles Carter, Gun Barrel City Manager Dr. Angie Smith, Gun Barrel City Animal Control Officer Carol Jett and Cedar Creek Lake Area Chamber of Commerce President Jo Ann Hanstrom discuss business opportunities for Gun Barrel City.
GUN BARREL CITY–Cedar Creek Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Gun Barrel City Chapter met Oct. 17 for their networking breakfast. Spotlight speaker for the event was Charles Carter with Edward Jones and Gun Barrel City Manager Dr. Angie Smith.
Smith announced that there is openings on the Planning and Zoning Commission. Those who are interested need to complete the application which is live on the Gun Barrel City website and Facebook page. The Planning and Zoning Commission meets the second Monday of each month at 6 p.m.
The next item Smith discussed was the short-term rental (STR) ordinance. Smith said, “Back in late spring council approved a new short term rental ordinance. Short-term rentals are a challenge for every community. As a city government we cannot say that you cannot open one. So, what we did is that we strengthened the policies in the ordinance that Gun Barrel City already had in place.
The city is partnering with Avenue, which the city already has a partnership for them to take care of the sales tax and hotel/motel tax. Avenue will find all the short-term rentals and send letters to them. If you are already registered, you are good for a year. If you are not registered then Avenue will get you registered and give you a portal to pay your taxes. The permit fee is $500 a year, and there are insurance requirements. What council did with this ordinance, is that there is a point of contact for every single B&B. So, if there is a party going on, there is a 1-800 number for neighbors to call and make a report. Avenue will call the owner, and the owner has one hour to call back. The city is notified every time Avenue has to call the owner and a demerit point is given. This will allow the council to make decisions on if this is an Air BnB that we want in our city. The Air B&B can have its permit revoked.”
Smith then addressed the animal control ordinance. Smith said that the ordinance is available on the Gun Barrel City website. Chickens are allowed within 30 feet of a neighboring home. A petition was submitted to the city to repeal the ordinance, the signatures have to be verified. Smith continued, “Here is what I will tell you, and I never speak on behalf of council. We truly believe that with that ordinance we did a good thing. It was not intended to cause the uproar that it has caused in this community. Our goal, simply was, we had a problem and how do we address that problem.
Our goal was to never go bang on people’s door and check dogs. That was never the intent when we passed that ordinance. The intent was to get some voluntary compliance. The council even made some changes in the ordinance after meeting with some people that had some concerns.“ Smith went on to say, “We invested a lot of time in to listening to residents, having public hearings, presentations, and workshops, to give everybody a chance to come and talk about it.” The benefit of registration and having a dog chipped is to get the dog back to its owner. Smith articulated, “I am not trying to track your dog. The city just wants to be able to get your dog back to you, if it is out running. As opposed to the city catching it, taking it to Tool, and then the owner having to pay those fines. Our goal was to put scanners at fire stations, so if a dog is found it can be scanned and returned to its owner.
The intent of the ordinance was to be very, very positive and it took a negative spin. It is unfortunate because a lot work went into it. So now we will go back to the drawing board, it does not mean that the ordinance will go away. We are still going to continue to let people register their dogs, as long as it is a voluntary program. We are going to figure out the next steps with the city attorney.”
Henderson County Commissioner Precinct 2 Scott Tuely interjected, “I just wish that the city and the county law enforcement have better things to do than worry about a stray dog. We spend $300,000 to $400,000 a year in our budget for animal shelters, in conjunction with the city Athens that puts in about $200,000.
So, a half a million dollars of tax money is going to house pet ownership problems, because they are too irresponsible. The fact of it is, is that we are spending your tax dollars when we could out there doing something else with that money. There is more noise out here for stray animals than what we can do for the property owners.”
Smith stated, “If you do not like the ordinance come talk to me, I have an open-door policy. Council is going to have an opportunity to look at it and they will make the decision on how they will move forward.”
