By Chloe Smith
As the city of Collegedale grows rapidly, there has developed an increasing need for greater community involvement. In an interview with the Accent, Commissioner Laura Howse, who serves the library and airport boards, shared her perspective on the importance of community engagement. According to Howse, the city’s commission meetings have seen relatively low attendance.
“I would say that we have fairly low commission meeting attendance,” Howse said. “Usually we have two, but no more than ten people that come to the meeting, and that looks like low engagement.”
Recent commission meeting engagement records show that weekly meetings have seen an average of 8 attendees, with the highest being the swearing in of the commissioners, which brought in 31 attendees. Along with the in-person attendance, the commission also measures the number of live stream viewers for each meeting.
Laura Howse Biography
Laura Howse said she is thankful for the opportunity to serve the people who live in the City of Collegedale. Howse and her husband, Jon, can often be seen walking along the Greenway and attending community events with their teenage children. Laura is a registered x-ray and MRI tech who also has a master's degree in education and has enjoyed teaching at both Chattanooga State Community College and Harvard Business School.
Contact Commissioner Howse“Since we do the live streaming, we can tell that there are about 30 to 40 people who consistently watch the videos online,” Howse said.
When asked why she believes few people attend commission meetings, Howse said, “I think a lot of times people just get busy and they don’t really want to deal with it, or they don’t want to pay attention.”
According to Howse, higher engagement from residents in these meetings can make a difference, as the commission often makes decisions that meet the needs of the community. One example Howse gave was an instance in which 20 community members attended a planning meeting to speak out against a proposed development on Lee Highway. As a result, the developer agreed to meet with the residents again and redraw the project plans.
“They spoke out on how they felt, and they were listened to,” Howse said. “I really feel like if those people had not shown up and made their voices heard, then the developer would have probably just been approved and done it exactly how he wanted to do it.”
Jason Allin, the City of Collegedale’s staff planner, shared his thoughts on the lack of attendance at commission meetings.
“The commission says that they’re going to make decisions based off what people think,” Allin said, “but there’s no one telling them what they want, and they’re just going to make decisions based on what they think is best.”
Like Allin, Howse believes residents often leave all the decision-making to the commissioners.
“A lot of people feel like [they] voted for the person [they] think is going to do a good job and that they are going to vote for the things that are good for the community,” Howse said, “and they kind of just trust that the person they elected is going to do a good job.”
When it comes to communication, Howse feels that there is much room for improvement. According to the commissioner, there is no consistent news coverage of the weekly commission meetings.
“I think that people don’t have an idea what happens at our meetings, and they don’t have time to go watch a 30-minute meeting on a video,” Howse said.
Along with this lack of news coverage, the city also does not have a designated communications person to write press releases- something that Howse believes could greatly improve community reach. Aside from commission meetings, Howse says that community engagement can be measured in many other ways, such as showing up to events and volunteering.
“I talked to our head landscaping guy that works in public works, and he would love it if people wanted to volunteer to help around the city,” Howse said. “We’re just missing some connections… There are people out there who would love to help, they just don’t know who to get permission from or who to talk to.”
Although the growing City of Collegedale does require more community involvement, Howse claims that there have been some improvements.
“I think the community engagement is really getting a lot better,” Howse said. “I think we just have to think of what things we can do to improve it.”
According to Howse, in the last 120 days, she has received 1259 emails, 43 phone calls, and 21 in-person meetings.
For residents looking to become more involved, Howse says that it all starts with showing up. Whether it be attending commission meetings or serving on a board, all efforts from the community make an impact.
“You don’t have to be anyone fancy to help out,” Howse said. “It really is just about being able to spend the time and help with a fundraiser or something.”
To learn more about community events or meetings, residents can go to the Collegedale website at www.collegedaletn.gov.
“We do have some activities and events on our website,” Howse said, “but I do think that there’s always room for improvement.”
Along with the website, residents can also directly reach out to the city commissioners.
“They can always send emails to the commissioners; it’s on our website,” Howse said.
For those interested in reaching out to the commissioners, they can email them at commissioners@collegedaletn.gov
According to Howse, the commission is open to addressing any concerns or ideas from the public. “We have a good group of commissioners who are happy to answer questions.”
