Commissioners to recommend keeping Taft open, discuss rising violence

Delinquent youth and rising violence dominated discussion at the Hamilton County Commission meeting Thursday, as commissioners talked over their intent to recommend that state officials not close Taft Youth Development Center.

The center, located in Pikeville, has been proposed to be shut down as a cost-saving measure, a move that state officials say would save taxpayers $4.4 million. Despite being located in Bledsoe County, the center houses more than 1/3 of Hamilton County's young offenders.

During the discussion, Commissioner Mitch McClure said he recently attended a public meeting in Pikeville where concerned residents and employees of the facility discussed what could be done to keep it in operation. The facility currently employs close to 170 people.

"We understand the governor's need to reduce the budget," McClure said, suggesting that commissioners make a recommendation to keep the facility open. "We have about a third of the population of the people there from Hamilton County … I would encourage the commission to pass this next week. If they are going to close Taft, we suggest an alternative they give us in Southeast Tennessee."

McClure added that the families of those living at Taft would have an "undue burden" placed on them by having to commute further to visit.

After all commissioners had voiced support for making the case for the center, Chairman Larry Henry said the group could expect to have a recommendation sent sometime next week.

The dialogue regarding Taft was preceded by an open conversation in which commissioners sought to figure out the best way to monitor rising violence in Chattanooga. Commissioner Fred Skillern prompted discussion by suggesting the group be given a biweekly report of repeat offenders who were released after being booked for crimes.

"I think everyone on this commission has had some concern about the crime in Hamilton County for quite some time," Skillern said. "Some of the people getting shot have had 10, 15, 20 cases before."

Commissioner Greg Beck said it would take more than monitoring crime to get a handle on it. Calling the picture of crime in Chattanooga "large, bizarre and abstract," Beck suggested that further steps be taken in the courts, legislature and communities to begin reversing the problem.

"It's ridiculous that I should pay my taxes to this community and be afraid to have my wife go somewhere at night," Beck said. "We've put up with this for many years because we have not done an extraordinary thing to stop it. Tuesday, I sat in my kitchen and watched TV and saw seven incidents in our community—from schools, to street fights, to burglary and shooting back at policemen. What on earth is happening here? We've got to do something extraordinary."

Mayor Jim Coppinger followed Beck's remarks by saying that the county had been working closely with city officials on the issue and added that reducing crime in the area was not going to be an "overnight fix."

"Any of us would be kidding ourselves if we thought that," Coppinger said. "It's going to be long term, and it's going to mean relationship building. But the good news is we're breaking down these jurisdictional lines so that everybody can do something and play a part … it's just not going to move along as quickly as any of us would like to see."