There’s a petition floating around Sale Creek asking its 2,600 or so residents if they’d rather be part of Rhea County.
So far, 100 people have signed, according Chris O’Keefe, the petition’s organizer.
O’Keefe said he is fed up with mandatory car emissions tests and high property taxes in Hamilton County. The county services that Sale Creek receives don’t match what its residents pay in taxes.
“I decided I’m not going to be somebody that just complains,” O’Keefe said.
Hamilton County Commission Chairman Fred Skillern, whose district includes Sale Creek, said O’Keefe and the signers represent a “very small minority.” He said that unless a majority of Sale Creek residents support the petition, “I wouldn’t give it the time of day.”
Sale Creek is 12 minutes from Dayton, Tenn., and 30 from Chattanooga.
Skillern, O’Keefe and Rhea County Commission Chairman Ronnie Raper said moving Sale Creek into Rhea would require approval from two-thirds of each county’s commission just to get the issue before the state Legislature, which then would have to issue legislation for the switch to take place.