The Chattanooga City Council has adopted Mayor Tim Kelly’s Climate Action Plan, a growth strategy intended to protect Chattanoogans’ quality of life and increase national competitiveness amid changes to the climate and international economy.
The plan includes a series of actions to drive clean-energy growth, protect natural resources and strengthen the local economy.
The city made a number of additions and clarifications to the plan in response to the feedback received during and after the public hearing held March 21. Additions emphasize the need for progress measurements focused on public health and equity and include a new strategy to analyze the region’s food systems, with the goal of better understanding how to plan for sustainable food sources.
The Kelly administration also added a preamble to emphasize to residents that no action or data collection mechanism recommended in the plan will violate their privacy, restrict their movement or lead to community-wide laws, mandates or surveillance.
The updated version of the plan is available at cha.city/sustainability.
The Climate Action Plan includes six goals and 104 strategies, all of which fall into four primary categories: jobs, transportation, buildings and waste, and green spaces and waterways.
These actions are designed to preserve Chattanooga’s natural resources by reducing the city’s carbon footprint and the amount of waste sent to local landfills.
In addition, they are aimed at leading to new transportation options, operational cost savings across city government, better park systems and wildlife preserves, and new jobs and skill-building opportunities.
Pursuing the actions in the plan will help qualify the city to receive a portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars in grant opportunities from the federal government as well as millions more in philanthropic and private investments, Kelly’s office says in a news release.
With adoption of the plan, the city will begin work to establish two committees: an internal Climate Action Plan implementation committee comprised of city staff that will ensure the plan’s goals are integrated into all departmental work and an external Chattanooga Climate, Sustainability and Resilience committee that will include representatives from across Chattanooga who will work with city staff to engage the community in the implementation of the plan.
The committees will develop and publish a full list of key performance indicators and updates will be reported on a regular basis to City Council, published on the city website and incorporated into regular plan updates.
The city will also seek City Council approval in the coming weeks to offer commercial property owners a financing approach that would make it easier for them to finance clean energy and resiliency improvements.
Known as Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resilience (C-PACER), the strategy allows property owners to repay financing for clean energy and resiliency upgrades through voluntary assessments placed on their properties, which are billed and collected as part of their annual property tax bills and then remitted to the lender.
More than 37 states have legislation enabling C-PACER financing, including Tennessee.
As a privately financed economic development tool, C-PACER does not affect the tax bills of non-participating residents, nor does it impact grants or other public funding.
EPB to add 10 new works to community mural
EPB’s 10th Street Community Mural will soon feature 10 more Chattanooga area artists whose work will be displayed on the third side of its 10th Street Substation.
The 2023 mural theme, “Traditions on MLK,” will highlight family traditions in downtown Chattanooga’s Martin Luther King Boulevard area.
An outside group of community stakeholders used an anonymous judging process to select the following 10 artists who live or work in EPB’s service territory based on the submission’s artistic value, community reflection and thematic relevance. They are: Jonathon Bidwell, Lexi D’Ambrosio, Laura Swift Dahlke, Mason Elmore, Karen Estes, Jerome Foster, Jody Harris, Ann Jackson, Caitlin Maupin and Olivia Reckert.
The selected artists will paint new murals on nine panels located in the alley behind Memo’s grill, which runs parallel to E. Martin Luther King Boulevard. Murals completed over the last two years honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Chattanooga history and well-known Chattanooga community members on the Foster and E. 10th Streets sides of the building.
Project supporters and community partners include ArtsBuild, Association of Visual Arts, Bessie Smith Cultural Center, Public Art Chattanooga, Chattanooga Community Kitchen, Memo’s Grill, River City Company, Stove Works, Hunter Art Museum, the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
This is the third year of a four-year project. EPB will begin to accept submissions for the fourth and final wall of the substation in late 2023.
HCS unveils workforce development program
Hamilton County Schools has announced a strategic alignment of education programs it says will provide focused leadership and attention to the district’s workforce development and early post-secondary opportunities for students.
The new Workforce Development & College Schools Network will group 10 programs and schools under the direction of Executive Principal Dr. Tony Donen. Donen will report to Community Superintendent Elaine Harper.
An educator for more than 25 years, Donen came to HCS in 2012 as the founding principal for STEM School Chattanooga. In that role, he led the team that designed and created the curriculum, instruction and assessment practices for the program.
Donen designed and integrated the first FabLab digital fabrication laboratory in Tennessee and the first at any high school in the southeastern United States. His work has brought numerous accolades to Hamilton County, including being named 2018 Tennessee STEM Innovator of the Year.
Before joining HCS, Donen served as principal of Fairview High School from 2003-2012, as well as a math teacher, head soccer coach and football coach at various high schools including Science Hill High School, Carter High School and Fairview High School.
HCS will officially implement the WDCS Network July 1.
Programs in the WDCS Network will be grouped into two categories – Workforce
Development and College Schools. The Workforce Development programs are:
• Construction Career Center
• Harrison Bay Future Ready Center
• Polytech Academy at Chattanooga State
• Mechatronics Academy at Volkswagen
• Gestamp Work Based Learning Program
• Legacy Box Work Based Learning Program
The College Schools programs are:
• University High at UTC
• STEM School Chattanooga
• Early Technical College at Sequoyah
• Hamilton County Collegiate High at Chattanooga State Community College