Ooltewah, Tennessee
A group today announced its plan to incorporate the Ooltewah area after Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield last week asked to expand the city's planned growth boundaries.
The City of Hamilton would be its name, and its boundaries would include suburban areas within Ooltewah, Georgetown and Birchwood.
"In the face of uninvited encroachment from Chattanooga, Ooltewah area residents have a decision to make," the group wrote in a news release. "Will they sit back and be shut out of the decision-making process while Chattanooga's mayor and city council annexes their property, driving up property tax rates nearly 90 percent and adding on other city taxes and service fees without seeing any appreciable differences or improvements in government services?"
The group, friendsofhamilton.org, is organizing a petition drive to incorporate and has set a target of getting on the November 2012 ballot.
"We want to give citizens of Ooltewah a voice in their future," Chris Matthews, group president, said. "Mayor Littlefield won't."
For complete details, see tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press.