Commission Holds First Meeting, Plans to Expand Dais

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) — From the outside, not much has changed at the Hamilton County Courthouse.

But things are different in the County Commission’s Chambers, where a new slate of elected officials met for their first public meeting this morning.

With a new mayor and six new faces on the dais, the commission spent most of their first meeting thanking their constituents and stating their intent to improve Hamilton County.

“I think, as a collective group up here, there’s a different talent base that sits in each chair that can come together that can really make a positive impact on our community,” said District 11 Commissioner Jeff Eversole.

“I hope that this Commission has an attitude that we want to grow this county. I hope we have an attitude that we’re going to open opportunities, because, again, just like with the schools, every year we’re graduating 3,000 students. They need jobs. We want to keep them here,” said District 4 Commissioner Warren Mackey.

But with two additional commissioners in Jeff Eversole and Joe Graham, the commission will have to literally expand the dais.

According to officials, the previous commission had a plan with a contractor to put one additional seat on the right.

“We had something scheduled. We’ll have to get back with the contractor, but we were paying time and materials plus, I believe fifteen percent overhead in… and ten percent profit. It came up to about $49,000, total, through an emergency purchase, to try and get it done,” said Administrator of Public Works Todd Leamon.

The diagrams and schematics for the extension to the dais were shared with the new commission, this afternoon.